Creativity

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Comment by Andrea Hernandez on February 3, 2010 at 12:37pm

great topic and ditto to everything that Liz said :-)
I just attended an excellent conference session at Educon on fostering creativity. You can read my notes from the session on my blog.
Here are some thoughts that participants had at the end of that session- (of course, I created it in Pixie)

As creative teachers and teachers who value creativity for students, we must have courage to champion the value of open-ended exploration and other types of activities that can't be easily quantified. I have a sign across from my desk (so I can see it every day) that says "Learning is messy." It has become something of a mantra and really helps me stay focused on what's important.

Comment by Liz on February 2, 2010 at 5:05pm

I definitely agree; a classroom environment conducive to creativity is the foundation for fostering a creative classroom. What this type of environment may look like differs from room to room, teacher to teacher, and student to student.

For me, personally, in order to establish a classroom that fosters creativity, it's essential to first establish a "safe" climate...not safe in terms of physical safety, but, a safe place for students to freely express their ideas. For my students, this was a place where they knew there was no "norm," nobody's question, comment, idea, or expression was "weird," and everyone was an artist, of whatever type they wished to be.

Secondly, good modeling is essential. If we can successfully model thinking outside the box for our students, they're more likely to understand what creativity looks like. Our classrooms must be creative in design, creative in instructional delivery, and creative in speech. We surely aren't fostering creativity if our desks are in rows, our agenda is written on the board the same way every day, and our posters are hung neatly in rows on the walls. While students may not always feel freely enough to express their creativity, they surely can recognize creativity where it's present, but, also recognize where it's not!

Additionally, one of the largest ways I tried to foster creativity in my classroom was to allow choice in terms of assessment. I never really cared HOW students showed they understood the content, just that they showed they understood the content in whatever way was most conducive to their learning style.

In the age of more and more standardized testing, I truly think it's essential we provide our students with as many creative opportunities as possible! This could look like doing word study differently, different opportunities for alternative forms of assessment, or, something as simple as mixing up the lunch chart one day!