One of the most well known television game shows in the history of the genre is Family Feud. If you’re not familiar with the show, it goes something like this: a survey group asks one hundred people a question like, “Other than a birthday, what’s a good reason to throw a party?” Contestants are then … Continue reading Survey Says . . .
How important is creativity? It is vitally important. It might save a civilization. Just ask Arnold Toynbee. Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) was a British philosopher and historian of great renown. He taught at King’s College for much of his career, and he studied the rise and fall of civilizations extensively. In 1934 his twelve-volume A Study … Continue reading How Important Is Creativity?
Some teachers do not view themselves as creative. As such, they may have difficulty understanding how they can help their students develop creativity. If you are such a teacher, do not fear or fret. You, too, can do things in your classroom to help students grow their own creativity. Author A.J. Cropley shares the … Continue reading 10 Things Teachers Promote to Cultivate Creativity
Many years ago while teaching music, I brought into my children’s choir songs from the Disney movie Aladdin. I asked students if they could tell me a little bit about the story, and one young student shared that the lead character, Aladdin, rubbed an old lamp to “let out the genius.” While the statement was … Continue reading Letting Out the Genius
The Partnership for 21st Century Education (now part of the Battelle for Kids network) identified creativity as one of the essential transferable skills for students. While creativity as a topic is quite large, there have been a number of resources published to help teachers incorporate creativity into the classroom and build student skills. One article, … Continue reading Four Competencies for Creativity
Keeping students engaged has long been a challenge for educators. The wisdom that was given during many teacher preparation programs centered on frequently changing activities, presentation methods, and content elements during lesson presentation to keep students interested in what was going on. In short, don’t bore the students. There has been a tremendous amount … Continue reading Using Boredom to Become Creative
Teachers have many opportunities to help students develop and use creativity. In the article Unlocking Creativity author Alessandro Antonietti (Antonietti, A. (1997). Unlocking Creativity. Educational Leadership, 56(6), 73-75.) suggests that teachers do the following to help encourage student creativity: Help children realize when creativity is needed and when it is not. Creativity is a thinking … Continue reading 5 Tips for Encouraging Student Creativity
Creativity should be a core component of classrooms. There exists a rich body of literature that demonstrates creativity is an important link to learning and student engagement. In the article Creativity on the Brink? Author Alane Starko discusses these links and identifies three things teachers can do to grow student creativity within their classrooms: Develop … Continue reading Three Things Teachers Can Do to Grow Student Creativity
I’m pretty sure that creativity as an overarching theme in the classroom is probably not at the fore of your thinking at this point in the year. You surely have more important things to address at this point, such as instructional delivery (are we face-to-face, can we go longer than a day-and-a-half without getting shut … Continue reading Five Fundamentals of Creativity
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