Hello guys! If you are an educator or teacher, you should read my following experiences in teaching the seventh graders.
As you see in the picture, my students are busy to decorate their paper to be displayed on the wall. At the moment, they are learning how to greet someone in English. The teacher has already prepared some fun in-class activities in order to make her students understand the learning materials well. The students read some expressions used for greeting in the copied paper. Then, they asked each other about the difficult words and how to pronounce them correctly. Next, they practiced to greet each other. Finally, the students perpetuated what they have learnt today by drawing a kind of summary on the piece of paper, coloring and decorating it, and then displaying it on the wall. It's good for their memory because they will notice the paper for about two weeks so that they will automatically memorize them fast.
Besides greeting, they have also learnt on how to express thanks to anybody. They knew "Expressing Thanks" very well, but no one of them have ever heard "Expressing Gratitude" yet. However, they then understood that both of them are the same. Another case, most of my students are familiar enough with "Thanks" or "Thank You" and "you are welcome" as its response. Not many of them recognized other many similar expressions used for expressing thanks or for replying it such as Thanks a lot, I appreciate you, don't mention it, never mind, etc. Therefore, the teacher ordered the students to creatively write them down on a piece of paper, and then displayed it on the wall so that it can help the students to memorize because they see and read it everyday.
As their teacher, I just realized that how good they were at discussing a concept, designing, and decorating their simple summary. They worked together in group of 3, even though sometimes I could observe there were some of students who worked hard and who worked less in the group. But, that's not gonna be a big problem because they were the seventh graders, not all of them were responsible enough to do the task. What I did was directed them what might to do again and again. No matter they wrote right or wrong because they can correct each other in group. It is also because "Creativity comes as a result of trial and error, collaboration, curiosity, being fearless and experimenting". Also, In the article, the writer stated that "Creativity in learning equips children with essential skills of collaboration, independence and exploration". (as cited in https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2013/oct/15/play-creative-learning-roundtable, assessed in wed, 5 Nov 2016).
Thus, let our students work on their own interesting ways. In the same objects of learning, commonly, some teachers may ask their students to rewrite what they wrote on the whiteboard (take a note), and then command their students to memorize all of those expressions in a certain time. The students may successfully work with this way, but I do believe they will also forget them soon. To make learning more meaningful, therefore, the teachers should think the best way, the creative one, to teach the expressions so that they can store the information in their long term memory. Creative in-class activity will make learning more interesting, more meaningful, and unforgettable for our students. This is in line with Jindal et.al (2013), in their article, stated that “The impact of creative learning environments on learners”, promotes creativity in the classroom as follows; (1) creative learning environment, (2) creative activities. So, let's think creatively to increase our students' creativity in learning.