Jason deCaires Taylor: An underwater art museum, teeming with life Creative Teaching and Teaching Creativity: How to Foster Creativity in the Classroom “Describe the tongue of a woodpecker,” wrote Leonardo Da Vinci on one of his to-do lists, next to sketching cadavers, designing elaborate machines, and stitching costumes. Da Vinci filled over 7,000 notebook pages with questions, doodles, observations, sketches, and calculations. He nurtured creativity as a habit and skill every day—and it paid off. Da Vinci’s work reshaped multiple disciplines, from science, to art, to engineering. I was intrigued when my co-teacher suggested using “Da Vinci” notebooks in our 2nd grade classroom. The idea was simple: students keep notebooks, independent of any academic subject, where they can try creative exercises and explore personal passions. Within a week, the results astounded me. By the end of the year, the Da Vinci notebooks were gloriously full. The Da Vinci notebooks weren’t just for students. Do your students regularly display and develop their creativity while in your classroom? Why schools need to prioritize creativity
10 TED Talks Every Art Teacher Should Watch Hopefully, when I tell you I have been watching Ted Talks non-stop for a month, you know I am talking about the short, inspiring videos and not the rude, crude talking bear. TED Talks started back in 1984 when a conference was held for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Speakers were challenged to present powerful speeches in under 18 minutes. Since then, it has grown into a national movement with one mission– to spread ideas. My first TED talk happened to be by Matt Cutts with his challenge to do something new for 30 days. There are lots of “Top 10 Ted Talk” lists out there, so I am going to keep this one focused on the talks that spoke to me as an Art Teacher. 1. I have shown this 10-minute talk in my middle school classroom to help my students understand that when you experience a setback, you can quit or you can adapt. 2. Jarrett Krosoczka is a successful author and illustrator of children’s books. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I spent all 6 minutes of this video glued to the screen. 8. 9.
What creativity really is - and why schools need it Although educators claim to value creativity, they don’t always prioritize it. Teachers often have biases against creative students, fearing that creativity in the classroom will be disruptive. They devalue creative personality attributes such as risk taking, impulsivity and independence. Why the disconnect between educators’ official stance toward creativity, and what actually happens in school? How can teachers nurture creativity in the classroom in an era of rapid technological change, when human innovation is needed more than ever and children are more distracted and hyper-stimulated? These are some of the questions we ask in my research lab at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia. What is creativity? Although creativity is often defined in terms of new and useful products, I believe it makes more sense to define it in terms of processes. There may be adaptive value to the seemingly mixed messages that teachers send about creativity. Inventor or imitator?
The Quest for Creativity in Schools - EdTech Researcher Few terms in education are as ill-defined as creativity. A 2010 report on the study of creativity and innovation in education within European Union (EU) member countries (Cachia, Ferrari, Ala-Mutka, & Punie, 2010), found that while educators touted creativity as a transversal and cross-curricular skill, they struggled to implement new practices, assessments, and technologies to support its development. The authors determined that five factors impacted the potential for educators to help students develop creativity: Discussions about the need for student creativity have dominated education conversations since at least the turn of the century. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills lists creativity as one of the critical skills that students should develop alongside critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Educational thought leader, Michael Fullan, promotes creativity as a critical global competency. References: Cachia, R., Ferrari, A., Ala-Mutka, K., & Punie, Y. (2010).
The six thinking hats of De Bono | FGC Consulting The 6 hats The White hat This is the rational hat. You focus on practical and available data. You don’t interpret. These are facts, figures, information. Le White hat thinks information. The Yellow hat This is the optimistic hat. The Yellow hat thinks advantage. The Red hat It is the emotional hat. The Red hat thinks feeling. The Black hat This is the pessimistic hat. The Black hat thinks caution. The Green hat It is the creative hat. The Green hat thinks alternative. The Blue hat This is the controller hat. The Blue hat thinks coordination. Example On the furniture market, there is a new trend that is marketing custom furniture to order. Blue hat: New trend of personalized furniture to order.For this, we must invest in a machining center with numerical control and design software.Study the feasibility White hat: Thank you synthesize all that data Red hat: I am confident that in the near future, all furniture sold must be customized.I’m sure this method will explode the selling price. Yellow hat:
The neuroscience of imagination - Andrey Vyshedskiy Studying imagination used to belong to the realm of philosophy and psychology. Now, neurobiology provides insights into this holy grail of natural philosophy. One of the first insights into the science of imagination was that imagination includes not one, but a variety of processes. The neurobiology of recalling an object from memory is different from dreaming, and is different from purposeful conscious imagining a novel object (example: a pineapple on top of a dolphin). The latter process is referred to as mental synthesis to distinguish it from the simple recall and dreaming. You can read the complete Mental Synthesis theory at the publisher’s website. To correctly place a bowl behind or in front of a cup, one first needs to mentally synthesize the novel image of a bowl behind or in front of a cup. Language delay is a common affliction that affects 70% of children with autism, a majority of children with Down syndrome and thousands of other children.
The power of creative constraints - Brandon Rodriguez When we look back at the brief history of space flight, it is amazing to think how far we’ve come in just the past few decades. Think back to the Ranger missions in the 1960’s. It took numerous attempts for NASA to correctly target satellites toward the moon, where success just meant taking some pictures before crashing into the moon's surface. Yet in only a couple years, we were able to advance from barely being able to crash into the moon, to walking on it. In 1969 the first moon walk was completed by the crew of Apollo 11, wherein Neil Armstrong famously stated, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” A few decades after the Apollo missions, we began sending missions to Mars. What was unthinkable yesterday may be possible tomorrow.
Starting a School Maker Space School makerspaces have become increasingly popular in the past half-dozen years. It's easy to understand why. Makerspaces engage students with hands-on learning opportunities, encouraging problem-solving and creativity. There's no better way for students to learn than by making things themselves with their own hands. If you want make or expand a makerspace for your own school, this is the place to start. Your instructor, Adam Kemp, is a high school technology and engineering teacher who has started, run, and consulted on multiple makerspaces. Defining Your Mission You'll begin by defining a concrete mission for your makerspace, one that will serve even as the makerspace grows. Location, Location, Location Choosing the right location is one of the most important aspects of starting any makerspace. Keeping Track A key to any successful makerspace is finding a balance between cultivating a creative work area and keeping it organized. Equipment Training Safety Classroom Integration
10 Tools for Your Students’ Creativity Toolbox “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” —Edward de Bono When I write an article, I usually draft two or three versions before I find the one I call the first draft. Creating an article requires exploring what I want to say and how I want to say it for my audience. I tell my children and students that the best writing begins during the revisions. Creativity does not just occur in the arts—it happens within engineering design, policy making, problem solving, game strategizing, and especially lesson planning. It’s a mistake to believe that creativity is an inherent ability that some people have in plenty while others have little. “Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. Creativity is a fluid and flexible process. The Creativity Toolbox Here are a few tools for your students’ creativity toolbox. Don’t settle for the first great idea. “Creativity is a wild mind & a disciplined eye.”