My Creative Practice Journal

 Vignette

When stepping into the classroom, there is a large floor space backing onto desks and a whiteboard. Each wall is filled with a different activity which has been done as a class, and the whiteboard is covered in ideas and drawings. Every student has had a chance to write, draw and create something to put on the walls. The children are encouraged, and enjoy art. The class regularly takes visits to local parks and playgrounds, so they can be inspired by their local surroundings. The children can draw trees, sketch gardens and take rubbings of leaves. I, as a teacher, encourage them to do art and make sure these outings are fun. 

  Within the classroom, there is one wall with hanging pockets for each student, acting as a mail system. With this system students can deliver each other messages and ideas, invitations, and goodies. Students can give each other pressed flowers or drawings from their excursions to local gardens. There is an allocated time each morning for students to check their mail, allowing me as the teacher adequate time to check that each student has notes from friends. Of course, there is a pocket for the teacher too (filled to the brim with compliments). The students also often bring home art to their parents, bringing in the local community into the creativity found at school.

   The students desks have minimal supplies, encouraging them to move around the classroom to work effectively. The desks have a clear plastic coating, allowing the students to doodle and write with whiteboard markers as they wish. The whiteboard markers are located on a supplies trolley towards the back of the classroom. Standing up and walking to the supplies table to get another coloured pen or pencil allows the students time to walk and move, breaking up the time they spend sitting and learning. This is a crucial part of the classroom, encouraging students to move when they feel they need a minute break from learning.

When being creative, one must appreciate the necessity for different processes and practices of creativity. Although artists use many different mediums and techniques, they are all involve creative process. While the creative process is different for everyone, it can often include the need for rituals and solitariness.This is a process that I find I also engage in when working on my creative output – my daily journal. I feel the need to clear a space on my desk and prepare all the equipment and tools needed for the task at hand. Whether I want to draw, use glue to for pieces or to print, this process usually takes about ten minutes and is a ritual that allows me to transition from my busy life to a place where I feel calm and ready: that gets me in the right frame of mind.Greenberg (2000) stated that rituals are important and they provide procedures for solving problems and “ways for coping with emotions”. For me, this ritual of “preparing” before creating can easily provide a method to ‘escape’ from everyday life and enter into my artistic world. It is a process that requires focus and no distractions and I enjoy the solitude, the time of being alone without interruption. Piirto (2011) said that solitude is not necessarily isolation or loneliness, but a place where the artist can work and think freely. This solitude is also important for artists such as myself, as I find working in the presence of others intrudes and swerves my concentration. Understanding the need for rituals is important when teaching a classroom of children. A teacher must understand the time children need to take to both switch between subjects and calm themselves down. The theory of rituals is an important part of everyday teaching and can extend further than just in the arts. Although, once allowing a student to take their time to complete a ritual, one must also allow the student space to work in a solitary manner, and to give them the opportunity tobecome truly absorbed in the process: whether it is art or a more formal task like reading or math.The idea of solitude ties in closely to the idea of rituals, the key message being the artist must be able to work in a free, imaginative environment where as they feel no pressure to excel. The creator must be able to create and think on his or her own terms, a crucial aspect in art.

I believe that creativity is a crucial part of education, providing children with a fundamental understanding of the arts. Creativity can help all children succeed in their academic careers, in both the arts and other academic subjects such as literacy and math. Through the five core attitudes of creativity, one can see the necessity for an arts curriculum in all schools across Australia. These are Self-Discipline about doing creative work, Naiveté or openness to experience, Risk taking, tolerance for ambiguity and group trust (Piirto, Five Core Attitudes, 2011). Each of these attitudes reflect and help students to grow as a creative person. They are also important in other aspects of schooling, providing a nice frame for classroom work in other subjects.

Teachers pedagogical methods in the classroom should be greatly influenced by these five core attitudes, and help students harness their creativity skills. Although, creativity should not remain within the classroom, and should reach the greater community including family and the neighbourhood. One great way to achieve this as a teacher is by place based learning. Please based learning can help children in more aspects in school such as science, helping students experience the environment they are learning about. In the arts, place based learning plays a large role in helping the children broaden their experiences and provide more substance for inspiration. This again links back to the importance of arts in school, and how it can help students achieve in many other aspects of schooling besides simply creativity and art.

REFERENCES FOR ENTIRE BLOG 

Catterall, J. (2009). Doing well and doing good by doing art: The long term effects of sustained involvement in the visual and performing arts during high school. Los Angeles: Imagination Group.

  Education Comission of the States. (2004). Progress pf Educational Reform: The Arta in Education. 5 (1).

  Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the Curriculum through the Arta. South Yarra, VIC: Palgrave Macmillan.

  Greenberg, P. (2000). Why children need rituals & routines. Scholastic Parent & Child , 8 (1), 42-48.

  Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place. American Educational Research Association , 32 (4).

  Mazzola, G., Park, J., & Thalmann, F. (2011). Principles of Creative Pedagogy. In G. Mazzola, J. Park, & F. Thalmann, Musical Creativity (pp. 161-167). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

  Piirto, J. (2011). Creativity for 21st century skills; how to embed creativity into the curriculum. Rotterdam: SensePublishers.