Senior Pictures

Recently my little brother had his senior pictures taken. I can't even believe he is a senior.... I feel so old.  Anyway, our youth pastor, Brody Bearden, also has a video/photography business so we were really excited to get Brody to take Andy's pictures. I am absolutely amazed and the creativity that Brody has when taking his pictures. All of Andy's were one of a kind. Here are a few:

Yes, those are pigs. My brother and I have showed pigs since the 4th grade. 

All of these pictures are taken at my house. How lucky am I!? Anyway, Brody did an awesome job with the pictures and I couldn't imagine someone more creative. It takes a really talented and creative person to be a photographer. Here is a like to Brody's website : Brody Bearden Photograhpy.

Learning and Leading : Creativity

1.  The four dimensions that J.P. Guilford uses to describe creativity are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.  

2.  I probably struggle the most with flexibility. Flexibility is the ability to look at a topic from a different perspective, which can be changing your viewpoint, angle, direction, time and many other ways. I tend to find that in my daily life, once I get my mind set on something or some idea, it tends to stay that way. I get wrapped up in my idea to the extent that if I try to change the viewpoint or direction that it might confuse me. I consider myself open to new ideas and new things, but I find it difficult to make that change. For example in English 1102, my professor had us rewrite one of our papers by changing the thesis to the opposite claim. It was probably the most difficult paper I have ever written. I had done so much research on the 1^st topic and then I had to completely change my mindset to the opposite angle. I had convinced myself of the 1^st angle and it made it very difficult to view it from another perspective. However, if I had been more flexible the essay would not have been near as difficult. Flexibility is something that I definitely need to improve on and become more comfortable with. 

3. Wallwisher is a tool that we have talked about in class that would help with the dimensions of creativity. Fluency is considered the ability to generate lots of ideas, practically brainstorming. A teacher could create a wall about a topic on wallwisher, and then have the students post to the wall their ideas about the topic. Wallwisher could also be used to help with the dimension of flexibility. The teacher could make a wall that discusses an issue or topic, and the students could post notes about different ways to solve the problem or about their different views of the topic. They could then look at all the different perspectives and angles of ways to solve the problem or address a certain topic. Through wallwisher students could also demonstrate the dimension of originality, through posting a note that is the first of its kind. Perhaps they have a very original response to the topic of the wall or maybe they respond the problem in a way that even the teacher hasn’t thought of. Wallwisher can help the student see what others have posted, and then they can see that their response is totally different and original. It is a great way to show the dimension of originality. Walwisher can also be used to aid in the dimension of elaboration. Like previously discussed, maybe the wall is about a certain topic or problem. After viewing the wall once, the students could look back and post notes giving more details about the topic or give a more detailed explanation of how to solve the problem. Wallwisher is a great way to incorporate all dimensions of creativity. 

4. Tagxedo is an online tool in which students can make word clouds. It allows them to customize the font, theme color, and shape. As a future speech therapist I can definitely use this tool to support creativity with my students. For example, if a student is working on pronouncing a certain letter, he/she could brainstorm a list of words that all contain that certain letter. This would be considered the fluency aspect of creativity. Then the student could plug the words into tagxedo, and choose their theme, font, shape, ect. I would encourage them to choose a shape that also had to deal with the letter they are working on. For example if the student is working on the letter “r” the shape could be a rabbit. Allowing the student to design the word cloud in this way helps the originality aspect of creativity.  I would then print the word could and have the student practice the words in the word could and let them take it home to practice there as well. Tagxedo is a great tool that I could use to promote creativity in my speech therapy room.

My Creative Side

Let's all face it... school stinks. It's hard and it does nothing but stress us out. At least that is the case for me and my boyfriend, Stewart. Whenever I get frustrated, stressed, or down about school, I can ALWAYS count on Stewart to encourage me. And I hope that I do the same for him. However, the need for encouragement has skyrocketed this semester since we both are taking really hard classes, which is the inspiration for my latest craft. I wanted to make Stewart something he can go to when he needs a little boost of encouragement. Therefore, I went to Wal-mart and bought a wooden box... but not just any wooden box. This box has a heart where I put our picture. How can he not smile looking at this?!

And for further encouragement, I added bible verses to help him through the day and give him hope. I also added sweet little inside jokes that will make him smile. 

So now Stewart has a whole box of  encouragement to look at on those down days. Hopefully this will make school just a tiny bit easier to bare. 

Horizon Report

One key trend that was discussed in the Horizon Report was hybrid classes. A hybrid class is when part of the instruction is done in a classroom, and part of the class is done online. I have taken 4 hybrid classes and I have LOVED every single one of them. It was nice to have the interaction with the teacher when I needed it, but I was able to do a lot of the work online at home on my own time. The teachers used class time for discussions and activities that couldn’t be completed online, which gave us some time for interacting and learning from our classmates. They also would usually assign some sort of discussion question online, in which we could read and react to other students’ posts, along with some online quizzes. However, I think the subjects that I took for hybrid classes were well suited for that type of learning. I believe that not all classes should be hybrid, because some subjects need that consistent class time, like science and math. I’m hoping that in the future colleges will start to offer more hybrid classes in subjects that it suits, but I know that will take some experimenting.

 I think would be cool if hybrid type classes could be incorporated in the k-12 school system for certain subjects. What if starting in middle school some of the subjects were taught in a hybrid class manner. Maybe have the teacher teach once a week and then have the students complete assignments online the rest of the week, either during the scheduled class time or at home. It would teach them independence and responsibility, instead of having a teacher constantly hover over them. Maybe students in the future will be more comfortable with this type of learning since they are “technological natives” and are very familiar with different types of technology. I believe it could possibly be more effective than having them complete book work and listen to a teacher every day, when they are living in a world that is technologically based. They can relate to it! I think this would be an awesome thing to incorporate in middle/high school, if implemented appropriately. 

Meaningful Learning: Collaboration

Growing up in school I was mainly taught to do my work on my own, and to not discuss ideas with my neighbors. It was considered "cheating" to share ideas. I can't count the number of times I was hushed in school and told to "do my own work". However, I believe that we can learn MORE through collaboration with peers. Whether the cooperation occurs in the classroom or over the Internet, I believe it is a very important aspect to include in teaching. Through collaboration we get all different types of views and solutions from different people that can open our mind to different perspectives. This also allows for discussion of the problem which will help engage students, and make them more likely to remember the information. Now, there is a fine line between cheating and relying on one person, and collaboration. But if all team members work together on assignments I believe that they will have success and retain more from the assignment. I also believe that through collaboration students are also able to learn more about each other, which prepares them to accept all types of people in a diverse society. We live in a country that is a melting pot of cultures, and through collaboration students learn to deal with different types of people that will help them in accepting others in the future. I believe that collaboration is very important in the classroom, and I sometimes wonder what more I would have learned if there had been more collaboration in my classes.