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    Objectives:
    • Identify ways to nurture creativity in your personal life.
    • 反思这意味着成为创意婴儿和幼儿照顾者。
    • Brainstorm on how to creatively engage with infants, children, families and colleagues.

    Learn

    Learn

    Know

    How do you nurture and sustain your own creativity? Are there rituals or activities you engage in that make you feel more connected to your creative self? Are there individuals who inspire you to be creative? What are some things that spark your creativity?

    What about your professional life? What elements of your work environment make you feel creative? Is it the freedom to plan experiences and use materials? Is it supportive coworkers and supervisors? Is it guidance and constructive feedback from colleagues or supervisors? Is it sharing concerns and ideas, and brainstorming solutions when situations arise? Is it relationships with children and families?

    Educational psychology professor James Kaufman has identified eight elements of the work environment that cultivate creativity. In the Explore section of this lesson, you will have an opportunity to reflect on these elements as they relate to your personal experiences in the infant and toddler early care and learning setting.

    8 Aspects to Cultivate Creativity

    Adequate freedom Adults need the ability to make personal and professional choices. Though choices can sometimes seem limited, are there some situations with which you can make choices about what goes on in your early care and learning setting? For example, how about choosing materials, or organizing experiences based on the interests of the infants and toddlers in your care?
    Challenging work Working with infants and toddlers can sometimes be challenging. As you have been reading in this course, however, challenges are often opportunities for us to come up with creative solutions to problems. Welcome challenges as ways to learn more and strengthen your professional skills.
    Appropriate resources We all need tools and resources to do our jobs. Appropriate resources (like planning tools, resource libraries, classroom supplies, and time for planning, reflection, and support) are prerequisites for feeling creative. It is important that you have the tools you need to do your job.
    支持性主管 我们都可以识别我们生命中的个人，他们担任导师，他们激发了我们实现伟大事物，或者在面临挑战或困难时提供了指导和支持。重要的是，您有机会定期与主管会面，以便在课堂上讨论课堂上的内容，并在必要时进行头脑风暴解决问题。这些交流对您的专业发展至关重要，并允许您学习和成长。
    Diverse and communicative coworkers 成为一名个人团队成员的一个很大的好处之一，您可以了解与您有类似的专业活动的人，他们可能会与您有类似的兴趣，并且可能会处理类似的问题，担心或工作场所的挑战。了解您的同事使您能够建立连接和友谊，这将有助于您感受动力和更强大。您可以激励他人并受到您的同事的启发！
    Recognition Positive, creative ideas and efforts should be recognized. In the same way your supervisors acknowledge good efforts and ideas, you can recognize colleagues or supervisors who help inspire and lead your team to success.
    A sense of cooperation Creative spaces are collaborative spaces. People should feel safe to share ideas — even ideas that they don’t think will work. Team members can support one another and their creative ideas.
    An organization that supports creativity You are not alone in the quest to cultivate creativity. A truly creative workplace operates coherently at every level. Your entire team should prioritize and recognize creativity.

    What Does it Mean To Be a Creative Infant and Toddler Caregiver?

    有什么自己的看法成为克雷亚吗tive infant and toddler caregiver? Pause for a few moments to think about this.

    As you have been working through this course, you likely recognized that creativity is a crucial part of the human experience: It helps us rise to challenges, overcome obstacles, and create opportunities. Creativity is important because it demonstrates openness to new experiences. These experiences include having a good imagination, experiencing and valuing feelings, trying new things based on individual interests, and having a curious mindset (Kaufman, 2009, p.85).

    In Lesson One, you had an opportunity to explore some of your own views on creativity. This final lesson will extend on this exploration by encouraging you to think about creativity in your workplace and ask yourself what it means to be a creative infant and toddler caregiver.

    In your work with infants, toddlers and families, you are responsible for creating meaningful experiences that incorporate creativity throughout the day. Being a creative caregiver can be expressed in a number of different ways. Here are some to consider:

    • 使用日常材料在早期的护理和学习环境中可能看起来毫无用处毫无用处。yabo电子游艺
    • Dealing with space constraints to create beautiful environments for you and the infants and toddlers in your classroom
    • Following your curiosity
    • Allowing yourself to make mistakes
    • Trying new things out
    • 接受新的或者不同的观点
    • Embracing diversity

    See

    Caregiver Creativity

    Infants and toddlers take their cues from you.

    Do

    Cultivating and Nurturing Creativity as an Infant and Toddler Caregiver

    Creativity helps you become part of a workplace community that feels welcoming, energetic, and nurturing. It helps you engage infants, toddlers, families and colleagues in a range of meaningful experiences. Consider the following when engaging with infants, toddlers, families, and colleagues in your program.

    Engaging with children:

    • Bring your own creative interests, questions, and experiences in your care setting.
    • Demonstrate interest and excitement when working with infants and toddlers. Inspire them to be curious and creative by demonstrating these attributes yourself!
    • 使用婴儿和幼儿的背景，经验和兴趣作为对早期护理环境中创造性经验的启发。yabo电子游艺
    • Cultivate a climate of curiosity and love for exploration and experimentation in your classroom. Invite infants and toddlers to discover answers to fascinating questions or problems with you.

    Engaging with families:

    • Invite family members to come to your setting and share some of their own creative endeavors with infants and toddlers.
    • Invite families to observe and participate in some of your creative experiences and activities.
    • Invite families to bring in everyday household items they don't need to support your creative experiences with infants and toddlers.
    • Encourage families to nurture exploration and creativity at home by extending some of your experiences to home.

    与同事一起参与：

    • 分享您的员工会议，午休或在职时的同事的兴趣和才能。分享这些利益如何驱动您在课堂上为婴儿和幼儿创建的一些经验。了解您在个人级别工作的人。
    • Exchange ideas about experiences that foster creativity with colleagues. Invite a colleague to come to your room, observe some of your activities, and give you feedback. Offer to do the same for your colleagues as well.
    • 向教练，主管或培训和课程专家提出来观察您的早期护理和学习环境，以便他们为您提供有关您使用创意体验和材料的反馈。yabo电子游艺
    • Acknowledge colleagues who are doing great things, who offer you guidance and constructive feedback, and who inspire you to strive for excellence and be creative.

    Explore

    Explore

    Download and print the handout,反思工作场所。花时间反思培养创造力的工作环境的八个要素。考虑与您在婴儿和幼儿护理和学习环境中的个人经历相关的这些特征。yabo电子游艺

    Apply

    Apply

    As highlighted throughout this course, creativity can help us come up with solutions to our everyday issues and challenges. Download and print the handoutCreative Solutions。Use this handout to identify a challenge or problem you are facing today and consider new, creative ways to solve the problem that you have not tried before.

    Demonstrate

    Demonstrate
    Assessment:

    第一季度

    True or False? When you take risks to plan creative experiences for infants and toddlers, it means that sometimes you may make mistakes.

    第二季

    Which of the following helps encourage creativity in your workplace?

    Q3

    Finish this statement: Being a creative caregiver means …

    References & Resources:

    Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (Eds.). (2010).Nurturing creativity in the classroom。不w York: Cambridge University Press.

    Kaufman，J. C.（ED）。（2009）。Creativity 101。Springer Publishing Company.

    Robinson, K. (2009).The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.不w York: Penguin Group.

    Schickeadanz, J. A., Hansen, K., & Forsyth, P. D. (2000).Understanding Children。Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

    Trawick-Smith, J. W. (2014).Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective,(6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

    Zevin，J.（2013）。Creative Teaching for All: In the Box, Out of the Box, and Off the Walls。Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.