TCEO Learning Framework Values

Creativity

Being creative means solving a problem in a new way. It means changing your perspective.

Being creative means taking risks and ignoring doubt and facing fears. It means breaking with routine and doing something different for the sake of doing something different. It means mapping out a thousand different routes to reach one destination. It means challenging yourself every day. Being creative means searching for inspiration in even the most mundane places. It means you’re asking stupid questions. It means creating without critiquing. Being creative means you know how to find the similarities and differences between two completely random ideas.

Being creative means you’re thinking.

The value that I am enacting is Creativity. I believe that creativity is a crucial value to integrate in the classroom through stimulating and engaging learning experiences and activities.

Throughout my Geography unit, students were able to explore their creative side when they researched various occupations in the community in relation to bush fires, working towards answering our fertile question “Are you ready?”.

As part of the student’s inquiry throughout the unit, they had to examine various occupations involved with Bush fires and then research one particular role in the community, addressing specific questions as they prepared for a news interview conducted by a reporter (me as the teacher).

The students final summative assessment piece, required them coming to school dressed up as their occupation, where they were then interviewed and filmed on an IPAD.  Finally, the film was then presented to the class and students were able to view their peers and identify some valuable new learning, as well as consolidate learning for the unit.

This creative digital assessment acts as fertile evidence for both teachers and parents alike, showing not only content knowledge, but also group work and participation, student behaviour and individual student involvement.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the creative aspects of this assessment task and also researching key personnel roles in our community and presenting their facts and topic knowledge to their classmates.

The film attached is an example of one groups assessment task.

High Quality Learning

An emphasis on High Quality Learning sits at the heart of curriculum.

Many opportunities were present for the student's to demonstrate High Quality Learning. Throughout the unit, students participated in a variety of engaging and meaningful activities such as: Graffiti wall, Hot Potato activity and the What's in a picture strategy. Such activities, allowed for the student's to be involved in meaningful discussions with their peers and also served as a means to demonstrate any prior knowledge on the subject. 

Below is an illustration highlighting the What's in a picture strategy and a recording of a student saying what they believed the picture meant to them.