Values Education

I’ve been writing reports intensively lately and with the double whammy of being sick with a cold. I was desperate for anything to freshen me up. While I was writing I was thinking about creativity, obviously wanting to include this as much as posible in the comments for my students. We focus on values education but I think we need to understand this better.

Creativity

Everybody uses it.

It is looking inward and making something at the same time.

Sometimes I see one of my students trying something so completely different I think I must have totally messed up my instructions but really it’s about where does the inspiration for their creativity come from?

Often people create things that have as much in them as possible to make them as interesting as possible. We think that has to be creative but it doesn’t do anything for us. It’s better to hear or see work that ‘just happened’. Then we ask how did you do that, why did you choose that brush, how come the speed changes there, etc.

Students aren’t creative by chance. They respond so deeply to our lessons but channeling their creativity into the work can be dependent on their emotions. We all feel something from working creatively. We even respond to our own work after it’s been finished. Maybe even those who don’t listen to or watch their work again might still go there in reflection.

If you feel good about something you’ve made – it’s a vast resource to tap in the future. As long as it didn’t come from a destructive emotion.

I am going to try and make techniques for using creative ideas in music more explicit for my students.

Jackson Pollock

Welcome

My name is Kaz Sieger and I am lucky enough to be a music teacher and musician. I hope you get inspired like I do from waking up everyday thinking about music.