Wow! Five more resources under $5 - check them out, including one of mine on creating board games with your students! Click HERE
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Thursday, September 12, 2019
5 Steps to Creative Classroom Projects
Have you ever noticed that someone else's class has developed much more creative writing assignments, science fair projects, or fundraising strategies? Well, either that person is extremely lucky, extremely gifted in motivating his or her students, or simply using proven methods to stimulate creativity. Chances are, that person is simply familiar with the 5-Step Creativity Process. Here's how it works:
1. Immersion - Immerse your students into the topic in a very superficial way. That might be by inspecting magazines, listening to music, even tasting the food related to a specific topic. In step 1 there is no judgement or thoughts toward preparing an assignment. For example, if you want your students to eventually create a project or write a report on some aspect of the Rocky Mountains, you might watch a video or movie (if you have time) set in Colorado, listen to John Denver's Rocky Mountain High, and possibly make a cooperative collage of pictures related to the Rocky Mountain on your bulletin board.
2. Incubation - Send your students home without homework. Let them go to their sports practice and piano lessons. In the back of their minds will be their vision of the Rocky Mountains from your class. This is an extremely important stage because you students' minds need to relax before even beginning to create a project on a related topic.
3. Brainstorming - This is the fun stage where you and your students list everything and anything related to your topic. It might be a list of subtopics, different ways to present their assignments (remember to encourage the use of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences!), or even how to organize a group effort. After brainstorming for a reasonable amount of time, cross off all the ideas that are unusable (aka really stupid!) until you come up with the best. Remember, no idea is a bad idea in Step 3.
Do you see how much time you have spent from the minute you decided to have your students do a project on the Rocky Mountains, to the time when they will actually begin to create their projects? This is what some people call "planning to succeed." Whether you are in business and are looking to develop a new product, or in the classroom and looking to create a new way of learning a topic, the time leading up to the actual "workshop" is just as important as the creation itself.
4. Creation - Now your students are ready to dive into their individual topics. You'll find that the student who went home after Step 1 to her piano lesson may create a song that goes with her assignment. Or the sports player might come up with a new game to play with the entire class that teaches the topic in a fun way. Watch your students become animated and excited when they immerse themselves into your topic. Gone are the days when teachers had to do all the work - preparing a lecture, developing a test, and then grading that test. With this process, the students do all the work - after you set up the initial framework and grading rubric.
5. Presentation - In the final stage, students will cement their learning into either a passive or active presentation to the class. Passive learning involves creating a poster or diorama. Active presentations include a PowerPoint presentation or organizing a game. Remember - not all students like to be in the front of the classroom.
In the words of Frank Oppenheimer, founder of The Exploratorium in San Francisco, "The best way to learn is to teach."
See some of my resources use this process:
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Teachers Pay Teachers - a sampling of resources under $5 - for many levels of education!
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