Inventiveness

Inventiveness is one of the most important skills that students can have in the 21st Century.  Kids are already showing this creativeness with bands, Youtube, and building websites. And when we are living in a constantly changing world, inventiveness is an important skill to have.  But how can teachers promote inventiveness and creativity in the classroom.  One way for teachers to allow creative development in students is to make the classroom a creative environment.  But classrooms have been a hindrance to creative development because of "busy-work".  Teachers need to find a way for students to use their inventiveness; they need to have projects, papers, and other classroom activities that help students use creativeness and inventiveness.

Reflectiveness

I have noticed through my schooling that one of the things that teachers want students to do is to be reflective.  But reflecting on oneself can be challenging.  I feel that being reflective is so difficult for people in our schools because of some of the reasons brought up in Wagner's Global Achievement Gap.  In his book, he explains that schools are only "teaching the test"; students are being taught what is going to be on the test and then forget about it.  But if the student is told to be reflective, it allows the student to think about what exactly they have been taught and why they have been taught it.  But being reflective is an important skill, because I think that it helps students articulate on what they have learned.  Reflecting can be efficiently used after the teacher teaches the lesson and having the students reflect and articulate on what they just learned. I think that if a student can reflect on what they have just been taught, they have actually learned the material.

Passion

Passion is an important part of being a teacher.  I decided to become a music teacher because the teachers I had for music classes were passionate in what they were teaching.  On the other hand, I had a math teacher that seemed like he didn't really care about what he was teaching us, so I didn't feel very motivated because I didn't know why I should care about it if the person teaching it didn't care either.  A teacher needs to have a passion for what they are teaching, because it will motivate the students to do well in the class, and will possibly awaken a passion for the subject in the student.