Creativity

Listening to Sir Ken Robinson speak out about Creativity in schools has really got my mind working on what he said. He made amazing points. He said that we need to come up with a better way to educate our children with their whole being, not just from the "waste up slowly moving to only one side of the brain" type of education. I see myself as a very creative person, and definitely thrive in outward environments where I can do and say creative things. This has not always been a nurtured side of me. In fact, it was often squished in high school. It is my nature to be outgoing and creative, so I've learned to nurture it in the ways that I can.

It’s of extreme importance that we equip kids with the skills they are going to need in the 21^st century and beyond. They are going to have to think innovatively and intuitively more and more as more problems we try to solve go unsolved and they have to pick up our slack. Ways to encourage this are to allow kids to come up with lots of ideas in regular class settings, and discuss pros and cons of all. Imagination is bountiful in fresh minds, and this should be utilized! Encouraging kids to think outside the box every day will play a huge part in their creative thinking growth.

Reflectiveness

The only thing that stands between teachers and students reflecting on a regular basis is lack of time. The problem is that people do not make time to think, only to do things without pre-meditating their decisions. The people that do not reflect cannot grow. I personally think it's impossible not to reflect. I think it's human nature to think about and analyze what happen throughout our days, so how do you just block out what happens to you? The people that do this must be always and only looking ahead. The bad thing about this is that you can never learn from looking back if you only look forward. This is especially important when it comes to the classroom, so much happens in the classroom everyday and if you don't reflect on it how it will it improve? Wise teachers seem to be the ones who take into account the good and bad of each day, and alter their methods so that the good starts to overpower the bad and soon it's almost all good! Same goes for students, it's so important to look at everything you do, to see if you like what's happening, and if we spend our time effectively. Sometimes reflecting might seem daunting or time consuming but it's truly the opposite. After any event in your day, make sure to remove whatever emotions were playing apart in your decision making, and think about how something might've been changed, or what you could do in a similar situation in the future. There is no such thing as negative reflection. We reflect, even without knowing it. Reflecting=Thinking.

Passion

Passion definitely has to be the driving factor that leads anyone to choose a career. If it is not, it's just a job, not a career. Passion means to ignite a fire that will give you energy to share your passion and turn it into something. For some of us, that means we have been given the opportunity to teach our passion. I once had a theatre teacher in high school who not only taught theatre, she WAS it. There was a certain magical-ness about her, like anything was possible. Because truly she did make everything possible! She was able to get her students to forget who we were, to become a different person, to "step into character" and make decisions that the character you were portraying would make. We rarely felt embarassed or hesitant because the key thing was that we wanted to enter her world of magic. I experienced this same level of passion another time through my senior year Astronomy teacher. He literally would jump around the room to explain different concepts and ideas because he was so excited. As you can guess, this made us want to be as excited as him. I have been fortunate to have teachers who are generally enthusiastic about what they teach. There have been instances where I've had teachers that haven't been very exciting, let alone passionate about a subject. The important thing that makes a difference though is how you as the student can still be passionate enough about learning to get what you need out of the class, even if the teacher didn't impact you hugely. It's up to you to seek your own passions with the tools you have.