You can read more about the changes I’m going through at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/2008/12/moving-physically-and-digitally.html
Please, add this feed to your reader for us to keep talking and interacting and I hope to meet you at
Archive for the 'Connections' Category
I’m moving back to Brazil and making some moves digitally. All to make my motto work, simplicity.
You can read more about the changes I’m going through at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/2008/12/moving-physically-and-digitally.html
Please, add this feed to your reader for us to keep talking and interacting and I hope to meet you at
You can read more about the changes I’m going through at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com/2008/12/moving-physically-and-digitally.html
Please, add this feed to your reader for us to keep talking and interacting and I hope to meet you at
A friend of mine in Italy, Seth Dickens, has kindly asked me to talk a bit about edublogging. We had planned for an interview, but due to technical issues, we went for a recording.
Edublogging… How many times have I written about it, gave tips, presented, and tried to inspire others? Fact is the ones who endure the first stages of discoveries and experiments are the passionate educators, those who teach with heart and soul, who truly believe in their transformative potential as an educator. These are the ones who, later on, become passionate edubloggers.
The point of my talk was what I’ve been saying from the beginning and what I wrote about in the article “Blogging in the Classroom: It Doesn’t ‘Simply Happen‘ “. Persistence, fearlessness, being passionate and knowing that you have something that will add value to someone are key to make it a successful endeavor.
We make lists of how to be a successful blogger, but formulas are not in the core of Edublogging, conversations are. Conversations don’t mean that you need to get tons of comments. They mean a talk to yourself, commenting on other people’s blogs, and yes, getting comments when your readers feel the urge to interact with you. I sin as a blogger, for I am not consistent as I should be or as would be willing to. However, I’ve decided to let it go, for I have little ones and a husband to care for. I have professional projects and other ways to connect. Nowadays, Twitter is my means of quickly connecting to others, though it’s not a substitute to blogging. Twitter is connection, blogging is reflection + connection. One complementing each other in my circle of learning.
Through blogging, edublogging my mind pours out, I learn, share, re-shape who I am and how I see things. But, my ultimate question is how could I show that to other educators? Maybe I can’t. Just through their own blogging journey they will learn what passionate blogging is all about, some will just find the excuse for not even giving a try. Blogging is a transformational act one should be willing to undergo. It won’t work if it’s just mechanic, technical. No. It’s humanistic, contextualized, personalized, collective, cultural, intense.
I’ll never forget some memorable posts that show the power of blogging:
Marina’s post - A psychologist talking about her experience about being a clown.
Having Dennis Newson as our class mystery guest
Motivating my adult students to predict a short story by Edgar Allan Poe we read in parts in class.
The rich cultural exchanges my group had with Dennis Oliver’s group in the US due to our International Exchange blog.
Emerson, a quiet adult student in class, surfacing as a wonderful blogger and commenter.
Discussion with Russian students and readers about the Brazilian movie “The City of God”.
Sharing Love Stories
Wow! Just so nice to travel back in the past through blogging. It’s a record of a moment, a state of mind, it shows us and our learners in ways we’d never share in the old brick and mortar classroom in such intense exchange and connection. These are just some of the examples mainly with students in it, but there is the other side of edublogging as a professional and personal development. This is another story and certainly deserves another blog post!
Edublogging… How many times have I written about it, gave tips, presented, and tried to inspire others? Fact is the ones who endure the first stages of discoveries and experiments are the passionate educators, those who teach with heart and soul, who truly believe in their transformative potential as an educator. These are the ones who, later on, become passionate edubloggers.
The point of my talk was what I’ve been saying from the beginning and what I wrote about in the article “Blogging in the Classroom: It Doesn’t ‘Simply Happen‘ “. Persistence, fearlessness, being passionate and knowing that you have something that will add value to someone are key to make it a successful endeavor.
We make lists of how to be a successful blogger, but formulas are not in the core of Edublogging, conversations are. Conversations don’t mean that you need to get tons of comments. They mean a talk to yourself, commenting on other people’s blogs, and yes, getting comments when your readers feel the urge to interact with you. I sin as a blogger, for I am not consistent as I should be or as would be willing to. However, I’ve decided to let it go, for I have little ones and a husband to care for. I have professional projects and other ways to connect. Nowadays, Twitter is my means of quickly connecting to others, though it’s not a substitute to blogging. Twitter is connection, blogging is reflection + connection. One complementing each other in my circle of learning.
Through blogging, edublogging my mind pours out, I learn, share, re-shape who I am and how I see things. But, my ultimate question is how could I show that to other educators? Maybe I can’t. Just through their own blogging journey they will learn what passionate blogging is all about, some will just find the excuse for not even giving a try. Blogging is a transformational act one should be willing to undergo. It won’t work if it’s just mechanic, technical. No. It’s humanistic, contextualized, personalized, collective, cultural, intense.
I’ll never forget some memorable posts that show the power of blogging:
Marina’s post - A psychologist talking about her experience about being a clown.
Having Dennis Newson as our class mystery guest
Motivating my adult students to predict a short story by Edgar Allan Poe we read in parts in class.
The rich cultural exchanges my group had with Dennis Oliver’s group in the US due to our International Exchange blog.
Emerson, a quiet adult student in class, surfacing as a wonderful blogger and commenter.
Discussion with Russian students and readers about the Brazilian movie “The City of God”.
Sharing Love Stories
Wow! Just so nice to travel back in the past through blogging. It’s a record of a moment, a state of mind, it shows us and our learners in ways we’d never share in the old brick and mortar classroom in such intense exchange and connection. These are just some of the examples mainly with students in it, but there is the other side of edublogging as a professional and personal development. This is another story and certainly deserves another blog post!
Silent, it surrounds us, no matter where you are. We want it to be invisible, untouchable, but it’s there waiting for you, me, US. No government can really change it. WE CAN.
I am the daughter of parents who struggled, who came from very poor environments. I’m the daughter of Italians immigrants who lost the little they had during World War II. I’m the daughter of Brazilian migrants who moved from the hardship of one of the poorest states in my country, Piauí, in search for better, decent living, in search for opportunities, trying to leave poverty behind…I am lucky. I live a comfortable life because my family survived and thrived. I am the generation of the inheritance of what my parents, grandparents fought, dreamed, worked hard for.
The president of my country, Lula, is a vivid example of a childhood of the dispossessed kids in my country that fought against his own poor destiny. Lula was a shoe-shine boy. Now, his government tries to fight poverty. He takes the reigns.
We want poverty to be invisible, but it is around us even in the countries considered the richest in the world. Even if Brazil is still considered Third World, it is full of richness. The paradox lies in the inexorable truth. In a country where natural resources abound, millions of people are hungry. In a place where the biodiversity is generous, we struggle with health care. In my Brazil full of bright minds, creative souls, millions just don’t have the minimum education that empowers one to dream of a better, decent life.
How can we reverse, re-imagine, redo the world surrounding us with the contrasting beauty and the ugly, superfluous hot bodies and sick ones lying on the streets, brightness of a sunny day and the gloomy senseless darkness of the ones without hope, decency, or food to eat?
Maybe WE could start with little steps, WE could start by seeing what surrounds us, WE could take small actions that could make a difference to one person or group, WE could hold the hands of the ones who need to stand. No. Fighting poverty doesn’t need only to begin with huge governmental actions. It’s easier, isn’t it, to blame invisible forces and governments for viable possibilities. The solution starts in our homes, teaching our kids about generosity, sharing and giving. Facing poverty is being brave enough to see reality through different lenses and taking action in every little way we can.
I’m a believer in the transformative power of social action, mobilization. Just like my parents and their families changed the course of their poor lives, WE can help others do the same. I try to do my share, but still I feel I’m not doing enough. It’s time for action and engagement.
I finish with Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian photojournalist, whose work and willingness to raise awereness touch me deeply. He’s doing his huge contribution to poverty. How about US? What can WE do? _____________________________________________________________________
Of Interest: Brazil’s Economic Boom Marred by Social Inequalities
Friends’ Posts:
Dennis Oliver’s
Mary Hillis’s
Cris Costa’s
Holly’s
_____________________________________________________________________
I am the daughter of parents who struggled, who came from very poor environments. I’m the daughter of Italians immigrants who lost the little they had during World War II. I’m the daughter of Brazilian migrants who moved from the hardship of one of the poorest states in my country, Piauí, in search for better, decent living, in search for opportunities, trying to leave poverty behind…I am lucky. I live a comfortable life because my family survived and thrived. I am the generation of the inheritance of what my parents, grandparents fought, dreamed, worked hard for.
The president of my country, Lula, is a vivid example of a childhood of the dispossessed kids in my country that fought against his own poor destiny. Lula was a shoe-shine boy. Now, his government tries to fight poverty. He takes the reigns.
We want poverty to be invisible, but it is around us even in the countries considered the richest in the world. Even if Brazil is still considered Third World, it is full of richness. The paradox lies in the inexorable truth. In a country where natural resources abound, millions of people are hungry. In a place where the biodiversity is generous, we struggle with health care. In my Brazil full of bright minds, creative souls, millions just don’t have the minimum education that empowers one to dream of a better, decent life.
How can we reverse, re-imagine, redo the world surrounding us with the contrasting beauty and the ugly, superfluous hot bodies and sick ones lying on the streets, brightness of a sunny day and the gloomy senseless darkness of the ones without hope, decency, or food to eat?
Maybe WE could start with little steps, WE could start by seeing what surrounds us, WE could take small actions that could make a difference to one person or group, WE could hold the hands of the ones who need to stand. No. Fighting poverty doesn’t need only to begin with huge governmental actions. It’s easier, isn’t it, to blame invisible forces and governments for viable possibilities. The solution starts in our homes, teaching our kids about generosity, sharing and giving. Facing poverty is being brave enough to see reality through different lenses and taking action in every little way we can.
I’m a believer in the transformative power of social action, mobilization. Just like my parents and their families changed the course of their poor lives, WE can help others do the same. I try to do my share, but still I feel I’m not doing enough. It’s time for action and engagement.
I finish with Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian photojournalist, whose work and willingness to raise awereness touch me deeply. He’s doing his huge contribution to poverty. How about US? What can WE do? _____________________________________________________________________
Of Interest: Brazil’s Economic Boom Marred by Social Inequalities
Friends’ Posts:
Dennis Oliver’s
Mary Hillis’s
Cris Costa’s
Holly’s
_____________________________________________________________________
Teachers as catalysts
communities
anectdotes
empowerment
learning
excitement
audience
connecting
inclusion
democracy of learning
Stephen Heppel
me
we
see
mutuality
exchanging
the sense of others
the sense of us
No more words. Listen.
communities
anectdotes
empowerment
learning
excitement
audience
connecting
inclusion
democracy of learning
Stephen Heppel
me
we
see
mutuality
exchanging
the sense of others
the sense of us
No more words. Listen.
I just got this video via Twitter (a microblogging site) from a dear friend, Ana Maria Menezes, a mineirinha, who has a bag full of tricks to share.
The story is simple, but then, I just realized that it is a wonderful springboard to explore language. Imagine a group activity, or even a collaborative project with sister classes in which they have the same claymation and learners are responsible for creating the stories to go with the animation. They could even record the stories.
How motivating would that be? Is it the kind of experiential learning we could add more frequently to our lesson plans? Do you have any other ideas to go with this video? Or do you have any other video that could be used for the same idea?
Originally posted at http://webtools4educators.blogspot.com/2008/10/telling-story.html
The story is simple, but then, I just realized that it is a wonderful springboard to explore language. Imagine a group activity, or even a collaborative project with sister classes in which they have the same claymation and learners are responsible for creating the stories to go with the animation. They could even record the stories.
How motivating would that be? Is it the kind of experiential learning we could add more frequently to our lesson plans? Do you have any other ideas to go with this video? Or do you have any other video that could be used for the same idea?
Originally posted at http://webtools4educators.blogspot.com/2008/10/telling-story.html
Serendipity. Just seeing my thwirl swirling on my screen when I saw Jefflebow there. Well, out of curiosity, because these guys at edtechtalk are always around new stuff, I decided to click on the link Jeff suggested to test mebeam. Bang! I was there with him, John Schinker, Dave Cormier and Jen Madrell. What a great pleasure to see all those little video thumbnails. I laughed to myself because I had no idea they would all be there. It’s just like getting in the wrong room when people are into interesting conversations and you interrupt them…Well, Jeff has this very fast-thinking (forward-thinking, too!) reactions and asked if I wanted to join them. I asked when and he said it was in 10 minutes. There I was busted and glued in the room of those edtechtalkies who know how to run a show! It was great. Except that I don’t know if Dave liked the fact that I pushed him into some discussion related to his teaching approaches and mine, as well, based on his rhizomatic view of learning. Interesting discussion with a taste that I want to go futher on the discussion…or, at least, go deeper into the topic.
One week, or maybe more, considering the Pre-session part. The online session for Brazilian Educators I started to moderate this week is in full steam. Those common words pop up here and there, overwhelming,scared, no time, busy. All part of any educator’s life even when they are not talking about technology. I’m in awe to see the willingness to succeed, this hunger for understanding that these educators have shown. The best part is to connect to educators in different parts of Brazil in diverse educational settings plus my dear friends at Casa Thomas Jefferson, the binational center I work for in Brazil.
I can’t think of the many times I tried to inspire my fellow workmates, to let them see what was out there in the online sphere that they and their learners would benefit from…Well, I guess it’s a matter of being ready, mature to face this totally new space for them.
Of course, the beginning is daunting, but I’ve been trying to soothe more agitated souls who feel uncomfortable, insecure to get started. Even before reading the tutorials, “listening to me”, some feel that “this” is not for them. Yet, most of them realize it is! They are grasping what the Web is about, they’re adding information to our wiki, they’re already blogging, they are doing the weekly tasks, interacting in forums, making new human and neural connections, going on Web2.0 Safaris, talking at edmodo. I, as a moderator, am there to give my helping hand, but letting them get their feet wet. Some of my friends have finally that I’m not extraterrestrial, and this is world is closer to them and to their learners in a way that they could never imagined if it weren’t for their own experiential learning.
This to prove that workshops can trigger interest, but living, feeling what it is like as a learner, can truly make the difference.
Below is just a sample of our collaborative effort. I showed them an image of Web2.0 tool logos before they read or say anything related to it. They said what that represented to them. I added my comments today after letting them interact to each other.
Note: I just loved using docstoc for the first time!
_______________________________________________________________
Webtools4educators_week1 – Get more Business Documents
Dear all,
Here’s what everybody has written so far in this forum as for Friday morning. I compiled the main points so that you have a better view of the thoughts of the group as a whole.
Very interesting points of view. What I wanted to know here was really how much you knew about the Web2.0. From what I realized, nobody mentioned it. Just Lueli after doing her homework, the Web2.0 Safari! That’s great, because everyone here has the chance of a fresh start. Of course, we might have seen some, or very few, of the web2.0 tools shown in the image. Do you think I know them all? OF COURSE NOT! Do we need to know them all?
Well, we would need a lifetime and maybe some more reincarnated lives to be able to handle all that is out there. All that without sleeping! So, no, you won’t get to know most of them here. You’ll bump into some as we go along and after the course is over. Yes! The main idea was to make you realize that there’s a whole new world out there to be explored, conquered with persistence and confidence. And, I guess, this session is the place for it, mainly giving you confidence to get out there! The tools, you’ll always be able to find. The purpose here is to start the connections that enable interactions as many of you mentioned in your reflections, leading you to social learning, mentorship, partnership. You’re not alone on the web. As soon as you start your online networking, you build up your online presence, you’ll take larger steps with a confident attitude, for you’ll learn where to ask for help, how you can organize yourselves in the midst of this sea of information, how you can aggregate dispersed resource into a meaningful one. You’ll learn to be a learner again. You’ll learn that what you preach to your students about the importance of making mistakes, also holds true for you in this brave new online world.That’s the idea!
No, Pat Fleury and Lueli, you’ll not be illegal digital immigrants looking for a green card. Your green card has been officially issued this week! And you’ve already started this enriching trip to whatever destination you set for yourselves and your learners. Soon, you will all get your digital citizenship as netizens!
Overwhelming, Gabi, Telma, and all, sure! My question is: how to turn overwhelming web2.0 tools into effective, pedagogically sound resources for your 21st century classrooms?
A big yes to you, Kelly! The new online endeavor is everybody’s chance to find out you can do unimaginable things with your never ending creativity. Right, Pat Faustino?
I agree with you, Daniele, that we need to put our classroom walls down and truly connect to our digital natives and immigrants in ways that truly make sense. Just like Cecília mentioned, we need to see what is going on around us. We need to be part of it.
True, Cleverson, it’s a complex system, but let us embrace it because, as Vini points out, being digital is not an alternative any more, it’s the way to go.
Don’t get me wrong. No! We won’t neglect what we’ve done for our students and for us so far. We won’t feel small facing this huge online space. No! We’ll make it part of what we are as teachers and what we believe education is all about. Adaptation to this process will take a while, we might change our views, take other directions, but we’re already there!
After all we’ve been exploring this week, what do you feel is the biggest difference between what was once the Net and what is has become? They call it Web2.0, but names are just names…I want to know how do you feel what’s out there nowadays differs from the past online world?
Uff! Guess I got excited with all that you’ve been writing!
I can’t think of the many times I tried to inspire my fellow workmates, to let them see what was out there in the online sphere that they and their learners would benefit from…Well, I guess it’s a matter of being ready, mature to face this totally new space for them.
Of course, the beginning is daunting, but I’ve been trying to soothe more agitated souls who feel uncomfortable, insecure to get started. Even before reading the tutorials, “listening to me”, some feel that “this” is not for them. Yet, most of them realize it is! They are grasping what the Web is about, they’re adding information to our wiki, they’re already blogging, they are doing the weekly tasks, interacting in forums, making new human and neural connections, going on Web2.0 Safaris, talking at edmodo. I, as a moderator, am there to give my helping hand, but letting them get their feet wet. Some of my friends have finally that I’m not extraterrestrial, and this is world is closer to them and to their learners in a way that they could never imagined if it weren’t for their own experiential learning.
This to prove that workshops can trigger interest, but living, feeling what it is like as a learner, can truly make the difference.
Below is just a sample of our collaborative effort. I showed them an image of Web2.0 tool logos before they read or say anything related to it. They said what that represented to them. I added my comments today after letting them interact to each other.
Note: I just loved using docstoc for the first time!
_______________________________________________________________
Webtools4educators_week1 – Get more Business Documents
Dear all,
Here’s what everybody has written so far in this forum as for Friday morning. I compiled the main points so that you have a better view of the thoughts of the group as a whole.
Very interesting points of view. What I wanted to know here was really how much you knew about the Web2.0. From what I realized, nobody mentioned it. Just Lueli after doing her homework, the Web2.0 Safari! That’s great, because everyone here has the chance of a fresh start. Of course, we might have seen some, or very few, of the web2.0 tools shown in the image. Do you think I know them all? OF COURSE NOT! Do we need to know them all?
Well, we would need a lifetime and maybe some more reincarnated lives to be able to handle all that is out there. All that without sleeping! So, no, you won’t get to know most of them here. You’ll bump into some as we go along and after the course is over. Yes! The main idea was to make you realize that there’s a whole new world out there to be explored, conquered with persistence and confidence. And, I guess, this session is the place for it, mainly giving you confidence to get out there! The tools, you’ll always be able to find. The purpose here is to start the connections that enable interactions as many of you mentioned in your reflections, leading you to social learning, mentorship, partnership. You’re not alone on the web. As soon as you start your online networking, you build up your online presence, you’ll take larger steps with a confident attitude, for you’ll learn where to ask for help, how you can organize yourselves in the midst of this sea of information, how you can aggregate dispersed resource into a meaningful one. You’ll learn to be a learner again. You’ll learn that what you preach to your students about the importance of making mistakes, also holds true for you in this brave new online world.That’s the idea!
No, Pat Fleury and Lueli, you’ll not be illegal digital immigrants looking for a green card. Your green card has been officially issued this week! And you’ve already started this enriching trip to whatever destination you set for yourselves and your learners. Soon, you will all get your digital citizenship as netizens!
Overwhelming, Gabi, Telma, and all, sure! My question is: how to turn overwhelming web2.0 tools into effective, pedagogically sound resources for your 21st century classrooms?
A big yes to you, Kelly! The new online endeavor is everybody’s chance to find out you can do unimaginable things with your never ending creativity. Right, Pat Faustino?
I agree with you, Daniele, that we need to put our classroom walls down and truly connect to our digital natives and immigrants in ways that truly make sense. Just like Cecília mentioned, we need to see what is going on around us. We need to be part of it.
True, Cleverson, it’s a complex system, but let us embrace it because, as Vini points out, being digital is not an alternative any more, it’s the way to go.
Don’t get me wrong. No! We won’t neglect what we’ve done for our students and for us so far. We won’t feel small facing this huge online space. No! We’ll make it part of what we are as teachers and what we believe education is all about. Adaptation to this process will take a while, we might change our views, take other directions, but we’re already there!
After all we’ve been exploring this week, what do you feel is the biggest difference between what was once the Net and what is has become? They call it Web2.0, but names are just names…I want to know how do you feel what’s out there nowadays differs from the past online world?
Uff! Guess I got excited with all that you’ve been writing!
The Webheads are celebrating 10.
A decade, not a year
Mature we connect online and in person
Every day is celebrated
Every important day is remembered
We follow one, and tons
We care and share
A decade, more mature, more robust
Flowing where the Web and its nodes take us
Let us celebrate 10 Webheady Years!
More of the party at http://webheads10years.wikispaces.com
A decade, not a year
Mature we connect online and in person
Every day is celebrated
Every important day is remembered
We follow one, and tons
We care and share
A decade, more mature, more robust
Flowing where the Web and its nodes take us
Let us celebrate 10 Webheady Years!
More of the party at http://webheads10years.wikispaces.com
I’ve been giving some thought on creativity these days. I read a simple and enlightening article on Scientific American mind on the topic, How to Unleash your Creativity. Three professionals of different backgrounds discuss the creative process. Julia Cameron mentions that she has found
As an educator, I can understand that we have a syllabus to follow, subjects to cover, time constraints, but my question has always been:
Just thinking out loud, but here are some ideas:
Of course, at the end of the game, I asked the kids to clean up the room, but though creativity can be messy, there`s also organization involved.
What other ideas could we add to nurture the creative minds around us?
_______________________________________________
Watch this video on Creativity by Ken Robinson:
the creative process to be teachable and trackable.The professionals talk about the techniques that can be used to awaken this creativity in each one of us. YES! Everybody is creative, but there needs to be an effort to unleash our creative potential. Creativity doesn’t come naturally to all. There are ways to enhance it. Robert Epstein mentions the four competencies to develop our creative minds:
There are four different skill sets, or competencies, that I’ve found are essential for creative expression. The first and most important competency is “capturing”—preserving new ideas as they occur to you and doing so without judging them.John Houtz argues that failure is also an important part of the process:
… The second competency is called “challenging”—giving ourselves tough problems to solve. In tough situations, multiple behaviors compete with one another, and their interconnections create new behaviors and ideas. The third area is “broadening.” The more diverse your knowledge, the more interesting the interconnections—so you can boost your creativity simply by learning interesting new things. And the last competency is “surrounding,” which has to do with how you manage your physical and social environments. The more interesting and diverse the things and the people around you, the more interesting your own ideas become.
This brings me to what happened the day before yesterday at my house. I turned off the TV when the kids were having some snacks. Afterward, they just kept the big screen off and started playing around, inventing a game, creating characters for themselves, imagining some of my decorative beads were, in fact, diamonds. They also made up a character for me. I was supposed to be the bad girl (does it mean something here?!), and they were the good guys trying to defeat evil! I asked them how the game would go and also questioned some strategies. They saw that some of the plans they had would not work, so they sorted things out. We had fun. However, what called my attention was the way the creative process happens, in the middle of total mess. You can see the room in the picture here. They had to scatter their costumes all over to find the perfect outfit, they had to negotiate the moves and strategy. The creative process was not linear. There were lots of decisions and steps happening at the same time. As a mother, my tendency would be to say, “oh, my! What a mess! Clean it up now!”. However, I felt this was a wonderful moment to boost my kids’ creative thinking and see how things would unfold.The creative individual thinks of failure as a new opportunity: “Okay, why did I fail? What was wrong? Let me try to do something else. Let me go forward with it.
As an educator, I can understand that we have a syllabus to follow, subjects to cover, time constraints, but my question has always been:
How can we create an anti-boredom atmosphere in the classroom that leads to engagement, motivation, willingness to be in class and not doing something else?
I guess there’s no easy answer, but nowadays, with the Internet and with this exciting NetGen little ones, there’s so much that can be done to grab their little attention span and have them there with you.Just thinking out loud, but here are some ideas:
- Though we have a lesson plan, be it written or in our minds, with a clear sequence of steps, tasks, etc, let us give every class we teach “Creative Booster” moments that we let our kids` imagination fly and we just embark on it with them.
- The surprise element: let us rethink our teaching practices. How often do we change the way we present new content? Start in a totally unusual, unexpected way. You might be surprised with the result.
- Let the students be producers and not mere spectators, recipients of knowledge.
- Enchant by telling stories and listen to the kids` stories.
- How about a treasure box of ideas for fun classes with made by your students?
- Ask open-ended questions and not obvious ones.
- Explore the topic of a dream classroom and listen to your students` ideas. You might get some wonderful tips for the creative classroom.
- Find partner classes for projects. Projects are always an effective way to boost creative outcomes.
- State a problem you have or a friend`s problem (real or totally invented) and ask students to collaborate and find solutions for it.
- Use art, visuals, words, music, body, action, mind, technology to enhance the creative classroom.
- Have your own down time in which you focus on pleasurable things in your life to give yourself some creative input. Read magazines, books, watch movies, take photos, a long shower. You`ll surely find inspiration in the little pleasures of life.
Of course, at the end of the game, I asked the kids to clean up the room, but though creativity can be messy, there`s also organization involved.
What other ideas could we add to nurture the creative minds around us?
_______________________________________________
Watch this video on Creativity by Ken Robinson: