Friday, February 19, 2016

Creativity Counts!

Click here to view this blog assignment from Mrs. Kallas.
Click here to view Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk.
Click here to view Sir Ken Robinson's website.



Creativity Counts

  1. What is Creativity? Creativity is the ability to be imaginative and create original, artistic ideas using your talents.                     
  2. Why does Creativity matter in Education? Creativity is important in education because it allows for the students to increase their individual creativity while growing up, rather than destroying it. Without creativity in school, all students would be similar and turn in the same school work, thinking that they are supposed to be the same as others. Instead, students should be taught to be different, independent, and unique.                                   
  3. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt as if a teacher didn't let you be creative? Yes, currently in many AP classes in school, we are given projects with multiple requirements. Sometimes, so many requirements where we feel that we can not do anything our own way, because our teacher's idea of the final product is what the requirements say we need to do, not what we want to do. Being an AP student, I've learned that if there is a specific way for something to be done, it needs to be done that way.                
  4. Have you ever had a teacher that let you be as creative as possible? Yes! Rather than my last answer, we have also had teachers this year that assign us projects with little requirements. For example, we recently had a "Selfie Project" in AP English. In order to do this project, we had to take extremely creative selfies that argue a certain topic. We could use whatever we wanted to, and take selfies of whatever we wanted to.                                   
  5. How do we fix the problem(s) described by Sir Ken Robinson? To fix these problems, the school system should change by getting rid of required courses. The students should have many class options that give them an insight on many occupations. Once they figure out what occupation they may be interested in, they should only be required to take classes needed for that job. For example, I want to grow up and be a kindergarten teacher, so what is the point of forcing me to take Physics and Pre-Cal? That's right, there isn't one. Students should only be required to take courses that benefit their future, and courses that they will need in college. In doing this, students will be more focused in their classes, for it will actually interest them and benefit their futures.

Sir Ken Robinson

Saturday, February 6, 2016

My State Teach Tomorrow Summit Highlight

Click here to view this blog assignment on Mrs. Kallas's blog.
Click here to view the TAFE Teach Tomorrow Summit webpage.
    On this past weekend, our state TAFE competitors all travelled to Houston, Texas for the state conference. Out of all the fun activities we did, and all the exciting adventures we went on, my favorite part of the conference was the breakout sessions on Sunday.
   I enjoyed the breakout sessions the most, because not only were there many to choose from, they were all very unique. In the sessions that I went to, we made teacher-created materials, listened to Dave Burgess, and learned about hearing and vision impaired students. This was exciting, for we all got to explore new things, while having fun with it.
    I would definitely, without a doubt, recommend this trip to all my classmates who did not get to participate. It was a great experience to reach deeper into teaching, and to get to listen how to become a better teacher. The whole experience was also exciting, because we got to get closer with our classmates, and meet new students from other TAFE chapters. Overall, our trip to Houston, Texas was an unforgettable time for the books! :)



All smiles during our fun weekend!