Let's Be a SuperHero

December 13, 2020

Part 1:

Sixteen weeks ago, I answered a question that I thought was complex, “Would you describe yourself as creative?” I answered yes based on what inspires me. I mentioned I was creative through my coloring book and how I put certain colors together. I said that creativity strikes me in my workout routines and how I think outside the box for the equipment I need. At that point, I realized that my creativeness is driven by my hobbies.

Looking back at this answer, I realized that my creativity is more than just my hobbies. It is the way I think, the way I notice patterns, and the way I perceive different ideas. There is so much depth to the concept of creativity that I did not even realize before taking this course. Creativity falters in the way that I teach, the way I learn, and the way I think.As a teacher, there are many ways to differentiate a subject area in order for students to understand. With differentiation and the skillsets I have utilied, it gives me the ability to show my creativity off in the workplace and beyond. With this course, I am able to perceive, identify patterns, model, and use play in the way I think creatively. The definition of creativity is based upon the individual.

In Module 1, I was asked to make a collage of five random things and connect them to the definition of creativity. With that, I looked at the definition of creativity as, “Creativity is the ability to imagine how an item can be perceived.”From this definition, there are ideas that I would keep and ideas that I would change. My new definition would entail that creativity is a perceived idea, an idea from any discipline, that is formed in many ways. This definition will broadband my original idea from a single item to an idea. Items are concrete and can be unique in how they are shaped, put together, or made, however an idea is broad and there is much more ability to be creative with our ideas in order to create. I would still keep the same pictures because they show many different ideas of inspiration, possibilities, growth, perception in how we see the granite, and keeping something antique to bring in with the new. These are all ideas that go into the definining creativity. Overall, my thinking of creativity has changed since the beginning of this course.

Week 1 Week 16

Part 2:

Through taking this course, I think differently about the way I teach. Students need to become twenty-first century learners and in order to learn they need the skill sets to think creatively. With this semester, I have perceived, abstracted, recognized patterns, used embodied thinking, modeled, and played with the concept of courage. Courage is a concept that is taught throughout the day by what we do. It is taught as a socio-emotional skill for my students. For this course, I have discovered that this socio-emotional skill is used in language arts through the stories we read. My understanding of the concept of courage is that it is brought in ordinary people, superheroes and brought up in everything that we do. In the unit on embodied thinking, I discovered that we use courage in the simplest ideas, moving our bodies. Root-Bernstein’s Sparks of Genius (1999), says, “Monkey around, you might just find yourself solving problems only your body knows how to answer (p.181). With this, I learned that the human body holds the trajectory of how we communicate with the idea of courage whether by ourselves or with others.

When thinking about my students, I want to foster similar conceptual changes in my students. Through playing, I will introduce the concept of courage through role playing, showing situations in which we have fear and need courage. Then, students will make a comic strip about a situation they have faced. Through perceiving, students will look at animals and objects and identify words that represent courage. Through abstracting, students will see how courage is identified through a single viewpoint by making a poster. Through embodied thinking, they will learn that it takes courage to do something hard with our bodies such as balance or a new karate move and that we need to have the mindset to do hard things. Through modeling and patterning, students will learn what it means to be a hero and the process they go through with courage. They will also notice that courage is in our everyday lives. All of these dimensions of courage will allow students to explore the idea of courage in different viewpoints using their own sense of creativity. With this in mind, students will get a well rounded understanding of courage and be able to see how it is related and applied to their own life.

Root Bernstein(1999, 316) says that a, “transdisciplinary synthetic education,” requires us to change the way in how we teach. With synthetic education, we want to reach the widest range of students by presenting ideas in many forms (Bernstein, 1999, 318). These cognitive tools all work together in some sense. When you look at the course as whole, based on the topic, each tool fits together like a piece of a puzzle. However, when structuring a tool for my students to use, I would think about how these tools fit together as a whole that is meant for them.

First, I would have students look at courage through the cognitive tool of playing. Playing will allow students to see that the topic of courage is fun and they will feel less targeted than when they actually learn.

Second, I would show the concept of perceiving. Perceiving will allow my students to view what they see whether an inanimate object or an idea and look at it in a different way. Then, I would use embodied thinking to show that we see courage through movement.

Next, my students would look at courage through the tool of abstracting, showing the idea of courage in a single view point, but noting that there is more than one viewpoint.

Then, my students would focus on modeling. Modeling will allow students to transform the knowledge they learn about courage in a new way.

Finally, all of these ideas come up in patterning. Patterning is about seeing and questioning what comes up again and again until it is repetitive. Patterning will allow the students to make connections from perceiving and abstracting. All together these tools will give students the opportunity to express their creativity.

Creativity Part 3: To synthesize my learning I created an infographic for a PD Workshop Plan.

Listen to my pitch here.

Script below:

Come join me in a six part series where we explore creativity in our socio-emotional skills!

Each week we will walk through a different creativity tool, that will shape the way we think about courage.

Embodied Thinking: Come learn about how movement is used to exemplify courage through the use of yoga. Students in the classroom will go through a 15 minute yoga class. As a class, students will talk about what positions were hard to do and how they might need courage to do those poses again. Students may also talk about the difficulty of the poses and the need for courage through the use of a poem.

Perceiving: Students will look at inanimate objects and different ideas. They will identify words they associate with courage to the idea or object. This will help students show what they know in a new way.

Come to this PD to see how courage is transcribed through these six skill sets!