I love the discussion around creativity as I have noticed this over the last few years that when we do creative learning parents and other adults at time question the learning in it. Within my class on a Friday I really ensure it is creative play based learning as this is so essential for the children to experience and I still feel that I have to justify what I am doing all the time rather than letting the play lead the learning. It was a good reminder that the create is the whole person not just the brain.
The 6 C's are a fantastic tools!
Engagement - This is a topic that is close to my heart! I feel that I put a lot of effort into engaging the children, getting them thinking and asking questions about what is happening or going to happen. Some examples I have done recently was having the gorilla enclosure in the corner of the room as a part of 'The One and Only Ivan' novel study. Next term I am going to have a coal mine set up in the corner of the room that the children can interact with. This will set us up for out new topic around 'The Mines Afire'. One barrier I find is all the ideas I come up with seem to cost money (but are effective).
It was great to be exposed to Multi-modal activities and looking at the comparison between how presentations can really hook and engage the learner or turn them off. Just a big thing for me is allowing time to do more of this, so it was wonderful to get that great time in the afternoon to put all that we had learnt about the websites and multi-modal activities and then put it into practice in a way that is effective for my classroom and topic. It does prove to me that you could spend hours on creating some of these multi-modal activities, so setting yourself a time limit will be required or I would whittle away all my time and forever have an excuse not to exercise!!
You are so right Amanda, time is the big issue with everything and that's why it's important to ensure we set boundaries so as you said, we don't get carried away with creating new things. One of the great things I have learned since being involved with Manaiakalani is the opportunity to share my ideas and repurpose other peoples great ideas and this in turn has cut down the use of some of my precious time. I hope this is something you may be able to make use of. Thanks for your honesty in your blog Amanda.
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