Creativity

Wow — Teaching during a pandemic… Talk about creativity (an exhaustion, but…)

To finish off the 4 parts of 21st century learning… creativity.. to me is the most important. Creativity fuels our outcome. Creativity changes our view points. Creativity solves problems. Creativity gives us rope swings… sometimes creativity is riding that rope swing, not knowing where you will land, if it will be a big splash, or a belly buster!

I have almost survived my first week of teaching school virtually and face-to-face at the same time. Creativity is the name of the game. This year in class, one of the things not on our standards we are going to learn is to be flexible. In being flexible, we become creative. I think “being creative” needs to apply to more than just the arts. I think when we are creative, we are problem solvers. We don’t force our selves to fit in certain parameters.

After ending the year so abruptly (and beginning it with a hurricane) I have become more willing to be flexible. I really enjoyed having flexible seating in my classroom. I had small tables, wobble stools, and tall stools to go with a tall robotics table (covered to use for math), and 2 different kinds of lap desks. They have all allowed for kids to be comfortable while learning. As we all know, junior high kids come in all shapes and sizes … so having something other than desks helps both the adult-sized students and the little ones. Also, I found that my kids test scores (on basic assessments for me) improved when they had the ability to sit spread out around the room and were “comfortable.”

But how is this creative… in my classroom we define creative as coming up with a new plan, idea, way of doing something, or activity. For example, after going over a concept in class and before the final review for that concept (I teach math) I would have my kids teach me a lesson. Their guidelines were: it was over a topic, they had 5 minutes to present, and needed to be correct. So, think back to 7th grade honors math (8th grade standards) and I gave my students the topic of using proportions to solve percent problems (sales tax, discounts…) I ended up with a rap, a PowerPoint, a skit, and 2 groups writing on the board. All of the presentations were accurate and within the time frame, but 2 definitely caught their attention. (It could have been her costume, too)

Creativity needs to be a part of our 21st century teaching and learning repertoire. After all, up until last March, I’ve never taught in a pandemic — hurricane – yes (Katrina, Rita, Ike, Humberto, Harvey, Imelda), floods – yes (Sabine River in 2014, 2016, Harvey and Imelda), building under construction – yes (2014-2017), pregnant – yes (2003, 2005), lost student to cancer (my first day of teaching ever 2002). These moments change us and change our perspective.

Creativity can be helping others with mask extenders, creating a birthday sign for your 5 year old cousin’s birthday during a pandemic, wanting an ice cream and making a “sundae” with pudding and whipped cream and gummy worms, making green day/gold day signs out of pinatas…

As I create lesson now, I have a different set of questions I use in lesson planning:

1. What do I want them to know and remember at the end of this lesson?
2. Am I teaching a tool? A skill?
3. How will it apply to their future in this class as well as their future in general?
4. How much time can I use on this topic?
5. How can the student become the owner of the learning? What will make it real to them?

One other thing I stress with my students on the topic of creativity… You aren’t born creative, you work at it… The more they do, to go beyond the “norm,” the more creative they will become. Creativity is a skill that makes our learning become real to us. The more it is put into use, the better it will become. Skills are built over time and practice. Color outside the lines, beat your own drum, toot your own horn, find something you like and make it better.