Creativity and Education

The more I think about it, the more I agree that when it comes to creativity, you have to ‘go with the flow’.    To be truly creative, in whatever medium, you really need to be in the mood – in the zone, and if you are not there, the best thing you can do is go away and come back when you are.     Sometimes ideas, words just flow – I can hardly get my thoughts down fast enough, where as other times, nothing seems to click.     Doing this module has made me realise that it is OK not to feel creative, and that it is OK to wait until I do.

I am looking forward to the lecture tomorrow on creativity in the curriculum.    I have found this great link on Teacher Net which shows how creativity should or could be in the curriculum.    Having a daughter at school allows me to see how this is put into practise.    I am going to bring a project she did last year to show everyone tomorrow.    It really impressed me at how a subject had been brought to life for the children and how creative the teacher had been (and this was before I was even thinking of creativity!.

Here is a great site about Emotional intelligence - lots of links and info.     Just put my first link into a blog, and it works – yipee!

Before I started at Uni, I didn’t think much about creativity.    It was during Nick’s sessions in the introductory module that I first really came across the concept and now again in this module.    What I would once have said was a good idea or great approach is now creative, and it seems that creativity is all around us.

Take the Halloween party we had on Friday.    The kids all came dressed up and some had some great outfits – some had been very creative (Dick Turpin, Spider tatoos, face painting…).    Someone brought a pudding – chocolate brownies – cut into the shape of gravestones and iced RIP or dates.    We had eyeballs made out of lychees, straweberry jam and blueberries which were put into the drinks.    When we played hunt the sweets in the dark one little girl did not find anything, so I took her back to the game and hid somemore sweets for her to find.

All these things show creativity of one form or another.    I think what this module is showing us is how to recognise creativity.    By recognising creativity, we will be in a better position to learn from it and then to incorporate it into our everyday life.    However, by categorising creativity, are we not just putting it into another box?    Creativity should be about breaking down boundaries not creating more.

I agreed with Csikszentmihaly that by being creative, it allows fun to be brought into our everyday life.    It also lets people become more flexible in their approach to solving problems.    However, in my experience it is very difficult to be creative in the workplace if the concept is not appreciated by the organisation.   It seems that it is great to talk about creativity and great to learn how to be creative, but I feel that it will be a long time before it becomes a mainstream practice in the workplace.

I have now discovered the meaning of creativity – making a halloween outfit out of an underskirt, some spidery material and an old black jumper!   I must say that I am quite pleased with the results (especially as I am not very good at sewing, which is quite crucial when making outfits!) and Chloe is delighted – which is the main thing.   I would have shown you a photo here but I can’t work out how to do it yet!

I really enjoyed the lecture yesterday.   It is great to just have the time to stop and think (or sleep which is always welcome!).    It does strike me as odd, however, that we are exploring our creativity and how it can be used and developed, and at the end of it we will have to write a very traditional essay, which will probably be as uncreative as you can get.    I do find that having to reference everything as you are going along interrupts the flow of the writing.    It would be great if we could be assessed in a more creative way – not sure how but it must be possible.

I am now going to link all the class blogs to my google reader – there were some great designs/ideas yesterday, and am I looking forward to reading them in more detail.

Then I am going to be really creative and make some games/decorations for Halloween – we have got 12 children coming round for a party before we go trick or treating.     So far, we are playing murder in the dark, hunting for chocolate (my favourite) in the garden with torches, and apple bobbing.    The menu consists of snakes and blood (spaghetti and tomato sauce) with the option of maggots (cheese).    There will be a blood punch with floating eyeballs (lychees with jam and blueberries – looks really realistic).     Any more ideas are most welcome.

I have spent the morning looking at lots of blogs and it is fascinating to see what is out there!    I started by googling creativity and education to see what came up, clicked on a few sites and then looked at their blog lists.    What I have found amazing is the amount of ‘stuff’ of the net.    I suppose I knew that it was there but I didn’t appreciate how many people were now blogging.   It does pose the question of what what they did before, and now I am adding more ‘stuff’!

That aside, I am getting into blogging, and can see that it is a great way to express yourself – to get your thoughts and feelings down.     The odd part is that  other people can not only see my blog, but can comment on what I am saying – do I really want that?   I suppose it will depend on what they say – good comments are always welcome!

I am really starting to enjoy writing.    The blog allows me to get my thoughts into some kind of order, and I think in time will give a focus to my studies.    The facility to keep all the websites/blogs in one place is great.   I have found this really useful when looking at other peoples blogs.  Hopefully by following other blogs, it will give me inspiration and ideas for this and other modules.   The problem comes with having too many blogs to keep track of.    I am exploring google reader and I think that I will be able to search topics within it – has anyone else done this yet?    You could spend all  day blogging and looking at blogs, so I think it will be important to try and keep it in check.

Well, I think I am ready for the lecture tomorrow, just wondering what we will have to do next!

Hi,  well I have now redesigned by blog site and have managed to put a photo of my dogs Benjy and Peppa as my header.    What better way to think creatively than by looking at my dogs and thinking of being on the beach?!

I have been looking at some educational/creative blogs, and I must say that I am finding it a little confusing.    We have been told in other lectures that we have to be really careful of which internet sites we look at and what information we use.    As anyone can have a blog, how are we to verify that the content is valid or reliable?

The good news is that I did manage to get my google reader account sorted out, and it is great to have all the blog sites in one place.    I have also linked the blogs and other web sites to my blog page, which makes a great reference point for this module.

So, so far so good.    Hope you are all getting on OK.    Looking forward to reading your blogs.

Jo

I am feeling really proud of myself as I am writing my first ever blog!    I don’t know about you but signing up was the easy part, much harder finding out how to actually write a blog (or posting as I have now found out!).   If you are having trouble, check out The Edublogger.    There is a manual which you can download which gives you step by step instructions on what to do – wonderful!.

I am really looking forward to seeing how the blogs develop over the next few weeks.  I think I will find it quite liberating having somewhere to write about the course, but probably quite time consuming having to read and keep up with other peoples blogs!   I am now going to try and find some other creative blogs, and will then attempt to get them into google reader – it could be a long night!!!