Inventiveness

I think inventiveness and creativity are some of the most important things children should learn in order to be successful later in life. While some children are more creative or imaginative than others, all children have some sort of creativity. If you give kids a blank piece of paper they will all create something completely different and unique. Just because a kid is not the greatest artist does not mean that they aren't creative. I think to encourage creativity in schools, we first of all need to have music and art programs where kids can express themselves. Not every single kid is gifted at art or music, but many many children have the ability to use art or music as a creative outlet. We also need to encourage more free thinking in the classroom. Children should be able to decide what they want to do for a project, or how they want to go about finding an answer. These too, are ways of expressing creativity. I think if we gave kids one day out of each month to work on their own project, and they had complete freedom to choose the subject and the way they wanted to present the project, this would be a perfect way to encourage and teach creativity. No matter what the quality of the end product, it would be important to reward kids for giving it their best effort. Although the 21st century is the age of technology, I still think creativity plays a vital role in anyone's life. Most jobs will require you to figure out a solution to a problem on your own. That requires creativity and imagination. Adults also may use creativity later in life as a stress-reliever. For instance, they may use music or dance or art to relieve the stresses in their lives. Overall, I think creativity is a vital thing to include in the classroom because it will be essential later in life.

Reflectiveness

I think of reflectiveness as looking back on your work and seeing how far you've come, in addition to setting more goals for the future. I think this has become difficult for teachers and students because in the culture of America today, we are so busy and we live so much in the moment. Teachers and students are so focused on getting the tasks of present day done, that they don't have time to reflect on their past work. I think reflection is very important for teachers and students alike. It is important for us to look back and see how far we've come because in that way, we can really acknowledge that we've learned and grown as people. By reflecting, we can see what we are capable of, and set realistic goals for the future. I think learning looks different for each individual student. Learning should be more about how much a student has improved from his previous work, than how he or she compares to his or her classmates. For that reason, reflectiveness shows students and teachers how much they have learned. I think to reflect most effectively, you need time. It doesn't matter if it is in the morning or the afternoon or the evening, you just need to cut out some time from your busy life to sit down and look back at everything you have done. I think this time could be set aside in a classroom maybe one day at the end of every quarter. This would give the students a chance to stop worrying about their homework that's due that day, and just consider everything they have done leading up to that day. This would also give the teacher an opportunity to ask his or her students how he or she has improved as a teacher over the given time. Then students and teachers alike can figure out what it is they need to keep improving on. I think reflectiveness improves the quality of learning in the long run.