Midterm Check Point

When I decided to take this Creativity course I had several thoughts.  It is my very first semester at Meredith for Graduate School and the course description sounded interesting to me.  I consider myself to be fairly creative and hoped that this would be a course I enjoyed and perhaps it could be a great beginning point for me.  Also, as a music teacher trying to become a classroom teacher, I had concerns that it might not be as easy for me to teach creativity in my classroom, so I thought this class might have ideas for me.

Now we are at the midterm of this class, I feel that through our readings and projects I have been encouraged to see creativity in a different light and I am excited to bring this to my classroom in a couple of years.  Each activity we have completed like the SCAMPER technique, Random Word, Sketchword, Crossword, and even the Can Transformation have real classroom applications.  However, I see that not only can one use these at face value, but each can lead you into a multitude of other ideas that can also be used in the classroom.

Our articles have also provided new ideas and caused me to "think outside of the box".  Before we spent a week on gifted and talented learners, I did not really consider all the aspects of these students.  The article we read made me realize how difficult it must be for these students with the standardized tests taking control over teachers' lessons.  These children deserve an education that allows them to use their minds and develop their talents in ways they will use continually.

I also have been made aware by our last article by Sawyer about how strongly I feel about the need for creativity in our schools.  I have described the feeling I get when I read sometimes as if I have an angry little person living inside my head that becomes provoked by certain subjects.  This sounds quite silly, but I do have very strong feelings about arts education and creativity in general.  Because of budget cuts there are children in our nation that are not able to do things in school which they feel they are good at.  Children need an opportunity, whether it is singing, dancing, drawing, writing a creative story, or exploring a scientific theory, to express themselves and experience learning in a way that speaks to them.

I look forward to using this new found information and excitement from this creativity course and finding ways to express it in the classroom.