Creativity & Innovation students walk through the door. Reighly immediately picks up the guitar and gets to work, while watching YouTube. David, Morgan and Cole head to the gym, ready to get sweaty and work on those dance moves. Jade works on sketches for her rat feeder. A number of students embrace the student autonomy in this course that is grounded in Common Core and National Art standards. However, change is hard. Not only for the students, but for the teacher as well. I have several students who have not embraced the change. I attribute some of this to a lack of confidence in ideas and a fear of failure. More importantly, I realize that I have not done a good enough job of teaching students that it is OK to fail–failure, learning and growth go hand in hand.
I plan to start Friday’s Creativity & Innovation class with this in mind. Furthermore, I want to remind students that we are all in this together. Without getting on a soapbox, I want them to remember that I may fail in starting Innovation Class at Galesburg-Augusta. In fact, some days I feel like I have and am ready to run back to the safety of the art studio and traditional media. I realize that if I do this, it is a disservice to my students. They DESERVE more. They need the chance to grow and learn with their own passions and ideas at the core.