Are the classrooms today stifling creativity? Are we allowing choice in our classrooms to show the creativity of our students? Sometimes we need to take a moment to see what the students have to say. Take a look at this Video from Ted. com Talks where Adora Svitak discusses quite convincingly how adults can learn a thing or two about creativity from kids.
This week during our MAET classes, we had the opportunity to participate in a few "ice breakers" to get the creative juices flowing! One of the activities was to pick out an object from a bag and come up with all the different ways you could use the object. I had a magnifier with a light. At first, you think of the simple way to use it- to enlarge things we read. However, at more time to think "outside the box", provided alternative ideas that I had never thought before. I took advantage of its shape, color and texture to come up with other uses. It was then when I had an AHA! moment! Many times as teachers we give a student and assignment and tell them exactly what to do and how to do it. By doing this, we don't allow for the creativity and uniqueness of the student! Giving the student opportunity and choice to think outside of the box will allow the child to "think out of the box" and quite possibly have an AHA! moment with the content. Is that what we are searching for? We all don't learn the same way... why should we be expected to share our knowledge with the same product?
My goal for this next year is to extend the idea of project based learning into my classroom more frequently to allow students the possibility of creativity and choice. We all need as many AHA! moments as we can get. Why not start incorporating that into the classroom each day? For some ideas on how to get started, take a look at these links..
http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/creativ/
http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edcreative.htm
http://creativity.denverartmuseum.org/lesson-plans/elementary/
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