VISUALIZATION

Denise Evans

Challenge & Selection

“The visualization is a core component of the way we communicate and when we are dealing with  problems, we are actually accepting a different kind of problem solving that has to bring in more  than just logic. We are thinking about possibilities that we haven´t seen yet”.  These words  impacted me and opened my eyes. Until now, I never thought about how changing the way I think  and how solving problems with creativity could absolutely make everything easier when I am  facing a problem. Teaching is not as easy as I first thought it would be. Everyday a new challenge  appears and you have to find a way to solve it, one that you haven’t tried before. The world is  changing and we see that now more than ever. Our education, jobs and life are different from  what we thought they were going to be last year. As teachers, we need to use our creativity every  day and sometimes you feel like the creativity box in your brain is just close and, as the time  passes by, it gets harder and harder to find new solution to the everyday problems. That why  being creative and thinking differently is key, no not only a key, is a need.

Application

The solutions that I thought were innovative then, are just common now. The resources keep the  same but our thinking and creativity shouldn’t. Knowing that we can’t change the situation or the  media that we use to teach is very helpful because that way, we can focus on the things that we  can change and I think that is the most important step to take. Sometimes we put our energy in  tasks or things that in reality are not necessary and all they do is hold us back from developing real  solutions to the real problems or challenges that happen every day. Visualization is anything from  the things we write to the images we draw or create in a presentation. Visualization allows us to  access parts of our brain that we never thought we could get access to and that is exactly what we  need to improve our teaching.

As a teacher, finding new activities and new strategies to teach a certain topic without the  students getting bored by always using the resources that every teacher is using is surprisingly  complex. Is something that we were not prepared for. So mastering basic elements of imagining  spaces, situation and actions or movements is key to improving and coming with new ideas for  teaching student from home.

First, I was determined to find what resources my students had in their houses. If I ask them for  materials that they don’t have and they have to buy them, they were going to not feel their best  during the class and that would affect how they are going to engage in the activities and if they  were going to learn or not. Working with what they already have was key and writing them down  was the best way for keeping that in mind. Second, looking my students as individuals and not as a  group helped me to imagine all the different options and activities I could do with them.  Visualization helped me looking at all the options as a whole and understanding that not for every  group the same activities are going to work and that in each class every student feels confident  enough to engage completely and to be exited to learn so I should be always up for change.

Insight & Approach

Since I have been implementing visualization into my life, I have learned a lot of things about  myself that I thought I couldn’t be able to do or to manage. This specific challenge showed me that  thinking differently is a must for growing and evolving with success. Opening your mind to new  ideas that maybe you were not implementing them because they were scary to pursue, is really  what is going to help you innovate.  The students feel better, being home is hard enough for them  so having a class which is different but effective has an impact, because now they see classes as a  fun and crucial escape that has a positive outcome on them. When a new problem or challenge  comes up, my mind is not limited to what has already been done because in this new teaching era  not everything is already created implemented, in fact, I am able to develop insights and identify  the variables that need to be solved to provide a new effective solution.

I have learned and experienced how changing your mindset and allowing yourself to think outside  the box and use my imagination with no fear, is really useful in problem solving and this is  something that not a lot of us think is possible. So, I am determined to visualize my thinking as the  starting point not only for solving a problem, but to just develop any other activity a different way.

