I think I'm going Bananas!

Today in class we talked about creativity. We also read about creativity in our article yesterday and how it is slowly going away for our children. When I was a child I spent so much time engaged in play and imagination. I played with my dolls, I colored, I played outside, I cooked with my mom, I learned to sew and do crafts, and I played an instrument. These were all areas that I loved and I see them as activities that fostered the creative side of my personality. Many times, academics were a challenge for me. I didn’t view myself as “smart” or gifted at school. The imaginative or creative elements were the things that attracted me. I also really valued these items at school. I can distinctly remember having a nutrition fair at school as a fourth grader. We studied the food groups and then had a food that we learned about and made a costume for. I was a banana. I completely remember this because of the creative side of the project. I can still see my costume. Another project in fourth grade was learning how to make pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving time. I’m sure it was tied into learning about U.S. history and all the circumstances of that holiday, but it is the pie I remember. We cooked the pumpkin, ground it up, made the crust and each of us had a personal, little pumpkin pie. Again, this fostered creativity in me and the other students. You might have guessed that I had a TERRIFIC fourth grade teacher. In fact, she is who made me want to be a teacher. All the creative elements that existed in her class were the things that got me excited about learning. Fourth grade is the year I finally caught up in reading. I believe that since this teacher used both academics and creativity and combined them into meaningful lessons, I started believing in my own abilities.

In my own teaching, I really try to use both elements as well. It can be hard to make time for creative things, but this is the area I’m always trying to tie in and make room for. It is the area I love and am passionate about. As I move to third grade, I still want to do art and get my wooden blocks out. As part of my project, I want to be more creative in teaching reading to my students. I want them to do more projects in conjunction with the elements that I already use.

As a profession, I do see that there is less time for the creative elements. We don’t give our students as much room for creativity. There is so little time and so much pressure to pass the IRI and ISATS. It takes time away from a lot of the “fun stuff” unfortunately. I consider it my duty to try to make time for creativity because I know there are so many students like me who need that element in their education.