Book+Talk+Response

Root-Bernstein, R. S., & Root-Bernstein, M. (1999). //Sparks of genius: The thirteen thinking tools of the world's most creative people//. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin.
☐ Include a brief personal response to the material read Sparks of genius is an excellent reference book for an educator or parent. It highlights the thirteen thinking tools that are extensively supported by many examples. Some of the examples are a bit cliche, but the sheer volume of examples outweigh them. I especially liked the reference section in the back of the book. It provided great resources in print, film and hypermedia. The format was useful for any teacher or parent to extend and adapt what they read to their students and children. ☐ How the team worked together After two organizational meeting where we came up with the observation table idea and began creating a chapter based wiki our team was able to delegate work rather equitably. ☐ The role and job each team member played, including yourself We all equitThe English teachers (M&M) Meg and Maggie really helped streamline the wiki with essential elegantly formatted quotes for each chapter, paraphrasing of their chapters and MLA book cite formats. Charmaine came together ☐ Your contribution to the process I contributed by initially creating the wiki and formatting it to our agreed upon organization, authoring and presenting 3 chapters of activities and hypermedia, and submitting of props and candy for the observation table. Specifically, I front-loaded this project by creating the Sparks of Genius wiki in a chapter based format to accommodate the organization of the team member contributions. I authored activities and connected videos for chapters on Abstracting, Dimensional Thinking and Body Thinking. The props I brought in consisted of corn, a pumpkin, a gourd, and a hunting vest as well as a portion of the candy for the observation table. Additionally, I made and brought in a set of [|BrainBoards] for our colleagues to use during some of the activities.

☐ Lessons learned as a result of this process I would anticipate and reach out more to colleagues with technical difficulties/challenges. Specifically, I would have liked to touch base with Charmaine and assist her with embedding some hypermedia before our final presentation. I feel like she is capable and with a little more assistance she could have been more confident and comfortable during the presentation.

After presenting, I would have also liked the initial part of the presentation to include visual icons for each thinking tool and have those icons throughout the presentation. During the summary, it would have been useful to revisit a visual with all the icons interconnected.

Also, it would have been useful to have a couple video conferences to touch base with each other and to help streamline any additional technical issues. Video conferencing can really help team members living far apart able to more easily communicate.

☐ Your thoughts on the feedback provided from colleagues and information gained Most of the feedback was positive. Although I felt that the presentation was long, several colleagues said it went fast to them, they were interested and could see practical ways to apply the thirteen thinking tools in their classrooms and their creative work.

☐ What questions have now come to the surface for you as a result of this assignment

The questions that have now come to the surface for me as a result of this assignment include: How does a geographically disparate group of people most effectively collaborate on projects? How can I make my students aware of these thinking tools so they can access them readily in other contexts? How can math and science phobias be effectively addressed so adult learners can be available to learn or relearn technical topics?