Creativity doesn’t live in all of us. Or does it? The idea anyone can be creative may seem like a myth, but as a teacher it’s a deeply rooted goal to encourage creative thinking and problem solving in ALL your students. The real challenge is knowing where to start in establishing a classroom culture to cultivate creativity.
What really is creativity? Sir Ken Robinson, PhD., author of Creative Schools (out this month), has a great definition:
“Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.”
That’s simple enough, but Robinson goes further to expand the creative process into two additional categories: imagination and innovation. With both of these ideas together you’ve got the basics, as Robinson states:
“Creativity is putting your imagination to work. It is applied imagination. Innovation is putting new ideas into practice.”
Now how do you apply this to your class? Robinson goes on to explain how the creative process works by giving examples of what it is, and what it is not:
“It is true that creative work in any field involves a growing mastery of skills and concepts. It is not true that they have to be mastered before the creative work can begin. Focusing on skills in isolation can kill interest in any discipline.”
Teachers are often overloaded with paperwork for and maintaining state regulations and compliance guidelines it can be impossible to find the time to focus on boosting your creative flow for your class.
SEAS has time saving solutions for education plan management to increase quality consistency, and compliance for across an entire district. Learn more about our Student Performance Platform.
Read more great examples from the book here.