One way of enhancing children's creativity is help them write a poem. Children may recognise the power of poetry - its ability to inspire emotions and the pleasure and fun they can get from memorising a poem, or reading it again and again - but they may not know where and how to start writing their own poems.
There are other things you can explore rather than only enhancing their creativity in the foreign language class. You can help them recognise the elements of a poem and explore different ways of writing one and by doing so, you will enable children to:
Also, in writing poetry, children will discover a new world of expression that is just as fun to share with others as it is to write. In my next posts, I will share some creative ways of starting to write poems and introduce the world of poetry to children.
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Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.
Last week, a student of mine, who is an artist and paints beautifully and inspiringly on canvas with oil and watercolors, asked me to teach everything she needed to know to describe her work – including materials, colors, procedures, description of landscapes and views. So, there we were, in a practical class, with all her material and my English teaching. As I was observing her painting, teaching what she needed, and studying the history of art with some beautiful music in the background, something got me thinking: what does it really mean to teach? Is it just a job, in which you plan and deliver classes, teach English in several different contexts, to different students, learn, share, go home and start all over again? I have always believed that teaching is not just a job. It is an art - an art hidden behind a load of possibilities, where it is possible to discover mysteries, solve problems, train our minds to question the world around us, explore and investigate. In this context, knowledge is a treasure! Is it an easy task? No, in fact, it is a multi-faceted task where teachers have to combine creativity and intelligence, inspiration and passion to ignite students' lifelong passion for learning. But what is it like to be a teacher? Is he/she the bearer of knowledge; the one who teaches or instructs? Is he/she a master, a guide or a planter of seeds? Is he/she an inspiration, an idea or a light? For me, there is one word that combines all of these: artist! Teachers are artists! Our classroom is the canvas on which we, together with our students, create an effervescent picture of the world. Our students arrive at the canvas, and each one of them brings a unique and vibrant color. They give beauty to the canvas, adding more and more color to it. We, as teachers, add our strokes to the classroom: some are skillful, such as questions to inspire their learning; some are playful, such as activities to create a fun and relaxing environment where real learning can happen; some are broad, when help is really needed, but at the same time they can be so delicate that they barely touch the canvas - this is the moment when we step back to help stretch students' imagination, foster sensibility and inspire creativity. At the end of each class, a new painting is revealed, so full of colors, with different perspectives, shared observations and emotions, in which learning becomes the masterpiece. Is it ready to be put on the wall to be observed? Not really...this is a work still in progress, it is an image each one of us will bring to our lives to be inspired to prepare another canvas, so that new colors can be revealed. So, think about what your students are seeing as they look with you upon the same canvas. What if we could see through the eyes of each of our students, what would we see? Why should you think that 'learning', which is one of the most precious things in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? 'Learning' is something wonderful that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart, you want knowledge and sensitivity and imagination. (Excuse me, W. Somerset Maugham, for my adaptation) |
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