FREE EDUCATION. A term that many of us college students are not used to hearing! This week I learned about a free course offered through the University of Mary Washington. This class is called ds106, and has become more than just a college course. It’s an online community for creative people! The class involves Daily Creates. Every day, a prompt is posted online, and people respond with some sort of creation—in the form of a photo, drawing, video, audio, or writing. This challenge is intended for you to push yourself creativity, and develop some handy tech skills. Sound cool, huh?!? If you want to know where to sign, visit this website.
I will be participating in a 20 day daily create challenge! Every day, I will be posting my create to Twitter. I am excited for this challenge. Right now my life is pretty stressful (what college student in April can’t say that, right?). I plan to use the daily create to destress and step away from the insanity that is my life. I know my biggest challenge is going to be to not overthink this. To be successful at the daily create challenge, I think I need to trust my instinct, and run with whatever first comes to mind.
As a future elementary educator, I see this as differentiated instruction at its finest. Everyone receives the same task, but is allowed to submit documentation of their learning in a way that makes the most sense to them. One of my long-term teacher goals is to create assignments that allow my students more choice, and a chance to make an assignment their own. I also like the idea of specifically implementing daily creates into my classroom. They could be a fun way to start or wrap up the school day. I wonder though, do you think elementary students would need a little more guidance or some additional parameters? Or, do you think you could give them a prompt and turn them loose? I’m curious to see how younger students would approach this project. If you have any tips, advice, or experience doing this with younger students, I’d love to hear about it below!
Stressed, Blessed, and Coffee Obsessed 
