LLP Comenius Multilateral Partnership 2012-2014

1. DURABLE KNOWLEDGE – KEY TO THE FUTURE LLP Comenius Multilateral Partnership 2012-2014 Teaching Methods which Encourage Creative Learning Material prepared by: Anca Patrichi (English Teacher) and Mihaela Turcanasu (History Teacher) and presented by: Anca Patrichi Project Meeting in Birmingham, UK - the 7th – the 14th of May 2014-

2. Content • Defining CREATIVITY • Creativity – an EDUCATIONAL GOAL for a successful career • TEACHING METHODS which encourage creative learning in our school • Final PRODUCTS • The positive EFFECT of all these activities upon our students -> LIFELONG LEARNING

3. Creativity • Means activating our right side of the brain… • In doing so, we firstly need to fight our urge of being common and this fight is not easily won. Henri Matisse said that ‘Creativity takes courage.’

4. Creativity is everywhere… • Creativity is real and this century it has become less and less abstract, as it exists in our lives in so many ways. • It is rather felt or seen around us…

5. Tired after a long day, but eager of reading your favourite book? Here is a perfect solution…

6. Imagine this on your wall, drawn by your child… • Most mothers would feel PROUD, as this means their child is very imaginative…

7. To sum up various definitions…

8. Creativity appears as a result of a combination of factors:

9. An Educational Goal… • Creativity is a necessity nowadays, in our competitive job market, with old brands being perfected or changed at least yearly • ... or new products being invented as we speak. Employees, employers or free-lancers must adapt to changes on a daily basis. And so do TEACHERS… We must TEACH OUR STUDENTS TO REINVENT THEMSELVES for a brighter future…

10. Creative thinking obtained through creative learning • Creativity has to be instilled in formal or non-formal educational institutions, starting from kindergarten. • Different methods and developed competences depend on students’ age and their personality/talent: • At an early age, children should be encouraged to be original by drawing, painting, creating objects. • Later on they should be motivated to write stories, imagine life-like situations or seeing a topic from different angles. => Teachers must offer OPPORTUNITIES for students to freely express their ideas and their feelings. This leads to more chances of succeeding in today’s competitive labour market.

11. Main teaching methods for developing creativity in our school School performances – Using role playing for developing pupils’/students’ artistic talent and ‘feeling’ the characters in famous plays. Projects – individual or group work Essay Writing Story Writing Articles for the school magazine Participation in workshops/ conferences/fairs

12. Examples of Role playing in School Performances “Elena Cuza” – a historical play The students wrote the script, being guided by the teacher. They chose their costumes, contributed to the stage movement, they borrowed a part of their personalities to their characters.

13. “Ion Roata” A play about a man who was the representative of Romanian peasants, an important political figure of the time (19th century) and a supporter of Al. Ioan Cuza, the Prince of Moldavia and later the ruler of the Romanian Principalities. Our teachers of Romanian adapted and directed the play.

14. Other Examples of Role playing in School Performances • “Pedagog de scoala noua” – which is an adaptation of a play by I. L. Caragiale, a famous Romanian playwright. • Objectives: to learn about the Romanian classics, to study the language of the time, to learn about the system of education from the period between the two World Wars, to understand the use of irony for pointing out some problems of the time and the necessity of solutions.

15. Other Examples of Role playing in School Performances • “La Tiganci” – which is an adaptation of a difficult literary text by Mircea Eliade. The method of staging it was used for supporting the students’ understanding of this famous work. • Objectives: to feel and understand the characters, to learn the symbols, to understand the main characteristics of fantastic literature.

16. Projects The most challenging way of Developing creativity • Creating a project from zero = the biggest challenge for students • Students have to present their projects, based on a certain topic and for this, they must use their own ideas and personal experiences and to prove it, by illustrating this material. (they choose the best images, thus showing their creativity). • Presenting projects = searching for information, synthesizing it, organising ideas, learning how to work in a team (if the project involves team work) and very important, being able to present it in front of the class.

17. Examples of Projects • History Projects - students are given a topic and they must find information, select the main one, present it in front of the class. This is how they learn new facts about historical figures/processes/situations and they can make connections or understand major effects of some political or cultural decisions. • Romanian/English Literature Projects – students have to make a project about a famous Romanian/English or American author, and this way, they learn new things about his/her life, his/her novels/plays/ short stories, the main themes, plot, point of view, characters etc.

18. “Tapping into Literature” – February 2014 Authors and their works Tasks

19. “Tapping into Literature” – February 2014

20. Small Feedback ‘Projects’ – used in English classesExample of project: ‘Why learn a foreign language?’ Students had to work in teams and write main reasons for acquiring another language (case study - English)

21. Essays • An essay is a piece of writing that methodically analyses and evaluates a topic or issue.  Fundamentally, an essay is designed to get your academic opinion on a particular matter. • Examples of essays applied in class: • Travelling enriches our souls • Money cannot buy happiness • The generation gap cannot be bridged. • And so many more…

22. Story Writing Trying to produce creative writing will make some students lose sleep, lose hair, and lose patience. Methods to make it more fun: 1. Write a story in teams. Each student adds another sentence to the story. The result is sometimes a lesson in creativity.  2. Write a story with a given ending or beginning. 3. Write 3 or 4 versions of a story with the same theme/characters.

23. 3. Story Cubes • After rolling the cubes (like dice), children have to use the images on the cubes in order to create a story.

24. Our school magazine… • Where many of our students’ articles have been published along the years. • It has just won the second prize in the Magazine Contest in our county.

25. Participation in fairs and exhibitions • This makes the students proud of their projects or products. • Here, you can see our students at the Student ‘mini-company’ Fair where they represented our high school.

26. During the Comenius Project Byzantium after Byzantium, our students proved how creativity can reach great heights. Here are some images from the exhibition.

27. Conferences and Meetings with writers or other famous people Meeting with writers from Basarabia

28. To sum up, the final products of the activities in our school are: Projects Essays School magazine with students’ articles School Performances Stories Posters, presentations Presentation stands Flyers and brochures etc.

29. IMPACT and EFFECTS on our STUDENTS • Learning how to find information on different topics • Learning how to structure, organise or synthesize it • Expressing their feelings and becoming more creative • Developing balanced competences in different fields • On the whole, durable knowledge and higher chances of success in their future careers

30. Here is a creative idea when you run out of ways to be creative… “You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

31. Bibliography • www.homelifesimplified.com.au • http://motionpr.net • www.cauldronsandcupcakes.com • www.bestpracticehub.com • www.picklebums.com

32. Thank you for your time!