One section in Chapter Eight is devoted to creativity and creative problem solving. I made lots of pencil marks in this section, because I think it is imperative to use creativity in the classroom. Most classes are of a lecture format - the teacher talks for an hour and writes notes on the board while students copy the notes or just zone out. I do not want my classroom to be like that.
Our textbook makes the point that "creativity is important for an individual's psychological, physical, social, and career success" (p. 309). Therefore, creativity should be used in every classroom to help the students become successful.
I especially liked our textbook's suggestion of "avoid describing the feats of great artists or inventors as if they were superhuman accomplishments" (p. 309). When I am teaching elementary school students, I will probably teach them a little about the great composers. I will keep this suggestion in mind, so that the students see the great composers' accomplishments as something that they can accomplish, also. I would probably follow up that information with an improv activity or song-writing activity to really bring home the point that "everyone is capable of creativity" (p. 309).
I enjoyed planning a lesson for my classmates. It allowed me to be creative and practice teaching others instead of just learning about teaching others. I chose to teach a math/science lesson on conversion factors. My students converted recipe items from g - oz, gal - c, and lb - oz. Once the ingredients were in the same units as they were on the recipe card, we made our recipe of Oreo Cookie Salad. I thought that was a fun way to introduce conversion factors and make them seem more real life to the students, instead of just something they learned how to do in class.
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