Ana+Maria+Egas

=aegas@colegiomenor.edu.ec =

Assignment #1: Scavenger Hunt
Presentation: http://prezi.com/hcfg_7omr8fg/creativity-scavenger-hunt/

Interview Victoria Ordoñez (Pastry Chef at USFQ) What are you creating? I'm creating a dessert for the weekly menu for the restaurant Marcus How are you doing? I’m going to make a citric cake, a meringue, a sweet potato pure and a tropical fruit cream. Then I’m going to design different presentations and choose the one I like the most visually and tastefully. What I mean by taste is the amount of each product in it. Why are you doing it? I’m doing this because I’m the pastry chef at USFQ, and one of my tasks is to elaborate desserts for the menu and for the weekly specials. Where do you get your ideas? Everything I taste and see can inspire me to create a dessert. When I go to the supermarket fresh, beautiful or seasonal ingredients call my attention. Also, every meal gives me ideas of tastes, textures or temperatures that I like to recreate in my way. I like to do research as well; my favorite is “evasion et plasirs” (facebook profiles). What motivates your creativity? The need to mix new flavors and create new plate presentations; also, the desire to reinvent things or discover new combinations. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How do you usually feel after a creative process like this? <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When everything goes right it is amazing, I feel pleased with myself. But when the flavors don’t match, or I over cook something it’s like a failure. The good thing is that I learn to never give up so I reinvent the idea if it didn’t work or repeat the products If I messed up because of a technical error. HER INTERVIEW DOES REVEAL CREATIVITY AND THE PROCESS OTHERS HAVE SPOKEN OF. LOVED IT. IT WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN BETTER IF YOU BROUGHT US AN EDIBLE SAMPLE OF HER CREATIVE WORK--HA!! <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Personal Reflection:

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I thought the Scavenger Hunt was a very interesting activity. We had decided to go for it near our school. When we started, it was really hard because we were focused on finding every item on the list very strictly and I think we somehow blocked our own creativity. SOUNDS LIKE IT-- IT CAN'T BE FORCED What was difficult too was that there were only two of us; we thought this somehow played against us. I realized that I never really observe what surrounds me; everything just passes by without much notice. I liked this activity because it got us to observe and realize that creativity is everywhere, it just a matter of perceiving it. The first part of our scavenger hunt consisted on removing our own blocks and dealing with frustration. After a while we were able to look closely and find creativity everywhere we went. We had been on those places very often and even thought that it was impossible to find something. It was amazing to see how much creativity surrounds us. We took lots of pictures and decided to select which pictures were going to the presentation later. We both had to take very active roles during the whole scavenger hunt. We both worked together and got really involved on the whole process.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In the university, which is the place we went first, we walked around all the campus, and were disappointed because there wasn’t much going on because most students are on vacation. Although that wasn’t what we thought at first, I think it helped us be more creative and look even closer. Then we walked all around “centro plaza” a couple of times, when suddenly we stopped at a restaurant that had a lot of creative ideas, we stopped because we saw creative salt and pepper shakers, when we approached the restaurant and asked their permission for the pictures, they got excited and started showing us many different things they had, the whole restaurant was equipped with recycle materials, we found all sorts of flexibility, many things being used in a different and unique way. When we left this place we were very excited, and our creative eye opened even more, so we found lots of things.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Barron and Eisner talk about overcoming blocks, I think this is actually what we did, first of all we had to overcome a lot of emotional blocks and started to take some risks, we had to forget about people looking at us as if we were two strange girls with a very odd behavior, and we also had to talk to a lot of people we didn’t know which is really hard for me. We also had fixed thoughts on what we were expecting to find, so we did do a lot of assumptions, which had to be challenged in order to complete the hunt. We also took advantage of chance and took a lot of pictures, we observed all around us and ended up finding things in the place we least thought we would. We found patterns everywhere we went and were forced to make connections on every step. I think the most important thing was that we were able to start looking at things in a different way

EXCELLENT DISCUSSION. YOU NOT ONLY PRODUCED A GREAT PROJECT BUT EXPERIENCES THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

Assignment #2: Application of Creative Strategies
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ana María Egas <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Belén Florez

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lesson 1

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discipline: Language Arts

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Topic: Creative Writing

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Strategy: Morphological Matrix & Brainstorming

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Objectives:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Identify the different elements in a story.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Brainstorm about possible characters, settings, problems and solutions in a story and create a morphological matrix that will provide ideas for a new story.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Write a story using the morphological matrix.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Description of the Strategy

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A morphological matrix is a strategy that allows students to combine different options to create a new option.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Explain the purpose of a morphological matrix.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Introduce the categories that will be used to develop the morphological matrix.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Brainstorm ideas for each category with the whole class and build the morphological matrix on the board/big piece of paper.


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Character || <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Setting || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Problem/Situation || <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Possible Solution ||

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Implementing the Activity:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As a whole group, brainstorm about characters, setting, problem/situation and possible solutions in a story. Based on the brainstorming, develop a morphological matrix including all the elements. Group students based on their writing skills. Each group will create a story using the four elements from the morphological matrix. After students write their stories, they will come up with a creative way to present the story to their classmates.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Assessment/Follow-up:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">For this activity, the teacher will thoroughly observe students during the whole creative process. After completing this activity students will share a short reflection about the part they liked the most and the least about the process and why.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As a follow-up activity, students can choose the story they liked the most and work as a class developing a presentation for the younger kids in school

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Lesson 2

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ana Maria Egas <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Belen Florez

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discipline: Language Arts

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Strategy: Creative problem solving by writing a But...so Story

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Objectives:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Write a story and create a class book that is based on an initial situation or problem (prompt). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Brainstorm different creative problems and solutions revolving around a situation.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Description of Strategy: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The strategy consists in creating a story that follows a pattern of a character encountering a problem, finding a solution for it, and then encountering a new problem. Students will be provided with a character on a specific situation in order to create a story about it. Each student will use the initial topic as a central idea for the story. Students will first have to identify a problem that would stop the character from his/her purpose and then come up with a possible solution for that problem. Students can be divided in groups and generate ideas by brainstorming about possible problems and solutions. Each group will contribute by creating one page for the But… so story.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Implementing the Strategy: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Teacher creates or reads a But… so story for students have a clear idea on what they are going to do. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• As a class, come up with a central topic on which the story will revolve. (ex. Peter was walking to the park to meet his friend Max… but) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Divide the class in small groups <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Engage students in brainstorming what problem will the character encounter (but) and then possible solutions for that problem (so). Discuss as a group and choose the best ideas. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• Teacher will explain and discuss the format of the book. Each group will be in charge of a page of the story, each page has to include a “But…” (Describe the problem) and the “So…” (Solution) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">• After all the groups finish their page the teacher will collect all the pages and put them together to create a book. The teacher will then read the whole story to the class.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Assessment/ Follow up:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Continue engaging students in brainstorming activities for problem solving and other topics. Create more But…so stories and gradually give students full responsibility of the story (allow them to write it entirely-no prompt provided). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Use this strategy to solve everyday problems by acting out different problems and possible solutions during Community Time.

=FINE APPLICATION OF THE STRATEGY FOR YOUR STUDNETS.= = = =YOU WERE TO DO TWO ACTIVITIES, HOWEVER.=

Assignment #3: Class Participation and Reflections
__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. PRE ASSIGNMENT: Module One __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Write a summary of five main points you find compelling from these articles.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The article and the video focused mainly on the importance of promoting and valuing creativity in our children. We have to educate our students for the future, and we do not really know what that future is going to be like, so we have to provide students not only with knowledge, but also with the tools to be innovative and successful, for that, creativity is essential. Another point that is considered is the importance creativity should have in schools. Currently, the arts, for example are the least important classes and programs in schools, other subjects are given more importance, leaving no space for those that stimulate creativity. In addition, Robinson talks about creativity as a natural trait on human beings. He believes, creativity in within every person, but that we “grow out” of that creativity, and what is more scaring is that he states we “educate out of creativity”. We should think and accept that intelligence is distinct and interactive, so we do need to value creativity as a very important component of intelligence. Finally, the articles talk about the importance of teachers being trained and educated towards the development and exploitation of creativity on our children.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discuss how you nurture creativity in your students currently. Provide concrete examples.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">After looking at the video and reading the article I started thinking I do not promote creativity in my class as much as I should. There is a lot of work to be done, and many things that with little adjustments can demand students to be creative. Currently, and the way that I think I nurture creativity is promoting play, I like to let my students discover the word through play, this is why I make sure they always have different moments to play. Concretely, a way I do it is, I have a center where students go and play, they pretend to be anything they like, they get to invent, imagine and let their creativity run. I also like to provide a lot of opportunities for creativity in art center, leaving students with the chance to create their individual and unique works of art. GOOD IDEAS. LET'S KEEP THE CREATIVITY FLAME BURNING

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Finally list three understandings or skills you would like to learn in this course on Creativity.


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I would like to understand the cognitive process where creativity takes place.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I would also like to get new ideas on how to promote creativity in my class.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I would also love to get some motivation and thoughts on how to grow back into creativity myself

__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2. Group Definition of creativity ALL OF YOU ARE GREAT. LOVED THE PERFORMANCE __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Creativity: "Creativity is daring to act in response to a challenge in an inventive and unique way

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__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. Blockbusting Activities __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">For me, Joshua in the box is a representation of a creative process. The first thing we need to do is overcome our box that could be determined by our own blocks to creativity or by those imposed by others. At first coming out could be a little bit scary and disappointing, but it’s all part of the process, taking risks in order to get results. I believe on very risk we take, every challenge we overcome, we acquire a new perspective, knowledge and experience, and every situation somehow changes us, just like Joshua and the box when they got a new color.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Personally I believe I have many blocks for my creativity. For me, I think they are mostly environmental and emotional. First of all, I believe I didn’t have a very creative home or school, so the environment was never pushing me towards creativity. At school, especially in elementary school, I had a lot of teachers who very strict and structured who left little spaces for creativity. My blocks, however, are mostly emotional, although I do think that environment shapes our personality, therefore they are very related. I’ve always been a person who is afraid to make mistakes and take risks, I prefer to take the safe road to get somewhere, and unfortunately creativity involves taking the risks and being able to overcome frustration and mistakes, which is very hard for me. I am the kind of person who likes to accomplish great things, but I don’t like a lot of attention on me, I prefer a low profile. I also think I am very rigid on my thinking, I have fixed ideas of things and it is really hard to leave those aside to find new ideas. I find it really hard to overcome these blocks, but after identifying them and having the chance to reflect about them, I do think there are many things I can do, it just requires baby steps at the beginning, and it is what I will try to do.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">YOU ARE SHOWING FINE INSIGHT INTO YOUR OWN CREATIVE ISSUES. I THINK AWARENESS OF THESE ISSUES PLUS A BELIEF IN SELF WILL PUSH YOU TO HIGHER LEVELS OF CREATIVITY IN YOUR OWN LIFE.

=__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 4. TED Talk LOVED THIS AD __=

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">"Try something you've always wanted, you can do it! In just 30 days!"

__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">5. Math Problem: __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Thomas and Rusesabegina were hunting antelope in a field. Rusesabegina tripped and speared himself. Thomas called an ambulance. The ambulance left the hospital located 200 miles from Thomas and Rusesabegina’s location and traveled at 60 MPH. At the exact moment the ambulance left the hospital, an antelope began charging in a straight line towards Thomas from 100 miles away at a speed of 35 MPH.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If along the way, the antelope stops at a watering hole during the length of time it takes the ambulance to travel 20 miles, which will arrive first and how much sooner will it arrive?

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Assignment #4: Socratic Seminar
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Something that I found interesting or confusing:

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In order to promote creative learners it is important, not only to teach creative thinking, but also teach for analytical and practical thinking, as it is a balance and combination of these three skills what makes a creative process successful.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Stenberg (2006) states "Creativity is much a decision about and an attitude toward life as it is a matter of ability" I find it really interesting that one may have all the potential or the abilities to be a creative person, but do not choose to be one. He also states that motivation is not something inherent in a person, but rather a personal decision.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Thinking styles, as Stenberg (2006) suggests, are an important part of the creative process, and it is the preferred ways of using one's skills. Most people are not really aware of their own skills or abilities which may limit the process, how can we help our students to get insight on their own abilities and skills?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I found the nine lessons about creativity by Richard Feynman really insightful. They summarize and describe in a very friendly way all the traits and abilities a person must have in order to be creative. I find this article something we can share with our students.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Questions:

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are some personality attributes that are significant for creative functioning (willingness to overcome, willing to take risks, tolerate ambiguity, self-efficacy). How can our teaching have an impact in our student's personality, when it is something molded from the beginning of their existence?

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How can we assess the "traditional" curricular imposed knowledge and skills through a creative process without affecting our students confidence on their wor

YOUR SUMMARIES ARE WELL DONE AS YOU RELATED TO THE CONTENT IN EACH OF THE ASSIGNMENTS BUT YOUR QUESTIONS DON'T EXACTLY SHOW HOW THEY EVOLVED FROM THE TED TALK AND ARTICLES.