Inventiveness and Creativity

In a world that is constantly changing, one of the skills that company administrators look for in hiring new employees is creativity: being able to think on one's feet and the ability to be inventive in seeking solutions both within the company as well as outside in the real world. The CEO's of America's top companies have all agreed that creativity is an important skill that is necessary in the job fields of 21st century United States, but for some reason, we still find our education system smashing the creativity of our youth.  Instead of allowing students to be creative and express themselves through music, art, and drama, school districts are cutting funds for these programs and, in some areas, getting rid of fine arts programs altogether.  As teachers and administrators, how do we expect our students to learn and practice creativity if we don't provide them with any avenues to do so?  Aren't we only doing the future generations a disservice by cutting arts programs? I completely understand the argument that our test scores are dropping and we are falling behind in areas of academic study, but the solution is not to buckle down on our students even more within the same methods that are in place. A new system is needed to rejuvenate our education system. We cannot simply just keep taking away the fun from everything that students enjoy in order to improve test scores for the government.  Have we ever considered changing how things work in the classroom instead?  Maybe more teachers could implement teaching methods that allow for more creativity and that still help our students learn the material at the same time.  There are thousands of ideas out there... teachers and administrators just have to allow them into our schools.  For example, the so-called "FedEx Day" that Daniel Pink talked out about in his book, Drive, is an excellent way for students to find topics that interest them personally and come up with solutions to problems on their own.  It is a idea that stimulates student creativity while at the same time engaging them. Just like this idea, there are plenty of other ideas out there: they only need to be grasped and put into place within our school systems.  Creativity is important in the real world, and this is exemplified by the world's most famous corporations.  It is up to our educators to ready our youth for the real world, and while it is sometimes a difficult task to encourage creativity (not to mention assessing it...), it is nonetheless necessary in order to sustain a reliable workforce and a functioning economy in the competitive world market in which we compete everyday.

Reflectiveness

One of the most important elements that teachers must utilize in order to stay at the top of the game is self-reflection.  A teacher who is actively seeking to further his students' education will inevitably better his own teaching skills and reform the qualities that makes him a good teacher.  In order to maintain effective teaching in the classroom, this teacher must stop and look back into the past and analyze his own teaching as well as his students' learning.  He might inquire as to what lessons have been the most effective on his students and make adjustments accordingly to make sure that he is teaching in the best ways and making the most impact on the students.  He might also meet individually with each of the students in order to reflect on both the teaching styles and the student's learning styles.  Meeting with each student offers great advantages to a teacher.  Primarily, it allows a teacher to reflect on their teaching "from the other side of the desk." Using this method, students might be able to offer advice back to the teach exemplifying how he might be able to make the lessons more entertaining or intriguing.  Another benefit to using this method of self-reflection is that the students are able to look back at their own progress throughout the semester and see the areas in which they might need to improve. Without using methods of self-reflection that proactively seek the betterment of one's teaching skills as well as the betterment of students' learning, teaching can often become dull and boring, not to mention lacking in skill.  Reflection upon one's self is very important is the teaching career.