Chapter One - Part 2

Creative Thinking

I saw this section connect to the learner profile, specifically about being open-minded and an inquirer. I marveled the importance that she placed on creative thinking. I consider myself to be a creative thinker and found it exciting that “big picture thinkers will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

When we were in Mt. Vernon, John commented on how amazing George Washington was. He had so many roles including farmer, grist mill creator, architect, general, politician, etc. He had the freedom to pursue many areas – a true Renaissance man. In our society we are so streamlined and specialized – I wonder if that ever hinders our progress.

I think the key to teaching for the big picture comes from reflecting on our own education. What tools did we learn in school that we still use today? Those are big picture items.

Critical Thinking

Again, I see many MYP connections here:
• Offering the learner profile [thinkers, inquirers, communicators]
• Evaluating information [ie- is this a valid website?]
• Producing mulitiple solutions to a problem [ie-write two different ways to solve this problem, write two different thesis statements for your research paper and chose the best one, etc.]

Reflective Thinking

I think we are on the right track with this, but we need to keep guiding our students though purposeful reflection and giving them time to do it.

I loved the question chart on page 20 and could see us using it with writing assignments.

Conclusions

Overall, I consider my classroom to be concept based because I tend to focus on the big picture, but I do feel that I could do more to engage the students.