There were a lot of things that intrigued me in this chapter. I have decided to reflect on the information I felt I could relate to most; however I plan on keeping this book to look back on all of the other information.
The one thing in this chapter that made me laugh was about creativity. I don’t know how much I believe that anyone can be creative in anything. Maybe in some ways, but I know I am not that creative of a person. By creativity, I think I am generalizing more towards arts, but that is usually what is associated with creativity. The reason I seem jaded about this topic is that I have a twin brother. We were raised the same way for the most part, with sports and athletics being the central focus of growing up. We were given the same opportunities and we went after all of them together. Yet, my brother is an artist (a tattoo artist) and he always has been an incredible drawer. In preschool we both painted a bear and you could tell his was a bear, but mine was a blob. I remember this because my parents had his painting framed later in our life and mine was in a box (this wasn’t until I was older though). What impacts the differences in creativity with the same environment is my question? Maybe I missed something growing up, but it appears we were given the same opportunities and followed through with them. For some reason I just could not get the artistic bug in me. I think the differences we have now are more severe because I did focus on sports since that is what I excelled at.
The book commented that teachers are not the best judges of creativity and I find this unfortunate because teachers are in the position to help students find their creative niche. I know teachers at the past school I worked at found curiosity and non-conformity annoying traits. I think it is important to foster creativity and curiosity in your students. I plan on remembering this when I have my own classroom! All students potentially learn better in different situations. This is another way my lack of creativity has impacted me. I prefer a very structured environment with clear and concise instructions. This is because I prefer not having to be creative. I know this shows that I have a low sense of self efficacy towards creativity and maybe that is what is impacting my ability to be creative, but when I was younger I thought I was incredible!
Another topic that interested me was problem solving. Problem solving is a skill that is needed from childhood to adulthood. IDEAL was a great acronym for this. I like that it involves defining goals because I think goals are essential to success. I think teaching problem solving skills is important and helping students define goals that are realistic and reasonable. As you saw in class, I make a daily list of every minute of my day and cross it off when I finish. It gives me a sense of accomplishment which then boosts my attitude.
The final thing I want to discuss is the section regarding study skills. I just had to laugh when it said that underlining and highlighting are not effective strategies. This is what I was shown to do in school and I continue doing it. I think it is very true that it is not effective in helping you process information and retain information, but I have found it convenient for this intensive six week course! I do think it is imperative to teach students the proper skills for reading and processing information. I know I was never taught these skills and it does impact me in a negative way when it comes to studying. Teachers need to teach and demonstrate the proper study skills for their students.
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