In the busy worlds of schools and families, we don’t have for unimportant things. With test scores to raise, and the responsibility to teach everything from desk organization to Internet safety, isn’t creavity just one more thing?
No. In fact, it might just be the thing. There are many reasons we need creativity for a healthy society–not to mention a healthy economy–but here we will talk just about creativity and learning. For the truth is, learning and creativity are inextricably intertwined. If we want students to learn with depth and understanding, creativity is an essential part of the picture. If you’d like to learn more, there are two ways to start.
The Creativity in the Classroom Model briefly overviews the theoretical relationships among creativity, motivation, and learning for understanding. If you want to begin with the WHYs of creativity in the classroom, this is a place to start. Start with the overview, then explore the connections for each aspect of the model.
If you are more interested in the HOWs, 3 Keys to Creativity in the Classroom gives you three major ways to begin to think about creativity in schools.
And, of course, each week I blog about supporting creativity, in ways big and small. Sometimes posts are theoretical, more often they include suggestions for activities to support creativity from preschool through adulthood. Always, they’ll be better with your contributions, so come on down!
creativiteach 
What rings a bell for me is when it states that if we want students to learn with depth and understanding, creativity is essential. For years, teachers have equated learning to mastery of a rubric.
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The way most of us teach is not teaching the kids to be creative, but instead it’s more rote learning. We all should want more in-depth understanding which will also encourage more creativity in students. I’m anxious to try that this year.
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Creativity – shaping something based on our interpretation of the world around us. Matias-Fitzgerald CE
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I like the idea that stressing creativity helps with learning goals rather than adds time to what already has to be done.
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If we are not teaching content so that students can use that content in new ways, then we are not effective. We much lead students to use creativity to learn the content so it can be used effectively.
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There’s always room in the content for creativity, we, the teachers should allow students to see our creativity in our modeling. It will give them license to be creative as well!
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Our little ones minds are unlimited and so more when they are gifted. We should open even more the window for them to express their creativity thru learninig.
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It is so important to allow a student to express their creativity in many different ways.
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