Teaching as an adjunct can be a lot of fun. It is also challenging. As I have encountered a number of situations, I realize such a blog can be helpful, both to me and to others.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Creativity

As an instructor, I enjoy it when my students show creativity. Now, they still need to be able to complete the assignment effectively but creativity is good. Having suffered through some teachers who do not like creativity, I have decided to try and always avoid stifling others creativity. I do let them know that when you get creative, sometimes you forget the requirements of the assignment but that does not have to be the case.

One of my group discussions this year involved a number of students who tackled the topic of teenagers getting married and the difficulties and stereotypes with which they have to deal. It came about because one person in the group, an 18 year old, recently got engaged and is in the process of planning her wedding.

In the skit, the group went through the whole process of telling family members, to getting 1st Class Wedding Invitations, to an actual mock wedding. They did an excellent job of exposing the stereotypes that they had the entire class rolling on the floor in laughter.

It is a pity they are not putting that skit together now as a new feature on a website about wedding invitations allows you to use a zoom feature to make it easier to see the invitation. Still this group met the objectives of the assignment and they were creative. As a result, those people in this group did very well gradewise.