Week+4+Sarah

Reading through ‘A Tool Kit for Learning’ demonstrated the importance of using different tools to construct a creative learning environment. Take for example, the primary cognitive tool of STORY. This instrument is used for most children from birth. Stories are read to calm, excite and engage the child in a moment of reflection. But the meaning behind them is always so much more. The older a student gets, or should I say the more a child grows, the more a story can bring out meaning and constructive learning.

Stories bring out imagination and attach the visual or physical to the words. Still to this day, I love being told a good story. It makes me think and envision what I am being told with a little role play in my head. The more I went through schooling and life; the story became more meaningful and started to include aspects or themes which were more important to me. Cultural, political, environmental, religious....the list could go on.

Another tool which I found interesting was the cognitive tool of gossip ‘often thought of as idle pleasure’, and one of my favourite things! I always thought, and still to this day thought that gossip is not something educational, but a method of rumour and scandal. But after understanding this reading I know see that it does incorporate social interaction (which I am very passionate about) and the skill of making actual happenings into narrative. An important talent that many people I know or have met are not good at.

I could go on for ages about all the different cognitive tools that should be used, both in the classroom and in everyday life. But the point I am trying to get across is that I think ALL these tools should be used. Students need to use their imagination, they need to think outside the box and challenge what people say and think. I want all students to have opinions on what they have learnt because they have thought about it for themselves. All of what this article is saying makes me want to be a creative person myself in the classroom. I mean I’m not planning on telling a story about a grandfather selling cocaine, but I do want to tell stories that make students think. Create a mystery activity that extends their minds from the norm. Tell jokes or a rhyme that makes them laugh, but has underlying messages. And even use gossip as a tool for storytelling and an element of public speaking (SO IMPORTANT!).

It does seem near impossible to incorporate all of these things in the short amount of time within the classroom, and to also make it meaningful. But by using small amounts here and there, us as future educators can only hope that it makes some sort of difference to our teaching styles, and the learning position for every student.