I did a presentation at the NWEA Fusion conference on “Creativity and Collaboration in Data-Driven Instruction” – basically my attempt to fit some of my favorite educational ideas all into a one-hour session. I really wanted to give those attending a chance to share ideas with each other. As I seem to say often, I think teachers are the best copyright violators in the world; we do a fantastic job of taking ideas we hear and see and making them our own.
We didn’t end up having enough time to share as I would have like, but I collected the ideas they wrote on sticky notes so that I could share them here.
Question: What are your favorite activities for involving creativity or getting kids working together in class?
Responses from Primary Teachers:
– Students create a commercial using as many vocabulary words as they can!
– Wax Museum – incorporating biography (non-fiction) reading, writing, art performance, parent involvement (the viewing)
– Think Pair Share
– Economics – Transform the class into a marketplace. Have students bring in items to represent their business!
– Communities Project – Rural, Urban, Suburban – Students work in groups to design their own community
– Comic strip showing how to do something
– Detailed poster showing favorite part of a book
– Instead of book reports… book projects, ie. for setting, the students map a map of the setting of their story
– Smart Response clickers provide data to tell instructor info!
– Teaching Channel – www.teachingchannel.org
