Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity

Curious about the degree to
which she could challenge her cluster
of gifted students, she regularly added
complexity to their tasks and reached
into higher level standards to offer more
rigor for this capable group. While
the regular education group researched
and debated the basic principles of the
Constitution and how they might rewrite
the preamble to create a classroom
code of sort, the cluster group of gifted
students evaluated whether the authors
of the Constitution might amend any of
its content if they were writing it for the
first time in 2015. What are all the ways
the authors of the Constitution were
influenced by public opinion? What
are all the ways public opinion effects
government today?
In math, the general education
groups benefited from problem solving
to reproduce a 3-D puzzle from a model
using masking tape and eight one-inch
wooden cubes. They had to measure
and cut the cubes and tape, learn how
to make hinges to hold the blocks
together, and work in teams to problem
solve while studying and discussing the
model’s construction in order to recreate
their own 3-D puzzle. Her gifted
cluster also made the widgets, but then
created a business plan to manufacture,
market and sell the puzzle during an
upcoming school fair. During the process,
they learned how to make tables
and graphs and do a cost analysis. They
figured out how many widgets they
would need to produce to turn enough
profit to purchase new drinking fountains
for the playground. Students wrote
letters to the school board requesting
permission to have the new fountains
installed, learned about the cooling and
filtration systems in the fountains, how
to calculate PSI, the best location for
the installation based on water pressure,
accessibility laws, and so forth. They
presented the information to the school
board, complete with their cost and use
analysis, and were granted permission to
use their funds to purchase two new water
fountains for the school. In addition
to stretching the students creatively and
further developing their skills of critical
thinking, they learned a great deal about
effective communication, collaboration,
and flexibility.
This was a classroom in which
there was such an atmosphere of trust
and mutual respect as well as productive
business going on that the tone in
the room mirrored a bustling and busy
office of creative architects working on a
design project together. Starting with interest-based
instruction so that students
personally connect with the content
enabled even the most reluctant learner
to participate. Her students cherished
that she had them up and moving and
made room for choice as often as possible.
Think of all the questions I could ask to
see if you understood the last chapter we
read. What might you ask? Let’s generate
together a list of appealing topic sentences
for your journal entries today so you can
choose one that is most interesting.
She knew to stick closely to the standards
and made it clear that she had
high expectations for their performance,
but she was able to teach the necessary
skills in a creative manner that stimulated
fluency flexibility, and originality
(Torrance, 1979).
Due to the extended role she
played as a student teacher, and to the
principal's frequent absence, she was
permitted to miss faculty meetings and
didn't have the usual commitments of
regular classroom teachers. Except for
a dashed hello in the corridor, she was
left to her own devices and essentially
unfamiliar with school life outside her
own classroom for the 12 weeks of
student teaching. She occasionally wondered
why other teachers didn't look in
on her or worry that the students were
with an untrained teacher. She assumed
they didn't want her to feel intimidated.
And they always seemed to be rushing
off to a district meeting or to cover a
duty or attend a committee meeting
of some kind. She wondered why they
didn't smile more often than they did.
She noted that teachers rarely seemed
to work together or talk about their
current projects with students. When
she made copies in the teacher workroom
and caught glimpses of their work
piles, the work usually looked like some
kind of formal assessment, often with
a corresponding Scantron sheet. She
opened cupboards above the counters in
search of construction paper and found
only yellowed newsprint. A colleague
said they didn't use it much anymore.
Even in kindergarten, she wondered? She
tried to integrate art into her classroom
each day, though she knew creativity
meant much more than what one does
with paints and crayons. Never mind
she thought, I'm over-thinking this. I’ll
buy my own. We need it for our next integrated
science, tech, engineering and math
project (STEM).
Although still a very inexperienced
teacher in training, she knew she
was a natural-born teacher. Her parents
were both college professors and she had
grown up with a house full of books
and a kitchen table full of conversation
complete with homemade creamed soup
and heated debates about what book
made the New York Times best-seller
list. Dessert was habitually served with
a logic puzzle or riddle that her father
brought home from lunch with his
math colleagues.
In her first official capacity as
a new teacher at the same school where
she did her student teaching, she is
Michael Wisneski
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