Prior to completing this discussion, view the video Beatrice Coron: Stories cut from paper.

In this final reflection, you are asked to describe a set of skills you acquired over the years that allows you to be creative in some way. This might be musical instrument skills, cooking, knitting, writing, model-building, gardening….anything you consider yourself “good at” that encourages you to experience “…the process of having original ideas that have value” (Robinson, 2011, p. 151). By analyzing these skills in light of the culturally relevant context in which they were learned, you may realize an even deeper understanding of the skills facilitated within this course.

Initial Post: Post a response that addresses each of the following five items:

• Explain something you do or have done in your life that is creative.
• Describe the skills you needed to learn in order to feel comfortable and competent creating these things, ideas, or concepts.
• Describe some of the macrocultural factors you believe contributed to your decisions to keep practicing and participating in your creative endeavors.
• Describe some of the microcultural factors you believe contributed to your decisions to keep practicing and participating in your creative endeavors.
• Explain how learning the skills that define your creative endeavors are different from or the same as the manner in which you learned academic skills.

Optional: If you have any pictures, sound files, or videos of your creations, feel free to share and/or provide a link.

Week Overview

Beatrice Coron is a woman who traveled the path of trying to find her way in art through many professions.

Colon’s message supports earlier ideas communicated in the work of Ken Robinson, Blue Man Group and Elad Segev (through his When There is a Correct Answer research). We all have creative potential. We all possess attributes and skills that can be used in the process of “…having original ideas that have value” (Robinson, 2011, p. 151). Before you dive headfirst into the Final Project, you are asked to share one final reflection about something creative about yourself. A simple deconstruction of the experiences that contributed to your creative “expertise” will likely reinforce and affirm all the skills and strategies presented within this course.
Intellectual Elaboration

This week, you are asked to reflect on the learning of skills that contribute to your ability to be creative in a specific way.  Keep in mind that creativity can be expressed in many different ways.  One handy way to consider the myriad of creativity possibilities is to use Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theoretical framework (Gardner, 1999).  This theory describes a number of different types of “intelligences,” people might possess.  The general categories of intelligences can be readily applied to creativity, describing a simple “Multiple Creativities” framework:

Musical–rhythmic and harmonic

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as singing, playing instruments, and writing music

Visual–spatial

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as drawing, planning, painting, and designing spaces and structures.

Verbal–linguistic

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as writing, storytelling or delivering lines as an actor.

Logical–mathematical

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as problem-solving or manipulating numbers and amounts of things.

Bodily–kinesthetic

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as sports, dance, yoga, spiritual movement, physical acting, and even knitting.

Interpersonal

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as talking with strangers, making people laugh, making people feel comfortable or calm, and cooperating constructively with many different types of people.

Naturalistic

This category of creativity might include such forms of expression as nurturing other people or animals, gardening, even camping.

Hopefully there is something within this listing that will help you identify an area of creativity on which you can reflect.  The reflections facilitated in this final discussion can be useful in helping you take the first steps in considering types of experiences you might want to design in the final project.

Following this reflection, you are asked to apply nearly all the skills acquired in this course to the creation of the proposal of  a new program, idea, or concept to either an administrative team or a team of colleagues in order to implement an innovative idea that will highlight culturally and creatively relevant instructional experiences.  . In this proposal, you will detail plans to develop learning experiences that promote 21st century skills (creativity and innovation skills in particular) within a culturally relevant framework. The experiences you design will incorporate the strategies for promoting creativity within technology-supported project-based or problem-based scenarios.

Discussion Response Expectations

The final discussion post this week is a personal reflection over factors that influenced and affected your ability to learn the skills needed for you to be able to express your creativity.  In this reflection, you are asked to describe a set of skills you acquired over the years that allows you to be creative in some way.  This might be musical skills, cooking, knitting, writing, model-building, gardening….anything you consider yourself “good at” that encourages you to experience “…the process of having original ideas that have value” (Robinson, 2011, p. 151).  By analyzing these skills in light of the culturally relevant context in which they were learned, you may realize an even deeper understanding of the skills facilitated within this course.

Assignment Expectations

For the final project, you will assume the role of a classroom teacher proposing a new program, idea, or concept to either an administrative team or a team of colleagues in order to implement an innovative idea that will highlight culturally and creatively relevant instructional experiences.

We have reviewed a plethora of innovative programs and projects throughout this course. Perhaps you want to add a Maker-Space (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. to your classroom or library? Maybe you want to begin a Skills USA  (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.group? Or, maybe you want to add an in-residence artist at your school? Whatever the innovative idea is for your district/school/classroom, think about how you will meet the cultural, creative, and innovative needs of your students.

References

Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.

Robinson, K. (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Oxford: Capstone.

TEDx Talks. (2013, September 9). Everyone is an Artist (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXFOixZF8s