Years ago, one of my friends, who had a houseful of teenagers, cried out in mock despair, “All these years I’ve worked to teach my children to be independent, and now they ARE!” Somehow the goal of self-directed children seemed easier before the children actually began choosing their own directions. Of course, her despair truly … Continue reading
I’ve always loved picture books, and I read them to anyone from visiting preschoolers to graduate students. I also love folk music and, in particular, the Midwest’s own Carrie Newcomer. This week I had the chance to enjoy both, in Sandy Eisenberg Sasso’s The Story of AND: The Little Word That Changed the World, with … Continue reading
In creativity, as in all of life, beliefs and emotions matter. When individuals feel confident in their ability to work creatively, they are more likely to undertake creative projects and stick to them when times get tough. Teachers who have confidence in their own creativity are more likely to teach to support students’ creativity—and find … Continue reading
Ever since I started teaching, back in the misty annals of time, I’ve tried to give students options for sharing ideas. My students, from elementary to graduate school, have written reports (of course), created poetry, acted out scenarios, built art works or models, composed music, recorded radio dramas, made charts and diagrams, etc. etc. Each … Continue reading
When does creativity not look like creativity? Perhaps, sometimes, because we do not recognize it. Recently, Kaufman and Glăveanu suggested we may need a new concept to describe the space between “Wow, this is creative!” and “Nope, that’s not creative at all.” They’ve called it “Shadow Creativity.” Most definitions of creativity focus on two dimensions: … Continue reading
Recently I’ve been working on a chapter for a book on creativity in mathematics. I am, to say the least, an unlikely choice to be an author in such a book—a fact of which I‘ve reminded the editors more than once. I’m not a mathematician. Sadly, I am from a generation in which, when I … Continue reading
Don’t you love it when you find unexpected treasures? It might be a first spring flower emerging, or maybe a coin needed for the parking meter appearing on the sidewalk. Sometimes (at least in the academic world) it is new research related to a question that puzzles you. For the last few weeks, I’ve been … Continue reading
I had a birthday last week. I had balloons, courtesy of a five-year-old companion, ice cream sundaes, and many greetings from friends. I even had presents. These included a small plastic glow-in-the-dark cat and two puppets, one a giant clam, complete with pearl, and the other a little girl who looks as if she could … Continue reading
For the last few weeks, I’ve been posting about leading for creativity within schools as a whole (as opposed to individual classrooms), whether that leadership springs from official school leaders or teachers working to support one another. Last post I mentioned a study by Stoll and Temperley, who examined the dynamics of leadership in educators’ … Continue reading
Over the last year or so, as I read research about leadership for creativity, one of the studies I found particularly interesting came from England. Researchers Stoll and Temperley carried out the Creative Leadership Learning Project over an 18-month period in 12 learning environments in the south of England. It was a complex project, including … Continue reading
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