Creativity Finale

I have enjoyed taking this Creativity Course this semester and I feel that my views toward creativity have changed from where I began.  In August, I viewed creativity as something that was present in many people, and largely viewed it from the aesthetic viewpoint as being related to the arts.  I now understand that it is much more than that and includes problem solving and simply a different way of thinking about things.  


The most difficult assignment for me was actually the first activity, which was SCAMPER.  I tend to over-analyze sometimes, and I think that I did in this situation when developing my initial probortunity.  Each idea I thought of did not seem "right" and so I spent most of the week thinking just about how to begin.  When I finally had my probortunity and attempted to apply the SCAMPER technique to it, I felt that it did not fit into the model as precisely as I would have liked.  After completing this activity, I realized that the goal was not to make my probortunity conform to the technique itself; the idea was to apply the questions from the SCAMPER technique, however they would work, and go from this point.  


Essentially, what I learned from that experience, and from this Creativity course is that we should not, as teachers, be trying to make every thing /idea /student in our classrooms conform to specific ideals or rules.  In the last article we read,  K. Kim suggested that teachers commonly teach students to conform to the way they instruct in their classroom and seldom allow students freedom to choose freely.  As an advocate of creative children, I believe that teachers, parents, and other students should defer judgement and allow ample time and space for creative ideas to develop.  Of course there do need to be rules and boundaries so that students are learning every day.  However, students that are allowed choice and ownership of their learning will likely be more involved and active and will therefore learn "better" or perhaps even learn more.  My goal is that when I become a classroom teacher, I take the time and extra effort to develop lessons that allow for creativity; and I hope in reaching out to children with creative potential, I can help them to achieve their goals.