EDIM 508 Unit 4 Summary Posting

Consumers to Creators

Ive enjoyed reading your discussions this week. I hope that the readings have better opened
your mind to fostering the creative mind in education. Id like to highlight some thoughts
from this weeks discussions.

Amy- As educators I think our students need to understand that mistakes are not just acceptable,
but they provide the stepping stones to knowledge and comprehension. Sometimes being willing to accept our
own mistakes, and being okay when students point them out, can help cultivate this positive learning
environment. Other times, individual students need to be reminded to keep trying without belittling or seeming
to pass judgement on them. In the same light, students need to be pushed in this creative environment. When we
give them assignments and projects that allow for creativity, they need constant reminders that they can try
harder, that they have not yet met their full potential, that they could keep adding something else to the project.

Belinda- In todays current educational system, many demands are being placed upon teachers,
(common core expectations, raising the bar for lower functioning students, grading, data collection, STEM,
etc.) However, there is a need to expose, challenge, and implement ways to get students to think creatively and
innovatively within our classroom walls. Getting students to think creatively and teaching them how to do so is
a challenge within itself.

Jessica D.- The question I think most teachers have is that we have to follow the curriculum and
teach certain things, but how do we implement creativity into this? It is difficult to focus on both the standards
of the school and the different processes of each students' mind. This is where technology comes into play. With
videos, various presentation tools, and endless resources, we are able to implement creativity in different ways.

Jessica K.- I believe that it is crucial for teachers, no matter what subject they teach, to incorporate
the arts and creativity into their classrooms as much as possible. Digital tools are an excellent medium for this
process, if used effectively. The challenge is for teachers to figure out a balance between meeting standards
and successfully incorporating creative endeavors into their teaching.

Katherine- Students should be prepared for criticism and how to handle it. It is acceptable to not
be correct the first time around. It is acceptable to have questions or have to go back and revise or tweak
something. It is acceptable to have multiple tests and trials until something finally works. By teaching our
students to accept criticism and use it as a tool to help themselves take their ideas a step further, we are helping
to prepare them for the future.

Lauren- If we are trying to make sure we get all curriculum covered, on top of
all of the other demands at school, we aren't always thinking about including these "low-
risk" opportunites and teaching our students how to be creative. I like to allow for times
for them to be creative, but I am guilty of not providing more of these opportunities and
actually teaching them "how" to create.

Lynn- Our teachers rarely provide students with the opportunity to display
their artistic talents, but when they do, it is often in the form of an enormous project, such as the reading fair,
science fair, or National History Day competition. There is no room for failure, for these projects often count
as two test grades. Students in our district often opt out of honors classes just to avoid these large undertakings.

Meaghan- The point is that we keep putting one foot in front of the other, and continue to find new
and creative ways to teach our children. Unfortunately, there is not a script for our roles as educators, we
make it up as we go along. Sometimes that means learning along with our students. I too, find that some of the
best learning comes from making mistakes. If our students see us in this light, they will be more likely to take
risks as well. The goal in mind is to harbor an environment that is free from judgement and mockery. This
makes me think about when a student sees you "out" in the public. It is almost as if they believe we live at
school. When they see us in a real life setting their perspective quickly changes. Therefore, if they see us make
mistakes in the classroom, they can relate and realize that we too are only human.

Peter- I think one way that could help us educators as we plow through
standards and prep for tests, is to consider a ratio that works best for us. For example,
perhaps a 3:1 ratio of standards-based work to creative time. Every week you come up
to the creative mind, focus on another subject area. So the first time it may be math,
but the second week may be Language Arts. Just a brainstorm idea.

Richard- I have stated this before, but it is important to provide students with low-risk
opportunities to be creative. This could be done a number of ways; for instance, utilizing various forms of
digital media is helpful. If you have an Im DoneNow What bulletin board have multiple choices that
provide the students opportunities to be creative. There are a number of educational apps that are great for
helping to foster creativity in students: ToonTastic, Write About it, Book Creator, Telligami, iMoive, Sock
Puppets, and the list could go on. As students experiment(create), during low-risk opportunities this will
hopefully provide confidence for students to continue being creative when the risks are higher and will possibly
receive criticism.

Ryan- We can design measures of assessment that pose a question or task which foster the need for
the student to make certain connections and demonstrate what they have learned. We should be designing
measures of assessment with clearly defined criteria and rubrics. The design should include regular monitoring
and directing students away from less than adequate syntheses. The design can include time for reflection of the
work by the students themselves, their fellow students and the educator.

Sarah- I believe it is our job as educators to push our students in every aspect possible to their
fullest potential. I also believe creativity is lacking in so many classrooms. It is my first year teaching and I try
to encourage my students to push the creative envelope through projects, partner work, and assignments. In
order for students to be creative, it is important for them to first understand that it is okay to make mistakes
because we learn from our mistakes.

Susan- I assess my students on the concepts by having them show me that they understand a variety
of ways to perform both tasks. I give them problems with errors in them and ask the students to find the errors.
This requires them to understand all the methods we have learned. Although not all students are able to utilize
all of the methods, I want my students to show that they know at least two of the methods.

Trevor- As I have learned about project-based and inquiry-based learning, and have been given an
toolkit of media tools, I have found that the best, deepest learning comes from doing and creating. This allows
me to meet curricular goals, fill the time-slots I am given, have comprehensive, standards-based lesson plans,
and still prepare for testing. I can do all of this because I know that, though I do not utilize the repetition and
memorization tactics I am pointed to, my students are, in the end, able to outperform the majority of students
because their depth of knowledge and understanding are increased dramatically by having to transfer incoming
information to outgoing projects and solutions. They are synthsisying disparate subjects and sources into
cohesive, useful products that meet real-word success criteria.