In pursuit for creaitivity

      Is creativity meant only for teachers?

Creativity has always been a driving force when it comes to planning my lessons.I have always been described as a crazy teacher but then it also means that I  am the creative one not my students who only seem to set back and enjoy the activities.

This has changed as I  come to accept the simple fact that I owe my creativity to my students.As I set back planing my lessons thinking of how would certain individual in my class react to that activity.I have to confess that when an idea possesses me it is highly unlikely I will be able to dismiss it because I know it will not appeal to certain student as they are not the type of learners who learn this way.I used to say well,lets challenge them.

It is now that I am more aware of the diversity of learners in the class and that no matter what there will always be a student who thinks that this activity less interesting than what his peers think

Girls class

Recently I was given a young adult girl's class where I was told by many previous teachers that they are unwilling to participate or exert an effort to learn.This is actually the class that taught me more than I ever taught them.This is because for the first time in my life I stood back and let the girls explore their own creativity.Not only did the result surprise me but also educated me.

Creativity exists within every individual.In order to find it in your student you may need to create for them a problem to solve or ask a question that challenges them.

One time I filled the walls with empty flip charts and just asked them "how can we use these flipped charts for education and fun?" And that's it the amount of creative ideas trespassed my imagination.

One girl said we can draw our hands on the chart and fill it with new vocabulary as we learn them along the year so it is more like a visual reminder that is like a vocabulary journal!

Another time, I wanted to have an in-class project with A2 ESL class of girls and so I sat down to think of different types of projects that may be interesting to the class and even had a detailed plan for all the stages;with the help of a perfectionist line manager; to show the girls in the class.Yet I thought maybe first try see what if I ask them to brain storm ideas for projects with their chosen groups.Lo and behold the rain of ideas that showered me was beyond imagination.Not only did I discover that I was stereotyping them but also underestimating their ability to show diversions to problem solving.

Yesterday,I needed to teach daily routine to the A2 ESL class of girls which was mainly about house work and how often do you do them? Now that is a pretty boring lesson that I taught a hundred time before.So I thought how can that dull dead lesson come to life in a class of girls taught by a female teacher as well?What are the advantages of teaching girls? what are the advantages of being a girl myself?What interests females?What is that particular thing that get any group of female engaged in thinking?Well,it is shopping,beauty and gossip! Ta Ta Taaaaa!What if I ask them to imagine themselves as beauty advisers who are to advise other women of  what daily routine can they do to stay beautiful?.And what if I bring my makeup tools and ask them to design their advice around them?What if I invite other teachers to come in and act like a customer at a beauty salon who wants to get a makeup session? That was one session I will never forget! Why?

Well, mainly because I stood back and let the students lead.To observe and learn from them how can one item of grammar that is taught and in that case it was the present simple,lead to how to give advice which is by the way was discovered by the students themselves.They teach each other and complete the gaps themselves.