Creativity In The Classroom...Dead or Alive?

     This week, I had the pleasure of watching a TED Talk, which I absolutely love. They are exciting, engaging, and informative ways to present information and incorporate real world situations. This week's TED Talk was given by Sir Ken Robinson, and I have to say, he hit the nail on the head! Creativity is something that we often associate with classes/subjects like Art in school. We often don't think of subject areas like Math or Reading being creative. They are often composed of skill, drill, and practice, and seldom offer opportunities for creativity. This brings us to the focus of this week and the major question that people often forget to address: Do schools kill creativity? In my opinion, the answer is a blaring "yes!"  Education in our society has become the picture perfect vision of a disaster. Education is focused on test scores, data, closing the achievement gap, and inducing necessary stress on our children.  Students are no longer looked at with the idea of tuning in to them and their needs, but are looked at as scores which define success in a classroom and division.

     My personal experiences have shaped my strong opinions above, and rightfully so in my opinion. I taught kindergarten for ten years, and was often criticized for not using time to "teach" rather than explore and art project that directly related to content. It would drive me insane, because I think that we often forget that children learn so much about themselves through creative activities such as dramatic play, the arts, and self based inquiry or inquiry with peers.  My five year old students held an attention span that was their age plus two in minutes (or 6-7 minutes) and often times became restless or frustrated when stretched too thin. This was a problem because behavior declined, performance declined, and student engagement was nowhere to be found. If students are encouraged to complete a task that they created, I feel as though we will see the opposite. Engagement that lasts for much longer as well as students that are intrinsically motivated to finish are some of the major differences that we would see.

     Digital media has become such a power player in the classroom today, and has replaced many of our existing ways of instruction. Applications for reading, writing. math, sight words, and discovery (for science and social studies) have now replaced most textbooks and students can now find answers, videos, and deeper understandings with the touch of a button or swipe of a finger. Digital media has really launched the platform for incorporation of creativity and creative based projects, because students can now add video, photos, drawings, and music to all presentations and ideas. A great example of this is the SeeSaw app. My students use this app each day, and can create books and presentations to share with other students and their parents. These projects are all student created and are a true reflection of what an engaged six year old mind looks like. Digital media has allowed students to take ownership of their work while allowing them to share and launch creative ideas to their peers at the same time. Long gone are the days of colored pencils and paper, and welcomed are t student created videos with dialogue that showcase just how powerful the minds of today really are!

Source: Gardner, H. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Project 1: Media Infused Presentation/Learning Center

Project 1: Media Infused Presentation or Learning Center- EDIM 508

 View my presentation here & the exported version here


 Media infused presentations are wonderful resources for the classroom, whether a traditional teacher centered classroom or a non-traditional flipped classroom. Throughout discussions in the our class so far, we have all agreed the media, technology, and the infusion of both dramatically increases student engagement. I found that contractions are on the the toughest concepts to teach to my younger first grade students. The idea of putting two words together when speaking is simple, but taking away letters and adding an apostrophe is quite frightening to them. I decided to make this learning center for them to use as an introduction on the week that we begin this task/concept. 

     I feel that my learning center will contribute to developing the synthesizing and disciplined minds in many ways. The synthesizing mind immediately came to me as I began to make my learning center.  Students will be able to view the learning center on their i-pad(s) and will then be able to able to make more meaningful connections when they revisit the content as a whole group. I will have the ability to address the content to the whole group and trust that they have a better understanding and grasp what a contraction is, rather than just front loading the concept all at one time. I feel that for younger students to master content, it need to be introduced and revisited multiple time and in multiple ways. Those ways may include paper, pencil, partner or technology. Once students have gained exposure to the content, they are able to synthesize or connect/interweave the material(s) taught to past and current connections. This, in my opinion, is what leads to mastery of content.

     The disciplined mind would certainly be address with younger students while incorporating the media infused learning center. Students will be able to use the information from the presentation as well as the skills needed to work through the learning center (SeeSaw) and will be able to apply those skills to other areas of learning. Students will be required to think, apply, and understand how the information presented here can possibly connect to another area of learning. Examples of this could be: identifying contractions in print (context) or integrating them in to writing to make it more meaningful. 

EduClipper Post

Link: View My EduClipper Post Here
 (https://educlipper.net/edu_clip_boards/57e4544169702d1bbb3a0100)


I created my EduClipper board on nouns! I chose to focus on this because we are studying nouns and how to find them when reading, writing, and listening to others. I have found that just talking to students about what they are is not meaningful at all, but instead students find more success with the use of visuals. The number of visuals available is amazing! 

Big Huge Labs Motivator!

In first grade, we constantly deal with tattling! Our little ones love to take care of everyone else, but them!  We have daily talks about tattling, what a tattletale is, and how to make sure that what you are reporting/tattling is a true emergency. My team mate, Manal, and I  decided that we would make a poster to place in our classroom (s) to hopefully give a gentle but funny reminder that tattling does NOT make us happy. Look at our faces... do they look like happy first grade teachers?  I don't think so! Curbing potentially negative behaviors are a major part of social/emotional learning that takes place in our classrooms and for our students at Milton Hershey School!

All About Me- According to Twitter!

All About Me- Twitter Style