Creating Christmas Emojis

I truly believe that we have to give our students opportunities to create and design. I facilitate PD sessions about this and often teachers express a concern that they can't fit those types of activities into their curriculum. Here's an easy way to incorporate it for the holidays. I had the students design an emoji for the holidays. Some of them really embraced this challenge and I believe, designed something people could someday see on their phones!

He said it was Rudolph. :)

A quick little activity to get their creative juices flowing in a way they would enjoy.

Perspective of an Ugly Christmas Sweater

Multiple Perspectives is one of my favorite concepts of Kaplan's Depth and Complexity.  I think it really helps the students learn to think about a character's motives and also teaches them empathy.

I showed my students pictures of ugly Christmas sweaters (and it was funny, they still thought they were pretty). I told them about how workplaces and schools have contests for the ugliest sweater--how would it feel to be one of those sweaters? Are you glad to be able to get out of the closet and be worn or are you depressed because you are considered ugly. 

Is It Better to Give or Receive?

When we talk about Ethics from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity, it is not just right or wrong. It's about taking a side and being able to make an argument to justify that opinion. 

I asked my students if it is better to give gifts or receive them. Now I found their responses very interesting. I had a sweet class last year and they all said it was better to receive. This year I have a class that is a little more difficult and most of them said giving was better.

Rigorous Dear Santa Letters

I am a bit of a Grinch this time of year. I really try to add a level of rigor to all the activities we do, even for the holidays. So instead of just writing letters to Santa asking for toys-I ask my students to use the concept from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity Multiple Perspectives. Write a letter to Santa from a character.

We are doing our Gingerbread Unit right now, so I asked them to think about what the gingerbread cookie would ask for.

They actually had some very thoughtful answers: 

Inspiring Creativity

There is some controversy in the research regarding creativity. Some believe that creativity is innate and cannot be taught. I am not in that camp. I believe we can teach students to be more creative and I strive to include activities throughout the year that will help accomplish this.

One of the things I like to do is to teach the students about famous artists and have them discuss and write about their works of art. We talked about Van Gogh this week and the students used Starry Night as an inspiration to paint their own take on the famous painting. I loved watching their intensity and concentration in painting the strokes and the curiosity in mixing colors to see what they could make.

Here's what they came up with: