Blog on Content Creation

For this week’s blog, I needed to talk to a student about creativity and technology.  I have a former student that I was able to get in touch with.  This student, Morgan, was in my French class for all three years of middle school.  Last year, when Morgan was a freshman, I kept in good touch with her.  We have two middle schools and one high school under one roof, so when Morgan went to high school, she was still able to visit me often.  She would volunteer in my classroom two days a week to earn service hours.  Morgan is an amazing kid, and a student that I will always remember.  She is extremely bright and thoughtful, so I knew that I would get some good insight if I e-mailed her about this assignment.  Here are the questions I asked her, and her responses.

1) Do you feel like you are able to be creative in school?

I really only feel creative in my Creative Writing class. All the other classes, not so much. My classes were IB classes, so they were more focused on learning the material and getting the work done rather than creativity. Some, like my English and Art class were exceptions, but other than that I could not be very creative in class.

2) In which classes do you feel that you are able to be the most creative?

I personally feel most creative in my writing class. I am an author, so that class gave me the chance to expand my creative bounds and helped me learn more about writing to make me better. That writing class gave me more knowledge ALONG with letting my creative brain be free and inspirational.

3) Do you think that technology allows you to be more creative?

It all depends on what technology is being used. Smart boards and Power Points have a higher creative use than Word Document. It also depends on the assignment given by the teacher. So possibly.

4) What are some projects/assignments that you have done using technology that have allowed you to create something (like a video, presentation, voice recording, etc.)

In my technologies class, we had to create a power point describing a story we went through once in our life. We used music and pictures from the trip if you had them. We also typed the words, or spoke them verbally, to explain the story. This project was fun but also taught us how to use the program we were using to create the story.

5) What are some ways that your teachers could allow you to be more creative while still accomplishing the goals of the class?

One way to do it would be have many more projects with creative freedom and a lot of crafts or other things that we create. High schoolers LOVE crafts and projects :) It’s the sad truth that we keep avoiding. If you twist the learning into crafts, we teens will realize 'Hey... we just learned something!!!'

Morgan’s responses made me smile.  She writes just like the author/history teacher she plans to be one day!  I like how she says that her creative writing class allows her “creative brain to be free”.  Wouldn’t it be great if this could occur in more classes than just creative writing?  I also like how Morgan talks about how students learn best when they don’t realize they’re learning.  I think that by using digital media and technology, we can allow this to occur more often.