 Fall, my favorite season. I love the changing of the colors of the leaves the first snows Yeah, a lot of change Overall, I'm not a huge fan of change. I like my ways Yeah, there's been a lot of change in education the past few years Common core state standards no child left behind College and career readiness standardized testing some of the things are inherently bad But with all this change I feel we're losing something something important That's creativity in our teaching and learning over the next 18 minutes I'm gonna talk about creativity in the classroom And how we can get creativity rising Yes, fall is my favorite season and the beauty of the changes in these Utah canyons is amazing You know, it said that change is the only constant. This is certainly true of the seasons. I do have to admit though in general I don't do well with change and there certainly have been a lot of changes recently in education Things such as the common core Other college and career ready initiatives testing ad nauseam and Even the infusion of technology These things and more put teachers in a mode of constant change He gives them a lot to do. I'm not sure how to do it One thing we do know is that change is not going away It is after all one of the biggest constants in life What I want to address today, however, is one thing that needs to continue in our schools Even with all the changes is going on around us and that one thing is creativity Wikipedia defines creativity as a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created. I Actually prefer this definition of creativity by Linda Naiman. I grew up believing I did not have a creative bone in my body. I Think of a lot of our students today may feel the same way. I was never any good at art and Though a little musical Karidina concerto was certainly going to be out of the question. I knew I was never going to invent anything and Although some called my handwriting creative Most just call it chicken scratch This belief existed within me as I grew older. I always hoped that somebody could teach me to be creative anybody anybody Psychologist Michelle and Robert root Bernstein And said that we believe that the foundational tools for imaginative and creative thinking can be exercised in classroom teaching We believe that certain habits behaviors and strategies Associated with the creative process can be modeled in classroom learning We believe that classroom curricula can promote and sustain nurturing environments for creativity But we don't believe that creativity itself can be taught Not directly So if creativity can't be taught What do we do? Especially with all of these initiatives and changes I would agree with some that the common core is it continues to develop as a good thing It gives us some good guidelines Although others will disagree with that promise in moving toward these and other standards However, we need to make sure that we don't as Sir Ken Robinson is postured Kill creativity in schools. If you're not familiar with Sir Ken He is education's champion of creativity Sir Ken's main concern as outlined in his 2006 TED Talk is that instead of helping students find their talents and creativity We will be using an assembly line method of pushing them through the school system It is more important now than ever that we work diligently to foster imagination and creativity in the classroom The common core puts the focus on nonfiction texts technology utilization and career skills If we're not careful, it's very possible that educators will zero in on that and forget about the creativity However, the common core standards are purposefully vague in ways that leave them open to interpretation This should allow educators to be creative themselves in finding new approaches to their teaching Most importantly though, it leaves room for students to express their creativity So how do we do that? First as educators We need to believe that everyone has a creative spark. I Mentioned a couple of other definitions of creativity earlier But I really love this one Creativity is often born out of our passions Thus, I would submit that we need to let our students explore their passions. We may even need to help them discover their passions Dave Burgess has written a terrific book called teach like a pirate The subtitle of the book is increase student engagement boost your creativity and Transform your life as an educator in the book Burgess talks a great deal about passion Not just students passion, but a teacher passion. He also talks a lot about creativity He states many people believe only two kinds of people exist in this world Those who are creative and those who are not The people who believe this of course have already classified themselves into the latter category They believe that creative people simply walk around and are suddenly struck by creative ideas much like a bright flash of light They are frustrated by the absence of that flash of light in their own eyes If I can only get those same flashes of insight and creativity they lament It's just not fair Burgess refutes this thought by saying Creativity is not the possession of some special class of artistic individuals But is rather something that can be nurtured and developed in all of us including your students So in this age of tests and rigid guidelines, how do we bring out the creativity of our students and as educators of ourselves? Even though creativity can't be taught the creative process can We can immerse our students and ourselves in creative processes in other words We can show them how artists scientists technologists and others have made discoveries and inventions as well as new ways of being in the world Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher Paul Flaggard wrote this article in 2010 In the article He gives a set of six suggestions of how Creativity can be enhanced or the creative process can be taught Remember I said process the creative process not creativity itself Suggestion number one make new connections under this heading talks about reading widely This is a perfect tie-in to the common core focus on informational reading he also talks about using analogies to link things together Using visual as well as verbal expressions Using multiple methods and finding new ways to make problems solvable Suggestion number two is to expect the unexpected Take anomalies seriously My favorite learn from failures Then recover from failures Avoid excessive attachment to your own ideas and be willing to recognize and admit mistakes Suggestion number three is to be persistent Focus on the key problems. You're trying to solve Be systematic and keep records And concentrate tenaciously on your subject or your object suggestion for and this is where the passion comes in Get excited Pursue projects that are fun Play with ideas and things Most importantly ask interesting questions Have an inclination towards originality and a taste for research Have a desire for the gratification of discovery and Never do anything that bores you That can be hard for our students and us number five be sociable Here he talks about finding smart collaborators organizing good teams Studying how others are successful listening to people with experience Communicating your work to others Telling close colleagues everything, you know Communicating your results effectively and the final suggestion use the world find rich environments places that can inspire seek inspiration in nature Have good facilities and use them Observe and reflect intensely If I could add a seventh suggestion, it would be simply to have fun Einstein said Creativity is intelligence having fun Creativity needs to be nurtured and valued Part of encouraging curiosity and creativity is allowing for free time For students and us to learn and study subjects that interest them remember like everything else this takes hard work But as has been said many times Hard work never hurt anyone In teach like a pirate Burgess says Creativity is rarely about natural brilliance or an eight genius Much more often creativity results from properly directed attention laser-like focus Relentless effort and hard work He goes on to say the creative genius is something people tend to romanticize But the reality is not very romantic at all Like any skill it takes practice and effort So just how do we get that practice in? This list of 33 ways to stay creative Can be a great starting point Like to highlight a few of these items that may work well in the classroom Something that certainly fits into the core is to try free writing. How about surrounding yourself with creative people? Hey You're a teacher. You're already surrounded by creative people your students One of the best ways to bring creativity is to allow your students to collaborate Give your students a lot of opportunities to try free writing. How about introducing your students to some new music? Music I believe is one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing Teach your students that when they get an idea to write it down Also, don't let them give up on ideas Give them time to play with and test their ideas Let the students take breaks throughout the day and I'm not talking about just recess or lunchtime Every 30 or 45 minutes. Give me a chance to stand up stretch move. That helps get the juices flowing Give them time to practice things Practice may not make perfect, but sure makes things better Speaking of being perfect. Hey, we don't need to be a neither to our students Allow yourself and allow your students to make and learn from their mistakes And speaking of mistakes allow your students to take risks Get a great way to be creative and learn about themselves Above all else have some fun Maybe that's one of the things that is truly lacking and leads to the stifling of creativity We need to have fun on our students need to have fun at school And the final thing I would suggest here is to make sure the students finish something For me nothing gets my creative juices flowing like finishing a project. It makes me eager to move on to the next thing Truthfully, we all know there are way more than 33 ways to stay creative Probably more than 3,300 probably more than 33,000 I had an opportunity to spend some time with a grandson over the past week They'll be turning four years old in a couple of days And I learned some pretty cool things about creativity from that four-year-old I really enjoyed watching him mimic and create his own hula moves And how about a four-year-old photo button? And while I did expect him to take over my iPad, I didn't expect him to be so adept at making puppets talk What I really didn't expect though is him taking over my heavy DSLR camera and Taking some pretty good photos my grandson showed me once again what creativity is all about So what does all of this mean? Yes, we are inundated with a variety of programs that seem to regiment everything we do But I truly believe and it is my humble fervent prayer That we remember to keep creativity as a focal point of our classrooms A friend of mine made a statement about creativity a few months ago And I guess it pretty much sums it up please Inspire the daily practice of creativity in your classrooms and keep creativity rising