Everyday Creativity with Ruth Richards
What is ‘everyday creativity,’ and how might it help us promote well-being in the classroom? Matthew Worwood and I just launched Season Nine of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, with a double expresso from a true legend in the field of creativity, Dr. Ruth Richards. Dr. Richards is an educational psychologist, board-certified psychiatrist, and […]
Infusing Creative Thinking into Higher Ed
It is finally here! We are thrilled to announce our latest book, Infusing Creative Thinking into Higher Education, written by Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. John Cabra and 33 educators from around the world! This book is based on twenty creative thinking skills and abilities and contains over 800 ideas to make learning more engaging […]
Creative Family Fun Summer Activities
Are you ready for some family fun this summer? Check out our Creative Family Fun Summer Series with six activities! Design Your Own Family Camp! Looking for a fun way to engage in your family’s interests and spend quality time together? Watch our video or read our blog post on how to design your family […]
Applying Art Therapy to the Classroom
Art therapy can provide a wide range of benefits for students of all ages and abilities. From promoting emotional expression, self-awareness, and problem-solving skills to enhancing mindfulness and relaxation, art therapy can be a valuable addition to the classroom, helping students express themselves, build relationships, and develop essential life skills. The tools used in art […]
Why Creativity is More Collaborative Than You Think: A Look at Edward Clapp’s Participatory Creativity
When we think of creative people — writers, artists, inventors and the like — we often think of a lone individual working furiously away in a dreary attic or studio, burning the midnight candle down to a stubby little nub. The solo inventor, the lone maverick, the mad genius. You get the picture because that […]
Durham College’s Creativity: A Personal Understanding
Introducing Creativity to Durham College Since the fall of 2018, I, along with a few of my colleagues, have been working to make creativity a part of the culture at Durham College. Durham College is a provincially-funded community college located in Oshawa, Ontario, approximately 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of downtown Toronto, Canada. To bring […]
Deviance and Creativity: A Different Perspective on Troublemakers
Risk-taking is one of the skills listed when describing creative individuals. It is a willingness to take chances and to fail. It is a desire to deviate and go against conformity. Often, it is an inclination to get into trouble. It is a trait that many teachers dread because it might mean dealing with a […]
Identifying Creative Abilities in Students
Numerous initiatives and resources are available to implement creativity within the classroom, but even less to identify students with outstanding creative abilities within the academic setting. Typically, if we consider the emergence of creativity within the classroom, we look for markers of giftedness or novel expression as markers of creative intelligence within content areas—fine arts, […]
Three Ways to Nurture Creative Potential
To think inside the box or outside the box, that is the question… or is it? Before we can answer that question, we probably need to understand the nature of the box itself. Whether we decide to improve the box we’re in or abandon the box for something better, one thing’s certain: we’re going to […]
5 Book Series that Show Gifted People Being Creative
Whenever someone reads a book, they want to be drawn to characters who think, act, and look like they do. This goes for girls, this goes for black and brown people, and this goes for handicapped folks as well. It’s no different for a gifted person: they want to see people who are like them, […]
Going Beyond Your Interest Zone
Here is our creative family fun, activity #5: Go Beyond Your Interest Zone! And if you would prefer to watch the video, click here! Your Interest Zone My family and I have a passion for the arts. On any given summer weekend, you will likely find us cheering in the front row of a theatre production, […]
Summer of Surprises! Family Activity
Surprise! How do you feel about surprises? Perhaps it depends on the type of surprise you experience. A surprise tax bill can be upsetting, but a surprise tax refund can be a cause for celebration. In this mission, we are looking to create delightful surprises for your family. What does surprise have to do with […]
Creative Ways to Challenge Gifted Students
Usually, when people hear the word “gifted”, the first thing they think is that this person is smart. Typically this means that things come easily to them, and/or they’re particularly skilled in an academic subject area such as math or ELA. The problem with this characterization is that it often overlooks the fact that giftedness […]
Solve the Real Problem in Your Classroom
She had never been in a fight before. But as a result of her fight with another student, a fifteen-year-old, we’ll call Crystal, managed to get herself suspended from school. And not just suspended for a week. Crystal’s suspension was for two months. Enter Kelly Heinze, an eighth-grade teaching assistant at Crystal’s school. Kelly’s job […]
Using a Disciplinary Lens to Expand Creativity
Viewing creativity as a trait that all humans share is a cornerstone of both current research and of the Creativity and Education vision. It is not simply an inherent characteristic manifested by a few talented artists and performers. Rather, it is a marvelous and endlessly rich packet of possibilities that is embedded within every human […]
Tips to Live a More Creative Life
World Creativity and Innovation Week is here! This week we’re going to sharing a series of blog posts that will help you infuse creative thinking into your home, classroom, and life. Today’s theme is “Tips for Living a More Creative Life.” We asked our creative contributors what tip they’d share, and here are the responses: […]
World Creativity and Innovation Day – Let’s celebrate it!
Did you know that creativity has a day? In 2017, United Nations included the World Creativity and Innovation Day (WCID), celebrated on April 21, in its calendar. The data was established “to raise awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in problem-solving and, by extension, economic, social and sustainable development.” This is not a […]
Art as Therapy
In my senior year of college, we hosted a prisoner art exhibit in the campus art gallery. As art therapy students we were eager to guess the crime of the artist as we viewed each piece. We had been trained to look at content, technique, and symbolism in an effort to analyze the artwork. Anger […]
Pandemic Stories
In the very early days of the pandemic, writer and professor George Saunders sent out a beautiful, prescient email to his creative writing students. It begins: “Dear, [Syracuse University] writers — jeez, what a hard and depressing and scary time, so much suffering and anxiety everywhere. I saw this bee happily buzzing around a flower […]
I’ll pair a creativity skill with that gift!
Season’s Greetings! With the holidays upon us and so many cultural celebrations involving the exchange of gifts, I’m excited to share some ways to give the gift of creativity this year. Giving the gift of creativity involves thinking creatively about your gift ideas and which creativity skills each one might reinforce. The book, Weaving Creativity […]
The Possibilities of a Cardboard Box
When children receive presents for a birthday or holiday, parents often lament after spending tons of money on some newfangled toy, only to watch their child find more fascination with the box it came in. Why is this? What is so intriguing about something without any bells nor whistles? What is it about four sides […]
I am Creative. (Say it with me now).
“How many of you consider yourself creative?” I asked this question to a group of 70 teachers and administrators we were presenting to on Saturday. Only about half of the group raised their hands. “Let me frame this a different way. In the last week, how many of you have had to solve a problem […]
Creativity, Courage, and Curiosity in the Classroom
Growing up, I didn’t think I was creative. I wasn’t good at traditional arts, and there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me—Asian American. Moreover, in school, I’d only seen arts, crafts, and music being celebrated as creative outlets, so how could I have understood that creativity is so much more? I didn’t […]
Making Space for Creativity in the Trauma-Informed Classroom
Last year I started working in a high school, which was a great professional experience for me and a steep learning curve. Having previously worked with post-high school level students in college and universities, it was rewarding (and challenging!) to begin working with a younger cohort. Through this role, I met many new colleagues and […]