Teaching Demonstration II Blog: Synectics Model!

Teaching Demonstration II Blog: Synectics

By: Jyl Mason  

Creating a teaching demonstration using the Synectics Model was truly a learning experience from the beginning, because I had never even heard of synectics before.  I thought I was really in some trouble when just the name “synectics” took me a couple of times to pronounce correctly.  I attempted to closely and appropriately follow  the model throughout the activity, but as it turned out, I should have separated the phases and gone through them individually so each phase was hidden when a new one was started.  With that said, I think appropriate learning was attended, because creative analogies were created, but the process could have been even better with the phases separated.  

I do think that “all facets (were) thoroughly explained in the process and the knowledge of how to duplicate the process best, was achieved.  I chose the topic of “Education” for my colleagues since it is a clear and shared interest and I think it worked rather well since the process led us to the metaphorical relationship between education and chocolate.  From my own practice using synectics to my participation with the group, I noticed how much I enjoy participating in creative processes with groups rather than on my own.

Once again, I thought my colleagues did a great job discussing the strengths, weaknesses, and class connections of synectics following the presentation.  I really enjoyed the collaborative effort in deducing how to use synectics in our classrooms.  In addition, I have never thought of myself as a traditionally creative person and synectics has served as another reminder to me this semester, that I can be very creative, creativity is within my reach, and I now have the ability to help my students gain the same insights and tap into their creative potential.

As the 2016-2017 school year is quickly approaching, I have been brainstorming ways to make even the most mundane tasks (classroom expectations/syllabus) engaging and novel to my students and these strategies have provided me with more tools to meet this challenge.   Stay tuned for my revitalized unit!