BFTP: 18 ways to promote creativity in your classroom

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug” is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back, please.” Hugh MacLeod

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken the joy in creative expression and knowledge. Albert Einstein.

I hope you are not looking for formulas. Or handouts. Or a single technique. Or even a “method.” The creativity-inspiring classroom is a culture not a set of rules or specific activities. It is a mindset that teachers demonstrate to their students everyday.

Creativity doesn’t just happen. It needs to be cultivated. Quite honestly, I don’t know if creativity can be taught. It can be:

• Allowed
• Encouraged
• Displayed
• Recognized and rewarded
• Developed
• Discussed

But directly taught as a separate skill? So far nothing I’ve read or seen allows me to believe it can or should be.

But to keep this from being a terribly short postr, I'll try to identify some things teachers can purposely do in their classrooms that increase the odds of both their students and themselves being more creative.

1. Ban clip art.
2. Ask for information to be shared in at least two media formats or writing types. 
3. Encourage the narrative voice in writing and oral presentations. 
4. Ask for multiple possible answers to questions or multiple possible solutions to problems. 
5. Give points for “design” on all assignments. 
6. Instead of simply telling a student his or her  response is “wrong,” ask for a reason why the answer was given.
7. Use technologies that encourage creativity. 
8. Ask students to help formulate classroom rules, modify procedures, and solve issues.
9. Honor students’ personal interests and unique talents when teaching skills. 
10. Honor student creativity by giving it a CC License. 
11. Respect re-mixing. 
12. Teach the proper use of quoted materials. 
13. Add creativity spaces for display of student work in your classroom.
14. Add “maker-spaces” to your classroom and library.
15. Modify your discussions to allow for divergent ideas and interests. 
16. Discuss the creative work of experts. 
17. Seek out the creative ideas of other educators. 
18. Make creativity a criteria on all assessments. 

I am not going number this final one just because it deserves special attention. I started this post by listing what we as educators can do about creativity. We can:

• Allow it
• Encourage it
• Display it
• Recognize and reward it
• Develop it
• Discuss it

I will add one more. We also need to respect it and the students who demonstrate it. Remember that courage is a critical attribute of the creative individual. Fear of ridicule clamps a lot of mouths from offering a divergent opinion and keeps a lot of hands from designing something original. (I bet this happens in your staff meetings as well.) Research shows that “communities of creativity” are very effective in bringing out the creativity in everyone in them.

Do an honest assessment of how you personally respond to “wrong” answers, assumptions, or points of view. Are they immediately corrected or they investigated? Do you yourself acknowledge that every individual has a unique set of experiences, point of view, and problems that may be reflected in her work? Do you honestly believe the old adage “there’s no such thing as stupid question?” Do you always dig a little deeper before judging? I have to admit, these are all tough mindsets for me to practice!

A teacher’s respect and the respect she builds in her students is the most important element of a classroom that builds rather than destroys creativity.

What else can and should teachers do on an everyday basis in the classroom encourage creativity?

This list is fleshed out in my book:

Original post 3/10/14

Core difference between a librarian and a classroom teacher

"This is what I think you need to know." Classroom teacher
"What do you need to know?" - Librarian

Over simplification, of course. Great educators are a combination of teacher and librarian. But at the core, I believe the mission of the librarian and the classroom teacher stem from the source of the content and skills being taught.

"Relevance" is at the forefront of many educators' discussions. In an interesting article by Peter Greene in Forbes, "Teachers, Please Don't Make Your Lessons Relevant", he gives relevance a different twist:

...Connect your lesson on parts of speech to a current popular song. Assign persuasive essays about something the kids are into today. Could we do an essay about the rap? I hear that teens very much like the rap these days.

But the problem is not teachers who are clueless about what a relevant connection might be. That's correctable (I still want back the hours of my life I spent watching The Hills so that I could follow student discussions). The problem is less obvious than the natural consequences of living on the other side of the generational divide.

Tying a lesson to popular culture as a means of providing relevance is shallow and unimaginative. Tying a lesson to a problem of relevance or need to the individual him/herself is deep and requires time and patience. And as I suggested in the The quiet disruption, it may be the students themselves who make their learning relevant:

Given an Internet connected device, whether personal or school-provided, students can self-individualize their learning during class. If a teacher has not made a persuasive case for the importance of knowing subject-verb agreement, double-digit multiplication, or the historical importance of the Crimean War, students have an alternative to glassy-eyed submissiveness or defiant rebellion. They can learn about things of interest and acquire skills of they see of value.

Students in our libraries seek individually relevant information, resources, and reading materials. Librarians honor those unique needs by not just supplying the requested materials, but teaching students how to find it and evaluate it themselves.

The honor paid to relevance may be the core difference between classroom teachers and librarians.

BFTP: Johnson's Theory of Multiple Creative Abilities

I've written briefly before about how we need to expand Sir Ken Robinson's statement "We should not ask if a student is intelligent, but how a student is intelligent" to read "We should not ask if a student is creative, but how a student is creative."

I've been thinking (ouch!) about this statement- an absolutely critical understanding for all educators to internalize, given both the vocational and personal abiliites needed for success and happiness in age of automation and outsourcing,

Howard Gardner in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences suggested educators expand their view of intelligence. Rather than just thinking that kids who could read, write, and do math well were smart, Gardner asked us to recognize those students who were artistically gifted in the visual and musical arts; those who excelled physically in sports and dance; and even those who might exhibit spiritual and ecological abilities beyond the norm. I believe this had a positive impact on education.

I am humbly suggesting we also expand our view of creativity. While related to intelligence, creative abilities combine originality with craftsmanship to good produce something that has value. Talent and giftedness are a natural ability to exhibit craft in certain areas of creativity.

In a somewhat arbitrary fashion, I’ve chosen twelve areas where I have seen students at all age level exhibit creative abilities and grouped them.

Artistic creativity

1. Writing/Presenting/Storytelling
2. Graphic artistic (drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, designing)
3. Musically artistic

Academic creativity

4. Numeric problem-solving and coding
5. Scientific inventiveness
6. Content-area specific creativity (history, languages, literary interpretation, etc.)

 Physical creativity

7. Athletic/movement (Sports, dance)

Interpersonal creativity

8. Humor
9. Team-building/ interpersonal personal problem-solving
10. Leading/Organizing
11. Motivating/inspiring

Academic survival "innovation"

12. Excuse-making, teacher manipulation, cheating, etc.

I am very interested in hearing from you, Blue Skunk readers, about whether this makes sense. Whether the organization is appropriate (I am thinking about how we may assess, teach, acknowledge these areas). What I've left out and what shouldn't be included.

And of course, I'd love examples of students exhibiting creativity in any and all of these areas. 

Original post 2/24/14