Keeping Kids Creative

Dear Readers,

We have all heard the buzzwords of the knowledge-based economy - creative, innovative, resourceful.We are told that our students will need these abilities, not just facts and figures, to thrive in the workplace of the future. And we,their teachers, need to equip them through creative teaching. Hence, here I try to unravel the nuts and bolts behind these ideas, to find out what creative teaching is all about and how it can be implemented in the classroom.

Join Me and I will appreciate it very much if you sign in my guestbook and leave your comments.



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Trailing the literature books

Dear Readers,
If walking is to health and singing is to entertainment,then surely reading is to pleasure, inspiration,knowledge, imagination,possibility, ideas and creation!
When we read, we embark on a journey that infuses our perceptions and lives with a rich palette of colours.
In light of this, it is with delight that I recall the usage of our literature books in our literature classrooms.
So what books do we have for our literature lessons?
Name them ........


Anansi And Turtle Share Dinner

OR


Tidy Your Room, Tanya!

OR EVEN THE OTHER BOOKS


C'mon, start exploring your books before reading them to your kids in your classrooms.
Lots and lots of ideas will emerge after your thorough reading, I bet.
All The Best!

Personal Portfolios

PORTFOLIO :
 A Professional Learning Tool

What is a portfolio ?
A collection of materials which provide evidence of your professional learning and development during a course.

Why do we need a portfolio?
1. To demonstrate your achievements and progress made during the course.
2. To provide evidence for yourself and others of professional learning.
3. To encourage awareness of or reflection on professional learning.


Two of my personal portfolios done during CLiPS Programme (2008-2010)

A thick collection of materials of literature during CLiPS

Students' personal portfolios
They started these when they were in year 4

Compilation of their own materials in their personal portfolios
For the teachers, portfolios are the collection of materials which provide evidence of their professional learning and development during a course.
It is vital to have a portfolio so as to prove that you have done your tasks according to the course planned.The same goes to the students where by having their personal portfolios, they can easily collect whatever materials and written tasks done during the process of learning certain subjects, in this case ; literature.Be it :
-drawing of a book cover
-personal response on certain story read
-journals/ diary
-comic stripes
-their own creative poems
-and the list goes on and on

So dear English teachers,
why dont we start introducing these portfolios to our students during literature lesson? It's fun actually and the students will definately enjoy themselves during literature as they can express themselves freely. There's no right or wrong answer for literature.
Believe me! I've done it.