Lynn,
The Internet is really slow this morning, due to a major thunderstorm in the area. I wasn't able to open your email, but will get to it this afternoon. I'm about to head to town for a doctor's appointment for my dad.
Here is a draft of my lesson for chapter 2. I am now working on lessons for chapters 9&10.

Week 2: Promoting Creativity
Reading Assignment:
Chapter 2: Promoting Creativity
(Attachment:) Is there a da Vinci in your classroom?

During the Italian Renaissance, the world population was estimated to be 350 million, a mere 5.3% of today’s 6.5 billion. Yet that number included names like da Vinci, Columbus, Magellan, Michelangelo, Mozart and Shakespeare. All were alive at the same time.
So it figures that there should be about twenty times the number of these types of gifted individuals alive right now. And they’ll be headed into your classroom with their powerful, hungry minds ready to soak up everything you can throw at them. Will they find a place where they can develop, as da Vinci did with his education, or will they find a stagnant, boring place that they wake up dreading?
Now id a good time to think about the influence education had on a young Leonardo da Vinci. Growing up in his father’s Vinci (a region of Italy) home, Leonardo had access to a rare luxury – scholarly texts owned by family and friends. He started school at age five and he had time to freely explore in the countryside where he developed a fascination for living creatures. As a young adult he was fortunate to be apprenticed in an artist’s studio where he worked with a variety of materials. His teachers noted he was impulsive, jumping from one task to another, often jotting thoughts in notebooks. Next time you see one of your students doodling, tell them that one of Leonardo’s doodle-filled notebooks recently fetched $30 million from Bill Gates. These are just some of the things you can learn about da Vinci at www.mos.org/leonardo.
Today we have incredible digital tools that no other generation had. Imagine what da Vinci would have done with Google, or Michelangelo with Adobe Photoshop. Wouldn’t it be fun to match Mozart with GarageBand or Magellan with GPS?
In the digital realm, a creative mind can take back the stroke of a chisel or the dab of paint, enjoying a new creative space. What would happen in the arts and sciences if we had not one, but 20 people like da Vinci searching for new energy sources, or perhaps curing the horrible diseases that exist today like AIDS, MS, and Cancer?
As a teacher the future is in your hands, and the tools all have been invented. It is up to you to figure out the educational technology puzzle and give our stagnating education system a renaissance (Mayesky Manual, 12).

Discussion Board by midnight on Friday:
In an essay of at least 400 words, respond to one of the following questions:
1. Based on your reading in the chapter and the attachment, describe the relationship between creativity and the curriculum. How can curriculum be modified to better support creative thinking?
2. What is your reaction to the concept of differentiated instruction? Did you benefit from this strategy in your own education? Have you used this concept in the classroom with students? Please share examples.
3. Before we can attend to the creative endeavors of the children in our lives, we have to understand its value in our own lives. Examine the current level of creativity in your life and devise a plan for increasing creative experiences. What will you include in your plan, and why?

Initial posts should always be at least 400 words in length, and include at least one idea from the reading assignment (cited, of course).
(Lynn, we should include a thread in which we ask each student to tell us about their access to a classroom for observations. Are they currently working in a classroom? What are the ages of the children in that classroom? If not, can they arrange to do some observations?)

Discussion Board by midnight Sunday:
Respond to at least three other student’s posts.

Initial post and a minimum of 3 replies: potentially worth 10 points.