Being a creative Teacher

Introduction

Creativity has been world-wide known where people are able to do thing in their own way. Most of them are given freedom to do anything they like so that they have abundant chances to show their talent to the society. Creativity is dynamic methods of living in the world, like Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Charles Darwin or Abraham Lincoln who had so much of creativity that they can lead the world. They don’t do things differently but they had done things in unique way which cause immune effect to the world. So in creativity people are expected to do the things in innovative and in unique ways.

The world today represents the products of many creative people interacting with a changing environment. These changes are complex and challenge us in many different ways. Torrance (1992) stated that never before has there been such a need to create a climate that encourages the development of creative and inventive talent. They believe that creative thinking is essential to being globally competitive and able to develop new technology.

As rightly pointed out by Maria Montessori, “the most creative teacher is one who has keen interest to work with the children and teach children with different methodologies as per their standard.” Society needs people with creative problem-solving abilities and strategies to address the ever increasing society, education, and technology. Creative thinking helps adult achieve satisfying lives (Kerka, 1999). Our schools must lay the foundation to equip our children with the capability to deal with complex problems and solve them in creative ways. During the early years, children need opportunities to develop ingenuity and capacity to creatively problem solve. This can only occur if we have creative teachers working with young children during this critical period of development (Abdallah, 1996).

Creativity is things where you do things in different way in collaboration with your prior knowledge to create completely different things.  According to Wikipedia, creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. Teachers with the highest qualifications are not automatically the "best" teachers in the classroom. Creative person is someone who does work very differently from others. They are curious, experimental, adventurous, playful, and intuitive. They try to do things very differently from others and in creative ways. And creative teacher should be self-confident- willing to try new things, flexible, should appreciate others work, have sense of humor, reflects in his or her action, or enjoy working with children. It is not easy to become a creative teacher because we need posse’s lot of good characteristics.

Creative teachers are aware of and value the human attribute of creativity in them and seek to foster such a mindset in the young. They try to develop and demonstrate personally, pedagogically and in their classroom culture. They are autonomous professionals, who actively model their own creative engagement in the classroom and seek to nurture this in learners. They possess lots good characteristics and elements which would make them good creative teacher.

In this write up I am going to describe of being a creative teacher, their characteristics, elements and ways to encourage the learners in creative thinking. I hope this write up would be good one to be used in the future references.

Creative teacher

Creative teacher are always aware of themselves in doing things, they are curious and independent. As per Cremin, they model demonstrate and foster questioning stance, making connections and value originality and through such practices they try to develop the creative dispositions of the learners.

She also says that recognizing and exercising personal creativity appears to be important part of creative teacher’s professional and personal meaning making.

Three elements that makes a creative teacher

There are three elements that make a good teacher

1.      Individual teacher’s personal qualities

Individual teacher’s personal qualities play an essential role to be the creative teachers. Creative teacher needs to possess the curiosity and desire to learn, a sense of humour and enthusiasm. They should have “secure knowledge base” and understand children’s need and interests. (What makes the creative teacher?)

According to Boden, (2001); Craft, (2001); Ofsted, (2003) in Cremin said that creative teacher are noted by many writers to be comfortable with risk-taking in both their private and professional lives. Thus creative teacher should have risk-taking skills to mould the students.

2.      Pedagogy and teaching approaches

As per the article what makes a creative teacher? It says that creative teacher is likely to adopt a “questioning stances and will link ideas together, finding different ways of drawing pupils into the subject. Here it brings encouragement among the people to be active participants, asking questions and stretching the teacher too. Creative teachers in both their planning and teaching are alert to the potential mental connections between imagination and personal professional experiences and attributes high value to curiosity and risk-taking and to the development of imaginative unusual ideas in both themselves and their learners.

3.      School’s ethos

Creativity is only possible if risk taking is allowed and even encouraged. The best outcomes were seen when schools had opened their doors to outside influences such as Creative Partnerships and the wider community. (What makes a creative teacher?). Cremin says positive, trusting relationships and a high degree of emotional safety are seen as necessary to ensure a creative ethos. In terms of the physical and social environment, creative professionals appear to provide children with a range of resources, and the space and time to experiment with these purposefully.

Characteristics of a creative teacher

Now to become a good creative teacher we need to possess many important qualities;

1.      Empathy

To be a creative teacher one of the essential characteristics that creative teacher should possess is should have empathy for the learners. Teacher should possess an ability to bond with our students/learners, have to understand and resonate with their feelings and emotions. We should be able to communicate at their level so that we get what they mean and they will too. Be compassionate with them when they are down and to celebrate when they are up.

2.      Positive Mental Attitude

As a teacher we need to have positive attitudes towards the learning than negative attitudes. Think positive and have smile on face when teaching gets tougher. Try to find positive things in negative things then you will be able to teach them well. Try to be philosophical person. We should always try to view half full rather than half empty. Moreover it is said that children learn from giving more challenging and tougher questions instead of easier one.

3.      Open to Change

As the time passes we need to adapt to the new things, try to change with new things. Creative teacher should be flexible to adapt to any form of the situation. There is place for traditions too but there is also place to new ideas, new systems and approaches. Try to appreciate other’s ideas and listen to their ideas. Be open to the new changes.

4.      Role Model

As a teacher we need to be role model to the learners where by the learners should be able to see through us in the process of learning and see their future. Intrinsic role model exhibition are more necessary and essential since it inspire the learners to adapt new world.

5.      Creative

To become a creative teacher we need have creativity in oneself. The more creative you are more co-operations you will attend from learners. Through this we will be able to motivate the learners by using creative and inspirational methods of teaching. If you are using different way of teaching then we become different and that is how learners try to understand the teaching well and they will enjoy the class.

6.      Sense of humor

Humor is one of the greatest assets a person can have. While teaching we need to have good sense of humor where by learners will be able to learn easily and it lightens the atmosphere of heavy periods. It helps you to gain the respect from your children and increase your popularity. Thus through this sense of humor there will openness to all.

7.      Presentation Skills

As a teacher we need to have good presentation skills where by children will be able to learn well. They are visual, kinesthetic and auditory learners. Use of body language and other gestures would help learners to do well. Be a passionate speaker where by you have to keep in mind that we need to take care of discussion not the lecturing.

8.      Calmness

You need to have patience of what you are doing. Creative and good teacher’s always have patience. There is no need of immediate action for things you have done. There might be some students that, who might be aggressive, have negative thoughts and bad behavior. For those children you have to handle in different ways. You have to be calm when they create problems in the class. You should remain firmly as and when problem arouse.

9.      Respect

We need to have respect to our colleagues, seniors and students too.  When you respect others then you will be respected. This respect even refers to respecting the views and opinion that others have.  If a student gives nonsense questions too, we need to respect positively not barking back very harshly.

10.  Inspirational

We should be able to change the life of young children by helping them to realize their potential, helping them to grow, helping them to find their talents and abilities. We should always exhibit inspiring behaviour that they are inspired and be the best among the best.

11.  Willing to Learn

As a teacher we should be willingly to learn from others colleagues and students too. Always think that we are not perfect, we are bounded mistake. Learning is most necessary and in any case teacher should be standing by to learn.  

Ways to encourage the creative thinking

As a creative teacher we need encourage the children to have creative thinking in different ways. We have to facilitate creative thought in children by letting them work in their own. Children need to be allowed to discover their own things and let them to do the task by themselves. As a teacher we need to give children the oral cues while they are in the process of their work. By providing these cues they try to have better outcome and they will be motivated in learning. Moreover it is important to give them the verbal description of what they are doing and what they want to bring out as a result. They will have better ideas about the task. Be supportive to your child. Respond to all ideas that were given by the learners irrespective of what the ideas may be. Support their ideas and encourage them to go further with your help. Give them suggestions about the ideas. Mistakes are inevitable with creative thinking. We have to take risk in it. Allow learners to learn from their mistakes. Never put off the creative flow by penalizing those whose ideas don't work out.  Motivate individuals or teams who come up with good ideas by actively recognizing creativity. Reward to those who have very good ideas and let them put in their ideas in the task. Act on ideas. Creative thinking is only worthwhile if it results in action. Provide the time and resources to develop and implement those ideas. Help them to put their ideas in the task and let them do it by their own.

All this new thinking, however, places primary schools in a dilemma as to how to achieve it. Some great examples can already be found in schools that are comfortable with their identities, curricula and ‘value added’. Such schools are often already embracing these initiatives since they are able to evolve through confident leadership at all levels. Senior teachers and leaders have the confidence in their procedures and ethos to allow creativity and innovation to flourish. Indeed, where an entrepreneurial spirit of education is an expectation of a school, new initiatives are merged into current practice with ease. As a teacher you can be part of the creative revolution! (Harris, Judith. 1998).we all need to have positive mindset and work very hard so that creativity can happen in that process of work.

Tasks in teaching for creativity

Encouraging

Having a positive self-image as a creative person can be fundamental to developing creative performance. We need to encourage the learners in the field of creativity.

Identifying

Creative achievement is often driven by a person’s love of a particular instrument, for the feel of the material, for the excitement of a style of work that catches the imagination. Identifying young people’s creative abilities include helping them to find their creative strengths.

Fostering

Creativity draws from many ordinary abilities and skills rather than one special talent. Thus the development of many common capacities and sensitivities can help to foster creativity. Students are not born with all those talents and qualities to do their work. Fostering is more vital for child to learn and inhibit the skills to be more creative. For example; child may say ‘Apa’ but he/she doesn’t meant to call instead he/she might be saying need of water. Thus in this connection fostering and molding student to be creative are necessary.

Recognizing and becoming knowledgeable about the creative process can also help foster creative development; teaching for creativity helps young people in understanding what is involved in being creative and becoming more sensitive in their own creative processes. (Teaching Creativity and Teaching for Creativity)

If you can stimulate your students, you have a better chance at keeping them interested in learning more. But being creative offers more benefits than just holding a kid's attention. If you are able to present material in many different ways, your students have a better chance of understanding it. Being a creative teacher encourages students to be creative learners too. Most teachers accept that learning is most effective when it is enjoyable, but they are given little direct advice about how to achieve the creative and motivating classrooms that educationalists appeal for.

Conclusion

I am sure in this changing in world of Bhutan, but philosophically, a society that values conformity above individual creativity and choice making probably should teach drawing as a series of prescribed symbols rather than teaching actual observation, thinking, feeling, and interpretation skills.

I vividly remember when I was in class three my teacher was quite competent in drawing from memory and imagination. She had been taught to create a large drawing with colored chalk. We were each asked to copy her picture with our crayons. Her pictures, as I recall them, reminded me of stereotypical calendar landscape scenes of places we dreamed of visiting. See I now knew these types of teaching won’t work in this modern temporary world. What it takes to be a creative teacher is what it takes to be a creative artist. Creativity means dong things in unique ways or different from others. Now to become a creative teacher is not easy task, we need to have lots of good characteristics which would foster the learners’ learning. Being a creative teacher we need to have good knowledge of what to do and how to handle the learners while they are in the process of learning. Being a creative teacher always have to engaged in the process of learning and have patience over what the learners are doing, making or constructing. As a creative teacher we need to provide the learners with the resources like creative books, charts and bulletin board sets, music, videos, and puzzles. These things would help learners to develop their thinking level and help them to create many new things form it.

In this assignment I have written about the creative teacher, their characteristics, and ways of encouraging the learners to have creative thinking, its elements and task in teaching for creativity. I have concluded that to become a creative teacher we need to have many good qualities that would foster the learning of the children.

Finally I would like to conclude with the quotation said by Pablo Picasso, he said” Every child is artist. The problem is how to remain artist once grows up” so as rightly said by Pablo, we must remember every child is artist, and it is our duty to instill and teach them to continue to be artist once they grows up also, as we can do to children from the primary level, let’s make them good human.

References

Cremin, T. Creative teachers and creative teaching. Retrieved on May 15, 2015 from

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Institute of directors (2009). Ways to encourage creative thinking. Retrieved on May 25,

      2015 From http://www.iod.com/Home/Business-Information-and-Advice/Marketing-and

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Teaching Creativity and Teaching for Creativity. Retrieved on Mayr10, 2015 from

           www.britishcouncil.org/jordan-eltecs-creativity.ppt from google.com

Wikipedia (2015). Creativity. Retrieved on May 3, 2015 from  

           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity from google.com

What makes a creative teacher? (2010). Retrieved on May 4, 2015

            From http://www.agent4change.net/resources/publications/603-what-makes-a-creative-teacher-three-elements.html