Creativity Strand Reflection!

This is my final blog post for this class! I'd like to wrap up by discussing the K-12 Conference I viewed and by reiterating how helpful this class was in understanding the utilization of technology for education, as well as the ways this conference illustrates that utilization!

I viewed the Creativity Strand conference and it was enlightening! The utilization of traditional teaching methods and integration of technologies were, in each of the examples presented, seamless!
In this conference video, educators from around the world showed off their classrooms and lessons. In this case, the educators were all artistically motivated - though many incorporated various subjects within their lessons, the best example being Samuel Wright's incorporation of music into math lessons at the Korean school he taught at. In that video, Wright showed students how the Pythagorean theorem could relate to music by having the students access a music app on iPads provided by the school. Again, within this lesson technology was utilized in a streamlined way which felt very natural within the lesson.
The entire conference was very interesting to watch because much of it focused on the students, and the way they fulfilled the lesson and learned for themselves. The teacher involvement seemed secondary, and that was by design. Much of the lesson planning focused upon what the students could contribute.
As a future educator, this was a wonderful example to follow. I plan to teach social studies - history and/or political science, along with other studies on the people of the world. With that being said, I am a huge fan of theater. This conference showed me how I could incorporate theatrical and artistic elements into my lessons in history! It also showed me that technology can be used in the most interesting ways - I never would have thought of a multiplayer game like Minecraft as a tool for students to learn about musical composition, as well as a new tool to create music in an entirely new and unconventional way.
I cannot wait to see more conferences like this - I feel like seeing examples of student learning is one of the best ways for me to learn how to be a better educator! My time is best served trying to suit the needs of my students, so seeing them learning in ways which make them happy and engage them in the process makes me very excited for future possibilities! It also gives me a few ideas on potential lesson plans for the future, and certainly shows me ways of presenting lessons which do not just involve the traditional lecturing format.