You can tell my friends know me well when I receive children’s books and puppets for Christmas. This year I received both. One of the books, Bread Bread Bread, reminded me of an experience I had visiting Paris last year. At the time I visited, an International Festival of Bread was being held just across … Continue reading
Here’s a special post for those of you who, as I do, live in places facing record-breaking windchill temperatures this week. All of us wait anxiously to learn which activities are moving forward and which are cancelled due to snow. And, of course, everyone listens for school snow days. This week some clever administrators from … Continue reading
What makes a safe space feel safe? What could you do to make your students feel safer to be creative? The question of how safe spaces become safe is one asked by an international team of researchers* who wanted to know how relationships in a work environment might influence employees’ creativity. If a supervisor listened … Continue reading
How do your students think about you? How would they describe you? In the case of younger students, the ways they think about their teachers can be a bit of a mystery, and often amusement. I remember young students being dumbfounded at seeing me in the grocery store (“What are you doing here?” “Uh, buying … Continue reading
A few years ago, the blog world seemed entranced by a 1995 article by Westby and Dawson* suggesting that teachers “don’t like” creative students. To me, such claims seemed wildly overstated based on data from 13 elementary school teachers, particularly because the descriptors for creative children were more negative in tone than those deemed “less … Continue reading
Whew! Is anyone else feeling as if the new year is progressing at warp speed? After several weeks of madly finishing fall semester, celebrating the holidays, and building courses for the winter semester, classes have started and I can take a breath again. Fortunately, along came Google Doodle to make me smile–and perhaps provide just … Continue reading
I’ll admit that one of my guilty pleasures is watching TV food shows. At this time of year (between the mountain of papers to grade), it is fun to watch the holiday bakers creating all manner of tasty and beautiful creations. It is like a peek into the creative process behind the glossy cookbook photos … Continue reading
A few months ago the Internet was taken by storm by a video of a Scottish grandmother trying, without success, to maintain her composure while reading a story to her grandson, Craig Smith’s The Wonky Donkey. At the time I was anxious to read the book for myself, but apparently so were many other people. … Continue reading
Recently I spent some time with a friend who has 16-month old triplets. Like most 16-month olds, they are in perpetual motion—over, under, around, and occasionally through nearby adults, furniture, and toys. Watching the three of them explore the world is a perpetual motion delight. This week I watched one child play with a Fisher … Continue reading
My sister ate a carrot this week. That might not sound like much, but because her immune system has been compromised, fresh fruits and vegetables have been deemed too dangerous in recent days—until now. Family and friends celebrated by filling her Facebook spaces with pictures of salads, carrot-crunching rabbits, and cheers. Needless to say, she … Continue reading
