Have you ever been in a situation when you really needed a new idea and your brain seemed to freeze? Or maybe you’ve tried to solve a problem and every idea seemed like a bad one? You are not alone. Creativity and anxiety—or even small amounts of uncertainty—don’t necessarily mix well. Researchers Mueller, Melwani and … Continue reading
How do creative students fare in schools? Sometimes well. Some students are able to use their imaginations and flexible thinking to their advantage, particularly in classrooms where such things are recognized and valued. But, sadly, that is not always the case. Not long ago I had a depressing conversation with a friend, whose bright creative … Continue reading
Don’t you hate it when you find out about something wonderful and it just ended? That’s what happened to me with Caine’s Arcade Part 2. You saw the original Caine’s Arcade video, right? Caine was a 9-year-old boy who built a cardboard arcade that became an Internet sensation. If you haven’t seen it, stop now … Continue reading
This post is about short stories. Really short. Only some of them in language arts. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a short story using only 6 words. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” It is said that the story was the result of a bet with friends—who paid up. Hemingway thought it was one of his … Continue reading
One of the best things I’ve read about creativity recently did not come from a book on creativity—it came from a book on learning targets. In their book, Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today’s Lesson, authors Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart describe the use of learning targets (goals) to focus … Continue reading
What happens when you mix Carl Sagan, profound ideas from science, illustration, and video/music remix techniques? Magical things. Recently I came across a video, created as a thesis project at Sheridan College. In it, student Adam Winnik used animation to bring part of Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot to video life. It made me wonder how … Continue reading
For the last few weeks I’ve been writing about teaching for creativity and the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards Initiative outlines core math and language arts content to be addressed at each grade level. In my first Common Core post, I clarified that the Common Core State Standards are not intended … Continue reading
Would your students like to share information through the image of Abraham Lincoln, a space alien or a cat? Would you? How about through an avatar that looks something like you—or maybe the way you’d like to look! There are many technology tools that use avatars in very sophisticated ways. Creating this type of avatar … Continue reading
The Common Core State Standards Initiative outlines core math and language arts content to be addressed at each grade level. That is, the Core Standards carefully delineate WHAT is to be taught at each grade level, at least in those subject areas. But is does not address the ways that content is to be taught. … Continue reading
The Artful Thinking website, from Harvard’s Project Zero, is a fine resource for teaching art—and just about anything else. The program uses the image of an artist’s palette to outline six dispositions, or ways of thinking, that can be mixed to create masterpieces of teaching and learning. The dispositions include: Reasoning Exploring Viewpoints Questioning … Continue reading
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