Today we started off with a short lecture on creativity. We mainly spoke about how we want the future generation of children to not copy what children that have come before them have done but to be unique and make their own mark on things in whatever way they feel is necessary. Csikszentmihhalyi, M. (1996) stated that the first step that will lead to a more creative life is the fostering of interest and curiosity. After reading what Csikszentmihalyi said we discussed as a whole class how it is a good thing to let children ask questions and investigate things for themselves as things could have a completely different meaning to a child compared to those of an adult. Also, we were discussing the fact that for example in a maths test two children might get the same answer but one of the children might have been more creative in trying to find the answers. We were also told briefly about what we could expect from the visual arts workshop today which was that we were going to be painting.
Again, my first workshop of the day was music. Today our main focus was looking at the music website created for students and teachers called Charanga. We spent about an hour just taking our time going through the website looking at all the resources that are available to us as we have a free account for the next three years. We got to experience some of the lessons on the website which included singing one of my favorites Mamma Mia. It was a good insight to know that there are resources like that out there for me to use when the time comes for me to be teaching lessons on placement. The last half hour of the workshop was something that some of my peers would excel at but for me it was quite scary and out of my comfort zone even though I used to play brass. We were given a glockenspiel between two people, the lecturer then told us she would play hit the road on the piano and we one by one had to improvise with a pentatonic scale, which is a scale with only 5 notes. We had to create our own rhythm on the spot. This was pretty daunting but also a good learning experience because it put us in the shoes of how a child at primary level may feel in a music lesson and also got us to be creative. When explaining their definition of creativity, Education Scotland (2013), states that it is about examining problems with an open mind, which I think is a good phrase to reflect on after this music workshop because a lot of my peers including myself did not want to be put in the position of having to play an instrument solo never mind having to make it up as we went along. Having an open and positive mind definitely helps when tackling this sort of task as it allows you to see this a learning experience instead of a negative where we are being put completely out of our comfort zones. Overall, the class was really enjoyable and being an ex-musician I am confident I can provide a fun learning experience when it comes to music in the classroom.
The second workshop of the day was visual arts, once again we met in the art studio. We were told that we were going to be making our own paint brush, I looked around at my peers and they all looked just as confused as I felt. I had never seen anyone make a paintbrush never mind made one myself so I was totally taken back when I was asked to do this. We were not given much instruction but were told where we could find resources that we could use. I collected yellow and light pink string as well as dark blue straw like material. I struggled to picture how I could make it into a paintbrush but eventually I got there and I was pretty impressed with myself.
Next the lecturer gave us paint and paper and we were set the task of using our own handmade paintbrush to paint a picture. He described a scene to us and we could paint it however we thought it would look like, he gave us details such as it was in the highlands, there was a very pale blue sky and green, blue and brown mountains. I started off by creating a pale blue by mixing white and blue together and after 2 minutes of painting my sky my paintbrush fell apart, the blue straw like material fell off so I had to continue painting the rest with the string parts of my paintbrush. We were given no green or black so we had to be creative and make our own colours by mixing. Overall my painting was not my best piece of art I have produced but considering I had a paintbrush disaster I think it looks pretty creative and that is the most important thing.
Finally, from both of the workshops we participated in today I have definitely shown a creative side that I did not know I had. I realised how important it is to let children be creative in the classroom and allow them to be curious and ask questions about things as this is how they learn.
References
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity – Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, New York: Harper Collins
- Educating Scotland. (2013). Creativity Across learning 3-18. [Online] Available: http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=194791&chapterid=16011[ Accessed: 23September 2018]
