Monday, October 29, 2012

Building Collaboration: The KIS Think Tank on Creativity

At the beginning of SY2012-13, our Korea International School director, Stephen Cathers, offered an "irresistible opportunity" to the faculty -- joining a Think Tank on Creativity. Several administrators and teachers joined the group and waited for further instructions from Mr. Cathers. In September, the announcement came out that the Think Tank would read Sir Ken Robinson's book, Out of Our Minds, and focus on two key questions: What is the importance of creativity? What are the dangers of not developing creativity in our students? Mr. Cathers supplied the all members of the group a copy of the book, which I truly appreciated because it was a book I was hoping to read during the winter vacation.
The first meeting of the group was set for October 17 to discuss the first two chapters of the book and the two questions Mr. Cathers had asked the faculty to think about while reading. On October 17th, the Think Tank met and discussed several reasons why creativity is important and how we can push our faculty to foster more creativity among our student body. The topics of project based learning, outdoor education, and service learning came up during the session. The first Think Tank meeting came to a close and the group assigned itself chapter three of the book. November 14th will be the day for the second meeting and I'm looking forward to another opportunity to collaborate with my colleagues in a relaxed book club type of environment. Although the Think Tank is not a committee with authority, it is a great way to introduce some new ideas into our school. Thanks, Mr. Cathers.

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