One opportunity for creativity and innovative problem solving in my classroom is facilitating the use of a digital platform for scholars to solve the problem a character has in a text. Google Drawing is one such platform. Thanks.
Google Drawing is intriguing. I'll have to check that one out. Most of my scholars like to draw and willing draw a picture to show what they've learned from a story or selection. Thanks.
In my special education classroom, students use their creativity in choosing the topic for what they're learning...like practicing their writing by typing an email to ask Mr. Phalen why we ended the school year on a half day Monday... I am looking forward to having my students use Pinterest and Google Keep to hold onto and organize their ideas next school year, and possibly even in Summer Advantage!
Kyrie Lewis PLA@48 There are many opportunities for creativity and problem-solving in the art classroom, including exploration with materials, open-ended projects, and working as groups to brainstorm and finalize ideas. Canva and Google Drawings are excellent tools for creating and can be especially helpful for e-learning days when students have limited materials at home.
Dr. Tamikia Greene (PLA @ Smith MS) - Kyrie when your scholars used Canva what were the final projects? Flyers? Presentations? Newsletters? I am just curious to know the capacity in which teachers are utilizing Canva. I recommended Google drawings a lot for my elementary campuses for the geometry units and fraction units (visual aids and manipulatives)
I haven't used Canva with students yet, but I've used it for portfolios, resumes, and other things and I think there are possibilities there for students.
I LOVE using canvas for school flyers, invitations, portfolios, etc... but I have not used it with students yet. I know they would love it with the sheer volume of creativity that it allows for. I pay for a subscription to use it, and am not sure if there is a fee for students to use it. That could be an issue....
Hi @ Deanna Maxwell. I've heard of Canva in my personal life but I had no idea how many uses it offers and how it can be transformed in to the classroom. Sounds worth the subscription. Thanks!
I tried to use Canva once or twice but I like the idea of trying it with my students next year. I agree I think Canva and Google Drawing could be great in Art classes, especially on E-learning days.
Dr. Tamikia Greene (PLA @ Smith MS) - Chapters 8 & 9 really had me thinking regarding creativity. Reflecting when I was a classroom teacher I can recall assigning project with simple instructions and a rubric students came back with amazing works. Being an administrator (currently) and prior to this role when I was a district level employee supporting numerous campuses, I find myself making suggestions to the teachers with adding arts to the mathematics or assigning projects that allows students to show their personality, creativity, and thinking. Every scholar is different and provide opportunities for them to show their most authentic/academic selves. I have seen & used a plethora of collaboration platforms and drawing/creative apps from Canva and Google drawing to Jamboard and Whiteboard.chat. I am curious to see what other platforms are being or has been used by my fellow educators...
I agree that adding a more "artistic" approach to some math or Reading assignments can show a scholar's authentic/academic self. After reading the chapters this week, I started to research ways to help me encourage creativity in the classroom. There are a lot of suggestions that I can implement easily, others will take time. One of the ways I found suggests to allow scholars to reflect about their learning? Not all scholars will want to journal, but giving them opportunity could allow for some open dialogue. Another way to inspire creativity is to change instructions: create, design, invent, imagine, suppose. The final one I want to share is introducing "Mindfulness Thinking." This last one intrigues me. I have dabbled in it, but have not fully put my heart into mindful thinking. This is something that I would want to look into this summer.
I absolutely agree with adding the arts as an option into other classes. As a former special education teacher, I would see many of my students struggle with the traditional math or English project... yet flourish when we gave them the opportunity to display their learning in an artistic format. It really does challenge educators to think outside the box when it comes to ways for assessing student learning.
I agree with providing scholars with opportunity to learn through projects. Project based learn is very powerful way for scholars to flourish. Each scholars can find a creative way to express their learning style.
Velma Guidry PLA@Smith I agree, integrating arts into the curriculum is a great opportunity for creativity. Even completing cross-curriculum.lessons provide a greater opportunity to enhance the learning.
Project- Based Learning is one of the things I liked doing most with my scholars when I was in the classroom. It was also something they greatly enjoyed as well. However, when completing PBL in my classroom many of the scholars struggled because they were given choice to decide how to learn and practice the skill and were not given a straight path to the answers which I found really sad, because I lived for projects when I was in school.
Being totally transparent, I have struggled with giving scholars the opportunity to be creative and explore the material. When I was a student, I "played the game." I was a people pleaser and wanted to make sure I did it correctly. I wanted my teachers to be proud that I was able to "copy" the work and achieve the same answer, in the same way. (Of course this was back in the 1970's through the 1980's.) As I went to college and did my student teaching,(1989-1993) I still felt that I needed to follow the prescribed curriculum. This left little to no room for scholars to show their creativity and to experience "productive struggle." I took a hiatus and stayed home with my five daughters. When I came back to teaching (16 years later), I took back up with "playing the game." It wasn't until I had taught the same grade and subject (6th grade Reading) for a couple of years, that I discovered I was just "teaching" and they were not "learning." To be honest, I think I needed to get a handle of the curriculum, standards, and the testing before I felt I could go down the rabbit hole and allow them to try new ways of learning. When, as a teacher, you're giving a certain way to teach, it's hard (for me at least) to go down a different path. I don't want to be wrong. I need to find a way to allow creativity and productive struggle while following the prescribed plan.
Kyrie Lewis PLA@48 Thank you for your honesty. I'm very much a people pleaser and game player as well. It's much easier to follow what we've seen modeled (the game) than to challenge ourselves and our students and be okay with failing and having our students fail so that we can all learn important and valuable lessons and come out with some awesome work. Assigning projects and work that allow for creativity sounds nice, but in reality, we know there will be mistakes and flops and it will get messy. I don't like messy, but I know that in order for my students and I to grow, we need to branch out and play something at least a little more creative than Candy Land.
Tina, Thank you so much for your comment. As an administrator, I have had that same conversation with so many teachers. It is important for all of us to remember that teachers are no different than our students in terms of learning styles and "comfort zones". Your honesty is very much appreciated and I commend you on the hard work of taking such an honest look at your teaching and making discoveries and changes that will benefit your students. Well done!
Appreciate your transparency! We all have room to grow and be challenged, it sounds like you've taken your first step to make creativity flow this upcoming year!
When reading these chapters I was drawn to the sentence on page 50... "Sometimes this means teachers simply need to get out of the way." It really caused me to stop and think.... Why are we in the way in the first place? We have all spent a career writing the best lesson plan, analyzing the standards, following the suggestions in the text book and basically... teaching the way educators have taught for decades. The problem is that the students in our classrooms today don't live in a world that looked like the one from decades ago. They were raised with electronics and apps that allow them to learn differently, create freely. Think about the ability to place filters on their selfies with bunny ears and flaming tongues! When I was a kid, I was impressed with my polaroid camera! I couldn't have even imagined what our scholars see as normal today. They are naturally going to think differently and come up with ideas that even their teachers will not think of. And thank goodness for that! They are our future after all! So... it is very fitting that we stand back, get out of their way... and let them flourish.
I loved my polaroid camera as a kid! You have me thinking of how I can use a digital camera in my special education resource room this year! Even the smallest of kiddos know how to operate technology these days.
Lori - I bet they would LOVE that! I taught special education for years and still remember one activity that was always a hit! They were identifying geometrical shapes...cylinders, sphere, cone, etc. When it came time for review, we sent them off into the school with their phone camera to capture photos of the shapes. Each one was worth a certain amount of points... They LOVED it, it used technology that they were excited to utilize and allowed them to see how the lesson was a part of their every day lives. I remember a student telling me how much more fun it was than just "matching shapes on a worksheet"...
Deanna, I loved that quote as well! I think student-led learning is essential for our scholars to really thrive. It is really cool to see where their creativity takes them with when you give them freedom and ownership of their learning. One time, I simply had my students make their own videos tell a fractured fairytale. It surprised me to see how engaged they were and how creative their results were! -Anna Zvers, PLA@93
I loved that quote as well. I totally agree that we live in a different time period now when it comes to technology. As teachers it's important for us to find ways to integrate technology into our classrooms. Integrating technology in ways that spark creativity and student interest is beneficial. It also allows us to take a step back and allow scholars to take ownership of their learning.
The opportunities for creative and innovative problem-solving are abundant inside the Kindergarten classroom. Most early learners love conversing with adults which offers many chances to answer their questions with open-ended-questions, encouraging language, and boosting imagination. One of my favorite ways to start a topic is to ask, what do you already know, and what would you like to find out about this topic? This leads to brainstorming, testing theories, creative questioning, and problem-solving scenarios. It is more challenging finding true “student creation tools” because most require lots of teacher direction for younger scholars. I used HATCH and Ready Rosie last term and incorporated YouTube and most Google Apps: Classroom, Docs, Drive, Keep, Meet, Chat, Calendar, Slides, as well as other assorted apps into my planning and teaching toolbox. I’m interested in tutorials on: Bookmarking with Diigo or Pinterest, Screencastify, and Seesaw, plus Kidblog and Google Tour Creator sound like fun. Student created Virtual Field Trips, Anyone?
Hi Veronica! I knew nothing about Google apps until the pandemic shutdown and our school chose to use Google classroom as our virtual learning platform. Once I started to get the hang of that, they switched to Schoology, which is another virtual platform but didn't seem as user friendly as Google Classroom to me. I LOVE your idea of student created virtual field trips! I use Pinterest for personal research but have never thought of using it as an avenue for students to curate information. What a great resource for them to start and continue as they progress through school. I appreciate all of your amazing ideas! Thank you!
Veronica, conversations provide so much learning- I agree! It is vital for students to work through problems out loud for their own growth and for their classmates to glean from their thinking approach as well. I have worked mostly with upper elementary students and didn't realize the challenge of finding age-appropriate creation tools for younger students. I think you would find Google Slides beneficial and not too difficult for your students. -Anna Zvers, PLA@93
TLJA I also didn't have a clue how to teach online when the pandemic hit. I had to learn Blackboard quickly. Then when we returned to school I had to learn Google Classroom, quickly. It was hard , but I got through it. I astill have much to learn but I'm learning it.
Coming from a school-based Speech Therapist background, I've had the opportunity to use numerous apps for communication purposes and behavior management during therapy. My previous administration was very supportive of me introducing new activities that could be used to benefit every student in the school. For example, I would set up interactive hallway activities that incorporated music and movement and sensory activities along with voice output devices with pre-recorded messages to reinforce academic reading, math, language development, etc. I used velcro and command strips to attach them to the walls. Some were huge successes, and some were flops. They were very beneficial in exposing students to seasonal vocabulary. This year I will be working as a special education resource teacher and I'm so excited to begin using various technology as an opportunity for scholars to learn and create! I personally have a paid subscription to Canva at home to create handouts, flyers, social media posts and stickers. I'm familiar with Powtoon and PicMonkey but have never used them in the classroom. I'm ashamed to say that it hasn't crossed my mind until I began reading this book. I can envision using any of these apps in my special education resource room to create a group project, maybe a news report or a scholar-created video to be shown in all classrooms that would introduce an upcoming whole-school activity. I think the possibilities are endless! I'm especially looking forward to learning more about the WeVideo app.
Clearly on point, this was a good balanced discussion when read in a one sitting. A simple, but complex, concept. This gives the reader the tools to think through and still find cohesion. I enjoyed it and the comments. Wish I could be more profound, but it was validating in my exploration of turning a brick/mortar into a virtual classroom as well as other saw the ways it supported traditional. I would offer---- if you look for it, you can find, or make, equivalents that can be posted and used 24/7 by scholars!
I really connected with the sentence on page 51 "Our time is better served helping students find their own answers or create new ones instead of just memorizing the ones correct answer." I love when students get to explore and discuss their learning. Creative learning and problem solving helps the scholars master skills and not just memorize them for that weeks test. As educators we want our scholars to remember their learning and make a lasting connection. Let them embrace learning through creativity.
This sentence stood out to me as well. It is important for us to help scholars make connections .Allowing them to be creative and problem solve will help them to make those connections instead of just memorizing answers.
Heather Barney - PLA 103 I agree! The idea of using creativity to learn is such a good reminder. The traditional method of learning is not a one size fits all, but the idea of exploring learning through creativity is such a wonderful reminder that it should be used so much more.
One of the sentences that really grabbed me in these chapters was on page 51 "Our time is better served helping students find their own answers or create new ones instead of just memorizing the ones correct answer." Writing and reading lend themselves a bit more easily to creativity (or at least on the surface they're more subjective in many ways) but Math can be a great way to let scholars explore their creativity. While there often is "one correct answer" in Math, there are often several ways to get to that answer. Having scholars share their thinking and how they arrived at an answer is a good way to open up/allow creativity. Also, in order to focus on how we learn from mistakes, using those answers that aren't quite right can be a good way for scholars to work through their mistakes and learn from them. ~Amanda Rouse, PLA@103
I really enjoyed the way you commented about creativity in math. It can sometimes feel like there's one correct formula to get the answer, but there are multiple different ways. I like to ask my students how they know their answer is right when they are doing math equations to pick their brain about how they got to the answer.
This last year I taught HS Band, Choir, and ENL…so this meant I usually ran a pretty tight ship because I needed to have different lesson plans throughout the day. I tried early on to allow the scholars to express themselves through writing tasks as the school wanted the scholars to work on writing skills school wide. I gave a prompt, but told the scholars that there was no right answer, just wanted to know what you think. Prompts were often things like, “What is your favorite music genre?”, “What do you think about this…” and so on. However, because the scholars hated writing (which is why we needed to work on it as a school), many of them did not take this as a time to be creative, but instead just wrote short responses, often not even in full sentences. I ended up stopping it eventually because it was not having the intended purpose. I thought I was allowing the scholars to be creative because “there wasn’t a right answer” to the prompt, but the task itself was lacking in creativity.
I have played with them myself, but I have not really used them as instructional tools yet, but I hope to this next year. The first is more basic music concepts commonly seen in elementary music, but allows for a lot of creativity called “Chrome Music Lab”. Basically allows people to play with sound in different ways, often through visualization, which makes it beautiful but also allows for more learning modalities to be activated during class. The other one is a bit more complex, but I do know that many of our scholars are interested in SoundCloud rap styles and learning to make their own music, so I would like to introduce my classes to “BandLab”. This is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), which means it allows for music samples and original recording to be mixed together to create new music.
I am still working on ways to allow for more creativity in my ENL classroom. I want to encourage more writing with them, but as I know they struggle with that I know just giving creative writing tasks might not be the best approach.
Before joining PLA I taught art and music. My classes met with me daily and nearly everything we did was without their laptops. On Fridays, I liked to change it up and bring technology into the classroom. We used some wonderful sites that really let my students creativity explode. Like Abbigail Brantch mentioned, we too used "Chrome Music Lab". Some other favorites were, "Pixilart", "Toy Theater", and "Aggie.io" (collaborative painting),
I love some of those resources you mentioned! Art and music are such great subjects to incorporate technology into. There are so many programs out there, in addition to what you've already been using, that can unlock art and music to the students in completely new ways. Way to use the technology to build on your classroom, rather than using it as an easy way out or just plain ignoring it.
During the school year I usually have most of the grade levels compete various project at different times of the year. I usually try my best to allow them to use their creativity. Sometimes during these times I still find myself giving them "in the box" guidelines instead of just letting them go. I will continue to work on this as we continue to complete projects. I also plan to look into Powtoon and Google Keeps.
I found it difficult to introduce creativity and problem solving in my first grade classroom the past few years. Some ways I have done it is with letter writing, pictures accompanying their writing, and open ended journaling. As for problem solving, when we did 3-D shapes, students were given some marshmallows and toothpicks and had to figure how to make a shape. Next year in fourth grade, I'm hoping to use more online resources for creativity. The video resources would be fun for students to make skits or share information on.
As an administrator, I feel that when we allow teachers the leeway to create magic in the classroom, then student success is inevitable. There are many opportunities for teachers to think outside the box to create an engaging learning environment. Teachers can have scholars role play, create pieces of artwork, poetry, videos etc... Project based learning is also another opportunity for creativity to flow. At the close of the year, I recall math teachers allowing scholars to create a calendar with equations as the dates. The schokars then had to create a flipgrid video to explain their problems. They really enjoyed the activity.
While Google Keep was something I've used before, diigo was a new one. Looks easy enough to use, but I'll play around with it and likely will have students use it on their computers when reading articles online. This, combined with some new apps will probably be some of the things I will use for the next school year. In my own class, creativity happens when students are given the opportunity to choose their own writing topics. Seems simple, but it can help struggling students with feeling creative as well. I already use quite a lot of tech in my own classroom from nearpod, google slides, peardeck, edpuzzle, and quizizz. With that being said, I'm actually aiming to do less work on the computer and more learning on paper or other activities. This comes from feedback from students who are tired of their computers for everything. This doesn't mean I won't use the new apps or get them using tech in useful ways for their learning.
Jenelle Miller I will always remember when a parent asked why I don’t give a spelling list. When I explained that memorizing to spell a word for a test doesn’t mean they actually learned anything. They need to learn a concept.
I really enjoyed watching the videos on google keep and Diigo. I liked the idea creativity isn't formulaic. Creativity is spontaneous and amorphous and fluid. I like to discuss story problems with my scholars and then have students come up with the different ways they got their answer. It shows that there is more than one correct way to get an answer.
Anna Zvers, PLA@93 I believe that whenever there is student-led learning, students are able to unleash their creativity. Number talks in my classroom this past year were completely in the hands of my students. They led the conversation and I was just there to facilitate it. This allowed them to be innovative problem-solvers because they were not stifled by harsh structure. They each learned from each others' learning approaches and mistakes they made. I want to continue to bring "messy" learning experiences, even if the fear of not being in control is present. I want to truly let my students soar by giving them freedom in their learning experiences. I am interested in using Powtoon as a creation tool for my students this upcoming school year. I have only seen teachers use that tool and I think students would enjoy it a lot. I appreciate how each student could add their own unique flare while using the tool.
I teach kindergarten and in my classroom scholars are given opportunities to be creative. I give scholars freedom to choose which materials to use as well as their partners/groups many times a week. I try to model/explain projects without giving an exemplar. Just as stated in the book, scholars will copy the exemplar if it is given. I only show a small part of an example and not the whole thing in order to give scholars a chance to be creative.
I haven't used any of the platforms such as canva or picmonkey. I would love to try and used google drawings. This past school year we used google classroom and my scholars started to get the hang of it. I have also used nearpod. Using nearpod I was able to give scholars open ended questions allowing them to draw and be creative to a certain extent. I look forward to exploring and hopefully implementing new platforms for the new school year. Charlene Long-Trix Academy
Heather Barney PLA 103: I already use Canva for preparing presentations for the classroom, but look forward to using it more effectively in the next school year. I do use the Google Draw with our scholars , so that they may draw or design different images for stories that we may read during library specials.
I enjoyed the author’s discussion about the different bookmarks that may be utilized due to organize the large number of web sites that are used throughout the year. Last year I started teaching about bookmarking on chrome books since so many of our scholars were utilizing a number of web sites too. I plan on integrating more lessons within media about these different web sites too.
Heather Barney - to add, the innovative tools that are being utilized in the library really focus on online resources. I aim to teach scholars to retrieve reliable information from online resources. We practice using the Webster dictionary and the encyclopedia Britannia online, rather than using the older versions in the classroom. However, my goal has been to give scholars “research” projects, the topic of their choice, so that they may use some creativity in reflecting information that they’ve found about a topic. The main guideline is to find reliable information from a safe resource (digital citizenship). I plan on using some different platforms next school here they will enable scholars to present their findings in a creative manner, whether it be a presentation on canva or drawings in google draw.
There are so many opportunities in the classroom for innovation and mixing things up. I just finished my first year of teaching and cannot believe just how many different ways one could teach a straight-forward topic. One area I can picture unlocking students' creativity is in having them demonstrate understanding of reading concepts. In addition, math is often viewed as structured and right-or-wrong, but the method by which students solve a math problem is something that can really encourage creativity. I feel that as an educator, I need to unlock my own broadened view of how to present information, so that my students can follow in flexing their creativities as well.
I have not used any of the student creation tools yet, but I would be very interested in introducing my class to Google Drawing. this would be very friendly for my younger students and would be a great way to incorporate technology into the process of them finding ways to express their imaginations
TLJA-There are so many ways and sites I can use for creativity. I wish I had know about them sooner. I hope that I'll be able to use them in my new position. really want to get a ahold on this technology before it all shifts again.
There are many great platforms to try out and it seems more and more each day. A favorite one of mine and my scholars is storyjumer. It is a free site that allows students to create and publish interactive books. First I have my students brainstorm and come up with a rough outline of their story with all of the important elements. Next we go online and start typing out the text. When finished I let them illustrate with scenes, props, ect they have on their site or that they allow you to easily search for online and add. Next you can go in and add a reading of your story using your own voice, add music, and sound effects. It's a fun challenge for them and gives them plenty of opportunity to problem solve and explore their creative sides. As a teacher you can access everyone's stories and go in and edit them. When finished they get to publish their stories and family members or other students can purchase it if they like. I usually just have them get up and present their stories to the class. It is always an enjoyable experience.
I think with first graders there are so many great ways to incorporate these platforms into our classroom. Part of inspiring them as writers is to allow them to get creative with their illustrations, so I can see them having a wonderful time with Canva or Google Draw! I'm looking forward to trying these this next school year! Heather Hill PLA @93
When I was in the classroom unfortunately I feel like there was limited opportunities for creativity, because there was such a push to get through the curriculum. Creativity came in to play during review lessons prior to assessments through PBL. However, problem solving occurred on a regular basis in my classroom as it was something I focused on when teaching SEL lessons and at the beginning of every math lesson I taught. If I were to go back into the classroom creativity is something I would focus on a lot more through the use of Canva or Google Draw. I also thing the scholars would enjoy using Piktochart to demonstrate their learning.
One opportunity for creativity and innovative problem solving in my classroom is facilitating the use of a digital platform for scholars to solve the problem a character has in a text. Google Drawing is one such platform. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check out Google Drawings! Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteGoogle Drawings!!!! Great suggestion... I need to check that out as well!
DeleteGoogle Drawing is one I'll check out. Thank you. ~Amanda Rouse, PLA103
DeleteGoogle Drawing is intriguing. I'll have to check that one out. Most of my scholars like to draw and willing draw a picture to show what they've learned from a story or selection. Thanks.
DeleteI will have to check this out for sure. If you also are interested in students creating their own interactive stories try storyjumper!
DeleteIn my special education classroom, students use their creativity in choosing the topic for what they're learning...like practicing their writing by typing an email to ask Mr. Phalen why we ended the school year on a half day Monday... I am looking forward to having my students use Pinterest and Google Keep to hold onto and organize their ideas next school year, and possibly even in Summer Advantage!
ReplyDeleteMolly,
DeleteThe Bingo resource wiuld seem like a great fit in the student selection of topics.
Kyrie Lewis PLA@48
ReplyDeleteThere are many opportunities for creativity and problem-solving in the art classroom, including exploration with materials, open-ended projects, and working as groups to brainstorm and finalize ideas. Canva and Google Drawings are excellent tools for creating and can be especially helpful for e-learning days when students have limited materials at home.
Kyrie,
DeleteWith graphic design going digitial, Google Drawings could be a great start in skill development.
Dr. Tamikia Greene (PLA @ Smith MS) - Kyrie when your scholars used Canva what were the final projects? Flyers? Presentations? Newsletters? I am just curious to know the capacity in which teachers are utilizing Canva. I recommended Google drawings a lot for my elementary campuses for the geometry units and fraction units (visual aids and manipulatives)
DeleteI haven't used Canva with students yet, but I've used it for portfolios, resumes, and other things and I think there are possibilities there for students.
DeleteI LOVE using canvas for school flyers, invitations, portfolios, etc... but I have not used it with students yet. I know they would love it with the sheer volume of creativity that it allows for. I pay for a subscription to use it, and am not sure if there is a fee for students to use it. That could be an issue....
Deleteoops... forgot to change anonymous to my name in the above comment :)
DeleteHi @ Deanna Maxwell. I've heard of Canva in my personal life but I had no idea how many uses it offers and how it can be transformed in to the classroom. Sounds worth the subscription. Thanks!
DeleteI tried to use Canva once or twice but I like the idea of trying it with my students next year. I agree I think Canva and Google Drawing could be great in Art classes, especially on E-learning days.
DeleteI love this idea! Such a fun thing for them to do!
DeleteHeather Hill
PLA @93
Dr. Tamikia Greene (PLA @ Smith MS) - Chapters 8 & 9 really had me thinking regarding creativity. Reflecting when I was a classroom teacher I can recall assigning project with simple instructions and a rubric students came back with amazing works. Being an administrator (currently) and prior to this role when I was a district level employee supporting numerous campuses, I find myself making suggestions to the teachers with adding arts to the mathematics or assigning projects that allows students to show their personality, creativity, and thinking. Every scholar is different and provide opportunities for them to show their most authentic/academic selves.
ReplyDeleteI have seen & used a plethora of collaboration platforms and drawing/creative apps from Canva and Google drawing to Jamboard and Whiteboard.chat.
I am curious to see what other platforms are being or has been used by my fellow educators...
I agree that adding a more "artistic" approach to some math or Reading assignments can show a scholar's authentic/academic self.
DeleteAfter reading the chapters this week, I started to research ways to help me encourage creativity in the classroom. There are a lot of suggestions that I can implement easily, others will take time. One of the ways I found suggests to allow scholars to reflect about their learning? Not all scholars will want to journal, but giving them opportunity could allow for some open dialogue. Another way to inspire creativity is to change instructions: create, design, invent, imagine, suppose. The final one I want to share is introducing "Mindfulness Thinking." This last one intrigues me. I have dabbled in it, but have not fully put my heart into mindful thinking. This is something that I would want to look into this summer.
I absolutely agree with adding the arts as an option into other classes. As a former special education teacher, I would see many of my students struggle with the traditional math or English project... yet flourish when we gave them the opportunity to display their learning in an artistic format. It really does challenge educators to think outside the box when it comes to ways for assessing student learning.
DeleteI agree with providing scholars with opportunity to learn through projects. Project based learn is very powerful way for scholars to flourish. Each scholars can find a creative way to express their learning style.
DeleteVelma Guidry PLA@Smith
DeleteI agree, integrating arts into the curriculum is a great opportunity for creativity. Even completing cross-curriculum.lessons provide a greater opportunity to enhance the learning.
Project- Based Learning is one of the things I liked doing most with my scholars when I was in the classroom. It was also something they greatly enjoyed as well. However, when completing PBL in my classroom many of the scholars struggled because they were given choice to decide how to learn and practice the skill and were not given a straight path to the answers which I found really sad, because I lived for projects when I was in school.
DeleteBeing totally transparent, I have struggled with giving scholars the opportunity to be creative and explore the material. When I was a student, I "played the game." I was a people pleaser and wanted to make sure I did it correctly. I wanted my teachers to be proud that I was able to "copy" the work and achieve the same answer, in the same way. (Of course this was back in the 1970's through the 1980's.) As I went to college and did my student teaching,(1989-1993) I still felt that I needed to follow the prescribed curriculum. This left little to no room for scholars to show their creativity and to experience "productive struggle." I took a hiatus and stayed home with my five daughters. When I came back to teaching (16 years later), I took back up with "playing the game." It wasn't until I had taught the same grade and subject (6th grade Reading) for a couple of years, that I discovered I was just "teaching" and they were not "learning." To be honest, I think I needed to get a handle of the curriculum, standards, and the testing before I felt I could go down the rabbit hole and allow them to try new ways of learning. When, as a teacher, you're giving a certain way to teach, it's hard (for me at least) to go down a different path. I don't want to be wrong. I need to find a way to allow creativity and productive struggle while following the prescribed plan.
ReplyDeleteKyrie Lewis PLA@48
DeleteThank you for your honesty. I'm very much a people pleaser and game player as well. It's much easier to follow what we've seen modeled (the game) than to challenge ourselves and our students and be okay with failing and having our students fail so that we can all learn important and valuable lessons and come out with some awesome work. Assigning projects and work that allow for creativity sounds nice, but in reality, we know there will be mistakes and flops and it will get messy. I don't like messy, but I know that in order for my students and I to grow, we need to branch out and play something at least a little more creative than Candy Land.
Tina, Thank you so much for your comment. As an administrator, I have had that same conversation with so many teachers. It is important for all of us to remember that teachers are no different than our students in terms of learning styles and "comfort zones". Your honesty is very much appreciated and I commend you on the hard work of taking such an honest look at your teaching and making discoveries and changes that will benefit your students. Well done!
DeleteAppreciate your transparency! We all have room to grow and be challenged, it sounds like you've taken your first step to make creativity flow this upcoming year!
DeleteWhen reading these chapters I was drawn to the sentence on page 50... "Sometimes this means teachers simply need to get out of the way." It really caused me to stop and think.... Why are we in the way in the first place? We have all spent a career writing the best lesson plan, analyzing the standards, following the suggestions in the text book and basically... teaching the way educators have taught for decades. The problem is that the students in our classrooms today don't live in a world that looked like the one from decades ago. They were raised with electronics and apps that allow them to learn differently, create freely. Think about the ability to place filters on their selfies with bunny ears and flaming tongues! When I was a kid, I was impressed with my polaroid camera! I couldn't have even imagined what our scholars see as normal today. They are naturally going to think differently and come up with ideas that even their teachers will not think of. And thank goodness for that! They are our future after all! So... it is very fitting that we stand back, get out of their way... and let them flourish.
ReplyDeleteI loved my polaroid camera as a kid! You have me thinking of how I can use a digital camera in my special education resource room this year! Even the smallest of kiddos know how to operate technology these days.
DeleteLori - I bet they would LOVE that! I taught special education for years and still remember one activity that was always a hit! They were identifying geometrical shapes...cylinders, sphere, cone, etc. When it came time for review, we sent them off into the school with their phone camera to capture photos of the shapes. Each one was worth a certain amount of points... They LOVED it, it used technology that they were excited to utilize and allowed them to see how the lesson was a part of their every day lives. I remember a student telling me how much more fun it was than just "matching shapes on a worksheet"...
DeleteLove the camera ideas!!
DeleteDeanna, I loved that quote as well! I think student-led learning is essential for our scholars to really thrive. It is really cool to see where their creativity takes them with when you give them freedom and ownership of their learning. One time, I simply had my students make their own videos tell a fractured fairytale. It surprised me to see how engaged they were and how creative their results were! -Anna Zvers, PLA@93
DeleteI loved that quote as well. I totally agree that we live in a different time period now when it comes to technology. As teachers it's important for us to find ways to integrate technology into our classrooms. Integrating technology in ways that spark creativity and student interest is beneficial. It also allows us to take a step back and allow scholars to take ownership of their learning.
DeleteThe opportunities for creative and innovative problem-solving are abundant inside the Kindergarten classroom. Most early learners love conversing with adults which offers many chances to answer their questions with open-ended-questions, encouraging language, and boosting imagination. One of my favorite ways to start a topic is to ask, what do you already know, and what would you like to find out about this topic? This leads to brainstorming, testing theories, creative questioning, and problem-solving scenarios.
ReplyDeleteIt is more challenging finding true “student creation tools” because most require lots of teacher direction for younger scholars. I used HATCH and Ready Rosie last term and incorporated YouTube and most Google Apps: Classroom, Docs, Drive, Keep, Meet, Chat, Calendar, Slides, as well as other assorted apps into my planning and teaching toolbox.
I’m interested in tutorials on: Bookmarking with Diigo or Pinterest, Screencastify, and Seesaw, plus Kidblog and Google Tour Creator sound like fun. Student created Virtual Field Trips, Anyone?
Hi Veronica! I knew nothing about Google apps until the pandemic shutdown and our school chose to use Google classroom as our virtual learning platform. Once I started to get the hang of that, they switched to Schoology, which is another virtual platform but didn't seem as user friendly as Google Classroom to me. I LOVE your idea of student created virtual field trips! I use Pinterest for personal research but have never thought of using it as an avenue for students to curate information. What a great resource for them to start and continue as they progress through school. I appreciate all of your amazing ideas! Thank you!
DeleteVeronica, conversations provide so much learning- I agree! It is vital for students to work through problems out loud for their own growth and for their classmates to glean from their thinking approach as well. I have worked mostly with upper elementary students and didn't realize the challenge of finding age-appropriate creation tools for younger students. I think you would find Google Slides beneficial and not too difficult for your students. -Anna Zvers, PLA@93
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DeleteTLJA I also didn't have a clue how to teach online when the pandemic hit. I had to learn Blackboard quickly. Then when we returned to school I had to learn Google Classroom, quickly. It was hard , but I got through it. I astill have much to learn but I'm learning it.
DeleteThank you Lori and Anna. Anna, I love Google Slides especially when teamed with Google Classroom.
DeleteLOL Kay, “… but I’m learning it.” Love It!
... Forgot to include my School Name above. Also, anyone know how to edit your own comment. I would have added a space between paragraphs. Lol.
ReplyDeleteComing from a school-based Speech Therapist background, I've had the opportunity to use numerous apps for communication purposes and behavior management during therapy. My previous administration was very supportive of me introducing new activities that could be used to benefit every student in the school. For example, I would set up interactive hallway activities that incorporated music and movement and sensory activities along with voice output devices with pre-recorded messages to reinforce academic reading, math, language development, etc. I used velcro and command strips to attach them to the walls. Some were huge successes, and some were flops. They were very beneficial in exposing students to seasonal vocabulary. This year I will be working as a special education resource teacher and I'm so excited to begin using various technology as an opportunity for scholars to learn and create! I personally have a paid subscription to Canva at home to create handouts, flyers, social media posts and stickers. I'm familiar with Powtoon and PicMonkey but have never used them in the classroom. I'm ashamed to say that it hasn't crossed my mind until I began reading this book. I can envision using any of these apps in my special education resource room to create a group project, maybe a news report or a scholar-created video to be shown in all classrooms that would introduce an upcoming whole-school activity. I think the possibilities are endless! I'm especially looking forward to learning more about the WeVideo app.
ReplyDeleteClearly on point, this was a good balanced discussion when read in a one sitting. A simple, but complex, concept. This gives the reader the tools to think through and still find cohesion. I enjoyed it and the comments. Wish I could be more profound, but it was validating in my exploration of turning a brick/mortar into a virtual classroom as well as other saw the ways it supported traditional. I would offer---- if you look for it, you can find, or make, equivalents that can be posted and used 24/7 by scholars!
ReplyDeleteI really connected with the sentence on page 51 "Our time is better served helping students find their own answers or create new ones instead of just memorizing the ones correct answer." I love when students get to explore and discuss their learning. Creative learning and problem solving helps the scholars master skills and not just memorize them for that weeks test. As educators we want our scholars to remember their learning and make a lasting connection. Let them embrace learning through creativity.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mindi. This sentence grabbed me as well. ~Amanda Rouse, PLA@103
DeleteJenelle Miller
DeleteThat is so true!
This sentence stood out to me as well. It is important for us to help scholars make connections .Allowing them to be creative and problem solve will help them to make those connections instead of just memorizing answers.
DeleteHeather Barney - PLA 103
DeleteI agree! The idea of using creativity to learn is such a good reminder. The traditional method of learning is not a one size fits all, but the idea of exploring learning through creativity is such a wonderful reminder that it should be used so much more.
One of the sentences that really grabbed me in these chapters was on page 51 "Our time is better served helping students find their own answers or create new ones instead of just memorizing the ones correct answer."
ReplyDeleteWriting and reading lend themselves a bit more easily to creativity (or at least on the surface they're more subjective in many ways) but Math can be a great way to let scholars explore their creativity. While there often is "one correct answer" in Math, there are often several ways to get to that answer. Having scholars share their thinking and how they arrived at an answer is a good way to open up/allow creativity. Also, in order to focus on how we learn from mistakes, using those answers that aren't quite right can be a good way for scholars to work through their mistakes and learn from them. ~Amanda Rouse, PLA@103
I really enjoyed the way you commented about creativity in math. It can sometimes feel like there's one correct formula to get the answer, but there are multiple different ways. I like to ask my students how they know their answer is right when they are doing math equations to pick their brain about how they got to the answer.
DeleteAbbigail Brantch JRPLA
ReplyDeleteThis last year I taught HS Band, Choir, and ENL…so this meant I usually ran a pretty tight ship because I needed to have different lesson plans throughout the day. I tried early on to allow the scholars to express themselves through writing tasks as the school wanted the scholars to work on writing skills school wide. I gave a prompt, but told the scholars that there was no right answer, just wanted to know what you think. Prompts were often things like, “What is your favorite music genre?”, “What do you think about this…” and so on. However, because the scholars hated writing (which is why we needed to work on it as a school), many of them did not take this as a time to be creative, but instead just wrote short responses, often not even in full sentences. I ended up stopping it eventually because it was not having the intended purpose. I thought I was allowing the scholars to be creative because “there wasn’t a right answer” to the prompt, but the task itself was lacking in creativity.
I have played with them myself, but I have not really used them as instructional tools yet, but I hope to this next year. The first is more basic music concepts commonly seen in elementary music, but allows for a lot of creativity called “Chrome Music Lab”. Basically allows people to play with sound in different ways, often through visualization, which makes it beautiful but also allows for more learning modalities to be activated during class. The other one is a bit more complex, but I do know that many of our scholars are interested in SoundCloud rap styles and learning to make their own music, so I would like to introduce my classes to “BandLab”. This is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), which means it allows for music samples and original recording to be mixed together to create new music.
I am still working on ways to allow for more creativity in my ENL classroom. I want to encourage more writing with them, but as I know they struggle with that I know just giving creative writing tasks might not be the best approach.
Before joining PLA I taught art and music. My classes met with me daily and nearly everything we did was without their laptops. On Fridays, I liked to change it up and bring technology into the classroom. We used some wonderful sites that really let my students creativity explode. Like Abbigail Brantch mentioned, we too used "Chrome Music Lab". Some other favorites were, "Pixilart", "Toy Theater", and "Aggie.io" (collaborative painting),
ReplyDeleteGrace Munoz- Trix Academy
DeleteI love some of those resources you mentioned! Art and music are such great subjects to incorporate technology into. There are so many programs out there, in addition to what you've already been using, that can unlock art and music to the students in completely new ways. Way to use the technology to build on your classroom, rather than using it as an easy way out or just plain ignoring it.
During the school year I usually have most of the grade levels compete various project at different times of the year. I usually try my best to allow them to use their creativity. Sometimes during these times I still find myself giving them "in the box" guidelines instead of just letting them go. I will continue to work on this as we continue to complete projects. I also plan to look into Powtoon and Google Keeps.
ReplyDeleteI found it difficult to introduce creativity and problem solving in my first grade classroom the past few years. Some ways I have done it is with letter writing, pictures accompanying their writing, and open ended journaling. As for problem solving, when we did 3-D shapes, students were given some marshmallows and toothpicks and had to figure how to make a shape. Next year in fourth grade, I'm hoping to use more online resources for creativity. The video resources would be fun for students to make skits or share information on.
ReplyDeleteVelma Guidry PLA@Smith
ReplyDeleteAs an administrator, I feel that when we allow teachers the leeway to create magic in the classroom, then student success is inevitable. There are many opportunities for teachers to think outside the box to create an engaging learning environment. Teachers can have scholars role play, create pieces of artwork, poetry, videos etc...
Project based learning is also another opportunity for creativity to flow. At the close of the year, I recall math teachers allowing scholars to create a calendar with equations as the dates. The schokars then had to create a flipgrid video to explain their problems. They really enjoyed the activity.
While Google Keep was something I've used before, diigo was a new one. Looks easy enough to use, but I'll play around with it and likely will have students use it on their computers when reading articles online. This, combined with some new apps will probably be some of the things I will use for the next school year. In my own class, creativity happens when students are given the opportunity to choose their own writing topics. Seems simple, but it can help struggling students with feeling creative as well. I already use quite a lot of tech in my own classroom from nearpod, google slides, peardeck, edpuzzle, and quizizz. With that being said, I'm actually aiming to do less work on the computer and more learning on paper or other activities. This comes from feedback from students who are tired of their computers for everything. This doesn't mean I won't use the new apps or get them using tech in useful ways for their learning.
ReplyDeleteJenelle Miller
ReplyDeleteI will always remember when a parent asked why I don’t give a spelling list. When I explained that memorizing to spell a word for a test doesn’t mean they actually learned anything. They need to learn a concept.
I really enjoyed watching the videos on google keep and Diigo. I liked the idea creativity isn't formulaic. Creativity is spontaneous and amorphous and fluid. I like to discuss story problems with my scholars and then have students come up with the different ways they got their answer. It shows that there is more than one correct way to get an answer.
ReplyDeleteAnna Zvers, PLA@93
ReplyDeleteI believe that whenever there is student-led learning, students are able to unleash their creativity. Number talks in my classroom this past year were completely in the hands of my students. They led the conversation and I was just there to facilitate it. This allowed them to be innovative problem-solvers because they were not stifled by harsh structure. They each learned from each others' learning approaches and mistakes they made. I want to continue to bring "messy" learning experiences, even if the fear of not being in control is present. I want to truly let my students soar by giving them freedom in their learning experiences. I am interested in using Powtoon as a creation tool for my students this upcoming school year. I have only seen teachers use that tool and I think students would enjoy it a lot. I appreciate how each student could add their own unique flare while using the tool.
I teach kindergarten and in my classroom scholars are given opportunities to be creative. I give scholars freedom to choose which materials to use as well as their partners/groups many times a week. I try to model/explain projects without giving an exemplar. Just as stated in the book, scholars will copy the exemplar if it is given. I only show a small part of an example and not the whole thing in order to give scholars a chance to be creative.
ReplyDeleteI haven't used any of the platforms such as canva or picmonkey. I would love to try and used google drawings. This past school year we used google classroom and my scholars started to get the hang of it. I have also used nearpod. Using nearpod I was able to give scholars open ended questions allowing them to draw and be creative to a certain extent. I look forward to exploring and hopefully implementing new platforms for the new school year.
Charlene Long-Trix Academy
Heather Barney PLA 103: I already use Canva for preparing presentations for the classroom, but look forward to using it more effectively in the next school year. I do use the Google Draw with our scholars , so that they may draw or design different images for stories that we may read during library specials.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the author’s discussion about the different bookmarks that may be utilized due to organize the large number of web sites that are used throughout the year. Last year I started teaching about bookmarking on chrome books since so many of our scholars were utilizing a number of web sites too. I plan on integrating more lessons within media about these different web sites too.
Heather Barney - to add, the innovative tools that are being utilized in the library really focus on online resources. I aim to teach scholars to retrieve reliable information from online resources. We practice using the Webster dictionary and the encyclopedia Britannia online, rather than using the older versions in the classroom. However, my goal has been to give scholars “research” projects, the topic of their choice, so that they may use some creativity in reflecting information that they’ve found about a topic. The main guideline is to find reliable information from a safe resource (digital citizenship). I plan on using some different platforms next school here they will enable scholars to present their findings in a creative manner, whether it be a presentation on canva or drawings in google draw.
DeleteGrace Munoz- Trix Academy
ReplyDeleteThere are so many opportunities in the classroom for innovation and mixing things up. I just finished my first year of teaching and cannot believe just how many different ways one could teach a straight-forward topic. One area I can picture unlocking students' creativity is in having them demonstrate understanding of reading concepts. In addition, math is often viewed as structured and right-or-wrong, but the method by which students solve a math problem is something that can really encourage creativity. I feel that as an educator, I need to unlock my own broadened view of how to present information, so that my students can follow in flexing their creativities as well.
I have not used any of the student creation tools yet, but I would be very interested in introducing my class to Google Drawing. this would be very friendly for my younger students and would be a great way to incorporate technology into the process of them finding ways to express their imaginations
TLJA-There are so many ways and sites I can use for creativity. I wish I had know about them sooner. I hope that I'll be able to use them in my new position. really want to get a ahold on this technology before it all shifts again.
ReplyDeleteThere are many great platforms to try out and it seems more and more each day. A favorite one of mine and my scholars is storyjumer. It is a free site that allows students to create and publish interactive books. First I have my students brainstorm and come up with a rough outline of their story with all of the important elements. Next we go online and start typing out the text. When finished I let them illustrate with scenes, props, ect they have on their site or that they allow you to easily search for online and add. Next you can go in and add a reading of your story using your own voice, add music, and sound effects. It's a fun challenge for them and gives them plenty of opportunity to problem solve and explore their creative sides. As a teacher you can access everyone's stories and go in and edit them. When finished they get to publish their stories and family members or other students can purchase it if they like. I usually just have them get up and present their stories to the class. It is always an enjoyable experience.
ReplyDeleteI think with first graders there are so many great ways to incorporate these platforms into our classroom. Part of inspiring them as writers is to allow them to get creative with their illustrations, so I can see them having a wonderful time with Canva or Google Draw! I'm looking forward to trying these this next school year!
ReplyDeleteHeather Hill
PLA @93
When I was in the classroom unfortunately I feel like there was limited opportunities for creativity, because there was such a push to get through the curriculum. Creativity came in to play during review lessons prior to assessments through PBL. However, problem solving occurred on a regular basis in my classroom as it was something I focused on when teaching SEL lessons and at the beginning of every math lesson I taught. If I were to go back into the classroom creativity is something I would focus on a lot more through the use of Canva or Google Draw. I also thing the scholars would enjoy using Piktochart to demonstrate their learning.
ReplyDelete