Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Fostering Creative Learning for Children Journal Question 1
Sometimes children's creativity is mistaken for misbehavior. Characteristics such as low tolerance for boredom and excitement involved with novelty of design, music, or ideas; language rich in imagery, humor, symbolism, and persuasion; and high divergent thinking ability are associated with creative thinking. Unfortunately, these traits are also often considered unacceptable behavior in the classroom. Were you ever punished as a child for thinking "outside the box?" Have you seen this happen to children in schools? How do you plan to avoid squelching children's creativity when you are teaching?
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I can't think of ever being punished as a child for thinking "outside the box" but I think as a child I had to have everything realistic and the way it is in the real world so I never really wanted to think "outside the box". When I was in the kindergarten there were some coloring that the kids had to do and if the page wasn't colored all the way they had to go back and do it again. I plan to avoid squelching childrens creativity when I am teaching by giving them an assignment to do but letting them be creative and telling them that they can make it the way the want and the way they see it in their head.
ReplyDeleteMakayla Perkins
I was never treated like that in school because I was very quiet and reserve. I have seen this happen with other students however. I really hate how schools dismiss creativity for bad behavior! I was always told when I tried being creative that I was doing it wrong and that it had to be done "this way". I never got to do things the way I wanted to in school and express my creativity. There were quite a few kids in my first grade class that everyone thought were out of control but really were bored and needed to go outside so they could express themselves. Teachers don't seem to understand that, especially where everyone different when it comes to how they learn. I would avoid this by telling children they can express themselves and be creative however they want. There is no certain way to be creative. I would also give children who were "misbehaving" other options before putting them in so called "time out".
ReplyDeleteI do not remember ever being punished for using my creativity in school. At Waits River they try to encourage people to use as much creativity as possible. Although they try I have seen some of the teachers penalize students for misbehaving. A few of the students in my class made up their own language. They use to talk to eachother in this language and not tell anyone else what they were talking about. The teachers would not let them speak in their language because it was "inapropriate" for school. I will try to talk to the children that I think is misbehaving to figure out why they are doing what they are doing. I will try to come up with a way to keep the children occupied instead of putting them in time out or kicking them out of the class.
ReplyDeleteTheir is one kid at the preschool who is always full of energy, and he alway's trys to get others to laugh at him no one else can see the humor in this kid, and his teacher thinks he is misbehaving and so he often has to sit in time out. I was the same way when I was in preschool always getting in trouble, and when I was not in trouble I would always try to get others to laugh. sometimes I wish the preschool teacher whould understand that by putting this kid in time out it is crushing the childs creativity. Ashley
ReplyDeleteNo I have never gotten in trouble as a kid when i thought out of the box although I dont really remember much,You can avoid squishing kids creativity by just lettign them loose and have them do whatever they would like and just see where their creativity goes dont give them any guidlines to go by let them do their own things.
ReplyDeletecheyenne wrigley
When I was younger I was always the one who had to standout. I was always full of energy and showing my creativity. It seemed like I lived in the office at my school though. When I was in middle school they wanted us to show our creativity but I don't think they let us. If we had to do a project we had to do it on a certain thing and it had to be a certain way. When we wrote in our journals they used to give us a few options on what we want to write but never let us pick what we really wanted to write about. When I was at placement last year at BES I saw the teachers give the kids alot of room to come up with their own ideas. When I give the kids something to do I wont put any limit on it. I will let them use their creativity to create what they want because I think it is the best way that kids learn and also how to make their confidence stronger. I would only say one thing to them you know whats appropriate and whats not. I think looking at what each kid comes up with and creates is the greatest part because they are so young and their minds are full of new and stong ideas.
ReplyDeleteI never got in trouble for thinking outside the box. In kindergarten the teacher will close a place if it gets to loud. I feel in some ways this isn't letting the children use their creativity of make a lego space ship and finding an alien in space to their full potential. We were always told to think outside the box but were given less ways to do so as we got older. Creativity lets children be whoever, whatever, whenever they want to be. You can avoid squelching children's creativity by letting them have at least a half hour in the morning to be who they want to be and not worry about noise or messes, just let them be.
ReplyDeleteOlivia G-H