math creativity

So I tutor kids at Murrah High School in geometry but mainly algebra 1. I was working with one boy on factoring and the quadratic formula. He got to a problem where he needed to do the formula but did it in a weird way. There is a plus/minus sign in between the number and the radical and he just didn't put it in there until the very end when he got his answer. I asked him why he did it that way and he told me that throwing it in there while having to work the problem confused him. He always got the correct asnwer so I let him keep doing it his own way. It reminded me of what we were talking about in class today... about school and creativity and the teacher knwoing when to let the student do their own thing and explore ways to get the answers. It was really cool to see it happen first hand. I want to be a teacher and I think experiences like this one will help me to know when to let a student do things there own way. I hate it when teachers are so strict about a procedure especially when there are multiple processes that will get you to the right answer. Teachers need to want to teach and be very open minded to new things. Teachers also need to allow time to actually explain a method rather than just throw random examples on the board. What good is it to keep building and building on the material you're teaching if no one understands the basic building blocks? Teachers do have pressure when it comes to standardized tests. I went to a public school where we were number one for a very long time and had the highest public school test scores. I was force fed so much material to ensure that I did well on the test. and I did do very well but that doesn't mean I actually understood what I was doing. Thankfully I had many excellent teachers years after that explained and made up for my lack of comprehension as to why something was the right answer.

Gettin' Intrinsic

I am finding myself to be more intrinsically motivated when it comes to papers and projects and just things overall. I am not sure if I am just becoming more aware of my motivation to do things because we talk about it a lot in class or if I am just becoming more motivated with my life and the things I am doing. I've learned about intrinsic motivation before but have not discussed it until now in regards to creativity. I think it's probably not only am I becoming more aware but I am taking the more "creative" route in my classes. Instead of sticking to the same old boring college essay even though I am given a choice to do that or something else, I am choosing to do something I actually want to do.

It's kind of like back when I did competitive cheerleading..... As a team we picked our music because it was important to the coaches that not only do we like the routine but that we liked the music as well because we would be listening to that same mix for months to come and we would have to dance to it and everything. And we won't give our best performance to music we hate and routine we don't like.

But even with essays... I am picking topics I want to write about. We read Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" in my interp. class and I am going to write my paper on how Britney Spears is a hunger artist using her new cd's lyrics as support. I also find myself wanting to work on my Dante project and while I am taking a break from other things, I work on that project. And with the porject for this class, I love to observe people when they paint and it is very fascinating to me. I google my project whenever I am online.

I certainly do my best work when I am intrinsically motivated. I am usually worried about the grade but I feel like with the more work I put in and the serious thought behind all of my ideas the grade will just fall into place. I also find that I am not putting much emphasis on the grade at all. Which is helping me to keep m mind clear and really focus on the task at hand.

creative things happening

so I have started on my project for this class and the way people are going about painting is very cool. It's like I'm giving them the same materials and essentially they are painting but their techniques are all completely different. As I observe them it's really cool to see them stumble upon that they can mix or if that is the first thing they do. Favorite colors are certainly playing a big role. And I am seeing some mood correlation. I am excited to see where all of this goes. I have thought about how maybe music in the background would also effect how someone paints and if it directly affects their emotions.

I think I have started recognizing my own creative talents recently. I feel I am starting to get a better understanding for how I come up with ideas. I need to know of the assignment (if its for school) in advance. Like If I am going to have to write a paper on a novel or something, I need to have the assignment before I actually begin reading the novel. It's kind of like what they tell you to do on standardized tests. Read the questions before you read this story. This was those questions or ideas may spark something in your mind. I need to know the assignment in advance this way I can let the thoughts float around in the back of my head until BAM! I have an idea.

creative projects... something I actually want to work on!

Okay. so my teacher is letting us come up with our own project ideas and it can be about anything we are going over in class. (I have the same teacher for two classes). In previous blog entries, I mentioned the Inferno and well that it was what we have our project on. We can do anything. At first I was going to write just a normal college essay but have been trying to come up with a good creative idea and something I would actually want to do and work on. I want to be intrinsically motivated and see the end result not for the grade but for the project. Well I was in my Interpretation class and she assigned a new paper topic that is due after spring break and I came up with an idea I love love love! We read Franz Kafka's A Hunger Artist and I am going to write my paper on how Britney Spears is a hunger artist. Well while free writing on this paper and running with this crazy and out there idea I came up with an idea for my other class' project. I am going to make a deconstructed book. I'm basically going to buy an old used copy of the Inferno and "deconstruct it" or maybe even "reconstruct it".... I am going to illustrate the different scenes using pop up images, paint, symbols. I am even going to glue chucks of pages together and then cut circles going deeper and deeper into the book as if as you are flipping through you are going through all of the circles of hell. It's hard to describe and that is as best I could. I love being able to do my own thing and not have to follow rules set by someone else. I am very much a rule maker and that makes it easier for me to break or bend my own rules. There was certainly an incubation period for my Dante project idea. Those thoughts have been floating around in my brain forever and it wasn't until I was working on a different project that the idea came to me. Some creativity may be able to be triggered initially but some takes time.

a light bulb went off but maybe this isn't a good idea/comparison

okay so this may be totally random and out there but... we were discussing in class the other day about the importance of decision making and I am reading Dante's Divine Comedy in another class and started making all of these random comparisons.

so yeah. decision making!
It's definitely important in the creative process because one decision will lead to another and making wrong decisions is fine because if you never try you'll never know. It's trial and error but as long as you pick something and stick to it you will benefit from it. I linked the importance of decision making to the Inferno because right when Dante and Virgil are about the enter hell there are the souls of those floating around behind a banner. They lived their life with "no blame and with no praise." Heaven cast them out and hell would not take them in. They never committed. They never took a stand. They never made a decision and never took any risks. Decision making is a powerful tool and is essential in the creative process. Nothing will ever be good or bad if you can't make up your mind. It's hard to be in the middle. Dante didn't half decide to write the Divine Comedy. You have to commit wholeheartedly to something and it is either going to be seen as a "heavenly" piece of work or a "what the hell was he/she thinking?" kind of work. If there was no decision process and deciding factor, than chances are that nothing was created because nothing was ever built upon the initial thought. The creation is nothing more than building blocks of ideas glued together by a firm decision. If the glue isn't strong and durable and if you don't put enough, then the blocks and ideas will fall apart.