Colour Psychology

Colour psychology is the study of hues as a determination of human emotion and behaviour. Colour is a form of non verbal communication and can carry specific meaning, the perception of colour although individual between each person causes an automatic evaluation and this evaluation process forces colour-motivated behaviour. 

Although the meaning of colours can change between different cultures, generally:

Red is the colour of energy, passion, action, ambition and determination,

Orange is the colour of social communication and optimism,

Yellow is the colour of optimism and happiness,

Green is the colour of balance and growth,

Blue is the colour of trust and peace, and,

Purple is the colour of the intuition and imagination.

In a classroom environment such as a textiles classroom I like to include all colours in the classroom decor. It is important to remember that all forms of creativity are created by the artists' emotions, sometimes happiness may influence their work, sometimes passion may be the central meaning of their work. I include all colours within my classroom to influence and inspire the students, students will find their attraction to selected colours vary day to day and this will be evident in their work.

Check out the below videos for a good insight into the psychology of colours -

Check out my latest Pinterest Board -
Classroom Environment

Check out my latest Pinterest Board -
Sources of Inspiration

Fashion Forecasting and Understanding Trends

What do you need to know?!

Fashion forecasting is the focussing of upcoming trends within the fashion industry, this includes colours, fabrics, patterns, and styles that start from the runway and make their way into the shops. As home economics teachers we must be up to date with all these trends and understand the fashion interests of all our students, so how can we keep up to date? The following websites are great fashion trend sources to regularly visit -

The Creative Curriculum

Teaching Philosophy & Fostering Student Growth and Development

These four points sum up my teaching philosophy and how I choose to foster student growth and development:

Belonging To An Academic Community

Students will be motivated in an environment where they feel connected academically to their fellow peers and teachers. The feeling of belonging within a learning environment helps students understand and feel comfortable with the learning process and know the journey is not one that is taken alone. It is my goal every time I step into any classroom to have my students feeling comfortable and confident to learn and develop in the classroom environment. I aim to have the students being a part of an academic community where every single person including the teacher is there to learn and grow. No student is to feel incompetent and all students are encouraged to help each other to grow and develop together as a group whilst having fun.

Belief In Success

A students self belief in their own success is a better measure of their abilities than their academic success. It is important that each student is encouraged to believe that they can succeed at any task. Students are able to strive and work harder at a task when they feel that they are likely to succeed. Verbal communication of encouragement in succeeding from the teacher to the student is important, it helps form an academic trust and relationship between the teacher and the student, and if successfully done as a whole class creates a support group for encouraging that success. Encouraging posters around the classroom is also a positive reminder for students to remember that they can succeed and practice positive self talk.

Valuable And Meaningful Units/Activities

Students are more likely to work toward completing a task when the academic work is seen to be relevant to their interests, lives, and concerns. The act of looking for connections in new information is natural and students will put more focused energy and attention on completing a task that is seen as valuable and meaningful. Connecting with students’ interests and values is the best way to plan and implement lessons and activities that will have students working to their best ability.

With Effort Skills And Knowledge Can Develop

Students and teachers must have the belief that with effort the skills and knowledge of students can develop. Teachers must be able to educate their students in understanding how to interpret setbacks and to create opportunities in these to learn and improve and continue to keep trying. This mind set in students is vital in their development and growth within the classroom, and being able to see each task as an opportunity to master a skill is an attribute that will see students succeeding throughout their education and further into their chosen careers.

When I am feeling unsure or questioning my skills as a teacher this is what makes me strive to be the best teacher I can be!

Check out my latest Pinterest Board - Unusual Textile Use

Creative Teaching Strategies

Debono's Creative Hat

Debono's thinking hats are an effective strategy assisting in students utilising all means when solving a problem. The Thinking Hats facilitate productive: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. The six hats include

Debono's six Hats is a great strategy to incorporate into your classroom, more specifically for textile classrooms the green hat which represents 'Creativity'. Having a green hat or creative hat in the classroom can help encourage students to think creatively in the classroom and activities can be based around using this hat. Below are a couple of example activities that can be used in the classroom using the 'Creative' hat.

• Write a random word on the board, for example, white. Ask the students to add words to the given word in order to make combinations that ideally go together. For example: white lie, white-wash, white elephant, etc. The aim is to get as many words as possible that no other students has listed.

• At the beginning of each lesson one student will put on the hat and describe an 'alter-ego' of themselves to the class, something that is completely opposite to their genuine self. They could explain what hobbies they enjoy, music they like, clothes they wear, and give themselves a new name.

• Give each student a picture that has three shapes drawn on it (triangle, circle, hexagon). Ask them to describe the shapes in ways that are different from the obvious. A student may describe the circle as a basketball or even the Sun.

• Put students into different groups and provide students with a different garment and a camera. Each group must think of different ways the garment could be worn and take a photo of each outfit, the students must try to get as many outfits as possible within 5-10 minutes. Upload the photos and share as a whole class.

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is a great way to teach students creative thinking and how one initial idea can be transformed into another. Concept maps represent knowledge in a graphic form. Networks consist of nods, which represent concepts, and links, which represent relationships between concepts. This form of graphic organiser aids in generating ideas by integrating old and new knowledge, this strategy for creative teaching assists the teacher in developing students creativity skills and continue to build their creative minds.

Process: Start by developing a focus topic, object, or question. Have students begin to build on this by adding links and nods to create a web-like structure. By doing it this way students have the opportunity to branch off into multiple avenues. Set minimum number of additional nods students must add to there concept map. This activity could be completed as a whole class as a warm up activity for the lesson, or it could be used as an individual activity in the beginning of an assessment task to have students coming up with ideas.

Check out my concept map below, I chose to complete this activity in order to develop ideas for a sustainability assessment. Obviously this can be expanded a lot further but this gives an idea of what it should look like.

Swapping

The concept of 'swapping' directs students away from their original thought processes into something completely unexpected and different. Whilst students are completing an activity the teacher may say 'swap' at any time throughout the activity, the students must trade work and begin completing the activity using the other students work. This strategy encourages students to think creatively and critically to complete the activity without any instruction as to which direction the previous student was completing the activity. This strategy could be used during individual or group activities.

As an example students could be completing a mood board individually, the teacher instructs students to silently swap their work with another student in the class. Students must then continue completing the different mood board in the direction they think the other student was going.

Creative Orientation Activities

The following are some activities that can be used in class to get the students into a creative head space and get the creative juices flowing!

Collage!

Using a collage making website such as Befunky students can create a style board of their personal brand. This is great to have students identifying there own individual styles through a selected amount of pictures. This could be used as a small activity at the beginning of class to get them in a creative and focussed frame of mind for the lesson or it could be used as a bridging activity where it leads on to a larger task. For example students may be asked to create a collage that sums up their style, they must then 'label' this style and use this style for the creation of an assessment piece, pinterest board, or task.

Below is a collage I made using Befunky, I would label this style as Street Chic!

What is it?

This activity is great to teach students to think beyond what initially comes to their minds and get the students thinking creatively and outside the square. Put a shape up on the board, ask the students to identify what the shape is and list as many options as they can within a minute. Encourage creativity from students. After the minute have students share what they have listed. Check out the list I made with the following shapes.

Dart board, traffic light, eye, Target, Saturn, fried egg, button, UFO, umbrella, sombrero 

Leaf, flame, insect wing, skunk tail, salad tongs, llama toe, crab claw, flower petal, rain drop

What is the story?

This activity has students creating a story using unrelated pictures. Provide students with 6 pictures on the board, give them 5 minutes to write down a story connecting all the pictures together, encourage creativity and thinking outside the box. Have students share their stories at the end.

This is what I cam up with using the following pictures-

Gary was a crab who had big dreams, dreams to be the king of Taco Land. Taco Land is a wonderful place with the fun of rollercoaster rides, fun games, and an unlimited amount of tacos. Gary wished every day for his dream to come true, then one day whilst scrummaging through the lost treasures of a sunken ship he stumbled across a  glowing vase. Gary picked up the vase and out through a cloud of ash came a fire wizard. The wizard thanked Gary for releasing him from the vase he was trapped in and told Gary to say thanks he would grant him one wish. Gary did not have to think for long, Gary asked to be the king of Taco Land where he could ride the rollercoaster, play games, and eat unlimited tacos. The fire wizard granted him this wish and from that point on Gary was known as the King of Taco Land until he ate too many tacos and went on the roller coasters too many times that he no longer wanted to be the King of Taco Land and walked all the way back to his home in the ocean where he happily stayed.

Fostering Creativity

How boring life would be without creativity! Remember that every human endeavour, world changing invention, or blockbuster movie started with one persons creative thinking, someone thinking beyond what they can see. Creativity does not just happen; it needs to be cultivated, and the cultivation of creativity in every kid starts from the classroom (Bharti, 2014).

Providing a safe, encouraging, and stimulating classroom for students is the best way to foster creativity. A safe and encouraging classroom means students are feeling comfortable and confident to express their thoughts, feelings, and creative ideas. To promote a safe and encouraging classroom we can focus on Dimension 1 of the Dimensions of Learning, Attitudes and Perceptions, more specifically Feeling Accepted by Teachers and Peers-

• Establish a relationship with each student in the class.
• Monitor and attend to your own attitudes.
• Engage in equitable and positive classroom behaviour.
• Recognise and provide for students' individual differences.
• Respond positively to students' incorrect responses or lack of response.
• Vary positive reinforcement offered when students give the correct response.
• Provide opportunities for students to get to know and accept each other (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).

Providing a stimulating classroom means using engaging activities to promote creativity from the students. Using effective 'hooks' in the beginning of the lesson will ultimately set the mood for the whole lesson. Ensuring your 'hook' is intriguing, luring, and interactive will immediately have students thinking creatively if done correctly. Creating a stimulating classroom means permitting frequent classroom discussions and interactions with and between students, this leads to sharing ideas, furthering knowledge, and promoting higher order thinking. Additionally using a variety of activities and different models throughout the unit to have students continually being creatively challenged and stimulated will foster a creative classroom.

The following are some great links with ideas to foster creativity in the classroom - 

http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/30-things-you-can-do-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2014/3/10/18-ways-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom-everyday.html

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-creativity

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/how-promote-creative-thinking

References:

Bharti, P. (2014, May 25). How to Promote Creativity in your Classroom? Retrieved July 6, 2015, from Ed Tech Review: http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/1155-how-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom

Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (1997). Dimensions of Learning. Colorado: McREL.