Creativity Presentations

The question of creativity being lost in today's teaching really made me think about my personal teaching practices in my classroom. I was able to take something away from each presenter that I plan to apply in someway to my students. 
     Unfortunately creativity and the arts aren't as valued as reading and math but as Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, "creativity is as important as literacy". There isn't much opportunity for students to draw, color, sing, dance or act because those programs are usually the first things to get cut from school primarily due to budget cuts or time restraints. I do believe that once an passion or talent is apparent during that musical recital or in class readers theater or the poster board presentation it then becomes the  educators duty to push that student to bring it out.
     John Seeley Brown's perspective of how beneficial collaborative study groups are reminds me of the saying, "there is no I in team". One of the main complaints I hear from 3-5 grade teachers is the lack of collaboration skills their students have. In the primary grades we do a lot of think-pair-share and discuss with your elbow partner etc. but there are no research projects and the majority of these students can't read so expecting 24 six and seven years olds to explore and work together with 1 teacher to help is a very difficult task, but from upper grade feedback and with Brown's confirmation I do realize more needs to be done due to the importance even if it is reviewing and practicing taking turns protocols and /or using respectful language to respond to peers. 
​     I found Howard Gardner's 5 minds for the future a little scary especially when it came to the ethical mind set among young people today. It's like they know the difference between right and wrong and choose to wrong and even can justify and rationale why they themselves or others made that choice. I think the even more saddening part about it was there was no clear cut answer on how to change it. Gardner's advice was for educators to continue to create an environment that shows the example we want them to go into the outside world with. Our districts, Be Kind, Respectful, Responsible and safe pledge help reinforce such ideas to our students.
     Intrinsic motivation is a very hard thing to discover in 20+ students and then try to implement strategies. I am honestly lucky if I can tap into 5 or 6 of my students. Although he had a wonderful presentation and I understood his point of incentives not working and causing more harm than good I really wish Dan Pink would have offered some ideas on how educators can support and encourage these motivations in our students.
     Lastly, incorporating Mobley's insights to help my students think creatively I would like to 1) shift out of traditional methodologies by letting go of the old way teaching(assembly line) 2)explore how my students learn naturally rather than forcing learning that doesn't work for them 3) getting my brain to think outside the box so I can be an example to them to do the same 4) Reach out to staff and listen and share new ideas to try 5) encourage self-esteem and 6) don't make anyone feel bad giving an incorrect response by still giving positive feedback to all answers.