CREATIVE TEACHING: A NEED OF THE HOUR

Learning does not confine to mere school- prescribed curriculum and a routine syllabus. It actually needs more than that. In fact the curriculum is no longer bounded into the four walls of classroom; rather it has expanded its parameters. In older times the teachers simply teaches and give notes and things becomes easy for students as well as for the teacher. But now the time has changed a lot, it’s not easy to engage our children in teaching they need something extra, they wanted things in some or the other way in twisted manner or I should say they actually want change in the form of creative learning.

Here's an experiment we can conduct in many schools. Look through the door of one classroom and you might see the students hunched over, not engaged, even frowning. The teacher looks frazzled, tired and wishing he or she was somewhere else. You might think, "Well, everyone has a bad day." But you might witness this scenario in this teacher's classroom no matter what day you look through the door. For the second part of the experiment, look through the door of another classroom, and you might see a room full of lively students, eager, engaged and participating. The teacher is full of energy and smiling. This happens no matter what day you look through that door.

What is the second teacher doing that the first one isn't? He or she is using creativity in that classroom. Creativity makes a huge difference. Creativity is vital for a classroom to be successful. There is a common misconception that the word "creative" has to do mostly with the arts. But being artistic is only a small part of creativity. While any classroom environment would benefit from a teacher blessed with the gift of artistic talent, creativity is many other things.

Creativity is innovation.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If something isn't working, then it's broken and needs to be fixed. We should come up with something else that will work for our students.

Creativity is thinking outside the box.
Everything doesn't always have to be black and white. Sometimes the oddball activities are the ones that work.

Creativity is improvisation.
Things don't always turn out the way we planned. When I've realized that a lesson wasn't working midway through, I literally tossed it out and started over. I tried a different angle (in this case, incorporating a movie that my students liked), and it worked.

Creativity is professional growth.
We don't always have all of the answers. If we can't figure out what to do, use your coworkers as resources. We might find some really great ideas that make sense for our students. Also, look at research and see what has worked for other teachers around the world.

Creativity is being a risk taker or mold breaker.
I have had many crazy ideas for things to try in the classroom. Some have worked and some haven't, but I found that trying was better than being stuck in the same pattern that isn't working.

Creativity is passion.
Be passionate about what you are doing. You are there to inspire students to become lifelong learners. If you want them to love learning, you have to love what you are teaching. That’s what I actually believe.

Suggested ACTIVITIES: THE ARTSY SIDE OF CREATIVE

v Use different voices or accents when reading stories to the class.

v Dress in costumes of storybook characters to leave a lasting impression, or let students dress up as characters to retell stories.

v Turn your room into the environment of what you are learning about. When the class is learning about fairy tales, turn your classroom into a castle. When you're learning about animals, turn your classroom into a jungle.

v Survey your students at the beginning of the year. Get to know them and what they like. Then make a point of using their names, favorite foods, games, books, etc. in word problems, writing exercises, shared reading and many other activities. People do better and learn more when working with things they like. As adults we know that we don't want to do something if it's not fun. The same goes for kids.

LIVE LIKE A TURTLE

For those of you trying to figure out how you'll find the time to integrate all this into an already busy teaching day, here's some food for thought. It will take longer to teach a lesson three times than it will to teach it once using a little creativity. Make time for creativity. Go ahead -- be a risk taker and try at least one of these ideas this week. I'm sure you won't regret it.

As I said above, everyone has bad day, but overall my classroom is a happy place to be. It's like this because I use creativity to make learning fun. I live by these words that Dr. Ruth once said: "Live life every day like a turtle." To get anywhere, a turtle has to stick its neck out and take a risk. So take risks every day. It's the only way to truly live and make a difference in the world.

By – Richa Sharma