Technology Fun in December



Image from Crayola.com

 Many times some of the most fun that students can have is with colored pencils, crayons, markers, paper and glue. I enjoy reading the monthly Crayola newsletter to see the list of projects and craft ideas.  This month as I read thru the list I started thinking of how many of these projects students and teachers could create with available technology. 

The first one that caught my eye was taking old CDs and turning them into ornaments. Instead of students painting over the CDs, create a double circle template in Word or a double circle template in Publisher. Let students use the drawing tools, adding shapes and colors to each circle on the page, print and glue to both sides of the CD.  Students and teachers can create all kinds of cards and projects with Publisher, uploading pictures and adding their own creative touch.

There is lots of coloring pages, crafts and educational ideas at Crayola. Teachers should check out the resources provided by Crayola:  lesson plans, art tips and techniques, Crayola Dream Makers, success guides, parents & teachers as partners, certificate maker and color science.  Dream Makers is a guide that provides fun and creativity to standards-based learning lessons for Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. Currently Dream Makers is not available for North Carolina Standards but the free sample guides will show a subject area lesson complete with objectives, background information, resources, assessment and suggestions to extend the lesson.

Crayola continues to build lesson plans for all ages. If you haven’t looked at the lesson plans in a while here’s a list of available lesson plans by grade levels.

• Grades K-3      695 lessons
• Grades 4-6       929 lessons
• Grades 7-12     452 lessons
• Special Needs students - 355 lessons

To check out all resources for educators please go to:
http://www.crayola.com/educators/index.cfm?n_id=5

It’s Time to Get Serious about Creativity in the Classroom

Freedom within a structure – what does that mean to you? How about making an assignment clear and focused, while allowing students the freedom to decide how to accomplish the task. That’s how an art teacher describes art as a creative place to develop creative minds.

When we ask students to learn long division the students are taught to follow certain steps that will help them understand how to arrive at the correct answer. That’s replication. When students are shown how to weave paper to make designs many students will replicate exactly what was shown. Students need some traditional learning to build valuable foundation skills and students need to develop creative minds.

According to the article one way to nurture and develop real creativity is to ask students to use their new skills to accomplish an assigned, more complex task and to allow students to be creative in the application of the new skills. Find ways that will allow all diverse learners to be successful. Structure assignments to allow students the freedom to be innovative and creative then watch what students will produce.

How can you develop creative minds in your class? What technology could your students use to think outside the box to complete more complex tasks and apply new skills?

To read the entire article please go to Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/freedom-structure-balance-classroom