Like how the teacher took the soccer ball and turned that ball into a huge creative teaching tool, do any of you already have any ideas about how you want to teach a specific idea/objectives?

As a music teacher, I've been thinking about fun exercises that would include lots of course goals. I would like to have my students sit around in a big circle and while I start a steady rhythm. Then, the students could come in, one-by-one, and start improvising their own rhythm, beat, or melody. Just doing something as simple as that gets the students involved in the class, has the student improvise (and compose!) collectively and indivdually, among other objectives.

I'm a Secondary Ed English major, and I already know how I want to approach poetry in my classroom. Poetry usually gets a lot of groans - mainly because you have one big long poetry unit filled with puritan poetry and stuff like that. I want to make poetry exciting. We all liked it as kids - nursery rhymes, riddles, Shel Silverstein etc - so I don't see why it can't be enjoyable as a teenager. I think to introduce poetry and spark some interest, I am going to use music as the introduction. Lyrics are definitely poetic. I'd pick a few songs/lyrics to be examples to study some of the elements of poetry - rhythm/beat, rhyme (maybe), use of language etc. I'd turn it over and let my students bring in some (appropriate) songs and we'd look at those lyrics. I feel like that would get them used to the terms of poetry in a fun way and give them a relatable background. That way, the standard sort of poetry I'm probably going to have to teach won't be as overwhelming and intimidating.

I am an Elementary ed. major....i don't have any specific ideas, but i think the main way to help bring creativity into a classroom is by integrating subjects. By not only teaching one subject at a time and allowing students to show their creativity i think they will be able to learn at a better potential. There are many different strategies that can be used in order to use creativity through your teaching, I just think most importantly you should do different things and mix it up so students will not get bored and they will be excited to learn things in a new and different way.

I agree with Samantha, I am an Elementary Ed teacher and I think integration is very key. I believe that if you're able to link subjects and text together that students will have a better understanding and if it's a subject they don't particularly like, they can realize that it fits into other areas as well. Sometimes teaching each subject cut and dry can be very boring for students and integration could help in this area. I also think finding activities that students can be hands on is key. Some students learn by lecture and notes, but if you can pair the two that there are still notes but also an activity, those students who learn by doing will be able to really manipulate their minds and understand the activity. This also allows them to interact and move around which I believe is key for social interaction.

Casey Gill

I agree with Samantha as well. Creativity is really important in an elementary classroom. Students are still discovering how they learn best, and they are very active at that young age. In order to keep their attention, you have to do fun creative activities. You can't just lecture them or give them worksheets. The school I sub at back home uses a curriculum that is worksheet based, but I see every time I go in there, that the teachers are working around the worksheets and just using them as reviews.

I am an elementary ed major and a group in one of my classes was suppose to teach pollination and how bees help with that. They had two styrofoam plates. On one plate they had yellow corn meal which represented the male part of the flower (pollen) and on the other plate they drew the female part of the flower. Then they had curled up pipe cleaners which represented the hairy legs of the bee and they dipped the pipe cleaners into the corn meal and then touched the female part on the next plate. This showed how the bees legs transfer the pollen to the female part of the plant.

Hope this helps anyone!