If you spend time in my classroom, you will see
opportunities for students to express their creativity every day in a variety
of ways. In my classroom, we utilize processing activities to compliment input
of content. These activities incorporate student’s creativity in ways that
allow them to color and draw as well as create and design their own
experiments. These creative exercises provide the students with a different
medium by which to learn the same material. By allowing students to add their
creativeness to a lesson, the teacher is thus allowing their students to form a
direct connection with the material. When students can become personally vested
in an assignment or a topic, they become more successful in their ability to
retain that information for the long-term.
In these same activities, you may see children challenged to
creatively think as well as solve problems. For example, I posed a scientific question
to students and asked them to design an experiment that would answer that question
using the scientific method. Processing activities may be used as a means to
not only allow students to be creative, but allow them to tap into their
creativity in a manner that allows them to gain further insight into the
content at hand. No activity performed in the classroom should be done so
without ensuring that students will somehow be able to apply that knowledge
toward something they’ve learned. Each activity should have a purpose that
allows students to gain more insight into the material.
Communication, discussion and collaboration most often
occurs within group activities or labs within the classroom. Students are often
asked to collaborate in activities or labs designed to provide students the
opportunity to learn the material in a new manner. Within these activities or
labs, students may discuss with their classmates the methods of the experiment
or the results themselves. They may also have the opportunity to make
clarifications with their classmates on the content or the purpose of the exercise.
As a teacher, I could probably do more to teach information
literacy as well as media literacy to my students. Being able to think
critically about the information we receive is a critical tool that will be
continually utilized throughout adulthood. I could provide my students papers
on a certain biologically issue in society and ask them to analyze the varying
points of view on that particular issue. They can do this through a variety of
sources, newspaper articles, interviews online, etc. Regardless of how this is
executed, it is imperative that students be able to be critical thinkers and
develop the tools for them to be come to conclusions on their own. I could also
allow my students more room to utilize technology to research or communicate
information. I haven’t implemented any classroom projects or research
assignments where students would be required to use technology to complete the
assignment. Any technology the students use to access information on a topic,
they do so at their own leisure or desire.
I try to give my students autonomy whenever possible. I
believe that when students feel they can direct themselves or chose how they
would like to complete an assignment, they have a greater desire to complete
that assignment to the best of their ability. On some level, I always strive to
provide this opportunity to my students. Some ways I may do this is to allow
students to create their own analogies for how the cell works, to illustrate
however they wish a given topic, etc. In this manner and many others, students
become leaders of their own learning. Students also take power over their
learning in group settings where they can communicate and work with their
classmates in order to achieve a specific result. Interacting with their
classmates not only provides the students the ability to develop community
within the classroom, but they are able to experience what it is like to
communicate effectively, work efficiently and interact with others in a team
manner. These are all skills that students will continually utilize throughout
the rest of their lives regardless of which field they enter.
These activities incorporate student’s creativity in ways that allow them to color and draw as well as create and design their own experiments.
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