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Leadership Team Activity: Instill Empathy and Creativity

Inflexion January 13, 2021
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Diverse group of four elementary students have their arms linked behind each other's shoulders in comfort and solidarity.

Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.

– Ken Robinson

INTRO

Understanding why 21st Century Skills, including the broad range of social-emotional skills, is critical for learners who hit retirement age in 2070 is crucial in the way leaders approach education.

OBJECTIVES

  • The below activity will help you learn strategies using the Four Keys framework .– THINK, KNOW, ACT, GO – to align instructional programs with the 21st Century skills students need to be prepared for their futures.

RESOURCE LINKS

This activity is designed for your leadership team.

STEP 1

Have your leadership team watch the provided video (individually ahead of time or together as a group) showcasing why creativity and empathy will be needed even as technology is integrated into the jobs of the future.

STEP 2

Discuss as a team why these skills are so important and where the best opportunities are within your curriculum and programs to build these skills.

STEP 3

Have each leader review the provided PDF Infographic and pick the two skills they think are most prominent in your classrooms.

STEP 4

As a team, discuss your insights for 15-20 minutes. Identify five little things you can do in the next two weeks to support and further integrate the skills identified into your classrooms and school community.

TIPS

  • Little Things are smaller efforts you can do tomorrow, or within the next week or so.
    • While these quick and easy practices can produce big impacts, remember, this is not a quick fix: You’re establishing schoolwide changes that should better serve all students for years to come
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Responses

  1. Brian Miller November 21, 2021

    This was a powerful activity and made people really think about the classroom and if it is a student centered classroom or an adult centered classroom. In some of the classrooms I attended where it was student centered, student were very creative and building robots to fight each other in a ring. Students had to build a robot, attach a ballon to it and then program a sphere to run the robot. Students when then battle each other trying to pop the others balloon.
    In classrooms where the teacher lectured and there was little student interaction, creativity and collaboration what not evident.

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