Think Like a Teacher

November has five Fridays this year. In the tradition of Thanksgiving, my weekly posts will share things for which I am thankful. I begin by sharing how grateful I am for inspiration sites. These five  thought-provokers offer visual and verbal sparks. If  my brain starves for the stimulation of a quirky question or a glorious graphic, I can inhale bracing breezes for the brain. I am grateful for:

1. Good. The name says it all. I click to find things tagged creativity or DIY or design, and I marvel at cleverness and surprise. I am thankful to see so many examples of people “doing different” as they “do Good.” They explain:

GOOD is learning, doing, improving–together

These are the people who– a few years ago– brought us the Wanderlust interactive reviewed here. Thank you for inspiring me to learn, wonder, and share.

2.  Places that put vastness of scale (and the meaninglessness of minutiae) into perspective: Scale of the Universe 2 (review and teaching ideas here) and Magnifying the Universe (review and teaching ideas here). I am especially thankful to be able to put stressors and annoyances into perspective  and to draw upon the vastness these interactive spaces provide. The very words space and  size melt into a chance to rise above or delve below whatever preoccupies me. I am thankful for the change of perspective.

3. The Art of Science (complete review here). This find from Princeton offers visual proof that science is art and art is science. I would never call myself a scientist, but I am fascinated by the visuals science offers (see #2). I am even more thankful that the scientists  who share images on this site are prove that not all scientists are about data,data, nothing but data. I am grateful for images about seeing and wondering.

4. 101 Questions (complete review here). OK, this one is a little odd, but it does get my creative juices flowing. There is nothing like a visual prompt to get ideas (or questions) moving. If the prompts are good, the questions move from factual and surface level to pretty deep stuff. I am grateful for questions.

5. Co.Create is even better than Good. Why? I keep finding more articles. Just when I am hooked by one title, there is another one. I find myself wishing I could read in two places at once. I honestly have not spent time figuring out who the writers are or where the content actually comes from, but there seems to be an endless stream of things to intrigue and inspire. I am thankful for their “You might also like.”

Why do these matter to a teacher/ website editor/ed tech person? Because I know I need a broader stream of inspiration than simply #edtech and #edchat on Twitter. This morning I ran across a quote from Steve Jobs:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

– Steve Jobs, Wired, February 1996

Doing my job well — being creative — means I need to continuously expand my repertoire of experiences, and this inspirational five offers endless avenues to creative questions, questions, and images.  I hope every teacher has sites like this and is thankful for the role they play in making you a Thinking Teacher.

Next week: Five things that keep me organized — and I am SO grateful!