#Creativity

Creativity is essential. It helps to teach, love and appreciate the beauty of the world and to understand it in ways never before possible.

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Creativity is an essential part of life. It is what has made the world evolve, what makes being a child so special, and what makes each day a new adventure. Without creativity, teaching the students that I have in my classes would be a complete failure. Students need to see the world from different perspectives, which is difficult if one has never been more than fifty miles from where they were born. There are elements of all seven cognitive tools (perception, patterning, abstracting, embodied thinking, modeling, play and synthesis) in my teaching of the idea of good versus evil, and also in my teaching in general.

Life is a matter of perception. A great deal of interaction occurs with the understanding that what one believes to be true, is what others believe to be true as well. This is not always the case. I may perceive a call in a basketball game to be correct, while another person sitting at the same vantage point may disagree. The idea of perception comes in to play frequently in the teaching of good versus evil. The lines between the two are at times blurred. What action to take in response to different circumstances may be a choice between bad and worse, and at such a point, there would have to be a process of deciding which was the lesser evil. In other cases, what one person perceives as evil, may not be as serious to someone else. My students view evil in degrees, and they aren’t alone.

This idea of good and evil is subject to interpretation, we know good and evil exist, and that there will always be both. It would be impossible to know what is truly good, unless it is paired with something evil. Sometimes, as in the song Devil went Down to Georgia, good wins, but at other times, we aren’t so lucky. This is the yin and the yang – the balance of the universe.

At first glance, Shakespeare is not the easiest to read, especially for students in an urban school. What I do to teach Shakespeare is to make it a full body experience. We start with poetry, and get used to the rhythm of the speech, how it feels. I have them stand up and “walk out” the beat of the Iambic Pentameter so that they have a feel for it. There is a specific pattern in the lines, in the vowels. I want them to note this early on, because once they learn the pattern, the content can be discussed. The pattern then becomes obvious – Iambic Pentameter.

The further they get in to the text, the better. By the time we get to the real issue of good versus evil in Hamlet, the class will begin to randomly stand while reading, and stomp out the text. It is at this point that I know they are familiar with the poetic pattern. I think it would be beneficial for the students to go through and highlight the portions of a selection of text that may strike them as having a negative connotation, or might bring about thoughts and feelings that something evil were going on.

After the students figure out who is being discussed, the uncle, they can then determine the feeling of evil that saturates this passage. The words are practically spit with disgust off the page. The students could take the words and create a found poem.

While a pattern is not always obvious, once a pattern is discovered, and learned, it is more likely that other – less obvious - patterns will then emerge. The idea of good and evil is displayed in many ways, and in many mediums, but here, in this passage from Hamlet, while the passage may seem to have an ominous tone to some, it may seem like a random jumble of words to others. Once the pattern is discovered, and understood, the loathsome nature of what has occurred in the play will begin to come alive, and the evil of what one brother has done – that ancient and oldest of sins – can be fully realized.

Abstracting is a difficult concept to teach. It takes a great amount of thinking, and this is not something my students are very good at. They want to be told what to do, want to be able to do it without thought, and then see the grade as soon as possible. This is what some aspects of the educational system have taught them more or less, I suppose, so it isn't entirely their fault. To get a student that can think of words as a means to convey thoughts and feelings in a visually and very personal manner, as e.e. cummings did, would be a dream. The idea of seeing words as so much more than letters on a page is such a beautiful thing. There is art and beauty in the most simple of objects, in things that we see every day. When Picasso drew the motion of the knitter, and not just the knitter herself, he was thinking in a way that shows how much more there is to life that people (myself included) overlook, and completely miss, every day.

 Embodied thinking is the fourth tool, and an interesting one. When I looked at it through the lens of good versus evil, the first thing that came to mind was interpretive dancing. I was a dancer for fourteen years, and in that time, I learned to think and feel with my body. I took this tool and had some of my students show me an idea - good or evil - with their body. 

Embodied thinking can be used to portray different elements in a new way - there is Einsteins experiment with the photon, and Mozart's body thinking. When I think of Einstein's idea, I think of the many books I read as a kid, and the episodes I saw of The Magic School Bus. That entire series teaches kids to look at their world from a different perspective, and to think small. It is a great tool, however difficult it may seem at first.

I could use this idea in my classroom when teaching many different concepts. They may have to give a presentation of a scene using no words; in drama there are many activities that require this idea. For the main idea I have chosen, good versus evil, they could present a battle using music, but no words and give us a visual representation of the text.

Many people have used modeling to help them interpret big ideas, to create new things, to attack an army, to teach strategy, to find strengths and weaknesses and to explain complex processes - please note that this is not an exhaustive list.

As a teacher, I use the idea of modeling daily. I show the students how to set up a type of writing, I walk them through my thought processes as I read, I model appropriate behavior, I model poetry and creative thinking, I model projects and writing assignments, and I hope that by doing this, I show them what it is that I expect from them.

I ask the students to create models of the characters in the Canterbury Tales when I ask them to create a modern version of a particular character. The students came up with a Gold Digger for the Wife of Bath, a Marine for the Knight, a Ladies Man for the Squire, a College Student for the scholar, and of course the more literal Doctor for the Doctor, Cook for the Cook and Monk for the Monk. As a class, we break down the Canterbury Tales for what it is - a list of the people representative to the time period, try to understand from a historical perspective why Chaucer may have pointed out different elements within the people representing the church, or the people from Guilds and the Feudal System and so on, and then we apply that understanding to what we know about people today. We create our own model of society through a Modern Retelling of the Canterbury Tales. This is then turned into a book of stories that we write, and compile, within the classroom.

Using the idea of modeling, I can break down the elements of the characters, and then the class can discuss tone and characterization to determine whether the person is being admired or criticized - in terms relative to my focus area - whether they are good or evil. The students then recognize the voice of the author, and recreate that voice in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets based on the model that Chaucer provides.

Play is a helpful learning tool. In my classroom the students are encouraged to play, though I don't call it that. When we do a lesson on poetry, I show them a you tube video that explains onomatopoeia, and it encourages them to "play" with how to create their own visualizations of the definitions. I have had students create a talk show in which the host interviews each type of comma, which makes grammar a little more interesting. I make my classroom a place where they can learn and grow - a comfortable place for trying out new things.

Play associated with good and evil is also put to work during the instruction of Hamlet. The students are exposed to the play in three ways: They read it, they watch it, then they perform it. Their favorite act is of course, Act Five, Scene Two in which mass chaos ensues at a duel and all the characters die. I have fake swords and wigs and chalices, they have a great time, and they use and understand Shakespearean language.

There are many ways to use play in the classroom, and in life. It is something that can expand the world beyond the normal realm, just as painting with bacteria can be an outlet for some, using what we see in our everyday lives in a new and interesting way can be an avenue to a world we never knew existed. In the case of my students, it shows many of them that they can enjoy Shakespeare. While knowing how to read Shakespeare is not a life skill, knowing that you can do something that you never thought you could most definitely is. Play in the classroom gets the students to attempt things they never would have dreamed of in a way that does not make them feel pressured.

Synthesizing is where it all comes together. My students are required to synthesize information on a regular basis. They must take all the ideas we discuss in the classroom, and put it together to create their own perception. This tool is used when they are asked to put all the elements they have learned regarding a short story together to form a whole, or when they are asked to look at the idea of schooling in a different way. They have to read about different situations and try to determine the best possible outcome, even when there seems to be no right – or good – answer.

Creativity is what keeps the world going. These seven tools are necessary for growth, and they are necessary for survival in a marketplace that incorporates so many cultures and creative minds. Having a firm grasp on what it means to be creative, and including that in daily life can create a much happier and productive existence. Passing this creativity on to my students is not an easy task, but I do believe it is important.

Play

Play is a helpful learning tool. In my classroom the students are encouraged to play, though I don't call it that. When we do a lesson on poetry, I show them a you tube video that explains onomatopoeia (which I have included, though I did not create it), and it encourages them to "play" with how to create their own visualizations of the definitions. I have had students create a talk show in which the host interviews each type of comma, which makes grammar a little more interesting. They have created parodies of nursery rhymes in which Jack and Pete go down the street to get more minutes on their iPhone. They have me sitting on a wall falling in to a pile of stickers and glitter - they think that I'm a stickers and glitter kind of teacher because my room is color coordinated, and each class has a particular color associated with them. They are laughing as they come in and tell me, "Last night was such a debacle! I left my note cards at home and am now faced with such a conundrum!" Using two of our vocabulary words in a joking way, but that also tells me that they have learned them. I make my classroom a place where they can learn and grow, but are comfortable trying out new things.
When it comes to the idea of play as associated with the topic of good versus evil, this is addressed in a variety of ways. As we complete Beowulf, the students first create a storyboard to explain and depict the first battle between Beowulf and Grendel. After the second battle, they create a visual representation of a selection of text. In other words, they must find a way to explain the 15-20 lines of text in a visual way - pictures, symbols, and so on. After the third and final battle, they are asked to summarize - ok, so the last one is not a form of play, but the final assessment is. The class is then split in to groups and they are each given one of the major battles - their task is recreate the battle in a new setting. They first pull out the sections of the story that directly relate the characteristics of an epic that they have learned, then they are given a time period in which they must retell the story. I have had students "roll up" on "H-Block" in downtown Detroit circa 1995 in colorful wind suits, as opposed to rowing up to Denmark in a boat and marching up to Heorot in the Anglo-Saxon Period. They have created a Twinkie monster accidentally in a lab who then feels as if he is not a part of society and then goes on a rampage instead of Grendel being a descendant of Cain and despising the humanity he cannot be a part of. The list goes on, but the assignment is fun for them, and the skits are great, and it shows me that they can learn the main ideas of an Anglo-Saxon Epic and then change them, move beyond the realm of rote memorization and apply the characteristics of an epic in a new way.
Play associated with good and evil is also put to work during the instruction of Hamlet. The students are exposed to the play in three ways: They read it, they watch it, then they perform it. Their favorite act is of course, Act Five, Scene Two in which mass chaos ensues at a duel and all the characters die. I have fake swords and wigs and chalices, they have a great time, and they use and understand Shakespearean language.
There are many ways to use play in the classroom, and in life. It is something that can expand the world beyond the normal realm, just as painting with bacteria can be an outlet for some, using what we see in our everyday lives in a new and interesting way can be an avenue to a world we never knew existed. In the case of my students, it shows many of them that they can enjoy Shakespeare. While knowing how to read Shakespeare is not a life skill, knowing that you can do something that you never thought you could most definitely is. Play in the classroom gets the students to attempt things they never would have dreamed of in a way that does not make them feel pressured.

Modeling

When thinking about how to create a model of good vs. evil, the first thing that came to mind was a scale. It breaks down good and evil into two sides, and each side can be represented with the typical colors related to the terms. I created a two dimensional, simplistic version of the idea good vs. evil. I left the scales even, because really, when it comes to good and evil, it is complicated, open to interpretation, and often, quite even until the very end - when speaking in terms of literature of course.
Many people have used modeling to help them interpret big ideas, to create new things, to attack an army, to teach strategy, to find strengths and weaknesses and to explain complex processes - please note that this is not an exhaustive list.
As a teacher, I use the idea of modeling daily. I show the students how to set up a type of writing, I walk them through my thought processes as I read, I model appropriate behavior, I model poetry and creative thinking, I model projects and writing assignments, and I hope that by doing this, I show them what it is that I expect from them.
I ask the students to create models of the characters in the Canterbury Tales when I ask them to create a modern version of a particular character. The students came up with a Gold Digger for the Wife of Bath, a Marine for the Knight, a Ladies Man for the Squire, a College Student for the scholar, and of course the more literal Doctor for the Doctor, Cook for the Cook and Monk for the Monk. As a class, we break down the Canterbury Tales for what it is - a list of the people representative to the time period, try to understand from a historical perspective why Chaucer may have pointed out different elements within the people representing the church, or the people from Guilds and the Feudal System and so on, and then we apply that understanding to what we know about people today. We create our own model of society through a Modern Retelling of the Canterbury Tales. This is then turned into a book of stories that we write, and compile, within the classroom.
Using the idea of modeling, I can break down the elements of the characters, then we discuss tone and characterization to determine whether the person is being admired or criticized - in terms relative to my focus area - whether they are good or evil. The students then recognize the voice of the author, and recreate that voice in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets based on the model that Chaucer provides.


The Prologues that I have created for this will be completed this week, and I will post them here as a model of this assignment for your enjoyment. :)

Embodied Thinking

 The idea of Embodied Thinking is an interesting one. When I looked at it through the lens of good versus evil, the first thing that came to mind was interpretive dancing. I was a dancer for fourteen years, and in that time, I learned to think and feel with my body. I originally tried to find the video of one of my students doing an interpretive dance of the internal battle that Hamlet encounters throughout the story, but it was not to be. So instead, I had some of my students show me an idea - good or evil - with their body. 
Embodied thinking can be used to portray different elements in a new way - there is Einsteins experiment with the photon, and Mozart's body thinking. When I think of Einstein's idea, I think of the many books I read as a kid, and the episodes I saw of The Magic School Bus. That entire series teaches kids to look at their world from a different perspective, and to think small. It is a great tool, however difficult it may seem at first.
I could use this idea in my classroom when teaching many different concepts. They may have to give a presentation of a scene using no words, in drama there are many activities that require this idea. For the main idea I have chosen, good versus evil, they could present a battle using music, but no words and give us a visual representation of the text.

So this is what they came up with, and as it turned out, being evil was far more fun apparently. I had to ask them to come up with some nice things to take pictures of. In the good scenes they helped each other up, picked up books and helped a friend. In the evil photos - of which I only posted four to try to keep my good versus evil nice and even, they punched, tripped and strangled one another. It is obvious they couldn't keep a straight face.

Abstracting: The Battle Itself

When I think about the idea of good versus evil, the one part of the struggle that comes to mind is the battle that takes place. Sometimes, this struggle is an outward, all on fight toward whatever may be perceived as the good, the right. Other times, this battle is an inward struggle. It is not easily recognized by others, it is the inward battle of the mind. It is the common and cliched idea of having an angel and a devil on ones shoulder, and watching as the two of them have it out. Nike created a commercial that shows the battle of good versus evil as a soccer game. This commercial reminds me of a mini epic assignment I give to my students. I ask them to take an ordinary event and blow it way out of proportion - giving the main character super human qualities, and making the main event far more intense. The commercial shows an epic battle that occurs between various inhabitants of the underworld, and the star players of the European league.


Sometimes the battle is between words. Words are a very powerful thing. What someone says to a person can start an entire inner commentary that can change the actions and outcomes of events throughout a person's life. Just seeing a word can result in positive or negative emotions. This is not to say that some words are good, and others are evil, but the associations that one makes when seeing or hearing a word can give it such connotations. So, in essence, there is a battle that occurs on the pages of books, in the newspaper, and anywhere that words are presented.


Abstracting is a difficult concept to teach. It takes a great amount of thinking, and this is not something my students are very good at. They want to be told what to do, want to be able to do it without thought, and then see the grade as soon as possible. This is what some aspects of the educational system has taught them more or less, I suppose, so it isn't entirely their fault. To get a student that can think of words as a means to convey thoughts and feelings in a visually and very personal manner, as e.e. cummings did, would be a dream. The idea of seeing words as so much more than letters on a page is such a beautiful thing. There is art and beauty in the most simple of objects, in things that we see every day. When Picasso drew the motion of the knitter, and not just the knitter herself, he was thinking in a way that shows how much more there is to life that people (myself included) overlook, and completely miss, every day.

Patterning

So, at first glance Shakespeare is not the easiest to read, especially for students in an urban school. What I do to teach Shakespeare is to make it a full body experience. We start with poetry, and get used to the rhythm of the speech, how it feels. I have them stand up and “walk out” the beat of the Iambic Pentameter so that they have a feel for it. There is a specific pattern in the lines, in the vowels. I want them to note this early on, because once they learn the pattern, the content can be discussed. The first pattern here is obvious – Iambic Pentameter.

Ghost

Mur/DER most FOUL, as IN the BEST it IS;
But THIS most FOUL, strange AND un/NAT/ur/AL.

Here it becomes easy to see, and the further they get in to the text, the better. By the time we get to the real issue of good versus evil in Hamlet, the class will begin to randomly stand while reading, and stomp out the text. It is at this point that I know they are familiar with the poetic pattern. I then have to move on to content. As I began contemplating what to do next, along with this idea of patterning, I began to wonder what would happen if I were to have them go through and highlight the portions of the text that follows that may strike them as having a negative connotation, or might bring about thoughts and feelings that something evil were going on. So I gave it a shot, trying to stay in the mindset of an urban teenager.

HAMLET

Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost

I find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.

HAMLET

O my prophetic soul! My uncle!

Ghost

Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage, and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!
But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.
But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebena in a vial,
And in the porches of my ears did pour
The leprous distilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man
That swift as quicksilver it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And with a sudden vigour doth posset
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth body.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head:
O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.

Exit

So here is what I came up with:

Revenge

A serpent stung me

Death

The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown.

That incestuous, that adulterate beast

Witchcraft

Traitorous

Wicked

Seduce

Shameful lust

Wretch

Lust

Prey on garbage

Stole

Cursed

Leprous

Vile

Loathsome

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin

O, horrible! O, horrible! Most horrible!

Damned incest

Thorns

Prick

Sting

After the students go back and figure out who is being discussed, the uncle, they can then determine the feeling of evil that saturates this passage. The words are practically spit with disgust off the page. I took this further and wrote a found poem – as our authors did – to show the evil feeling toward King Claudius this passage exudes.

Death

The serpent that did sting thy father’s life

Now wears his crown – that adulterate beast

While sleeping in my orchard – traitorous!

That wicked, loathsome, cursed, most vile wretch

Stole silent – and poison most foul did pour

I, cut off in the blossoms of my sin

Horrible! Horrible! Most horrible!

All at once lost my life, my crown, my queen

Seek revenge on that wicked uncle who

With shameful lust did seduce the queen

But she, who preys on garbage, leave her be

To suffer from the prick and sting of thorns

Farewell Hamlet, remember – seek revenge!

While a pattern is not always obvious, once a pattern is discovered, and learned, it is more likely that other – less obvious - patterns will then emerge. The idea of good and evil is displayed in many ways, and in many mediums, but here, in this passage from Hamlet, while the passage may seem to have an ominous tone to some, it may seem like a random jumble of words to others. Once the pattern is discovered, and understood, the loathsome nature of what has occurred in the play will begin to come alive, and the evil of what one brother has done – that ancient and oldest of sins – can be fully realized.

Perceiving: Write up

Life is a matter of perception. A great deal of interaction occurs with the understanding that what one believes to be true, is what others believe to be true as well. This is not always the case. I may perceive a call in a basketball game to be correct, while another person sitting at the same vantage point may disagree. Take the idea of Pablo Picasso and his abstract imaging. Some may look at his painting, Painter and Knitting Model, and perceive his rendition of the painting within the drawing to be a jumble of lines, not making any sense. However, if one were to look more closely, and try to see the world in an abstract manner as he did, they would see that he was in fact drawing lines of movement. There is no doubt that Picasso could draw a traditionally beautiful painting if he had liked, but instead, he drew the beauty of things unseen to the eye of those not able to think, or see, in the abstract.

The idea of perception comes in to play frequently in my topic of good versus evil. As my presentation suggests, the lines between the two are at times blurred. What action to take in response to different circumstances may be a choice between bad and worse, and at such a point, there would have to be a process of deciding which was the lesser evil. In other cases, what one person perceives as evil, may not be as serious to someone else. Let’s consider my students for a moment. During one class discussion on following school rules, they said I should just ignore the rule concerning leaving the campus to get lunch and bringing fast food in to the room, and let them do what they want. I asked them how many of them would be willing to put their job on the line, and deliberately disobey their boss, in order to make a friend of theirs happy over such a small thing. Half the class raised their hand. This same half said they would go to jail for a friend, over a crime they did not commit. I perceived these situations differently. I personally value my freedom, and if I have a friend who is willing to put me in such a position, then I would rethink that friendship. My students view evil in degrees, and they aren’t alone. They see breaking the food rule and leaving campus rule as a lesser degree of wrong than say, leaving campus to get lunch and going home after. They view the situation and say, “At least I came back!” I perceive this situation differently. I know that when students leave campus, they are leaving our supervision, and according to the law, we are responsible for them between the hours of 7:35 and 2:20. I know that if an accident were to occur, not only would the school feel responsible, they would be legally responsible and open to possible law suits for allowing students off campus. My knowledge of the situation influences my perception.

This idea of good and evil being subject to interpretation was what I was trying to capture with my project – the idea that good and evil exist, and that there will always be both. It would be impossible to know what is truly good, unless it is paired with something evil. Sometimes, as in the song Devil went Down to Georgia, good wins, but at other times, we aren’t so lucky. This is the yin and the yang – the balance of the universe.

Perceiving: Good vs. Evil

Mystery Item

Ok, so not that anyone is terribly surprised, apparently it was pretty easy... A wineglass! :)

Mystery Photos