The Wild Card
Reflections on Creativity and Authenticity which lead to influence
This summer, a goal of mine was to read books for personal and professional reasons. In the summer, I have time to read for enjoyment and learn new ideas. The time spent reading inspires me for the next school year. Developing a Professional Learning Network (PLN) through Twitter has been a great way to expand my learning with other educators. This summer in addition to reading, I have participated in on-line webinars such as Strobel Learning and Virtual Math Summit. It has been a great learning opportunity to learn alongside other educators through reading their works or participating in on-line events. As I was searching for books, the Twitter community led me to The Wild Card: 7 Steps to an Educator’s Creative Breakthrough by Wade and Hope King. Reading through tweets from fellow educators, I came across discussions of the book.
One of my goals as an educator, is instilling an excitement to learn. Throughout my education, I recall teachers that provided a variety of learning opportunities which created engagement and showed authenticity. In my own lessons, I try to incorporate real-world connections, use self-reflection to guide instruction and show authenticity to create an engaging learning environment. Creativity and our influence as educators are the two main components that stood out while reading The Wild Card.
Creativity
Creativity at times seems to indicate making things for lessons and continually coming up with new ideas.
Throughout the book, the authors shared practical ways to be creative in the classroom without feeling the need to do more.
One example was using a game such as Hungry Hippos and changing the content of the game as new content or concepts are taught. The students will have an understanding of the game even when the content changes. Incorporating a game provides hands-on and engaging learning. At times, I have thought I need to do more and make more learning materials for content areas. One key point that is reiterated is the idea of not feeling the need to always be making things.
People tend to define creativity in terms of making things, but creativity is often about doing things (King & King, 2018, p. 75).
Upon reading about creativity, it made me reflect on the concept of doing vs. making things. When creating lessons and activities, there is preparation that takes place, to ensure content is taught and skills are learned. Periodically, I reflect and think, “Am I making enough materials?” whereas ‘doing’ makes me think, “Is what I am doing, covering the content and skills?” Doing things such as having routines, stations and differentiation promotes making products from the students. For myself at times, the making of materials has been my emphasis, versus the students making.
One goal of mine has been to establish the ‘doing’ to promote the ‘making’ to create higher engagement with students.
An analogy in the book that I liked described that creativity, was sharing the perspective of actors auditioning for roles. Each actor has their style to bring to the role for the audition. In teaching, we each have our individual styles to incorporate into our role as educators each day.
But let’s imagine a room full of actors auditioning for a part, all reading the same scripted lines out loud. It doesn’t matter if they’re amateur thespians or Hollywood’s finest. The point is, they’ll all draw on their own personal brand of dramatic flair to choose voice inflections, facial expressions, and hand gestures while delivering those lines. Each actor’s audition will be different. Some will shine. Some will deliver lines that fall flat. It’s the same for teachers. You have to decide how you will breathe life into your curriculum, regardless of what it is (King & King, 2018, p. 11).
Another key component of establishing engagement is not limiting ourselves to what we know. By taking risks and trying new activities, it will enable new opportunities in learning. At times, I am hesitant to try new activities because of not knowing enough about the activity, technology or strategy. What I have learned is that by trying, it brings confidence to try at the new opportunity or if it doesn’t work, it sparks a curiosity to try another new learning activity.
If you limit yourself to only doing the things you know you’re good at, you cannot have a creative breakthrough (King & King, 2018, p. 26).
Our Influence as Educators
The second main focus was on our influence as educators. When I started teaching, I relied on mentors in my school building to guide instruction, while creating an individual style. I am grateful for their influence and support in those early years. I see those beginning teaching years shaped by the influence of great educators. As a new educator, I was excited about my first teaching opportunity, while bringing kids learning experiences that would influence them on their educational path.
It is nice to hear recognition for our efforts. I have struggled at times, to ponder “Am I doing enough?”
The book stated that a crucial element is to make students our focus. Recognition is appreciated and important, but we have to strive to focus our attention or efforts on our students. At one school I taught at, we had Thursday Thrills. Each week on Thursday, we would receive an email that listed staff names and next to the listed names there was a statement of appreciation or recognition. It was appreciated to hear from colleagues something positive they noticed or wanted to share about staff members. Reading through the email each week, brought an awareness of the good that staff members were doing, while creating recognition that focused on the learning environment.
The power of your purpose must be strong enough to energize your teaching efforts, empower your class, and catapult each student toward academic success-and beyond (King & King, 2018, p. 50).
Authenticity
Another aspect of using our influence, is by being authentic. Students gain an understanding of our interests and view us as an individual. My students learn interests I have outside of school: writing, gardening, traveling, reading, and family and incorporate those aspects into my teaching.
When you bring your go-to thing in the classroom, you spontaneously become more creative because you’re connecting the dots between who you are as a person and who you are as a teacher. You’re living authentically, being true to your spirit and celebrating your innate gifts (King & King, 2018, p. 125).
With gardening, I talk about my garden and have brought items to class and with reading, I bring books that I have read and we discuss the books for our read aloud time. A book that we are currently discussing is Fish in A Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt. Throughout the book, I made connections to the characters. The main character Ally struggled in reading and as a student math was difficult to understand for myself. I went through the motions to complete homework and assignments. As we have been reading the book in class, we have discussed text to self reflections, connections to events and I have shared my parallels to the story. It is important to be real and show that as educators we may have struggled with content.
With authenticity, it also about making connections. Over the years, it has been a rewarding to hear from former students. Receiving notes and cards are appreciated and humbling. This year, my first Kindergarten class graduated college. Since that first kindergarten class, I have moved cities, districts and changed grade levels. It’s been a surprise to hear from students from previous years when I go to the mailbox at school and find a card or letter. Samantha graduated this year and is starting her career in journalism. I remember her enjoying writing in Kindergarten and now all these years later, hearing how her love of writing turned into a career.
Always remember that as an educator, your influence goes deep. Students do remember you and your authenticity.
It is important for us to foster creativity and authenticity in our classrooms. Creativity and authenticity allows us to grow as educators by trying new techniques or strategies. They also allow us to bring our interests into our learning environment. Surrounding ourselves with educators that will promote creativity and authenticity will strengthen us as educators and individuals. I am grateful for my colleagues, students and PLN via Twitter to help grow as an educator.
The more links you add to your chain, the stronger the chain becomes. (King & King, 2018, p. 181)
What are some ways you bring creativity into your classroom? How do you use your influence with your students and other staff?
Editor’s Note:
We are avid readers at A Teacher’s Hat and it warms my heart when I receive articles about books I have on my reading list. The Wild Card is an amazing book, as described by Robyn, and its messages of being creative and authentic are what every teacher needs: as a new teacher, we need it to remember that creativity is not just about bringing new technologies in the classroom. It is also about listening to our students and finding ways to connect the curriculum to their interests. For experienced teachers, creativity is reflecting on practice and trying something new — taking the leap.
We make the strongest connections with our students and peers when we bring ourself to the setting: when we are authentic, we are focused on our students and not on how we look or are perceived. Let’s continue to be creative and authentic and find more inspiration from The Wild Card.
References:
King, H. & King, W. (2018). The Wild Card: 7 steps to an educator’s creative breakthrough. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.: San Diego.
