Skip to main content

Fostering Creativity

In this age of mandated over-testing and assessment it can often be difficult to foster that creative spirit naturally present in every child.  In fact we unfortunately are often guilty of squelching that natural tendency.  So how do you make sure that doesn't happen in your classroom?  Here are a few ideas gleaned from a few days watching Food Network.

Chopped

Those of you familiar with the show may already know where I am going with this, but for those of you unfamiliar, I will give you the basic premise.  The show is a competition divided into three rounds, appetizer, entree and dessert.  During each round competitors are given a basket of mystery ingredients  that must be used for that round as they work to create the best dish and prevent being chopped.  Often those ingredients do not fit the normal associations for that course, but must be used somehow.

How do you apply that in an education setting?  Here are a few ideas:

  1.  Creative Writing-Give students a topic and a random assortment of words or phrases that must be used correctly in their piece.  Adjust style, and expectation to fit your age level.  You can turn it into a competition by determining which writer used all the required elements most effectively.  Not necessarily the best piece of writing, but best use of the required elements.

  2. Science (Physics)-Give students a bag of random objects and have them design a complex device to accomplish a relative simple task (think Rube Goldberg device).  Student should also explain their processes and present the finished product.  This could be turned into a competition and each team awarded points over the course of a few different projects.  The team/individual acquiring the most points over the course of your "event" becomes the champion.

  3. Math-This is one that if you aren't ready to dive into some PBL, you are going to struggle.  Have a design competition.  Give student some graph paper and building materials then have them design and construct a building, landscape, theme park, etc.  Have students calculate area, perimeter, surface area, etc. of each component in the design.  Change it up by giving students random components to include in the design.

  4. History/Social Studies-Give students a random historical figure and place them in a situation outside of their time.  How would the figure handle the situation or events in that time period.

These are just a few ideas for adding a little creativity to your lessons.  I would be glad to hear other ideas that go along with this theme.  If you have blogposts, tweets, articles, or pins that correlate feel free to share.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you need a Philosophy of Education?

When we first start out in education we often think that we know what we're doing. We think that we don't need any help and that everything that we need to know we learned in our education classes. It only takes about three days into the job to realize that our college education did not fully prepare us for every single student that we're going to face. It didn't truly prepare us for how we really should deliver a lesson when we have students on five different levels along with multiple types of disruptions. It didn't prepare us to handle all the routines, all the the daily tasks, all the decisions that we have to make.  This isn't intended to disparage any university program, but just an acknowledgement that there is now way for them to fully prepare you for every student and situation you will face.  Experience is the only true way to learn how to handle all of these different types of situations.  So how do we make up for that information gap? That is a chall...
1 comment
Read more

4 Tools for Creating Instruction Video

Many educators are plunging into creating digital resources as part of their districts plan to continue instruction while school facilities are closed for the remainder of the school year.  If you have not explored this before now, there are several options available to you in a variety of prices and skillset. The tools we suggest will be free or inexpensive and only focus on creating videos that you can share with students later.  There are options for live video conferencing and some of these tools are designed for that, but we are only focusing on video recording.  This type of learning model would best be classified as asynchronous because you are allowing students to work at different times.  This may be the best option since some of your students may have siblings and limited use of technology at their house. Before we get started, please check with your district to see if there are any restrictions on which tools you may use.  There is a possibility that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Monday Minute for January 14

This morning I wanted to share a quit tip for those struggling integrate technology into the classroom.  It is very basic and should be the mantra of tech in your classroom. Don't let the technology drive the lesson. What I mean is the technology should not be what drives your lesson.  The content should always shine above the tech.  The content should always be your primary focus during instruction.  What do you want the students to learn?  How will you know they have learned it? The tech tool should be as ubiquitous as textbooks, pencil and paper and should be thought of in that manner.  After you decide what you are going to teach, next you decide which tool would be will help you to best accomplish that. PIXNIO So what if you are told you need to integrate technology into the classroom and you haven't really done much of that in the past?  Maybe you have a class set of devices you have been told you are going to use in your room and you are feeling...
Post a Comment
Read more