Inventiveness and creativity

As discussed in Global Achievement Gap, creativity is what drives people and especially growing students. It makes people ask questions and develop new and life-changing ideas. Creativity is also what employers look for when hiring nowadays. Even though creativity is becoming more of a necessary asset to children, they are not learning how to be creative in school, nor are they being encouraged enough to be creative.

I think that in order to encourage creativity in the classroom, teachers need to give their students more freedom. That concept can be a little scary for some teachers, but many would be surprised at how well kids can handle a little bit a choice in what they learn and what they do. This will also make class more fun for them. They will not get as bored having to do the same thing day after day.

Rewarding creativity is important because then students know that their ideas are worthwhile. If they don't think that they have good ideas then they will be less inclined to be creative or ask more questions. A simple way of rewarding creativity is displaying the students work throughout the classroom. Giving students praise in front of the class sometimes is motivating as well.

For me, as a music educator, I would give my students the opportunity to research a type of music that they are interested in or the pieces that we are working on at the time. I also like putting students into smaller groups so they can interact and lead the group with out a teacher watching them the whole time.

Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me...

Reflection...
Is a scary thing to do. Reflecting on yourself, forces you to see your flaws and problem areas, and then find a way to fix them. This is why many teachers do not reflect as much as they should. Teachers get comfortable with a certain style of teaching and they don't really want to change. Being able to improve, and being able to know where and when,  is what makes the great teachers so great. These teachers are always trying to improve so that it betters their students.

Teachers need to know how to take constructive criticism. People looking in on your teaching from an outside perspective are able to see things that you would not normally see. Therefore they can help you reflect on your teaching. One way to improve you own teaching would be to video tape a lesson or two. This way when you go back and watch it, you will be able to see things that you do that you don't realize you are doing while you are talking.

I believe that reflection is one of the more important competencies because as teachers, we still need to be able to learn.

Ugh.... math.

I envy people who like math, or even people who are good at it. (You don't have to like something to be good at it and vive versa). Math makes me sick to my stomach. I have never considered myself good at it. I always dreaded my math classes, and I always got nervous for the tests. I used to think that I did have to be good at it to like it, and that it was my fault for how I felt about math. Now that I think back on the math teachers that I had, most of them were incredibly BORING!!! As a student you don't really think of the effect that the teacher has on your performance in the class but it totally does. If these math teachers are not making it fun to learn all these difficult concepts, or show that they enjoy them then why should the students? I remember not even caring about it. I tried to take notes in class and ask questions, but the answers to my questions were not any more exciting than the original explanation. This did not make me motivated to go outside of class to get help either.

Not all of my math teachers were not so boring. There are two in particular that had more personality that a brick wall. One in 8th grade, and the other in 10th grade. These two teachers had a few things in common. They tried to relate to the students. They talked to us about things other than school. They laughed with us, they made jokes, and shared information about themselves with us. There was a connection. Now this alone might not have made me better at the actual math but it sure made me more motivated to get better at it. I liked asking questions in their classes because I knew I would not feel chastised for it.

Passion for teaching is the most obvious quality to have. I mean, one does not go into teaching for the money, the fun, or because it is easy. Let's be real. It is also difficult to keep your passion strong the more years you do it. That is also what it means to teach. Finding new ways to approach your teaching, and always trying to improve. If a teacher shows this in a classroom, it will then reflect in their students.