Website Searches related to Creative Teaching and Learning

Courtesy of Therese Riordan, a student in CRS 594 Creative Teaching & Learning Course:

http://www.museumofplay.org/ The Strong National Museum of Play is quite a story with its beginning as place to display the toy collections of Margaret Woodbury Strong. I remember taking my children there and it was strictly a viewing museum; now I know it’s in the top 5 for Children’s Museums, the School of Education at SUNY Geneseo where I work requires all teacher candidates make a field visit there (a friend teaches the course it’s associated with so sometimes I get to go along J, sometimes we place student teachers in their pre-school, it even makes a great place for a date and if you have free time while in Buffalo, Rochester is only about an hour east and it’s worth the trip .

http://www.rit.edu/cla/ciwg/ Okay, this is another local one, but I chose Rochester Institute of Technology because of their Creativity & Invention Working Group where individuals from the arts, sciences, humanities, and technology come together to explore shared interests in how creativity and invention are infused into the teaching and learning process and the culture at RIT… It has continued to evolve since 2006 w/themes like creativity as a dimension of the university experience, creative process in science, technology, arts, and humanities; creativity and leadership; intersections of creativity and technology; role of creativity in teaching; creative potential of collaborative partnerships; student creativity and invention.

www.rit.edu/imagine
This is a free innovation and creativity festival open to the public (May 7th this year) and while it highlights the college's innovation and creativity it has something for everyone and even helps you plan your itinerary depending on your wants and needs.

http://www.cei4learning.org/home.html The Creative Education Institute’s was founded to improve basic learning skills through reasoning and “real life” and has been effective in the Cleveland Schools. I’m also impressed with the Academic Fun & Fitness Summer Camp (in its10th yr.), which specifically addresses the needs of children ages 6 to 18 with learning differences and special needs: learning disabilities, ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia, Cognitive Delay, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Autism.

http://www.creativeteachingcap.com/ I had to include Creative Teaching Cap because this is the case of a frustrated mother of a son w/Asperger’s who took her son out of school, created her own materials to teach him and was so successful in getting him back into school at the appropriate level that she now runs a successful business with complete services! I guess I just love success stories especially when the ones who need it most benefit.

http://www.oaklandleaf.org/ I love everything about this website: the simplicity & design, the organization, their mission, programs and accomplishments. Oakland Leaf was incorporated in 2002 by a group of Oakland, CA-based educators who were committed to changing the community through creative education, novel programs/services” to feed the minds, bodies, and spirits of the low-income youth and their families”.

http://www.bie.org I am a big fan of Project Based Learning, which is pretty much just what it says: students use inquiry to study a topic, problem, etc. in depth and from just about every perspective. It’s also known as expeditionary learning and emphasizes collaboration, communication & critical thinking. The top elementary school in Rochester, NY (School of Inquiry) and one of the few successful high schools, School without Walls, both use this concept, as well as a successful charter school.
http://www.cre8ng.com/leaps.shtml Only because it provides a lot of other websites to check out, but be warned, some are fun and some are marketing their services. It’s worth bookmarking.