Blog Post #4 Visualization- A Meditation Podcast

The Podcast (please listen to me first)

Reflection

I choose to do my visualization project as a podcast, even though I know this approach to the project is slightly different than most of the others. Instead of putting images into people's heads externally, I wanted to encourage them to find their own visualizations internally. 

My topic is creativity in learning, and many of the articles I used for my blog post #3 recommended meditation as a way of boosting creativity. I have only dabbled a little bit into meditation, most of which has been in theater classes. I have been active in participating when other teachers lead a relaxation meditation, and I have also led meditations for my own students based on what I had experienced before. What I had not done up to this point was research exactly why mediation was good for boosting creativity, and what the best practices of meditation are. 

I discovered in my reading that meditation has multiple benefits to helping your brain think in new ways. The first reason is probably the most common understanding of what meditation is; quieting the mind. Meditation allows us move away from the mountain of distractions we have in our everyday lives and just sit and be quiet. It is not about only having a blank mind, but allowing each thought to appear, and then be released without judgment. This helps with creativity because it can free space for a new idea to pop into the brain. 

Another thing I discovered is the "reptile brain", the part that controls your fight or flight instincts, can be less active during meditation. This is good because it allows us to access other deeper thoughts that we may not have been able to think about when the more primitive part of our minds are active. 

Finally, I discovered that making and publishing a podcast is not too hard, if you have some basic equipment and training in sound. I worked with Audacity, a fairly user friendly multi track recording and editing program. I have a professional microphone that was plugged into a USB audio interface, which was linked to Audacity. My husband has these toys because he is a professional sound engineer. He helped me with set up, but I was learning how to use this equipment as we went through the process. I recorded my voice first, and did two full takes. I then mixed in the additional background sounds on a second track, and lined them up to fit into where I wanted them in the script.
As far as getting the track onto Blogger, it was not as easy as I wanted it to be. Blogger does not have the capability to add a MP3 directly on its tool bar, so I had to post it to my personal website and used an HTML5 audio player to embed it using HTML5. So this last part was probably the most complicated of the steps! 

In regards to the visualization portion of this project, as I stated in the introduction, I wanted to encourage my students to exercise their internal visualization. I really loved the Neilsen Hibbing reading about "mind movies", and how important they are to literacy. It got me thinking about how vital those "mind movies" are to creativity as well. In fact, creativity is rooted in being able to see things in your brain and then put it out into the world as you see it. This ties into meditation by using the quieted brain to encourage these images to be seen in the student's head, and not spelled out for them on a screen. I choose sounds that are familiar but relaxing, like wind chimes and the beach. Even if you have not been to a beach in your life, you have most likely seen one on tv or a movie and have felt sand in a sandbox. So you can use those real life experiences and tap into them in your "mind movie" during the meditation. 

I think this is a tool that I could absolutely use in the future. I could made a series of meditations that progress throughout the semester. The students could listen to the meditation in class once or twice a month and also practice the same meditation at home at least once a week. They would then keep a journal about their thoughts and feelings on these meditations, and track if there are any changes in the way they feel or express their emotions. If I were to do this again, I would want to bring on "guests" and have other experts speak about meditation, instead of just reading from articles. 

Visualization Project

Catie Glogovsky

Script

Welcome to the Learning with Creativity Podcast! Im Catie Glogovsky, your host! Today we are focusing our mind, taking deep breaths, and learning about meditation.


(meditation sound)

First we need to ask ourselves, what is mediation? According to artofliving.com, Meditation is that which gives you deep rest.

(wind chimes)

When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens. A calm mind, good concentration, clarity of perception, improvement in communication, blossoming of skills and talents, an unshakable inner strength, healing, the possibility to connect to an inner source of energy, relaxation, rejuvenation, and good luck are all natural results of meditating regularly.
Thebuddestcentre.com describes meditation as a means of transforming the mind. By engaging with a particular meditation practice you learn the patterns and habits of your mind, and the practice offers a means to cultivate new, more positive ways of being. With regular work and patience these nourishing, focused states of mind can deepen into profoundly peaceful and energized states of mind. Such experiences can have a transformative effect and can lead to a new understanding of life.

Over the millennia countless meditation practises have been developed in the Buddhist tradition. All of them may be described as ‘mind-trainings’, but they take many different approaches. The foundation of all of them, however, is the cultivation of a calm and positive state of mind.

But how does this relate to creativity? Meditation can help focus the mind, silence the doubting voices in your head, and open your mind up to new ways of thinking.

(Bach's Orchestral Suite Air on a G String)

In an article on Harvard Business Review,  "Google, Goldman Sachs, and Medtronic  are among the many leading firms that have introduced meditation and other mindfulness practises to their employees. Executives at these and other companies say meditation is not only useful as a stress-reduction tool but can also enhance creativity, opening doors where once there seemed to be only a wall."  Research shows that mindfulness meditation can have many positive effects on workplace outcomes. Regularly doing it boosts your resilience, enabling you to mitigate stress, regulate emotions, and have a more positive outlook so that you can bounce back from setbacks. It helps you develop the ability to switch off reactive fight-or-flight responses and engage in a more thoughtful mode that’s crucial for making balanced decisions.

The HBR.org article continues to talk about Mindfulness for Creativity, a book by Danny Penman. In it, he argues that mindfulness meditation and other mindfulness practises enhance three essential skills necessary for creative problem solving. First, mindfulness switches on divergent thinking. In other words, meditation opens your mind to new ideas. Second, mindfulness practice improves attention and makes it easier to register the novelty and usefulness of ideas. And finally, mindfulness nurtures courage and resilience in the face of skepticism and setbacks, which is important because failure and setbacks are inextricably linked with any innovation process.

There are a number of famous creative people who practice meditation on a daily basis, including Jerry Seinfeld, and Opera. Opera is quoted as saying, “I give myself a healthy dose of quiet time at least once a day: 20 minutes in the morning, 20 in the evening if it has been a good day. Knowing that stillness is the space where all creative expression, peace, light, and love come to be is a powerfully energizing, yet calming experience. Knowing for sure that even in the daily craziness that bombards us from every direction, there is — still — the constancy of stillness. Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.”

So... how do you start practicing meditation and opening yourself up to these new creative thoughts? Lets find out...

We are going to try a simple exercise, so get to a comfortable place to sit and simply listen to my voice.

(ocean sounds)

• Start by breathing deeply and fully into your body, concentrating on nothing but your breath
• Allow your mind to picture being at the ocean. Listen to the waves splashing against the shore, the wind through the palm trees. Feel the warm sun against your skin, and the sand between your toes. Smell the salt in the air.
• Relax.
• Mentally work your way down the spine, slowly relaxing and unraveling all the knots of tension and stress that may have built up. As your attention reaches the base of the spine, think to yourself now my back is comfortable and relaxed.
• Bring your attention to the front of you body, focus on the chest area and stomach.
• Try to identify any areas of stress or tension in this part of your body. Imagine that all the tension drains away disappearing as you focus on it – imagine any fear, tension or stress that have built up within the stomach disappears…
• Then think to yourself, now my chest and stomach are comfortable and relaxed.
• Then we focus then on our legs and feet, imagining any tension in these areas draining away, disappearing out of the soles of the feet – leaving you feeling comfortable and relaxed.
• Gradually scan down from the crown of your head to the tips of your feet, checking to see if there is any tension left in your body. If you locate any, then engage in the simple exercise or letting that tension drain away, and leaving your whole body completely relaxed.
• We imagine all the tension drains out of our body and we enjoy this experience of relaxation.

(rainforest sounds)

• Think to yourself. My entire body is comfortable and relaxed.
• Gradually bring your relaxation to a close, by becoming aware of your body, position in the room. Gently open your eyes.
Now don't get up too fast. Let your body wake up, as if waking up from a deep sleep.
Take a moment to reflect on this meditation. How are you feeling? Relaxed? Sleepy? Energized? Inspired? There are no right answers, every person has a different experience. Embrace what you are feeling at this very moment.

(Beethoven Moonlight Sonata)

Thank you for joining me today, this has been Learning through Creativity. Now, go make something beautiful. 

Bibliography
Contemplating Mindfulness at Work, An Integrative Review Darren J. Good, Christopher J. Lyddy, Theresa M. Glomb, November 19, 2015 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206315617003
What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain? Tom Ireland on June 12, 2014  https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditation-do-to-your-brain/
Mindfulness for Creativity: Adapt, create and thrive in a frantic world, Danny Penman Little Brown Book Group, 2015
Sasha Bronner 2015 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/14/famous-people-who-meditate_n_6850088.html
http://www.meditationinschools.org/resources/
https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/what-meditation
https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/meditation

Where I Am, and Where I Want To Go...

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."
-Albert Einstein, What Life Means to Einstein (1929)

The topic I want to explore is creativity in learning, and how can we use creativity in literacy education. 

What do I already know? 

I know that there is a large gap in creativity in today's education system. Students these days are taught to know the "right" answer, and how to fill in that answer on a bubble sheet. I know the arts education funding has been slashed down to being almost non-existent in our public schools, and it private schools it is not looked on as a priority. I know that creativity is vital to success in the world, especially in a country that values invention and prides itself on being a leader in business innovation. I know that we need to start bringing creativity back into our classrooms, beyond just doing the occasional collage for a project. 

What do I want to know?

There seems to be a lot of resources out there for teaching creativity to elementary students, but not as much for secondary education. I want to learn how to tap into the creative minds of our high schoolers, without it seeming juvenile, or silly. How to we "unteach" learning the correct answer, and teach them how to find the best possible answer with the most outside the box thinking? And how does this relate to literacy, something that is easily quantified? 

Resources...

www.americansforthearts.org

TEDED

Center for Development and Learning

Ed Week

wonderteacher.com

Blog #3 Texts for why we should learn creativity!

My class is a 11th grade theater class in a private school urban setting. They are almost all at their correct reading level, with 2 or 3 being a little below their level. None of them are ESL students. We are focusing on how to learn in new and creative ways, in theater and in our other classes. This series of readings is will be used after we talk about what creativity is, and we will now focus on WHY it is important to have creative skills. These texts also give a few exercises that I will assign to the students to practice. These texts will be presented together to help give them some perspective on why we are doing work on creativity, and how it can help them far into the future.

Text #1
Die Vampires Die, song from the musical Title of Show by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell https://youtu.be/9DDdM66_nSI

This song would be the introduction to the class talking about creativity. The song is a commentary on what happens when you try to be creative but are shut down by different people around you, and why its important to keep going despite the naysayers.

The text complexity for this song has a 4.4 in qualitative score according to the StoryToolz analysis. It would fall under moderately complex for the qualitative score, even though the words are not long or complex. Because it is a song with a fairly simple structure, it still has some surprising moments and is not overly predictable. It does require the students to have some life experience to be able to understand what the song is referring to, and assumes that the listeners have had some experience trying to be creative. I agree with this analysis for the most part. As far as qualitative, the words and sentences are short so they are easy to read, but there are a number of curse words and adult themes, so I would never have a 4th grader read this text. For qualitative, I think it certainly has some themes that require thinking and prior knowledge about what it is to be creative, but it is not something that students need to study in order to understand what the song is talking about. Some words that the students may need to look up are Van Helsing, Self consciousness, pigmy, Sedaris, Morte, derivative. 

This song is used as a gateway to talking to the students about what creativity is, and why it can be hard to achieve, from both an external and internal place. Because this is a theater class, the students should have some appreciation of musical theater and this show, so it will be a familiar and fun way to start this topic. There are some curse words in the song, but because we are a private school and if I warn the parents, I dont think it would be a problem to have that language. This song is a real look at self doubt and opens the door to speaking about how hard it can be to "do well" in a creative setting, but how it is ok to move past the self doubt and open your creative flow. Hopefully this will set them up for success as we continue on to do more creative thinking exercises, and will push down the negativity of "I cant", and remind them of this song to help inspire them to keep moving forward.

Text #2
Only 3% of people can pass this creative test, can you? YouTube video by Bite Size Psych
https://youtu.be/aH2ll5bwpKw

This is a YouTube video that gives a brief introduction to creativity. It starts with a short creativity exercise. It then goes into some reasons why CEOs from the US believe that creativity is the highest valued quality in an employee. It also gives us three "tips" on how to increase creativity; relax instead of focus, take more risks, and sleep on it.

The text complexity of this video is a 6.5 for a quantative score according to StoryToolz, and falls in the moderately complex category in qualitative scoring. I believe that this is a correct evaluation, because this is an introductory video, designed to give only a basic understanding of why creativity is important and how to start tapping into the creative process. There are not a lot of complex sentences, or words that would be difficult to understand. It does require some outsider information to process what is being said, but it does not introduce a lot of new concepts. Some of the concepts that are expected to be known are how a business works and why a CEO is important. A few words that may need to be looked up are aspect, integrity, humility, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (although they do give a brief explanation of what this is), innate.

The purpose of this video is to give a short, interesting introduction to our lesson in creativity. Because it gives a quick exercise, then discusses the value of creativity and finishes with three ways anyone can improve creativity I think its a good way to ease into the topic. I think this is a little below the text complexity of my class, but I think that it is good to start off easy and build up to the more complex as we go through the session.


Text #3
3 Ways To Train Yourself To Be More Creative BY ART MARKMAN from Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/3044865/3-ways-to-train-yourself-to-be-more-creative

This article focuses on three points on how to look at creativity as a skill, rather than something that is only nature based talent. The three points that are talked about are;
1) Become an explainer, learn to explain a new piece of knowledge back to yourself in order to understand it to its fullest extent.
2) Practice openness, learn to consider new ideas, concepts and experiences.
3) Keep asking new questions, use your memory to your advantage, and keep asking questions and finding new answers.

The text complexity is a little below the grade level of my class, with a quantitative level of 8.4 according to StoryToolz. The qualitative score is moderately complex, with moderate text structures, and language features and very complex purpose and knowledge. I do agree that the text is not overly complex, but I think that because its a short article rather than a educational text, it is written to be a fast, easy read. I think it does challenge the reader, because it gives them examples of exercises they should try to enhance their creativity. It assumes the reader has prior knowledge about meditation, which is probablly something they have not done a lot of in their other classes. I would have them pratice some short meditation excersises along with reading this text, to give them some perspective into how they can do this pratice on their own. It does require some basic knowledge of what creativity is, which is something we will read about before reading this text. Some vocabulary words that might need looking up would be: innate, attribute, dimensions, familiarity, perspectives.

The purpose of this text is to give the students a few simple exercises in how to open themselves up to practicing creativity. I want them to try new ways of thinking, and these are a few easy ways to be introduced to that concept. I think this would be a good text to match the reading level of most of my students, and would be a helpful text and activity for this session. I think this article falls right into the best level of text complexity for my students. It is not too difficult, but still introduces new knowledge of the subject of creativity.

Text #4
Learning to Think Outside The Box by Laura Pappano from The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/creativity-becomes-an-academic-discipline.html

This article is an overview of a number of colleges that are offering creativity as a college course, minor, master's degree and even a PHD program is in the works. In it, they talk about the programs from Buffalo State College, Saybrook University, Penn State, Drexel University, Kentucky University, University of Georgia, and St.Andrew's University. It has quotes from a number of different professors and students who are involved in the programs, stating why they feel this is an important part of the curriculum. It goes into a brief description of a few of the programs, and talks to some people who have been successful as creatives.

The text complexity of this article got a score of 13.6 from StoryToolz on its quantative level. The  qualitative level would be scored at very complex in all categories. I agree that this is a challenging text, that would require a lot of thinking, and some research, on the part of the reader. This text requires the reader to understand how the higher education system works. It does not require students to research any other major concepts, but they will most likely need to look up a number of words. Although it is above the level of my class, I do not think it is out of their understanding. Because it is discussing school and talking to professors and students about learning, I think this is an article my students can relate to and can open up other discussions about continuing education beyond high school and what majors my students might possibly want to focus on. Some words they will need to look up are ambiguity, extrapolate, transdisciplinary, inventiveness, pedagogical, convergent.

The purpose of this text would be to educate students on how studying creativity could be something that they continue to do well into their futures, and why colligate systems are valuing the creative thinking model more than ever. It would be used as a way to motivate interest in this topic for current and future study, and to give value to why we are learning about creativity in a high school setting. I think this text would be slightly above some of my students abilities, and some students would not have any prior knowledge to some of the topics brought up, like how college majors and minors work. This would be part of the conversation we would have before we read this text, so make sure they understood these concepts. I think they would find most of the information valuable, and could start the thought process for some students about what they might want to major in for college.

Text #5
5 Ways Creativity Positively Affests Your Life by Katherine Parrott from Huffpost
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-parrott/5-ways-creativity-positiv_b_7876818.html

This is a personal editorial article written by a woman who has used creativity throughout her career. It speaks to her personal experiences on how creativity has has a positive influence on many aspects of her life, including her professional and personal life. It also sites some stories and quotes from other professional creative people, such as Michelangelo and Hemingway.

The text complexity of this article got a quantative score of 11.1, which is right on target with my students. It get a qualitative score of moderately complex, with text and knolwedge demands being only somewhat complex. I think this is a good judgement of this article. It is set up to be a fairly short, and easy read without much external thinking needed to understand what the author is talking about. The quantative score might even be a little high, because I dont think there are too many words that the students would have a hard time understanding. They will need to do a little research to understand who Katherine Parrott is, and why she is concidered a success. It would also be helpful for us to read a short part of one of her stories, and discuss how the class feels about her work. A few words they might need to look up would be innovation, entrepreneurial, endeavour, antidote, transformative.

The purpose of assigning this article is to give the students a personal perspective on how creativity can positivily influence your whole life. It gives a few examples of excercises that I would also assign to the students to help boost their creativity and open their minds to new ways of thinking. I think this matches their prior knowledge very well, and would be easily accessible.

Text #6
A Creative Life Is a Healthy Life by Amanda Enayati from CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/25/health/enayati-innovation-passion-stress/index.html

This is an article written from the perspective of how creativity can improve your mental health, and gives some tips and tools on how to promote creativity in your life. The author focuses on a book by Tony Wagner, a fellow at Harvard, titled "Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World." 

Take solace in the fact that "the creative process is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." 

The text complexity falls at a score of 10.2 for quantative based on StoryToolz, which is just below the right age for my students. The qualitative score falls at very complex, with language features falling under moderately complex. I agree with the scores, with this being a relatively easy read for the students, due to it being a short article and with our prior readings on creativity up to this point, but while giving them a good amount of knowledge to consider. This text does not require a lot of prior information from the reader, as it lays out the concepts of creativity and explaines in detail who the people in the article are. A few words they may need to look up are innovation, flourish, pervasive, iteration. 

The purpose of assigning this article is to give the students new knowledge of why creativity can help a person in all aspects of life, and can give you a better life far beyond just in class or school. I think this article matches the text complexity level for my students, and it taps into some of the prior knowledge from the other readings so far. 

Text #7 
Your Elusive Creative Genius TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert
https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius 

This is a TED talk given by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the bestselling novel, "Eat, Pray, Love". She talks about her own creative process as a writer, but also goes into depth about other writers and musicians she has interviewed in the past about their creative processes as well. She gets into the concept of "genius", and how it is an unattainable idea that is forced upon successful creative people these days. 

I was able to plug some of the transcript into StoryToolz, and it came out with a quantative score of 8.3. The qualitative score falls into the moderately complex for everything, especially because she does such a nice job of explaining her references within the talk. This leaves us understanding the origin of her stories, and the background of everything that is being talked about. I agree with these scores, because as a speech rather than a written text, it will be an easier video, with less complex sentence structures and overly complex words. The readers should have some prior knowlage of who Elizabeth Gilbert is, and read a short part of "Eat, Pray, Love", which we would read a few excerpts from before watching this video. A few words that may need to be looked up are recalibrate, rational, manic-depressives, anguish, perpetuated, narcissism. 

The purpose of this text would be to let the students see a slightly different perspective on creativity from someone who is considered a very successful creative person, but who still struggles with how to continue with her success and creativity. It also gives many other examples of other somewhat famous people and their struggle to be a "creative genius". The talk ends on a optimistic note, saying that as a creative person, you just need to focus, and not listen to what others are telling you is good or bad, but trust yourself. I think it is a good way to finish our discussion on creativity, because it opens more questions than answers. I think this video matches the text complexity of my class very well, and it is nice to end with a video presentation. 

Welcome to literacy through theater

My name is Catherine Glogovsky, and I have created this blog as part of my CURRINS 545 class at UWMILWAUKEE. This blog will focus on how to help achieve literacy through my educational decipline, theater arts. I believe that theater is a great way to help students explore how to read and express words in a fun and relatable way. I hope that every time I work on a new text with students, there will be growth in their understanding of new words, and it is always essential for them to understand the meaning and pronounceation of each word in a script. I plan on using https://sites.google.com/a/dpi.wi.gov/disicplinary-literacy-in-theater/home as a valued resource throughout the class.