Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A.

Remember the renegades. . . and be their friend. Their creativity, their thinking, their pushing the envelope just may change the world. - Paula White

Do Schools kill creativity? YES. Unfortunately for students today creativity is no longer allowed in the schools curriculum. According to a blog post I read a few weeks ago called “When kids write because they want to….” by Ms. Paula White, she emphasized that teachers are so consumed by preparing their students for testing that teachers are overlooking the creative side of students ability to write. I feel that most teachers are forgetting why they chose a career to teach. With school systems even cutting corners and taking time from physical education and music to try and fit in more time for preparing for test. Teachers are unfortunately forced to follow a standard procedure to make sure students learn what is on that standardized test
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Can a curriculum be developed that increases the curiosity of students? YES. I believe if a teacher is allowed to create a curriculum that allows the students to be creative the students creativity will come out. A teacher can incorporate projects in their class that would allow the students to be creative. For example, a student in biology can make a food web using foam letter and photos to create a poster that can be displayed for everyone to learn from.

Can a teacher’s action increase the curiosity of students? Yes. According to a book, called “Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire”, Rafe Esquith encourages his fifth graders to be creative and treats each student with respect. Mr. Esquith does not teach his students to fear him, as some teachers do, but encourages them to find the creative side of each student. Mr. Esquith states in his book, “Failure happens only when students stop trying to solve problems”. He incorporated creativity in most of his classroom curriculum, so it is possible. His school is in poverty stricken neighborhood and most his students do not speak English and are in poverty themselves. So it will depend on the educator to bring out the creative side to their students.

Exchanging ideas with other teachers will enhance my creativity in the classroom. Also keeping up with new developments with technology will ensure that I will be able to use different tools for addressing a given project. Using the output of the students and adapting to their needs will further enhance the overall success of their creativity.

As for me, to be more curious I would have to be interested in the topic. When we had to do project on a book trailer, I thought that was the best thing to get a child’s curiosity to read the book. I am basically the same way I need to be interested in the topic. How is the topic presented? Is there any visual stimulation? Is it something I would be interested in? Will it help me in the future? These are some of the questions that would be asked.