Creativity in Education

     What is creativity? I would define creativity as producing ideas that are new and different from what already exists or making new connections between pre-existing ideas. Creativity is something that I feel is essential to education, in order for it to be effective. In traditional schooling, assessments for students are more content based. Although the content is important, it doesn't always apply to life outside school; where the ability to think sets you apart from the many other people who got straight A's in school. Therefore, if we want school to really do what it was meant to do, then being creative is something that should not just be encouraged, but should be made a priority.

       On the bell curve, I would personally put myself somewhere between the early and late majority. I feel that I am not the first to catch on to these new ideas, but tend to hear about and catch on to these new ideas once they have already been tried out by others. In regards to Fraser Heights, I would also put them somewhere in between the early and late majority, but leaning slightly towards the early. There are definitely teachers in Fraser Heights that are ahead on the curve and always looking for new and creative ideas on how to teach students, however there are other teachers that prefer to stick with the more traditional ways of teaching. Also, I think that sometimes even the teachers that are trying these new ways of teaching are, in some ways, still stuck on the traditional ways of teaching. To clarify, I mean that they encourage creativity, but within certain boundaries. In most classes, all students are instructed to do their project using one certain method. Although the vessel for the project may be considered "creative", it doesn't always get students to be creative if it is forced upon them. Another factor that contributes to the placement of our school is that Fraser Heights seems to be willing to try new things to improve and update the learning of their students (eg. As a district, I would probably also put it in between the early and late majority, but leaning towards the late. From the little bits and pieces that I have heard of from friends at other schools, I feel that there is some effort made by certain schools to make strides towards a creative learning style. However, there are still many schools where it is mainly curriculum based learning. Finally, I would put Ms Lees as an early adapter. She is always looking for new ways to improve, update and encourage creativity in our learning. Granted, these ideas are mainly from others, which is why I would put her here as opposed to an innovator. Of course not all of the ideas succeed, but Ms Lees is constantly learning from her mistakes to improve her decisions in the future.