Creative Thinking: How do you come up with ideas when you want to make something new in class? Tell me about a time when you felt really good about a new idea you had.
For the World War I assignment, I put together a newspaper outlining the events leading up to the start of World War I. In order to come up with ideas on how to put together newspaper articles that would reflect the tone and feelings at that time, I did some research on historical newspapers articles around the time of the start of WW1. I also tried to think about how people would be feeling about the potential of war and how newspaper reporters might report on these events not knowing that they would be leading to WW1. Being able to put myself in the mindset of a reporter living at in 1939, allowed me to come up with the ideas for the newspaper articles, relevant pictures and a newspaper format that I think was authentic to what could have been published. I also tried to write in a format and style that would have been used back in those days. I found the best way for me to get my creative thinking going, was to put myself in the position of a reporter back in the 1930s. Doing that, along with some research on historical events, gave me inspiration on how to write the articles and create a historical newspaper. Often, I find that by doing research and trying to put myself into what people were feeling and seeing, I can create things that are relevant to the topic I am researching.