Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts-Special Post #12A

   In Edm 310 we have been working with technology and watching videos and reading post about how technology is making its way into the classrooms. I believe that creativity is everywhere now in schools. We just recently had to watch a Skype interview between Dr. Strange and Ms. Kathy Cassidy. It was very interesting to hear about all the great ideas that Ms. Cassidy has come up for her 1st grade class. Ms. Cassidy is a 1st grade teacher in Canada. She has her students doing blogs and working on the Smart board.  That is in Canada, but in the United States I believe that creativity is coming back in the classrooms. By students doing blogs it is increasing creativity, because the students are able to make a blog and write things that they want to write about. It is teaching them many things like being able to read and write, working on grammar, and just learning social skills. If that is not teaching the students creativity, I am not sure what will.

  So far out of all the videos and post I have read in Edm 310 I have seen a lot of creativity come out with the Smartboard. For example, my mom is a Para-Professional at a Elementary School. She works with Kindergarten and 1st grade. In those two grades you learn what are called sight words. As an example those words would be: like, as, I, me, etc. Well instead of just holding up flashcards and letting the students call out the word, my mom and her fellow teacher got creative. The put all the words on the Smart board and covered the words with poppable balloons. Each student would line up and throw a soft like ball at the screen. (Don't worry, it was safe and soft.) When the balloon would pop the word would pop up. The student then would have to say the word. I believe that is really creative. That is giving the students to be hands on in the lesson and it gave them all the opportunity to be attentive. 

  By students having the opportunity to be able to play on a computer increases their creativity. They will be able to see what all is on the computer and be able to realize all that you can do to be creative. When I was in Middle School, we were able to make up stories using Power Point. That increased our creativity and let us be kids and have fun and learn at the same time. As I stated above when the teacher comes up with a great idea to increase the curiosity of the students, I think it makes them more willing to learn. Those students learning their sight words in that class were eager to learn because the teacher made up a fun hands on activity. It gave the students that were probably going to be hands on learners rather then lecture learners the opportunity to learn at a better pace. 

  Since I have been in this class I feel as though I have become more creative already. Watching videos and reading Blog Post that Dr. Strange has assigned us has been a big help in getting ideas for what I would like to do with my classes. I have mentioned this a hundred times in this class, but I am majoring in Physical Education and I was not sure why I needed this class. I was talking to a fellow classmate that is also majoring in the same field as me. He told me that Dr. Strange had assigned him to read and comment on Mr. Robbo's Blog. This classmate told me that I should go to that blog and look around. I did and I loved it. I never realized that a Physical Education teacher could set up a blog for the students. I honestly believe that when I start to teach and I start a blog it will spark an interest in the young minds of the children I am teaching. I have pretty much stated that reading other blogs and seeing how other teachers are sparking a curiosity with the students. But so far in this class I have had more curiosity about learning than I have had in a long time. I believe that this class has helped me become more curious about what I want to teach my students in the future.