Creative Thinking in Teaching

Children are creative individuals that love to explore new and exciting aspects of the world around them. They often look to their educators (e.g. teachers, parents) for such experiences to help them grow and/or learn knowledge in unexpected ways. Some of innovative ways of learning I have found through edutopia.org supplement ways of learning new words, rhyming, counting, as well as storytelling. Trisha Riche, a Kindergarten teacher in Jacksonville, Florida discusses 22 Simple Ideas for Harnessing Creativity in the Elementary Classroom. In her blog post, Trisha (2011), “Creativity makes a huge difference. Creativity is vital for a classroom to be successful. There is a common misconception that the word "creative" has to do mostly with the arts. But being artistic is only a small part of creativity. While any classroom environment would benefit from a teacher blessed with the gift of artistic talent, creativity is many other things” (para. 2). Trisha (2011) suggests creativity is innovation, thinking outside the box, improvisation, professional growth, risking taking or mold breaking, and passion. Suffice it to say, creativity is essential in building up effective learning skills in students. Further, for students to actually enjoy learning, educators can promote creative ways of learning in their everyday teaching style.

In addition, Ms. Riche has suggested using a ball to toss in an “I know a word” game for helping children learn words beginning with a letter in the alphabet. The game can be used for beginning and ending sounds as well. When using the ball for rhyming, she suggests children can pass the ball to someone that can give a rhyming word with the word used. Changing the word throughout the game keeps the game more exciting. Counting with the ball can used with passing it clockwise or counterclockwise to help students say numbers in a row (i.e. counting by twos, fives, etc.). Additionally, for older children, spelling words can be easily learned with saying letter aloud each time the ball is passed to a student. For example, the teacher says we are going to spell the word “piano”, like “I play the piano.” The students as they receive the ball say one letter Student 1: P, Student 2: I, Student 3: A, Student 4: N, Student 5: O. I find this technique to be very innovative because it enforces play, as well as peer to peer interaction. Though it is teacher-directed, the students direct the game.

I am wondering, how do teachers in elementary schools outside of Georgia get students to engage in learning when they are not willing to participate no matter how creative the teacher? Also, what are some important strategies to remember when working with students that are not cooperative?

             

                                                                   References

Riche, T. (2011, December). 22 Simple Ideas for Harnessing Creativity in the Elementary Classroom [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creativity-in-classroom-trisha-riche