Room for Improvement
Introduction:
Entrepreneurship is to work towards improving something, often in business. For this action project, I will be addressing a chosen aspect of the school and how to improve upon it. In this unit, I have learned much about entrepreneurship, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, SWOT, SMART goals, and improvement plans. In addition, I spoke to some cool people, like Maren from Escape Artistry, about starting and running a business. Throughout this first unit of Social Entrepreneurship, I slowly formed an interest in the subject and how it works. Now, I guess you could say I am doing a bit of entrepreneuring in this action project, myself. My chosen aspect of the school I would like to improve upon is creativity.
Introducing Creativity:
Creativity can be split up into multiple subjects. It can be artistic ability, strategic planning, clever problem solving, in depth writing, idea making, etc. It is found within each of us in different forms. No matter what, it always comes down to the work of an original idea.
My school requires students to create “action projects”. We like to refer to them as APs for short. What makes these APs so special are they hold the most worth in a student’s grade, above tests, and give us the opportunity to turn what we learned in each unit of a class into a presentable form. When it comes to making an AP, students at GCE Lab School always reach a point in the process where only words won’t do. To work our way around this, we make something like an image or slideshow to send the information to our audience in a more digestible manor. This is where creativity ties into these action projects.
Sometimes, the creative parts of an AP blow the whole thing out of the water with the skill and effort put into them. Students can be awarded a few extra points when doing so, but is that really enough to compensate for all the hard work they put into them? My answer is no. There should be more for the use of creativity in an action project, which is what I would like to address.
Personality Styles:
First, I want to talk a little bit about the students at GCE. It is a diverse school with students of differing personalities. Each personality is unique and interesting. I will be naming a few relating to my chosen aspect of the school, creativity. These personality types come from the 16 Personalities personality test. Before continuing, please note all personality tests are not 100% accurate. They are just fun!
The first personality type is the ENFP. An ENFP is someone who can work alongside almost anyone and come up with a lot of creative ideas for their partner’s plan for an AP. They make excellent partners to have for a group project because they like to hear your ideas first, rather than have complete control over it.
The second personality type is the ISFP. A lot of students at GCE have an artistic hobby of some kind. Something they enjoy doing at home. These hobbies include drawing, painting, music making, coding, writing, animating, photography, and more. A majority of ISFPs are introverts, but some are extroverts, too. They often use action projects as an opportunity to make use of their creative passions so people see their work on the blogs.
The third personality type is the ESFP. A good portion of the students and staff at GCE like to practice in certain areas of entertainment. Many dabble in music-making, which they have their own club for. There are also students who are interested in improv, acting, and comedy. Their action projects often consist of a video skit or entertaining audio recording.
The fourth personality type is the INFP. An example of an INFP personality is someone who focuses on bringing social activism into their action projects. In the earlier APs we are assigned in our first year at GCE, students are given the opportunity to talk about a certain issue we face in our world today. Some of them have very heartfelt messages about these issues because of how much they matter to them, personally.
About the Aspect:
The strengths of creativity are making things, like action projects, more engaging and turning a thousand words into a visual or audible piece that can be understood by the reader in seconds.
The weaknesses of creativity can be limitations in time and resources. Creativity is a process that needs space, time, and the appropriate materials.
The opportunity of creativity is it can help you achieve major life goals, like getting a job. Some jobs heavily rely on creativity.
The threat of creativity is that it can be seen as a narrow focus. Creative people might be pigeon-holed into that one aspect of their personality and seen as unfit for certain jobs. They might be seen as nothing more than an artist.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
In my STEAM class, Entrepreneurship, I chose creativity as the aspect of the school I want to improve upon and explain how it did or did not relate to each need in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. To shed some light on Maslow’s Hierarchy, imagine a pyramid with five levels. Each level holds a different kind of need we, as humans, meet. Below is a diagram of how my aspect meets every level of Maslow’s Hierarchy. I split the image apart so it can be easier to read.
First, we have the Physiological and Safety needs.
Next, there is Love and Belonging and Esteem.
Finally, Self-Actualization rests at the top.
The Commons:
There are many where mediums creativity can be found. In general, there is drawing, writing a poem, or picking up an instrument. It can also apply to things you do everyday, like choosing an outfit for school or dancing to your favorite song. As long as it involves ideas coming from you, and no one else, it is considered creative.
Improvement Plan:
The motivation for students to use creativity for their action projects is what needs to be improved. Whenever a student at GCE incorporates a form of creativity into an action project, it ends up really good most of the time. I am not suggesting any mandatory art classes because it is better when creativity is organic. Embellishing their APs with creativity allows students grow and practice that field of expertise.
Creative motivation is when a student chooses to go beyond the rubric requirements for an action project. One of the staff at GCE told me, “Many of the better examples of projects have come from times where a student has gone above and beyond the rubric.” and “...oftentimes the role of a teacher is to set the ground rules and then get out of the way. An ambitious student will really feel out the space that they are given and make work within that framework.” Even if you are given rules and requirements, you can still do what you want as long as you meet those requirements. However, that is still only an option. Students tend to avoid extra options because who wants to spend more time than they have to on any action project? So what can we do to motivate students into spending more time on the creative aspects of their action projects?
Grades are the main concern for a student working on an AP. If we want students at GCE to start spending more time putting effort into the creative portions of their projects, we should make those creative portions mandatory. No matter what it is, there should be an incorporation of an original idea in each action project that is graded based on effort. It does not have to be a masterful illustration or high-level art piece. It can be something neat, like a paragraph written in binary code where you have the reader use a link to a website that can translate it to English. “Students can feel more engaged with their projects once they incorporate creativity.” says GR. “I think students benefit a lot if they put more creativity into their projects. It leads to more achievements and learning.” says AL. Overall, encouraging students to utilize their creative potential can help uncover unknown abilities within themselves. It can help teachers understand students’ unique perspectives.
To measure the progress of this plan, after one or two action projects are completed with the new creative requirements, we would have a school survey to see if the students attained any newfound realizations about themselves. The questions would consist of things like, “How experienced are you in what you have done for this new rubric requirement?” and “Would you like to make something like this again?”
One of the Humanities teachers at GCE wrote, “I think it's really important to have a shared definition of ‘creativity’ before one attempts to answer this question.” This person is referring to that fact that some schoolwork can be, naturally, creative. The simple act of writing an essay or coming up with a design can be considered creative. However, as I mentioned before, creativity is the work of an ORIGINAL idea. Drawing, writing music, acting, and sculpting are outside the realm of what is required for an AP. They all come from original ideas. The importance of these original ideas in APs is to teach students at GCE that, sometimes, their messages can be conveyed best through whichever medium they are most comfortable communicating with. Creativity is an aspect that matters at the school, and should not be overlooked as an action project rubric requirement. I hope GCE will, eventually, be able to implement this plan.
“Personality Types.” 16Personalities, www.16personalities.com/personality-types.
Entrepreneurship is to work towards improving something, often in business. For this action project, I will be addressing a chosen aspect of the school and how to improve upon it. In this unit, I have learned much about entrepreneurship, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, SWOT, SMART goals, and improvement plans. In addition, I spoke to some cool people, like Maren from Escape Artistry, about starting and running a business. Throughout this first unit of Social Entrepreneurship, I slowly formed an interest in the subject and how it works. Now, I guess you could say I am doing a bit of entrepreneuring in this action project, myself. My chosen aspect of the school I would like to improve upon is creativity.
Introducing Creativity:
Creativity can be split up into multiple subjects. It can be artistic ability, strategic planning, clever problem solving, in depth writing, idea making, etc. It is found within each of us in different forms. No matter what, it always comes down to the work of an original idea.
My school requires students to create “action projects”. We like to refer to them as APs for short. What makes these APs so special are they hold the most worth in a student’s grade, above tests, and give us the opportunity to turn what we learned in each unit of a class into a presentable form. When it comes to making an AP, students at GCE Lab School always reach a point in the process where only words won’t do. To work our way around this, we make something like an image or slideshow to send the information to our audience in a more digestible manor. This is where creativity ties into these action projects.
Sometimes, the creative parts of an AP blow the whole thing out of the water with the skill and effort put into them. Students can be awarded a few extra points when doing so, but is that really enough to compensate for all the hard work they put into them? My answer is no. There should be more for the use of creativity in an action project, which is what I would like to address.
Personality Styles:
First, I want to talk a little bit about the students at GCE. It is a diverse school with students of differing personalities. Each personality is unique and interesting. I will be naming a few relating to my chosen aspect of the school, creativity. These personality types come from the 16 Personalities personality test. Before continuing, please note all personality tests are not 100% accurate. They are just fun!
The first personality type is the ENFP. An ENFP is someone who can work alongside almost anyone and come up with a lot of creative ideas for their partner’s plan for an AP. They make excellent partners to have for a group project because they like to hear your ideas first, rather than have complete control over it.
The second personality type is the ISFP. A lot of students at GCE have an artistic hobby of some kind. Something they enjoy doing at home. These hobbies include drawing, painting, music making, coding, writing, animating, photography, and more. A majority of ISFPs are introverts, but some are extroverts, too. They often use action projects as an opportunity to make use of their creative passions so people see their work on the blogs.
The third personality type is the ESFP. A good portion of the students and staff at GCE like to practice in certain areas of entertainment. Many dabble in music-making, which they have their own club for. There are also students who are interested in improv, acting, and comedy. Their action projects often consist of a video skit or entertaining audio recording.
The fourth personality type is the INFP. An example of an INFP personality is someone who focuses on bringing social activism into their action projects. In the earlier APs we are assigned in our first year at GCE, students are given the opportunity to talk about a certain issue we face in our world today. Some of them have very heartfelt messages about these issues because of how much they matter to them, personally.
About the Aspect:
The strengths of creativity are making things, like action projects, more engaging and turning a thousand words into a visual or audible piece that can be understood by the reader in seconds.
The weaknesses of creativity can be limitations in time and resources. Creativity is a process that needs space, time, and the appropriate materials.
The opportunity of creativity is it can help you achieve major life goals, like getting a job. Some jobs heavily rely on creativity.
The threat of creativity is that it can be seen as a narrow focus. Creative people might be pigeon-holed into that one aspect of their personality and seen as unfit for certain jobs. They might be seen as nothing more than an artist.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
In my STEAM class, Entrepreneurship, I chose creativity as the aspect of the school I want to improve upon and explain how it did or did not relate to each need in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. To shed some light on Maslow’s Hierarchy, imagine a pyramid with five levels. Each level holds a different kind of need we, as humans, meet. Below is a diagram of how my aspect meets every level of Maslow’s Hierarchy. I split the image apart so it can be easier to read.
First, we have the Physiological and Safety needs.
Next, there is Love and Belonging and Esteem.
Finally, Self-Actualization rests at the top.
The Commons:
There are many where mediums creativity can be found. In general, there is drawing, writing a poem, or picking up an instrument. It can also apply to things you do everyday, like choosing an outfit for school or dancing to your favorite song. As long as it involves ideas coming from you, and no one else, it is considered creative.
Improvement Plan:
The motivation for students to use creativity for their action projects is what needs to be improved. Whenever a student at GCE incorporates a form of creativity into an action project, it ends up really good most of the time. I am not suggesting any mandatory art classes because it is better when creativity is organic. Embellishing their APs with creativity allows students grow and practice that field of expertise.
Creative motivation is when a student chooses to go beyond the rubric requirements for an action project. One of the staff at GCE told me, “Many of the better examples of projects have come from times where a student has gone above and beyond the rubric.” and “...oftentimes the role of a teacher is to set the ground rules and then get out of the way. An ambitious student will really feel out the space that they are given and make work within that framework.” Even if you are given rules and requirements, you can still do what you want as long as you meet those requirements. However, that is still only an option. Students tend to avoid extra options because who wants to spend more time than they have to on any action project? So what can we do to motivate students into spending more time on the creative aspects of their action projects?
Grades are the main concern for a student working on an AP. If we want students at GCE to start spending more time putting effort into the creative portions of their projects, we should make those creative portions mandatory. No matter what it is, there should be an incorporation of an original idea in each action project that is graded based on effort. It does not have to be a masterful illustration or high-level art piece. It can be something neat, like a paragraph written in binary code where you have the reader use a link to a website that can translate it to English. “Students can feel more engaged with their projects once they incorporate creativity.” says GR. “I think students benefit a lot if they put more creativity into their projects. It leads to more achievements and learning.” says AL. Overall, encouraging students to utilize their creative potential can help uncover unknown abilities within themselves. It can help teachers understand students’ unique perspectives.
To measure the progress of this plan, after one or two action projects are completed with the new creative requirements, we would have a school survey to see if the students attained any newfound realizations about themselves. The questions would consist of things like, “How experienced are you in what you have done for this new rubric requirement?” and “Would you like to make something like this again?”
One of the Humanities teachers at GCE wrote, “I think it's really important to have a shared definition of ‘creativity’ before one attempts to answer this question.” This person is referring to that fact that some schoolwork can be, naturally, creative. The simple act of writing an essay or coming up with a design can be considered creative. However, as I mentioned before, creativity is the work of an ORIGINAL idea. Drawing, writing music, acting, and sculpting are outside the realm of what is required for an AP. They all come from original ideas. The importance of these original ideas in APs is to teach students at GCE that, sometimes, their messages can be conveyed best through whichever medium they are most comfortable communicating with. Creativity is an aspect that matters at the school, and should not be overlooked as an action project rubric requirement. I hope GCE will, eventually, be able to implement this plan.
Citation:
“Personality Types.” 16Personalities, www.16personalities.com/personality-types.
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