Maria+Elsitdie

Email address: mcelsitdie@fcaq.k12.ec

=**Assignment # 1**= SCAVENGER HUNT media type="youtube" key="hD_gDuATPtA" height="315" width="420"

Reflection:
Working on this activity was a great challenge, it gave me the opportunity to see common things around me in a different way. The questions and tasks were well structured, thinking how in any common setting we can find what could inspire a singer, a brilliant musician, or a wonderful writer is amazing. Our world is an unfinished master piece that shows us human ingenuity in many astonishing ways. Something else that I really value about this activity are all the presentations prepared by other groups in the class; how the same task and questions were understood and interpreted by them was awesome, specially the one made about Quito and the streets around Alliance Academy. My peers did not go too far but they really made a great job getting all the answers in the video we saw in class. I consider this activity a great idea and a useful tool that I can adapt and use in my classes because I know that the kids can do wonderful things in their own way. Humanities is a subject that has connection with almost all fields of study, so a scavenger hunt can be connected with a field trip or a way to wrap up an specific topic, for example I used to teach the Colonization process of America, and an excellent opportunity to have direct impressions of the Spanish influence in our city is to visit historical places downtown Quito. Now I am considering to connect that field trip with an activity like this in which students can discover details of the city and build their own picture of the value of those places and the connection with the Spanish and Inca culture.

GREAT IDEA AND APPLICATION TO YOUR TEACHING SITUATION. YOU DID NOT ADDRESS THE BARRON AND EISNER FACTORS IN YOUR REFLECTION, HOWEVER.


 * Application of Creative Strategie__s__ **
 * __ Lesson Plan 1 __**


 * Discipline: ** TOK / Humanities


 * Essential Question: ** To what extent can humans be certain that what they believe is true?


 * Strategy: ** Morphological Matrix

- Students will understand the relationship between areas of knowledge and ways of knowing. - Understand how we “know” and demonstrate capacity to reason critically. - Make connections in real life situations.
 * Objectives: **


 * Description of the strategy: **

The morphological matrix can be used in class to combine the areas of knowledge, the ways of knowing, the questions/problems/issues that appeared for students to understand the connections.

Steps:
 * 1) Introduce students to the morphological matrix. Teacher can give an example by listing the ideas that may fit in the matrix. 10 minutes
 * 2) Students in pairs will fill out their matrix. 10 minutes
 * 3) Students will list the possible combinations that they can come up with from the matrix they did. 10 minutes
 * 4) Students will share their combinations in a whole class discussion. 5 minutes
 * 5) For assessment, students will be asked to reflect on a written paper choosing one combination out of the matrix. 10 minutes


 * ** Ways of knowing ** || ** Areas of knowledge ** || ** Knowledge question/problem ** ||


 * Reflection: ** This lesson might help students come up through a different activity with the main ideas related to the way we human beings can acquire knowledge, which is the basis for the class.

THIS LESSON HAS POTENTIAL TO HELP THE KIDS COME UP WITH DIFFERENT IDEAS.


 * Lesson Plan 2 **


 * Discipline: ** Social Studies


 * Essential Question: ** How can inventions and technology affect societies?


 * Strategy: ** Brainstorm and Imagery

- Understand the impact of inventions and technology on societies. - Evaluate the positive and negative outcomes of human inventions. - Brainstorm ideas and aspects to be considered in their evaluation process. - Decide, as a team, which sculpture will represent better their conclusions.
 * Objectives: **


 * Description of the strategy: **

Brainstorming is a tool that can be used in a fluent and spontaneous way to gather useful information in a large group. Imagery is a great way to express ideas in a playful setting that can allow students find different solutions.

Steps:


 * 1) Discuss with the students the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution and their impact in new economic and productive activities.
 * 2) Make a list of different fields in which technology and inventions have an influence.
 * 3) Brainstorm possible positive and negative implications of inventions and technology in modern day societies.
 * 4) Allow students to get into working groups of three students to discuss and decide what sculpture they are going to work on.
 * 5) Give students clay to model a sculpture that can express the results of their evaluation process.


 * Implementing the Activity: **

I think that it is very important to find all possible connections of historical events to the present day, so students can realized that history is not just something that happened in the past and is written in books, but has an impact in what we are now. I noticed that making connections help students to understand and integrate the content learned in class with things that we can observe now in daily and common situations. Brainstorming is a good opportunity to share ideas fast, easy, and in a collaborative setting. The most important part is to let students express themselves through a completely new art activity that can probably demonstrate how they interpret the evaluation process in a different way.


 * Assessment/Reflection: **

The assessment will be through all the process, but the most important is the final product the sculpture. It must tell the viewers a story of the positive and negative impact of inventions and technology in societies. At the end students will discuss and reflect about the experience and how they were able to evaluate the essential question. I have had the opportunity to use clay in one of my classes and the reaction of students was amazing, at the beginning they did not know what to do with it. They wanted to model it like they did before in pre – school with play dough. But the atmosphere of the class was wonderful, students really enjoyed using this material and they were proud and happy with the pieces they were able to create following just one simple rule: they were not allow to separate nay part of the piece of clay. I understand that is good for our brains to have an image in three dimensions instead of just a flat surface. Evaluate is a hard task, but if it is combined with a more playful activity it could be less difficult because the ideas are going to be express through art production. In it there is not judgement and allows free expression.

THIS IS AN OPEN-ENDED ACTIVITY WHERE YOUR STUDENTS CAN MAKE CONNECTIONS AND PLAY WITH POSSIBILITIES OF REPRESENTATION. SYNECTICS, WHICH WE JUST DID NOT GET TO, WOULD HAVE ENHANCED THIS ACTIVITY. SYNECTICS IS ABOUT SEEING THE WORLD METAPHORICALLY BY CONNECTING THE STRANGE WITH THE FAMILIAR.

Pre - Assignment


[|www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/the-creativity-crisis-newsweek/] Jul 19, 2010 – The creativity crisis (Newsweek). In a recent article on America's declining ability to be creative, the author, Po Bronson, tries to explain why creativity is important.
 * 1) Read:[|The creativity crisis (Newsweek) « Scott Berkun]

[|www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html]
 * 1) View Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk.

TED Talks - Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines).


 * 1) Write a summary of five main points you find compelling from these articles.


 * 1) Discuss how you nurture creativity in your students currently. Provide concrete examples.


 * 1) Finally list three understandings or skills you would like to learn in this course on Creativity.

Bring a printed copy of this assignment to class on Saturday. (one or two pages max!)

María del Carmen Elsitdié Pre Assignment for CRS 560 Susan Baum May, 15th, 2012 Why is studying creativity important? After reading the article “The creativity crisis” (Newsweek) Scott Berkum I can mention as new information the reference to Torrance’s method and its impact in the students who had the opportunity to be guided by it. It is very interesting to see that the method was proposed in 1958 and used more th an 50 years ago, enough time to measure the results of it. I checked details of the method and it is interesting to notice that is well structured and follows clear defined steps that makes it easy to apply in any class. Creativity is consider, according to the article, as #1 leadership competence and of course it is something that now is mandatory for anyone who wants to reach successfully results in his/her career. The big question for us teachers is how can we encourage our students to develop creativity, hard task in a world in which tests, scores and grades are the main reference to reflect the learning process and justify all the time that our students spend at school. It is very difficult to define creativity; according to the authors of the article is a matter to use both divergent and convergent thinking, an exercise of shifting and combining ideas using all functions of the brain. I understand creativity as a tool or a way to solve problems, create new settings, do things differently, propose new points of view and identify skills that can lead us to decode information. On the other hand Sir Ken Robinson, explains in his video his ideas about how schools and all educational systems around the world, give more importance to other subjects but not to art, drama, dance or other activities that can be a great way to encourage and develop creativity. I think that his reference to the ideas of Picasso who believed in our innate potential towards art are fascinating, it is our duty as teachers to keep them in mind in the effort to see our classes different. It is harder to design projects, in which the students can demonstrate their creativity, but it is not impossible, I think that it is only a matter to change our way to focus on the value and the possibilities that all young kids can reach during their learning process. For me it is hard to realize if I can reach any level of creativity when I am planning my classes, I have had the opportunity to witnessed the results of allowing my students to show their ideas in different settings, for example this school year we have worked on the following activities, that I consider were a good opportunity to see the creativity of my kids: - Design a Utopian community, based on the book written by Thomas More and the context of the Renaissance - Review the main ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment and then design a game in which other students can verify their knowledge. - Model animals from one piece of clay. - Color a mandala, without any specific purpose but to have a different activity within the school year - Bring articles from the news that showed a connection with the topic of the class. In this course I would like to learn: How can I identify creativity? How can I measure it? What can I do to make my classes more creative in benefit of my students?

YOU POSE VALID CONCERNS THAT WE HAVE IN TIS TEST TAKING SOCIETY. HOWEVER I DO BELIEVE GRAPPLING WITH PROBLEMS THAT DO NOT HAVE PREDETERMINED SOLUTIONS ONLY HELPS TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTENT IN MUCH DEEPER WAYS. I HOPE THE COURSE ACTIVITIES, READINGS, AND DISCUSSIONS HELPED YOU REACH YOUR OWN LEARNING GOALS FOR THIS COURSE.

[[image:definition_of_creativity_-_group_work.jpg width="800" height="597"]]
GREAT IMAGE FO R YOUR DEFINITION.

Blocks to creativity
Joshua in a box: It is clear that we all are most of the time caught inside a box that has been created by ourselves or our societies. Environmental and cultural blocks may keep us stuck with previous experiences and reactions which are part of a comfortable zone. A comfortable zone in which we feel safe and confident, the question here is if we remain in the same place reacting always in the same way, how can we develop our own personal and innate skills to solve problems. Emotional blocks is also a reason that can cause Joshua and any of us to be in a box, the idea that we are not able to do something special or valuable; which comes almost all the time from previous experiences, mainly from our childhood with its pattern of always doing the best and have a high performance. An idea in which taking risks and making mistakes is something impossible to consider. And if we look a little more closely to any experience, almost all the time we learned more from our mistakes and errors than from our correct answers. It is completely true the fact that when we are little kids it is easier and natural to enter in a world of fantasy and creation, every dream is possible, all our heroes are real and we can fly and reach the stars. As we grow up and become adults the magic is gone, or at least far away, we must have our feet on the ground and understand the practical features of our reality. The perception of doing things as grown ups in a serious way could be another force that can produce a block in our creativity, adults must be productive, mature, and responsible; playtime is not possible for us. Teachers have the great opportunity to have a different setting when we share so much time with little and young kids, the only detail is that we need to avoid intellectual blocks that can prevent us to have more productive and engaging lessons. Joshua is sad because he is out of his box, and that was his desire, we can be also have the same wish, I wonder what could happened if we change the image of the box with a butterfly that needs to go through a process that could seem long and painful but in the produces amazing results: beautiful wings and colors...... THIS IS A THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION AND REMINDS ME OF THE NEED TO BRING THE PLAYFULNESS OF CHILDHOOD ALONG WITH US INTO THE ADULT WORLD. I DO THINK YOUR METAMORPHOSIS ANALOGY IS WONDERFUL AND PERHAPS IS LIKENED TO ESCAPING PREORDAINED PARAMETERS.

Ted Talk Analysis
__Robert Lang giving wonderful examples of how origami can be used in other settings.__ It is an interesting video in which Mr. Lang gives a new way to understand the applications of origami principles as an art and in other fields like astronomy, mathematics and even in the production of airbags for cars. After we finished watching the video it was easy and smooth to work with my peers because Devin is a math teacher and he understood under that perspective the explanation of the video, Valeria is a pre school teacher with all the expertise in the art of folding paper and I just had the opportunity to tutor a student in a personal project in which he worked with origami. So all of us together could worked and put all the ideas in a way in which it was easy to share with the rest of the class.





I LOVED YOUR PRESENTATION. IT WORKED LIKE MAGIC!!!!

**Math problem**

**Masato is a tourist guide on his spare time. He receives a call from some tourists. They need a guide for three groups of twenty three tourists that come from different countries. They wish to visit Masai.** **How many tourists does he need to guide in a week to earn US126?**

**He charges US13 per hour. Since it is a large group he usually offers a 10% discount.** **Finally he needs to know how much he will earn in shillings. The currency change at the moment is 85,23 shillings are equal to US1.**

**Group:** **Maria Ines Carrion** **Gabriela Larrea 2** **Paulina Lucero** **Valeria Izquierdo** **Maria Tereesa Romero** **Soledad Robalino** **Gabriela Bustamente** **Maria Elena Cobo** **Maria del Carmen Elsitdie**

THIS WAS A GREAT PROBLEM, LOTS OF ELABORATION AND CERTAINLY TAPS OUR MATHEMATICAL MIND.

Creative Socratic Seminar
I read the article written by Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi The Creative Personality and connected it with the Ted Talk that referred to origami. The questions that I prepared for the Seminar are the follow:

Do you think that creativity depends on the environment/context? Who are more creative: men or women? Is creativity always used or understood in a positive way? What traits encourage high levels of creativity? Is creativity a modern phenomenon? Should we follow steps, or pre - established patterns to be creative?

During the Socratic Seminar, I had the opportunity to answer one question and used the first question in my list. It was a great way to share our points of view and exchange impressions about the topic. I DO LIKE YOUR QUESTIONS AND SEE HOW THEY RELATE TO YOUR VIEWING AND READING MATERIAL. I AM PLEASED YOU FOUND THE SEMINAR ENGAGING.