C_R_E_A_T_I_V_I_T_Y

As teachers we should encourage creativity and imagination every day.  I think it is an essential thing to teach while the children are in elementary school.  It gives them the chance to explore what they want or what they are interested in.  If we don’t encourage it in our students they might think it isn’t okay to do.  I think the best way to teach creativity is to create projects that let the kids use their own imagination to come up with the final project.  Using writing assignment that might be done in the classroom where the students chose what to write about is a great opportunity for the children to express their creativity and imagination.  I’m not sure you could reward someone for their creativity although you would be able to display art projects.  Creativity is an important skill to have in the 21^st century.  Our society is becoming so technological that it is important to not forget about creativity.  We should encourage students to think outside the norm.  Creativity isn’t hard to find in children it just needs to be encouraged and not hidden.  As students grow older their imagination might not be as crazy as it was when they were younger but it is still there.  Creativity and imagination should be addressed at school when the students are so intent on learning new skills.       

Reflectiveness:

It’s a complicated thing to do today in schools.  Teachers and students do it daily.  The students might have a hard time because it takes concentration and some thought into reflecting.  I think students don’t like to spend that much time doing it.  The teachers might find it hard because they just don’t have time to do it.  Reflection is a key component in being a professional and is important to a teacher.  Being a teacher every day you are faced with things you may have never thought you would have to deal with.  Reflecting after every day of work will help you reevaluate lesson plans or become a better decision maker.  I reflect best at night in my bed.  I just go through my day and think about everything I did. 

Floral Design….. Who knew?

So, I am not really into art to begin with and to graduate high school I needed at least 8 art credits.  I was dreading taking art classes because I didn’t find them fun or exciting.  I wasn’t very good at drawing or painting anything.  I had heard about this floral design class.  It didn’t have to do with drawing or painting which I was so happy to hear.  It was about flowers.  I was surprised when I learned it counted as art credits.  During my spring semester of sophomore year I enrolled in floral design.  I took it with the intention that it would be an easy way to get my art credits and also get an easy A.

                The teacher who taught floral design was Ms. Brown.  She brought great energy to the class every day.  She would really get me excited about class.  Floral design was a great passion of hers and it started to rub off on me.  I found the class to be very relaxing and creative.  I was able to create different floral designs from week to week.  I had the chance to learn all about different flowers and the different types of designs I could create.  It wasn’t as easy as I thought the class would be.  We had tests on flowers and the designs.  We also got graded on our completed projects. 

                Ms. Brown had the right enthusiasm to really make this class a great experience for me.  I would have never thought that floral design would have been so much fun, but after taking the class I realized it was.  It really grew on me.  I ended up having a real interest in flowers after the class.  If Ms. Brown didn’t have the enthusiasm she had for floral design the class would have been very boring.  It would have been a class I would have hated to go to.  I thank Ms. Brown for bringing her enthusiasm to class every day.