The 50 Things Every Graphic Designer Should Know

In the context of our revision of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis, this advice for graphic designers (recommended by Billy) might be really useful. As well as some great advice for anyone hoping to be creative, like No. 34 above about the value of limitations, the addition of fantastic little line drawings really brings the ideas to life.

Thanks for the recommendation Billy.

Suggestions for the revised Manifesto for Creative Tallis

Hi folks
Thanks for a great meeting this morning. Here are some of the suggestions for the revised manifesto. Comments appreciated:

Everyone's a teacher. Everyone's a learner.

Learn everywhere. Learn your own way.

Cherish knowledge. Pass it on.

Ignite your learning with the spark of imagination.

Activate your network.

Challenged teacher challenge students.

Learning is limitless.

Failure is a learning experience.

Practice Newology and Wonderation.

Remember to bring your imaginations to school.

Be curious. Ask questions. Take risks. Believe in yourself.

Receive. Use. Share. Retrieve.

Nurture your talents, skills and interests.

Get engaged.

Sculpt your learning.

Love what you do.

The New School

Just a quick reminder that the names of the six blocks in the new school are:

innovate
experiment
question
create
explore
imagine

Would this be an interesting framework for our revised manifesto?

Learning to be creative

Sir Ken Robinson has been in town again and this is a compilation of the best bits from his speech to the Learning Without Frontiers audience. He speaks eloquently about the value of the arts, about the problem with the EBacc, about the challenges faced by aging Western populations, about really "getting back to basics" in education and about the central purposes of education.

Several members of staff at Tallis have now taken part in the 500 words challenge that forms part of the Purpose/Ed campaign. A couple of the posts have appeared on this blog. Click here to check out the archive. It's clear from recent debates that there is no consensus about what this purpose is. There has been quite fierce disagreement amongst contributors about what education is for.

Our challenge as a group this year is to re-write the aims of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis. We have already discussed the need to make the manifesto a little more accessible, a little harder hitting, a little more provocative and a lot more interactive.

We have a meeting on Wednesday morning. I'd like everyone in the group to bring two statements to the meeting. These should:

1. be brief
2. be challenging and/or provocative
3. be memorable
   
4. say how an individual or the whole of Thomas Tallis School could be more creative
5. articulate something you believe and are happy to support

We will try, in the time we have together, to draft about 10 statements for our revised manifesto.

You are not a gadget

I came across this book today which claims to be a manifesto about the need for a more humanistic approach to internet technology. Like all good manifestos, Lanier's ideas run against the grain. For example, he considers Web 2.0 tools to be a problem because they provide standardised solutions that limit the potential of the individual. He dislikes Wikipedia because he considers it to be an example of "mob rule".

Here's a thoughtful article about the book and a link on Amazon if you fancy getting a copy.

Today's ARG meeting

We had a really great meeting this morning and welcomed our two new members from Year 8, Will and Joe. We began with Danuta and Phoebe's re-working of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis:

We ENCOURAGE all learners to:
become curious, imaginative and innovative
take risks, accept challenges and learn from mistakes
reflect on their learning experiences

We SUPPORT our students to become:
resourceful, active and independent learners
effective collaborators and communicators
co-creators of the curriculum

We BELIEVE:
in the exchange of skills and knowledge between students and staff
that skills should be transferable
that new technologies are a crucial part of learning

We VALUE:
our students' talents, skills and interests and provide opportunities to develop them further
feedback and ideas from students about their learning experiences
effective communication about creative learning with parents, carers and members of the local community

We had a look at The Rebel's Manifesto by Keri Smith for comparison. We felt that the more direct and provocative language of that document might improve our own manifesto.

In small groups we discussed ways to further refine the Tallis Manifesto, feeding back to the whole team. Here are some of the suggestions:

Joe, Will & Danuta:

More accessible language needed. “Be curious, Take risks” Short, snappy phrases. More like instructions. Maybe lose the “We”. “Don’t be afraid to be afraid”, “Ask questions”

Tom, Seb & Rachel:

Different manifestos for range of audiences e.g. students, teachers. Should there be a division?

Recipe or creative learning – video, dance, song

Humour? What skills do the group have that could help to promote the manifesto?

Phoebe & Matt:

Who is the manifesto for? Use the word “learners” and “creative community” – more inclusive.

When should it be implemented – assembly, tutor time, focus on Creative Tallis – direct response of learners. How to make it more interactive?

We also talked about the various ways in which we could re-present the Manifesto to the community and came up with the following list:

Video, Interactive web resource – definitions of some of the words, Assemblies, Tutor Time, Song

There is a lot of work still to do on the Manifesto so we agreed to meet fortnightly from now on - Week A Thursdays at 4pm. We also agreed that Tom would be bringing the juice and biscuits next time! Thanks to everyone in the team for their energy and ideas.

Manifesto for a Creative Tallis

Thanks to Ms Keville and Ms Piwko we have begun the process of re-thinking our Manifesto for a Creative Tallis. The original manifesto, which has been shared with the whole staff body and was ratified by the Leadership Team, has helped to put creative learning at the centre of the school's learning and teaching vision. It is sent out to all new prospective members of staff and a question related specifically to creative learning features in all new job interviews. In our discussions at the start of this year, we felt that the manifesto needed to be revisited. It was perhaps a bit long and not very memorable. It needed a refresh and, possibly, some serious reflection on making the ambitious statements a reality.

Here are Ms Piwko and Ms Keville's initial thoughts, presented in suitably diagrammatic form:


Here is the first draft of the new statements:

WE CELEBRATE CREATIVITY IN OUR COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS

We encourage:

• all learners to become inquisitive, imaginative and innovative
• all learners to take risks, accept challenges and learn from mistakes
• everybody to reflect on their learning experiences

We support our students to become:

• resourceful and active learners
• effective collaborators and communicators
• independent learners/thinkers

We believe:

• in the exchange of skills and knowledge between students and staff
• that the use of new technologies is a crucial part of learning in the 21st century

We value:

• our students' talents, skills and interests and provide opportunities to develop them further
• feedback and ideas from students about their learning experiences
• effective communication about creative learning with parents, carers and members of the local community

We discussed this proposal at our extraordinary meeting before the Christmas holiday and decided to make the following revisions:

(Section 1: We ENCOURAGE……)

• ‘all learners to become curious, imaginative and innovative ( the word curious has replaced inquisitive in the statement )

(Section 2: We SUPPORT……..)

• Resourceful, active and independent learners
• Effective collaborators and communicators
• Co-creators of the curriculum (this statement has been added as we discussed the importance of students creating the curriculum/ learning experiences with teachers)
  

(Section 3: We BELIEVE……)

• in the exchange of skills and knowledge between students and staff.
• that skills should be transferable
• new technologies are a crucial part of learning

We talked about the possibility of employing a graphic designer to help us re-present these statements in a more visually stimulating form, perhaps even creating an interactive web based resource that would allow the viewer to explore some of the implications of each statement with examples of successful creative learning, ideas for further research and short video clips of discussions with students, staff members, parents/carers, experts etc.

Whilst browsing in a book shop this evening I discovered a new book by one of my favourite artists, Keri Smith. It's called 'Mess' and describes itself as a 'Manual of Accidents and Mistakes'. This prompted me to check out her excellent website and Flickr account, where I discovered the following manifesto:

Here is the text in full:

The Rebel's Manifesto:

1. Do the opposite of what you were taught in school.
2. Care not for the opinions of others. They are based on their own thoughts and fears.
3. Study the work of other rebels. Steal things from them. Research with fury.
4. Forget about the competition. They are on a different path than you. Trends are for suckers.
5. "There's nothing we really need to do that isn't dangerous." John Cage. Do the things that scare you on a regular basis.
6. Make a mess.
7. Embrace your darkside. Your so called "dark qualities" (or labels) are a source of great power. Find a way to incorporate them into your work. Feature them. pay particular attention to what makes you angry.
8. Exercise your voice. Put your thoughts out into the world even if it scares the shit out of you (see number 5).
9. Expand your horizons. Leave home. Visit other places/cultures. Wander aimlessly.
10. Never limit your play-time. Even if your brain is telling you otherwise. All of your best stuff comes from it if you allow yourself to remain open to the unknown.
11. Question everything.
13. Follow your heart.

I love this for several reasons. The language is quite informal and includes some direct challenges. It's quite irreverent and funny. It feels exciting and surprising. Number 12 is missing. I wonder if we can learn anything from existing manifestos?

As promised I will begin to do some research about potential sources of funding to employ a designer to help us re-present our Manifesto. In the meantime, I wonder if we ought to give some thought to the next document needed to make the statements in our manifesto more of a reality in school - an implementation strategy.

Animated Manifesto

This post is not intended to demonstrate any party political support but I confess I am impressed with the new Labour Party manifesto animated film. It seems to have just the right combination of wit, clarity and accessibility. Let's face it, getting to grips with (and remembering) manifesto statements can be a bit tricky. Perhaps we could take a leaf out of their book with our own Manifesto for a Creative Tallis?

Meeting on Tuesday 20 October

Hi folks
Here's the agenda for Tuesday's meeting at 3:45pm in DSC:

AGENDA

1. An update from JN about the space on the Ferrier
2. Feedback from the SSC Creativity Group
3. Discussion about how to promote the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis
4. Discussion about how to create a student led Commissioning Group as a School of Creativity project this year
5. AOB

P.S. John Riches (our Creative Agent) reminded me of this project in Scotland. If you have time before Tuesday's meeting, it might be useful if you could check out the Room 13 project and the video below about Wooranna School in Australia.

Scores on the doors!

As well as thinking about their three year ambitions, staff were also asked to work in groups to identify three priority points from the fourteen points contained in the manifesto. If you click on the image above you'll be able to see the graphic and the manifesto points in a chart. I gave points for first, second and third choices and totted them up. I was really interested to see that nearly every point gets a mention. What do you think about the staff's selection of priorities? What do you think we should be prioritising?

Soren

Thank You

Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the members of the ARG for helping to present the Manifesto to (almost) the whole staff body this afternoon. I hope you found the experience interesting. I'm especially grateful to the students who stayed much longer than normal and having managed the difficult process of interviewing candidates for the Tangled Feet residency prior to the meeting. It would be good to get an update on how this went and what your plans are for the week of the 29th. I'd like to suggest that you are all involved in the project with Tangled Feet so that you can benefit from their ideas, get involved in some of the activities and, most importantly, help to document what happens. Those of you planning to enter yourselves for the Arts Award will be able to get some great evidence for your portfolios. Anyroadup, you were great this afternoon and a credit to the school. Cheers team!

Manifesto

This is the 5th draft of our Manifesto for a Creative Tallis and the one we will be presenting to staff on Tuesday 16th. Try to familiarise yourself with the statements before then. I think it's important that staff understand the process we have been through to create the manifesto and that it represents the essence of our research this year as a group. There will be an opportunity in the meeting to talk to staff groups about the manifesto and respond to questions about the content. This is a great opportunity for all of us to have an impact on whole school change and a great way to demonstrate just how intelligent and ambitious young people are when given real responsibility. We will have about an hour to explain the journey we have been on, ask staff to complete the three year backwards planning document and respond to the content of the manifesto. If you have any good ideas about the best way of doing this, post your suggestions as comments. have a great weekend!

Creative Manifesto Prezi

You will have received an email this afternoon inviting you to view the latest version of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis on iWork.com. This has proved to be a fairly effective means of sharing documents online so that they can be peer edited. When it comes to presenting documents however, there aren't many options beyond Powerpoint and Keynote. I've had a go at using Prezi again to create an interactive version of the manifesto. It's a sophisticated application and I'm still not sure that I'm getting the most from it. I think it might be better used to present an argument or discussion fully utilising the ability to reveal new information and play with scale. I recommend you give it a go. It's certainly exercised my grey matter for a couple of days and I dare say will continue to do so for a few more. Click the image above to visit the Prezi Manifesto page.

Online collaboration (continued)

As you can see, our request for the Leadership Team to provide us with feedback about our recommendations and draft manifesto has resulted in a flurry of notes added to the online document via iWork.com. Please take the opportunity to add your own notes and comments before the end of this week. You will have received a personal invitation via email to view the document. Simply follow the link and get stuck in. Everyone's views are of equal value so make sure what you think is reflected in the final draft. Let me know if you've lost the email with the invitation and I'll send you another.

Manifesto collaboration

Thanks to everyone for leaving comments on the first draft of the Manifesto for a Creative Tallis. Putting it up on iWork.com seems to have worked pretty well and it was great to be able to download the document into Pages with all of the comments attached (see above). This made the editing process very straightforward.

I have attempted to incorporate all the suggestions into the latest draft. You should all have received an email inviting you to comment on the newest version. I will print this on Tuesday to give to the Leadership Team for further consultation so you have until then to have your say.

Recommendations

On Tuesday the 5th May I am hoping that we will have an opportunity to meet the Leadership Team and make a brief presentation about our activities so far this year. How do you think we should approach this? It may be our only chance this academic year to enlist the support of senior managers in helping us promote our understanding of creative learning across the whole school so I think we need a really good plan of action.

Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Describe briefly what we've been doing and how we've been doing it using the blog as a reference point (Keynote presentation?)
2. Present our Manifesto for a Creative Tallis both on paper and in the form of a
video
3. Present a list of recommendations for action on whole school policies

E.g.
Classroom observations should include comments on creative learning
opportunities
Student representatives should be included on all interviewing panels
Students and teachers should have the opportunity to swap skills on a regular basis

Can you think of anything else we should do? Are you all able to make it to this meeting? Perhaps we can talk about some of these issues when we meet on Friday.

Manifesto for a Creative Tallis

We received a massive 6 votes for statements to go in our Manifesto for a Creative Tallis. The two most popular were:

We would like better access to digital technologies

We would like more challenging, open-ended learning tasks

Despite the small number of votes, perhaps we could begin our debate about what to include in the Manifesto by considering these two statements. What else would like to be considered? Add your comments with suggestions for other statements, so that we can begin to construct the Manifesto, and have a think about how we should agree the contents and share the results with staff, students, parents and anyone else who might be interested.