#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.