Time to Synthesize

It's getting to the end of the term and I really should be synthesizing my learning...what have I learned?? That is the question, and one I'm not sure I can answer fully, but I'll do my best here. My inquiry started with my stated difficulty. I have trouble with creativity, a mental block, so to speak whenever I hear the word and feel like the expectation is there that I should be creative and allow my students to be creative.
So what did I do? Face it head-on was my strategy. First, I did a bit of reading and discovered that it's true: A teacher's attitude towards creativity does affect her class. I found some definitions of creativity and a few practical ideas for encouraging creativity in the class. And so I faced it directly. I let go of some of my need for absolute control...actually with the class I have this year that's an impossibility anyways, so it wasn't a great stretch....and let my students be creative. And lo and behold, it wasn't so ominous after all. I was pleasantly surprised by what emerged. Students were able to show me their complete understanding of concepts covered and explain it to me, but it wasn't in a typical, prescribed way. Students enjoyed my creativity exercises. Those were places where everyone could be successful and unique. They all tried, which is a success in and of itself.

So what have I learned? I think I learned that creativity isn't that unattainable. It's important for all of us to be creative for future success. Creativity is within all children, but the more we encourage and reward quick answers, and discourage questioning, the creativity slowly ebbs away. I learned that I can be creative and that it's not limited to art class, although that's the first place I thought I'd find it. Surprisingly, that's not what emerged. I found creativity in science and math first. I discovered that I could encourage creativity by having children do something different with an object they only knew to use one way. I found creativity when I held my tongue and listened first. I found creativity when I loosened the boundaries, but still had expectations and criteria to assess whether learning and understanding had taken place. I found creativity showed a mastery of concepts, not just a "fully meeting expectations" type of work. So yes, I think I learned something this term. :) Now to put it into a paper for next Tuesday's class!

Class Assignment: Who owns the info on the web?

Creative Commons: Who owns information on the web? What considerations should we give as professionals as we use/share information/media?

Good questions. Well, take for example, my facebook account. What is mine? What can anyone else take and use? Could people take my pictures and use them? Should they? Why do I put them on there? Well, to share with my friends and family; no one else. But, by putting them on a public forum like facebook, I have inadvertently allowed more people access to "my" stuff. (privacy settings on...hopefully not too many people have access that I haven't allowed)

Well, what about professionally? When I take an idea I find online that I'd like to use in my class, am I stealing? What if it's not a page that says "print," but I highlight, copy, and paste it into my own document. Do I have an obligation to the original writer?

We just explored the corporation "Creative Commons" which is a place to license your work online for others to use, change, but always to attribute. You can say what you allow with your own work. As more and more people find out about this, more and more work can be used legally and credited to the author. This is copyright for the new digital age.

well...that was yesterday

So today didn't work that well, but we as a class are starting to get the hang of dealing with disappointment. They were pretty good about letting their computer go when they had finished their assignment, even though they were all hoping to go on to one of the game sites that I approve. Is that progress? Probably.

But it's so disappointing to not be able to trust the technology to work every time. Today I got a total of 4 computers to work. That's it! And there's no rhyme or reason to why those 4 worked and not any others. No one can tell us anything and we're not allowed to complain to the "powers that be"....

Oh well...onward, forward. Try again tomorrow.

Some good things happened today

Some good things happened today...and they're even technology based!
First...heard by my principal in the hallway as a parent is coming in with my student ... "Yes, I got an e-mail from Mrs. Brandt yesteday to remind us to bring your library book and so it's in your backpack!"

Secondly, as a PS on the above-mentioned e-mail, I mentioned to the parents that I was working on developing a private website to display pictures of the students and other things from our classroom. I got an e-mail in response from one dad. "Great idea!"

Thirdly, I was able to invite parents (and my principal) to become members of my website. Within a few minutes of the invitation going out, my principal responded saying he had joined the website and enjoyed the pictures. I also have 4 parents as members already! One parent e-mailed me, as well, to say she'd really liked the website and seeing the pictures.

Fourth, I was able to get enough computers working so that all students in my class were able to work with one! Yeah! And it didn't even take too long....I think I may have discovered a trick: log on while still connected to the power source...then disconnect and bring to desk to work. Most students were also able to use Kid Pix to create a picture showing a season of the year (our science topic). I have the computers booked every afternoon this week, so hopefully the creativity juices will soon be able to flow using the technology.

And...finally....I'm almost finished my report cards and was able to save them to a flash drive, update them at home, and save them again. I was even able to correct a problem with the program.

Things are looking up... (my optimism may also be due to the fact that we have a day off on Thursday [duty day] and only half day on Friday!)

Field Study Winding Down...

What?? I'm supposed to start writing my field study summary?? But I haven't finished! But, in retrospect,...I think that shows growth as a teacher. Developing creativity in students should be a goal I aim for whatever class, whatever students, whatever school I end up in, not just as a project for my univeristy course to get a credit to get my pay raise. So growth...yes! Completion.... no, but that's okay.

My principal had a "fireside" chat with me the other day for a few minutes, as he did with all teachers on staff. He asked me to describe my class and my teaching style and planning that I have done to accomodate the class I now have. Good questions that made me think and see how I'm doing what I'm doing is for the good, or not good, of the class. But then he asked me how he could support me and I immediately started in on the lack of technology in my school. He gently encouraged me to keep trying, as the IT guys had been by again and had "fixed" the system again...So I will. Keep tuned for how it turns out. I'm not optimistic.