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Reflect on your self assessment and move forward to accept yourself where you are, what you have been through, and where you are going so through your experiences you can help others grow creatively.
Cynthia Ortiz

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All artists are links in a chain of influence.  Fixed mindset equals fear...growth mindset and mastery equals transformation through confidence that strength and growth come from overcoming and learning mistakes and setbacks - resilience
Cynthia Ortiz

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Chapter 2 - "Don't prepare the path for the child, prepare the child for the path"

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Untapped potential both for instructional delivery and students - no excuses, but  excitement to boost engagement that increases test scores and attendance...kids and teachers want to be present.
Cynthia Ortiz

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Creative instruction methods and customizing a child's (student's) experience through care and commitment and challenging concepts to promote student engagement
Cynthia Ortiz

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Chapter 3
"Mistakes lead to Mastery"

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I often have doubt as a teacher. Am I doing a good job? Am I teaching using higher level thinking skills? Is this lesson or activity active learning? It's hard sometimes knowing that you have to fail sometimes to get good at something. But you have to prove to yourself that if you don't risk it their is no reward.

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No risk no reward. The joker is always there to discourage. I personally keep two folders. one is marked PROS, and the other is CONS. The PROS folder is filled with positive notes and news stories/cards/letters from students that are encouraging. The CONS folders is where all of the Jokers comments would go and I purposefully keep that empty. Let him roll off your back...don't hold on to the the pain.

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Agreed that  a lot of teachers are real good at blaming the lack of success on the "bad hand" they have been dealt....the list goes on and on....That mind set is a symptom of burn out and perhaps a warning..take a breath and take a time-out from the profession and take a break.  The mindset of carrying about their students' futures and the willingness to think outside the box can get us through those challenges.

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In the midst of challenges is when our creative mindset is truly challenged. We must not allow excuses to smother our ability to ignite and inspire students.

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Your mindset drives your instruction. If you have in your mind that you can deliver creative lessons then you can. However, that is the hard part. Shifting the way you have been thinking for years that it's too hard to change your instruction.

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Creativity is a Personal Brand. Yes, we given the standards along with the pacing guide to teach. The delivery of instruction is up to us. We can deliver the standards with a fixed mindset, or we can be the Wild Card, and choose to use our talents within us to engage and inspire our students.

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Creativity is a Personal Brand. Yes, we given the standards along with the pacing guide to teach. The delivery of instruction is up to us. We can deliver the standards with a fixed mindset, or we can be the Wild Card, and choose to use our talents within us to engage and inspire our students.

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Despite that fact that we all have state and locally mandated curricula...we all have a unique set of gifts and talents that we can rely on to inspire those that we teach...We have to carefully wield the power we have to connect and be the wild card that each student needs in the random deck they have been dealt.

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Creativity is mindset. If you can start little by little creating unexpected lessons and activities for your students, their learning will transform. I like the quote that said "By cultivating the ability to startle and surprise students, teachers--including you--can become a "wild card" in yet another sense by being so unpredictable that students never know what's in store for them when they get to class.

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"In a truly supportive environment, students are invested in each other's success..." (The Wild Card, 112)

If only we took that same thought process and applied it to society. We should all be invested in the success of others because their success directly impacts ours as a community. Otherwise we are mere individuals living parallel lives.

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"When teachers allow students to fail- and to learn from their mistakes- they teach more than a standardized curriculum; they teach resilience, confidence, and strength." (The Wild Card, 117)
- Stacy Vaught

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"Would I like to be in this class day in and day out?"  (Wade, 77)  I think self-reflection is a time to ask that question as an educator and if the answer is no, it's time to make a change.
- Stacy Vaught

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Stacy Vaught

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"We could sit there and wallow in our misery forever , or pause, reflect, and embrace the uncomfortable feelings.  In the end, we often find we can't be angry about critical feedback because we can find some truth and value in the criticism." (Wade, 41)- Stacy Vaught

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That’s where active learning strategies come into play. You can use them to empower, engage, and stimulate a classroom by putting students at the center of the learning process. This sums up this good list of strategies. -Jan Fisher

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That’s where active learning strategies come into play. You can use them to empower, engage, and stimulate a classroom by putting students at the center of the learning process. This sums up this good list of strategies. -Jan Fisher

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-Katherine Gall

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"we saw them as individuals with untapped potential we could unlock. We cared about their futures, and we didn’t waste our days shaking our heads over their present struggles." This is what motivates me.

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"we saw them as individuals with untapped potential we could unlock. We cared about their futures, and we didn’t waste our days shaking our heads over their present struggles." This is what motivates me.

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- Jan Fisher

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"When you are confronted with challenges, setbacks, or students who are hard to reach, don't allow those things to serve as excuses." -Taken from Chapter 2

The easy button for teachers is excuses. We can easily rattle off 10 reasons, in a single moment, of why our children aren't performing to their potential and never is the finger pointed back at ourselves. The real work is done in the intentional planning to engage students, not in the listing of all the odds stacked against us. If we think that way the message we send to our students is the same: the odds aren't in your favor. It's imperative that we take our excuses and turn them into personal challenges, conquering each one rather than seeking permission to just give up altogether.

Katherine Gall

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Chapter 2

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"In order to do something well, we must first be willing to do it badly." - Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way
-Stacy Vaught

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I loved the idea that rather than letting challenges become excuses, let's look for ways to get over those hurdles!  As teachers, we can easily give up and say there are just too many challenges (because there are!); however, we should keep fighting the fight and other teachers will pay attention and not give up as well!- Stacy Vaught

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The part that resonated the most with me was becoming a teacher that influenced a child's eagerness to return the following year. How often do we think beyond the last bell on the last day of school? I love that idea that we could be the "wild card" that trumps all the hands dealt before and excite a child to return the next year.

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The part that resonated the most with me was becoming a teacher that influenced a child's eagerness to return the following year. How often do we think beyond the last bell on the last day of school? I love that idea that we could be the "wild card" that trumps all the hands dealt before and excite a child to return the next year.

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Katherine Gall

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Knowing that children don't have control over their daily lives and some are not dealt a good hand can be a motivating reason to add creativity to your classroom.  I noticed that Wade's cards were much different that Hope's, but he didn't let that hold him back.  I know that engaging is critical, but adding the element of surprise could make an environment that draws kids to a class.
Jan Fisher

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The idea that educators need a growth mindset just as much as their students do was really eye opening for me.  We need to continue to improve ourselves as educators and grow and learn from other educators and our students to find what works in our classrooms.

Stacy Vaught

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I connected with the idea that one of the challenges of teaching is that you have to follow the district curriculum.  In the book, they taught at a school with low test scores.  In the past, I taught at a gifted zone center, a school with high test scores.  So I had the same goal as Hope and Wade: teach the required curriculum, but take it to the next level by teaching engaging units. If lessons are full of energy, have new and exciting modes of learning, and students can tell that you are excited to teach- then they will be excited to learn.
Lisa Koprowski

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I love the idea of the teacher being the Wild Card in a child's life. It can be easy to put emphasis on children's past, present, opportunities... but I love how focusing on your place as the Wild Card shifts the focus from things that you can't change (the hand your students were dealt) to being the person who can make so much difference in your students life no matter what hand they are dealt. What a gift we have as teachers to pour joy, excitement, and a life long desire to learn into our students.

Sarah Hamilton

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The "why" I came to teaching with is not the "why" of year 10 or even year 15. The "why" of now, year 24.5 has morphed  yet again. I've realized that if it hadn't, I wouldn't still be here.
Deb Caron Krahn

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"There are no failures, only quitters"
Russelll Simmons

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Don't listen to your own negative voices.

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Ch. 2-Danielle Smith: I love this challenge!!  Wade stated, "As creativity became apart of our own personal brands (of content delivery), other teachers began paying attention." This is a bit intimidating to me, just because I've come to realize that they are really talking about a radically changing content delivery. I play some guitar, and I have written a few songs. Just thinking about incorporating that into my lessons and activities is exciting, but also, I can "hear the Joker" from Ch. 3! Lol!

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Ch. 2-Danielle Smith: I love this challenge!!  Wade stated, "As creativity became apart of our own personal brands (of content delivery), other teachers began paying attention." This is a bit intimidating to me, just because I've come to realize that they are really talking about a radically changing content delivery. I play some guitar, and I have written a few songs. Just thinking about incorporating that into my lessons and activities is exciting, but also, I can "hear the Joker" from Ch. 3! Lol!

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The delivery is what drives engagement!! 💙

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"Mistakes Mean that you are trying"
anonymous

I have a love hate relationship with a blank page as most of us do. With teenagers it's often just fear, an open ended problem is much the same to them. Giving our students permission to see mistakes and missteps and the messy creative process as a positive and creative thing is huge. Stick to it, see what happens on the other side...

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The reminder that I have to have a growth mindset to believe that I can be creative and design a class where students can't wait to arrive. I found the reminder about my own growth mindset an important setting , as I approach the growth of my own creativity.

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Wow!!