Creative teachers do not have to be craft experts. In fact, you can be a creative person without ever coming near a craft. Creativity is the ability to be original or imaginative. You may think you are not creative, when in fact you really are but just don’t know it. You may ask, “How do I start those creative impulses flowing?” For me, creativity in the classroom stems from one basic principle: people remember experiences.
Therefore, if we can find something for our students to experience while they are learning, they will remember what they have learned better than if they have just heard it. When you experience something, you personally participate in it. Experience can take place through activity or through understanding something in a different way, in a different light.
Create experiences
So where does creativity come in?
We cannot take our children to the Middle East to cross the River Jordan as Joshua did. We need to create a way for our children to experience this without actually being there. Here is where creativity comes in. Children have great imaginations, so we can use fairly simple ideas. Here was my thought process when faced with teaching a group of energetic three-year olds about Joshua:
- What do I want the children to learn?
- Joshua loved God. God loved Joshua. God dried up part of a river so Joshua and the Israelites could cross to the other side. The name of the river was Jordan. Joshua and the Israelites crossed the river to attack Jericho, an evil city.
- How can the children experience the love and power of God?
- We can cross the River Jordan as the Israelites did.
- What are the basic characteristic of this river and this Bible story?
- A river is blue and long, and this river needs to come apart in the middle to show how God parted the river.
- What do I have that I can use for this?
- Blue towels and blue cloths.
It worked beautifully! We camped out on one side of the river, God parted the river (with a little help in this case), and we crossed over to attack Jericho. Weeks later I asked one of the three-year olds if he remembered what he had learned about the River Jordan. I threw some T-shirts and jeans on the floor in a line, and he very proudly showed how God divided the river and how the Israelites passed through.
For teens, too
Experiences can be used to teach teenagers also. One week my husband and I were teaching a class of 15- to 17-year olds about a parent’s responsibilities. We wanted the students to really understand what parents go through, so we decided to use an experience. We used the same thought process as outlined above.
- What do I want the teenagers to learn?
- Parenting is a lot of hard work. There is more to being a godly parent than we often realize.
- How can the teens experience parenting?
- Have them take care of children, keeping specific God-given goals in mind.
- What basic characteristics of parenting do I want the teens to experience?
- Parents teach their children about God. Parents use a lot of energy just keeping children under control.
- What do I have that I can use for this?
- Children from a younger class. The lesson plan and activity for the younger class.
The class we chose consisted of four- and five-year olds. They were learning about the book of Psalms, and their activity was an outdoor scavenger hunt for object listed in a specific psalm. After discussing the responsibilities of parents, we had each teenager take two children and act as their temporary parent. They had to teach the children about the psalm, help the children find the objects in the psalm (e.g., a rock), and finally, keep them out of the mud while they went scavenging for the objects.
Afterwards we asked the teen class how it went. Many of them said that it was difficult to keep the children under control while trying to teach them.
Although some teens felt frustrated because they thought they were not able to teach the children anything, one young girl was excited because she taught a small child about Jesus being strong like a rock.
This experience helped them understand that good parenting is harder than it looks. Learning from a firsthand perspective also made learning about God’s word interesting and fun.
Teaching through experience can be enjoyable for both teachers and students. All it takes is a little bit of creativity to make a lasting impression on a student. So, be creative!
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One