What is Your Dream Machine? With Piet Grymonprez
What is your Dream Machine? What would your students create if they had the opportunity to build a dream machine? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Piet Grymonprez, author and Co-Founder and Managing Director of MyMachine. MyMachine is a for-purpose non-profit that has a unique […]
A Colorful Scavenger Hunt in Nature
Activity Three: A Scavenger Hunt in Nature Our third activity centers on the skill, Visualize it Richly and Colorfully. This skill is all about identifying vivid, rich, and colorful imagery in your surroundings. It is essential to be able to use vivid, rich imagery to convey ideas in any domain- whether you’re a scientist aiming […]
Revisit, Repurpose, Reinvent: Reenergize Your Creative Practice
Does your classroom need a creative reboot? Teachers, are you looking for ways to energize your own creative capacities? Parents, have you considered sharing creativity with your children? Find new creative energy as you unlock possibilities using everyday objects. By revisiting an ordinary object and expanding its possibilities with your imagination, you open opportunity spaces […]
A Scholarly Journey to Redefining Creativity with Dr. Marta Davidovich Ockuly
The following is one of the first interviews we had on the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast with Dr. Marta Davovich Ockuly on Redefining Creativity. You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript below! Matthew Worwood: I wonder if you could share a little more about your personal journey that led to the […]
20 Lessons to Weave Creative Thinking
into Your Curriculum
Ever since Sir Ken Robinson presented his highly regarded TED talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” I have had countless teachers approach me inspired by the “why” we need creativity in the classroom but not knowing how to make it happen. Fortunately, the “how” is the central focus of my professional work and is anchored on […]
Why Creating Imaginary Worlds During Play Is Beneficial
What do Emily Bronte, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have in common apart from the fact that they were all highly distinguished in their chosen fields? One thing that ties them together is that they all engaged in building complex imaginary worlds, or paracosms when they were children. Emily Bronte along with her siblings […]
Let’s play! Ideas to Engage your Children in Creative Play
Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities. – Stuart Brown, MD The following are excerpts from the book, My Sandwich is a Spaceship: Creative Thinking Activities for Parents with Young Children. You can learn more about the book […]
I Practice What I Teach
For 17 years, I’ve observed and taught children, ages six to nine, to appreciate the wonders of the world and to find their unique place within it. Maria Montessori calls this period in child development “The Age of Imagination.” To truly see my students and deepen the connection to each one of them requires immediate […]
Today’s Pressing Question: What is Creativity?
The safest answer to the question above might be: “It depends on who you are talking to.” Whether we self-identify as creative or not, creativity is part of being human, and we each have personal understandings of it. I am a word lover, but even after practicing “creativity” professionally for decades, I made the assumption […]
Know Imagination, Know Creativity.
No Imagination, No Creativity.
“Know imagination, know creativity. No imagination, no creativity.” -M.D. Ockuly collage 2018 How do you define or understand imagination? What words, definitions, or actions do you associate with your own lived experience of imagination? Through the lens of my own lived experience as an educator and creativity practitioner, I am very clear imagination alone […]