Exploring Nature for New Ideas

1. Exploring Nature for New Ideas Most people get into teaching for a combination of reasons that include caring about students, wanting to help future generations grow, or coming up with creative ways to reach students. Oftentimes, teachers are forced to stick to fairly rigid standards to teach their students, so you have to balance creativity in your lessons with sticking to the script that you are provided. In those cases, it can be fairly draining as a teacher because you start to get bored with the rote material. That translates to bored students and we can’t go having that, so we need to find creative, new ways to teach students that still fit in with the plan of the curriculum. Doing so can be difficult, but there are a few things that I would suggest to help you get out of your head and come up with something new. Take a Nature Walk A lot of people that I know tout the value of taking 30 minutes to go outside and take a walk. There are a few different things that this does when it comes to idea creation, but I will start

2. with the most education related first. First off, if you are in nature, you might be inspired by the world around you as you walk. Maybe this is by plant life or the views that you see, but it also might just be from a person you see across the street or driving down a road. There are a lot of things that can spark something in your mind. The second reason to take a walk is that the movement can help improve serotonin and make you happier and more open to thought. Third, when you are in a rut, this is a good way to reset your headspace. Even if you are not getting ideas while on your walk, you might still get ideas when you get back in a different headspace. Go Somewhere New Ideally, travelling somewhere different can inspire new thoughts, but that is not always feasible, especially on a teacher’s budget. Instead, you might choose a specific country and watch videos on it. There are documentaries out there from everywhere and Netflix has shows from almost anywhere in the world. Seeing how other people live can make us think outside of our boxes and come up with ideas from a perspective that might not necessarily match their own view of the world. Source : http://savings4teachers.com/exploring-nature-for- new-ideas.html