Sticky

Journal
Kelly Hilbert
ED 608
Week 1
9/5 - 9/12
 What Stuck with Me
Most educators believe
creativity to be a natural
characteristic. However, studies
show that it can be a learnt
trait. There was not a huge
emphasis on it when current
educators were in school, so
most of today's’ educators are
unsure of how to teach it. This
stuck with me because I believe
it to be important to understand
that everyone can be creative,
and that creativity is not limited
to just one aspect.
Creativity has been
assessed on two aspects:
Verbal and Figural. The
Verbal section is broken
down into fluency,
flexibility, and originality.
The Figural section is
broken down into fluency,
originality, and
elaboration.
“Educational environments
contain various constraints
(e.g., curricular standards,
external accountability
mandates, time, and
resources).”
The quote above stuck with
me, because it really makes
me wonder if a lot of what
school systems are doing, are
actually preventing the
development of creativity.
 Advancing Creativity
● Create a classroom environment
that is safe, and develops a
Growth Mindset
● Provide opportunities for
reflection
● Appeal to the interests of
students, to support intrinsic
motivation
● Provide student choice with
flexible seating, and multiple
means of engagement
● Provide exploratory, inquiry
based learning
 Web 2.0 Tools: Creativity
There are many different tools you can utilize in the
classroom, in order to foster creativity. I believe that the tools
that could work best are ones that provide students many
different choices such as layout or design. I also believe that
tools that are engaging and can connect with the world
around us, can open the doors to creativity. I believe tools
such as Padlet or Flipgrid, allow for students to collaborate
and build off of each other. Social media tools such as twitter,
or blogging sites can give students the freedom to share their
thoughts and ideas as well.
Week 2
9/12 - 9/18
 What Stuck with Me
“Whatever creativity is, it is not
conventional.”
This quote really stuck with me
because I think it perfectly sums up
creativity. Most times, people want to
assume that creativity follows the
standard definition that society has
developed, which involves being
artistic. However, creativity should
not be limited to just that, because it
is so much more.
“Thought without proper reflection is
uncritical thinking, and that to make
better decisions, self-reflection is
vital.”
This quote from the Critical Thinking
article really stuck with me, because
I also believe that being able to
self-reflect, and think about our
decisions, is an important life skill. It
is also one that I am trying to instill
within my students.
Advancing Critical Thinking
● Provide opportunities for real
world or authentic learning
● Give performance-based
assessments
● Allow for classroom activities
which encourage synthesizing,
evaluating, and identifying
problems
● Allow students to have time to
come up with multiple
perspectives and ideas
● Give time for reflection/discussion
on metacognition
 Web 2.0 Tools: Critical Thinking
● VoiceThread - students get to see multiple perspectives,
and build off of each others’ ideas. Use the Hitchhiking
strategy!!
● Padlet - Post individual ideas, as well as comment on the
ideas of others to build off of them. Encourage students to
come up with new answers that have not already been
given.
● Flipgrid - This allows students to really think deeply about
their thinking, and reflect on their learning in order to
answer questions.
Week 3
9/19 - 9/25
 What Stuck with Me
Creativity within group collaboration
appears to be lower than creativity
within individuals working on the same
problem. I thought this was very
interesting, because collaboration is
highly encouraged in 21st century
learning. However, does this fact show
that collaboration at times can hinder
creativity? We as teachers need to
help foster both of these skills within
our students so that they can
strengthen both skills.
“Students working in a group may not
be collaborating, and students
collaborating may never be in the
same room together.” This quote really
stuck with, because it is so important
to recognize that collaboration is
much more than just working in a
group. It involves being accountable
and holding other accountable,
working together for a common goal,
and evaluating each other and your
work as you go.
 Advancing Collaboration
● Provide the students with real
world scenarios, which require
team oriented problem solving
● Participate in experiences like
Mystery Skype, which allow
students to collaborate within
their own class with designated
roles, and collaborate with
another class globally
● Create a classroom environment
of respect and growth mindset
● Give students “jobs” during
group projects or activities
 Web 2.0 Tools: Collaboration
● Padlet - Post individual ideas, as well as comment on the
ideas of others to build off of them
● Google Apps - Tools such as Google Docs, Google Slides,
etc. allow for students to collaborate even if they are not
face to face. Students can work together from afar, or even
when in the same room by working on the same
assignment.
● Skype/Zoom - Social media tools such as Skype, allow
students to collaborate face to face from far away.
Week 4
9/26 - 10/2
 What Stuck with Me
Communication has not
received as much research
attention as other skills have,
such as creativity and
collaboration. I thought this was
interesting because you need
communication skills in order to
collaborate with others, and
work together with others. It
seems that all of these skills are
linked, and so it was interesting
to read that communication has
not been quite as thoroughly
researched as the others.
5 W’s and an H: This tool can
help you with gathering data
and facts about a situation, in
order to get a better sense of
the information. Using this tool
to develop a deeper
understanding, can help with
problem solving. I really liked
when we used this tool in class,
and believe that it can really
assist in breaking down an
issue. It allows you to look at a
problem from all angles, and
figure out the best strategies to
approach a solution.
The idea of “the curse of
knowledge” stuck with me,
because it was a concept I
had never given much
thought to before. When
reflecting on this idea, I
definitely have come across it
as I have changed grade
levels. My 5th graders new a
lot more than my 2nd graders
do in terms of basic executive
functioning skills, and it has
been a huge adjustment!
Advancing Communication
● Provide students opportunities
to evaluate and critique each
other's’ work
● Create an environment with a
growth mindset, to encourage
risk taking
● Allow all students the
opportunity to share their
thoughts
● Encourage “I messages” when
promoting discussions between
students
Web 2.0 Tools for Communication
● Flipgrid/Voicethread - These two tools are really good for
helping students articulate their thoughts verbally. This can help
them practice with sharing their ideas, especially younger
students who are still learning how to use their communication
skills
● Twitter - Twitter would allow students to connect, communicate,
and interact globally with the world around them!
● Skype - Doing an activity like a Mystery Skype would allow kids to
work on communicating with students on a global level
● Kids Blog - This tool is great for students to express themselves in
many different ways, and share their ideas with the world.
Week 5
10/3 - 10/9
 What Stuck with Me
Credibility - they discussed how
in order to make someone
believe something, we need to
appeal to their core beliefs.
These relate to three powerful
forces which are family,
personal experience, and faith.
It can be a very challenging
task to make someone believe
something.
I thought the section on mental
stimulation was interested to read
about. It makes sense that when
you go back and mentally work
through and view a problem, you
might see or think about things
that you looked over or forgot.
They talked about how “mental
stimulations can help us
anticipate appropriate responses
to future situations.”
 “Sell” a Web 2.0 Tool
Do your students get frustrated when they don’t
get a chance to share? Are students still talking
over one another regardless of how many times
you’ve set the listening expectations? Do you have

Sim c
students who are just too shy to participate?
Then I have just the tool for you! Flipgrid is an
online, video tool that allows students to
pre-record and upload an answer to a discussion.
Students can also comment on each others’
posts, and add to their own posts. With this post,
Cre li
everyone will get a chance to share, and view the
answers of others. They can do it on their own
time, and won’t have to be afraid of talking in
front of everyone!
Week 6
10/10 - 10/16
 What Stuck with Me
“Common core does not support
creativity, but rather opposes it.”
This quote from Dr. Zhao’s interview
really stuck with me, because we
spend everyday teaching our
students the common core. However,
the common core does not give a lot
of freedom to be creative with our
teaching. In turn, we are not instilling
creativity in our students.
In the 21st century teaching article,
they discussed metacognition and how
important it is that in this day and age,
students need to be taught how to
learn on their own. In order to do this,
they need to think about HOW they
learn. This is something that I have
heard before, but reading about it in
this article really emphasized the
importance for me. It is something that
seems challenging to try and instill
into 2nd graders.
 The SUCCES Framework
This framework could be used in my professional career, if I was
trying to persuade my administration or staff of an idea I had, or if I
was giving a professional development on a new tool that I think
should be implemented at our school. In order to get my staff to buy
into what I am presenting on or discussing, I could use the SUCCES
Framework. I could also use this framework during the upcoming
internship for our program. The elements of this framework could be
very useful to implement when planning for the internship. Our
internship will be very similar to our tech. equity project, and it may
even be the same topic. Going back to the SUCCES Framework would
be a beneficial idea.