Group items tagged

Besides stimulating creativity, creative writing enhances learning and the intellect. I've found using creative writing in "regular" essay writing classes helps students feel free to use more colorful, metaphoric language to describe processes or emphasize the points they were making. ESL students have told me they didn't think English could be an expressive language until I helped them use to write poetry.

Brainstorming or creativity by committee may hinder rather than help productive thought and encourage "social loafing," conformity to group-think, and fear of criticism, among other hindrances to divergent, creative thinking.

Very practical classroom ideas to help students get the creative juices flowing. "You will have seen, there is a strong collection between imagination and creativity. We did not want to get bogged down with the neuro-science behind how imagination works (click on the links above if you want to read further about this), but the need to encourage imaginations should not be left behind in Early Years settings. Allow time and space for imaginations to flourish is a tough demand within modern schools, but the importance of finding time is crucial, being something which all educators can play a part in."

"If your students are using images, video, or music in the final products that they are producing for your class, then it is INCREDIBLY important that you introduce them to the Creative Commons -- an organization that is helping to redefine copyright laws." Links to teach kids about copyright and fair use.

This is a magic place where students can add to a drawing and write about it. One additional activity might be to explore some of the cultural assumptions expressed in the drawings. You will probably need Google Chrome to use all the parts of this wonderful creative site. See also http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Art%2C+Craft+%26+Design for similar creative art sites. Thanks to Martin Burrett at Diigo in Education.

"For a little inspiration, we're showcasing twelve terrific poetry projects from our incredibly creative community of educators. You'll find projects for first graders and high schoolers, and everything from sensory poems to color explorations to poems about polliwogs. (We also think any of these would be just as fun for adults to try - a little creative expression is always good for the soul!)"

"The invention of the LMS (Learning Management System) was a mistake. And here I'm not going to make the same frustrated argument made numerous times before now that LMSs are limiting structures, that their interface and functionalities control how teachers teach online (although those things are true). The LMS was a mistake because it was premature. In a world that was just waking up to the Internet and the possibility of widely-networked culture, the LMS played to the lowest common denominator, creating a "classroom" that allowed learning -- or something like learning -- to happen behind tabs, in threaded discussions, and through automated quizzes. The LMS was not a creative decision, it was not pushing the capabilities of the Internet, it was settling for the least innovative classroom practice and repositioning that digitally. As a result classes taught within its structure generally land with a dull thud. No matter how creative and inspired the teacher or pedagogue behind the wheel, the LMS is no match for the wideness of the Internet. It was born a relic -- at its launch utterly irrelevant to its environment and its user." Very thought-provoking article on how digital pedagogy really differs from just "teaching online."

"Tynker is a new computing platform designed specifically to teach children computational learning and programming skills in a fun and imaginative way. Tynker is inspired by Scratch from MIT. It is a completely browser-based implementation written using Open Web standards such as Javascript, HTML5, CSS3 and does not use Flash. "Tynker's language extensions, built-in physics engine, character editors and other tools make it fun and easy for kids to unleash their creativity. Schools love Tynker because it offers them an easy to use cloud-hosted system for delivering a customized Computer Science course across multiple grades with a ready to use curriculum, classroom management and more. Tynker is the platform of choice at many leading schools - see what educators are saying." This looks like an interesting, creative way to unleash students' curiosity. I'm assuming it's for younger kids, but older students may enjoy it too.

A review of M. Levine's Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success: ""There's probably no better example of the throttling of creativity than the difference between what we observe in a kindergarten classroom and what we observe in a high school classroom," she writes in Teach Your Children Well. "Take a room full of five-year-olds and you will see creativity in all its forms positively flowing around the room. A decade later you will see these same children passively sitting at their desks, half asleep or trying to decipher what will be on the next test.""

These assessment types are creative and teacher-tried. Paul Bogush describes what worked and what might work in this interesting article with links to the tools that he used for creative assessments.

"So , as educators and teachers, you would be asking yourself how to ethically use images without having to worry about the copyright issues.Well the answer is very simple you will have to use images licensed under GFLD or Creative Commons especially this latter as it has images that can be used in teaching materials, blogs, wikis, ..ect. How to find such kind of images is what the guide below is all about. It walks you through the different steps on how to locate images licensed under Creative Commons . It contains illustravie snapshots and is ideal for use with your students. The guide is just two pages long but has everything you will need to teach your students about how to get free images in Google Image."

Nice ideas, and a downloadable sheet to get a free teaching aid: "At one time or another, most of us suffer from writer's block and have a terrible time coming up with story ideas. We stare at a blank page, unable to come up with clever story starters or generate ideas for stories to write. In a way it traps us and keeps us from doing the one thing we want to do most when we sit down with a paper and pen in hand or in front of a computer: write. The more time we waste and are unable to come up with ideas for writing stories, the more we get discouraged. That's why we have something to help kick-start your muse.In this free online download, you get two weeks worth of top-notch writing prompts designed to spark your mind and help you flex your creative muscles. From fiction prompts to poem starters to short stories ideas, you'll be able to generate creative story ideas based on a sentence or two of direction."

"All pictures on Ookaboo are available free under public domain or Creative Commons and can be used on web sites and for classwork and other creative projects." The site begins at a map with pegs for locations, or you can use a modet search engine. It willtake a little time to find something you want. Commons licensing for most pictures.

"A podcast sounds better with a bit of music in it. " This blog also has links to the Creative Commons search engine.

The idea of "portfolio" implies that the sum of the parts is greater than its individual parts, that there is some benefit to seeing the whole work longitudinally or from start to finish. A portfolio, here, is a collection of written work, related or not, presented as well as it can be, by a student for the purposes of showing, well, the best that the student can do at a given time. ... The idea of "portfolio" implies that the sum of the parts is greater than its individual parts, that there is some benefit to seeing the whole work longitudinally or from start to finish. A portfolio, here, is a collection of written work, related or not, presented as well as it can be, by a student for the purposes of showing, well, the best that the student can do at a given time.

"A portfolio, here, is a collection of written work, related or not, presented as well as it can be, by a student for the purposes of showing, well, the best that the student can do at a given time. Online, portfolios allow wide latitude in individual expression, and can contain a wide variety of kinds of work: research papers, essays, weblog entries, paragraphs, journal entries, summaries or creative work. There is a kind of dynamic tension at all moments with weblog portfolios: on the one hand, they should have visible, from the first screen, all the best of the student's work, properly formatted, edited, looking crisp and nice (defined more carefully below) and properly linked. On the other, the weblog is a dynamic thing, receiving the latest of the student's work, and pushing older stuff down and out of sight." article by Steve McCarty

"Google Slides is too powerful to limit its use to boring presentations. Create engaging learning experiences while promoting critical thinking and creativity with these seven Google Slides templates you can use in virtually any classroom. The sharing settings for all of these templates are set up so that users can create an editable copy by clicking "Make a Copy," or "Use Template."" T/h N.LaFavre Google Slides Templates include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, et al. Students can use a variety of approaches from their favorite media, as suggested in Nick's article.

A project to cultivate 21st century fluencies needed by the "digital citizen": creativity, solutions for real life problems, analyzing and evaluation information, using multiple media, ability to work in collaborations. Interesting article at http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/2012/11/16/21st-century-fluencies/. Focusing on young learners.

Bookr is a tool to create and share your own photobook using Flickr images. Add images, text, and publish. Creative Commons content only.

Points out the advantages of using a tablet device for content-creation. It's fast, mobile, and economical: "We've had computers in schools for years, but in reality many (most?) classroom teachers don't and never did have their students making podcasts, movies, eBooks and websites. Doing so seems too time consuming and for many non-technical teachers the learning curve appears disproportionate to the benefits realised. "But producing comparable creative content on an iPad is relatively quick, simple, yields impressive results with minimal fuss, and the learning curve is … well, there almost isn't one! There is no need to connect an external microphone (the built-in one is better than that in any laptop), no need to adjust recording levels, no need to use a pop-filter. No need to import media from a recording device to the editing device (becasue they are one and the same), and it's unnecessary to allow 10 minutes at the end of a class, to save, unplug devices, shut down and stow the laptops. Instead, when the bell sounds, students simply flip their iPad cases closed and walk to the next class!"

Detailed lesson plan to get students to use animated RSA style movies to learn and teach each other. Good way to get some critical and creative thinking into your lessons.