Revitalized Unit Reflection

Learning: This project was a good summary and culmination of the concepts, models and strategies I learned in this class.  I really feel what I gained most from this class is a perspective change.  I think "less is more" rings true in the classroom because I feel IF I focus on developing their critical, creative, and metacognitive thinking skills, my students will take away infinitely more than if I stress both myself and them out in focusing on mastering all the specific information of the course.  This is the approach I took in creating this revitalized unit and the models were a huge aide in creating an easy way to facilitate deeper understanding of the concepts I have been teaching.  I feel like through looking at what I have been doing with the students in this particular unit and comparing it with the new information I have learned through this course, I notice huge gaps and lack of students' thorough understanding of the topics.  Students were mainly gaining exposure previously, whereas students actually gain deep concepts in my revitalized unit.  I can now see that it does not have to be impossibly difficult to create opportunities for students to consistently engage in higher level thinking; it can be a daily opener with the Williams Model approaches.  I am so excited about implementing this new unit and I think the kids will not only learn more, but have more fun learning while they are at it!

 

 

Evaluation:   I definitely feel I incorporated a wide variety of the models throughout the unit that clearly aligned with the goals I set for the unit.  I think I explained the models clearly and how much it differed from what I have done in the past.  I definitely looked for ways to implement technology to make the lesson more interactive and cause it to come alive, and I feel I connected the students with technological resources they can use once they graduate to help them set up their life and budget.  I felt passionately about the major strengths of the model, and I feel I justified their implementation well in my explanations.  For my video, the original turned out to be 16 minutes long!!  I re-recorded and made the material as concise as I could with trying to include the hows and whys of the models and strategies I was using.  I believe the 2nd video was much better!  I worked hard to organize and finalize the written material so it was clear and professional-looking.  I believe I deserve an A on this project as I demonstrate thorough understanding of the concepts in this class and have worked hard to create a plan to implement them into my teaching. 

Teaching Demonstration 2: Cause & Effect

Self-Evaluation:  I feel the most confident on my cause and effect model presentation than on anything else I did in this class.  I really liked the model, felt very confident in using it, and therefore I felt the presentation was strong and smooth.  My classmates were really engaged in the activity, and I think the topic was very relevant to their experiences.  It gave them a very clear picture of how to use the model, and they were thinking critically, creatively, and metacognitively.  I felt my presentation was very relevant and easy to follow, and I clearly communicated to them the importance of the skills practiced through the cause and effect model.  We had very good discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, and how it tied into the other models and ways of thinking, and they came up with good ways to adapt the model to fit the classroom.  Again, I think the only thing I would have changed was the time we spent on the activity, but I really didn't want to stop my classmates because they were having such good discussion and looking deeply into the topic.  I feel my quality of work and the presentation itself warranted an A on this project. 

Learning: I feel like I learned so much through diving deeper into this model.  I think out of all the models we have talked about, this one is the easiest to implement and very original in the value of what it teaches the kids.  If everyone in the United States thought this way, we would have an incredible nation free of the overwhelming struggles from which we suffer greatly.  I didn't realize before how easy it could be to teach students to think in such a profound, life-altering way!  I love the idea of looking at prior causes and subsequent effects.  People don't usually see that undervaluing of teachers can lead to a nation full of uneducated people with low self-esteem, but that's the type of thing you uncover in this model.  Also, the generalizing principal take-aways are so good, and students/people can learn important concepts they can apply to any occupation in which they work.  It is a very deep, critical and creative way at looking at life and people.  I also liked the thought process behind the sequence of steps.  I think initially, I would see it making sense to first do the cause, and then the prior causes; but upon reading the model details, I really see value in and appreciate going back and forth between the causes and effects.  I really enjoyed my classmates' ideas for how to apply this model in the classroom, and I feel that we all learned something as I was presenting. 

Teaching Demonstration 1: Creative Problem Solving

Self-Evaluation:  I felt that throughout this demonstration, I worked very hard to teach the model thoroughly and in a way in which my classmates would not only understand, but they could easily apply to their own classrooms.  My model was closely followed throughout the activity, and I felt my classmates were engaged and accomplishing all the goals of the model.  The one area I wish I could have done better in is the identifying the problem step.  Throughout the presentation, I emphasized how important that step was in the model, but because I felt so rushed during the activity, I didn't spend very much time on it.  I should have asked several more questions to have my classmates further breakdown the problem and restate the problem in a question form.  Beyond that, I think the activity went very well, and it was very appropriate for grad students as it directly applied to their situation.  I think my classmates learned from their experience our natural inclinations to throw out ideas before we even suggest them.  The "deferred judgement" aspect definitely provided a learning experience and they saw how important it is to practice this skill with the students several times so their creativity could be more and more free.  I really felt I covered the background of the model and not only explained the steps of the model, but WHY teachers should use the creative problem solving model with students.  I feel my explanation of the difference between creative problem solving and traditional problem solving gave my classmates a clearer picture of the goals and value in the creative problem solving method.  I really think the most important take-aways from my lesson were the values (free creative risk-taking and evaluation process) were clearly communicated to my classmates and they could see how the model would so greatly help any member of society no matter what their occupation is!  The heart and value were communicated I think that is most important!  I really enjoyed the discussion as I feel my classmates had great ideas and they were very engaged in it!  My handout was very reader-friendly and had all the most important information and also had appropriate APA citing on the bottom.  I feel I should receive an A on this project due to my hard work and accuracy in presenting.

Learning: This model was very interesting to me, and I feel like it has caused me to rethink problem solving in my classroom.  One thing I have been thinking about ever since I presented on creative thinking skills is not immediately shutting down my students' ideas if I foresee a problem, or allowing my students to do the same to each other.  I think I do this without realizing in my classroom, which most likely shuts down the creativity and willingness to take risks within my students.  This model creates a structure for creative thinking and allows for completely unique, unhindered thinking processes.  I feel like after learning so much about the value of creative thinking skills, this model allows for a practical way to encourage building these skills within the classroom, and I really appreciated digging deeper into its application and process.  I definitely have tried to promote creative thinking skills in my classroom, but honestly, I don't think I had much rhyme or reason to how we went about doing this.  I appreciate this method and having something to reference and modify according to what my classroom needs.  I also really like the step in the model where there is a clear method of evaluating and rating each of the ideas.  That is something that is transferable into all decision making models/activities.  I really see the value of instilling this process into students to become successful thinking adults.  When I was presenting to my classmates, I felt I learned a lot from their ideas and answers to my own discussion questions.  They had so many ideas of how to apply it to the different subjects and how to adapt it for other students, and it really got me thinking on how to best implement it into my classroom. 

Research Project: Creative Thinking

Summary:  I really enjoyed watching the activity my classmates participated in with the tic-tac-toe.  They had such unique answers and it seemed they got great practice in not only identifying the different levels of creative thinking but actually creatively thinking, themselves.  The questions seemed to go well, also.  For the first question, Ashley opened up the discussion giving some practical ideas for implementing creative thinking in the classroom.  She wanted to incorporate the "remote associates" into vocabulary lessons and writing activities to bring students further comprehension and an opportunity to develop their creative thinking skills.  Sue had an interesting approach where she would like to read a story with characters solving a problem and have the students come up with their unique solutions to that same problem.  This would be easy to incorporate into a reading class.  Carrie wanted to have students come up with questions/solutions and have students label them with which level of the creative thinking taxonomy period it fell under.  She also wanted the students to use the hats as they brainstormed in the classroom.  Then, they all discussed how to overcome creative roadblocks in the classroom, and Carrie was proposing ideas to involve FUN learning in the classroom as opposed to a classroom "all about business."  The second question about our own creative roadblocks led to a great discussion about we as teachers needing to model stepping outside our comfort zone and even failing and learning from it for our students.  They are afraid of failing, so we have to model how to overcome and learn from failure to help change their mindsets.  Ashley brought up the greatest achievements of mankind experienced failure and we as teachers need to be teaching that outlook/mindset for our students. Carrie asked how we help more shy students step out and not fear their peers' opinions of their creativity, and Sue suggested having the whole group applaud each time someone makes a tiny step in the right direction.  Overall, the activity and discussions were very insightful and I feel we really developed the concept of creative thinking.

Evaluation:  

After completing this project and taking time to examine my submissions in comparison with the rubric, I feel there are definite strengths and weaknesses to be noted.  In terms of my research information, I am very satisfied with what I covered.  I believe that the information was very relevant, in-depth, and engaging for the students in the grad class.  I can say this quite confidently because I feel I gained much understanding from the research I discovered and I believe it did the same for my classmates.  I also felt my handout was well designed and displayed the most important information from my presentation.  I spent a lot of time on the research, the PowerPoint, and the handout, and I feel like the quality of the three reflected such.  I think my activity did a fine job in requiring my classmates to dig deeper into the topic of creative thinking and they began to synthesize and evaluate the material.  I also worked intentionally to create questions that helped my classmates not only synthesize the information but also evaluate and apply what they learned from their research to their own thinking, and I believe I did so.  My aim was to uncover disabling mindsets among my classmates and to help them overcome the limitations in their own life that hinders their creativity.  Through my classmates' discussion, I feel this goal was accomplished.  The one area I wish to improve, however, is my presentation of the unit.  I have not had experience with presenting in front of a camera with no actual students present.  To be honest, this made me feel nervous and definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone.  It is difficult to not be able to see the faces of the audience and gauging my performance on their body language.  I don't think I did poorly, but I do think I definitely have room to improve on my confidence and articulation as I virtually present.  However, on a positive note, I do feel like I definitely showed understanding of the content I was teaching, and I was confident in the information.  My goal is that through the rest of this class, as I have countless opportunities to practice, I will show improvements in my virtual presentation.  With all this being said, I am overall very satisfied with my final product of this project.  I worked very hard, spent a lot of time, and I feel like the quality of my research, PowerPoint, handout, and presentation reflects this.  I believe I deserve an "A" as I followed the rubric as closely as possible and put forth my best effort.

Reflection:

I truly feel a sense of satisfaction after participating in this assignment.  I feel I gained a wealth of insight on a topic about which I had little understanding prior to the research. In my classroom, I tried to include creative opportunities in my English lessons (ie. "Create a solution to this problem") only because I saw it was at the top of the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid.  However, through analyzing the research, I really gained a new understanding of the growing importance of teaching students creative thinking skills and incorporating them into not some activities, but most.  As I viewed the facts with people referring to creativity as "the new economy," I felt a little fire start in my heart for developing these skills in my own students and helping other teachers to do the same in their classrooms. I just loved the simplicity of creative thinking and learning how it is not nearly as complicated as I once assumed.  This is what I wanted for my classmates to understand the most: Creative thinking skills are not only completely imperative to survive in today's working world, but also, it is not difficult to develop them.  I also loved reading the researchers' work indicating that everyone has creative thinking capacity, the skills just need to be fostered and developed.  This aspect was another overarching concept I wanted my classmates to grasp as well.  Just because someone isn't musically gifted or talented in visual arts, that does NOT mean they aren't creative.  All people are born with creative potential.  As I wrote the question about what mindsets do we, ourselves, have that limit our own creative thinking, I realized that I need to come to terms with a roadblock that I have in my own mind--"what if I fail/what would people think?"  I realized this hinders me in my professional risk-taking because I so aim to please my administrators and coworkers that I can shy away from a new idea that would be a risk.  I think when I really look at the truth, I can see that my administrators and coworkers really appreciate and admire when I take risks in my classroom and with the program I'm developing, even if I "fail."  They would probably view it as admirable that I am trying to be creative and grow my program.  In listening to my classmates, I feel I started to get more ideas about how I could creatively implement this research into my classroom.  I really liked Ashley's idea of using "remote associates" for vocabulary or writing activities, and Sue furthered the KJ method and its use in the classroom.  Overall, I really enjoyed this project and feel it has really opened my mind to a very important topic relative to developing my pedagogy.