Reaching New Creative Heights: Are you a "Pro-Creative" Teacher?

Tonight we had a whole class meeting in which we focused on the topic of creativity in the classroom.  I really enjoyed the "warm-up" question that Dr. Smirnova asked the class, "What is creativity to you?"  Take a minute to reflect on it right now.  It is a very powerful question.  The way we define creativity says a lot about who we are and most certainly plays a very large role in the type of educator you are.  To me, creativity means thinking outside of the box.  When you are creative you do old tasks in new innovative ways.  You think about  subject matter from an original, unique, personalized perspective, and create a new way of thinking or doing something.  When you are creative, you cannot be rigid and single minded.  You cannot think that there  is only one right way to do or learn something.  When you are creative you explore, inquire, and probe until a complete fresh and original outcomes occurs. Thinking from a teacher's perspective, I want my students to be creative.  I want my students to explore and inquire to reach their own conclusions.  I want my students to make the material their very own.  

Next, we watched a video by Sir Ken Robinson called , "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"  This video was very fascinating to watch.  One quote that really stuck out to me was, "Creativity now is as important in education as literacy is and we should treat it with the same status."  In the American Education system we do not place a high appraisal on creativity.  We teach in a linear, standard driven, hierarchical fashion.  I believe, that we need to uphold these standards, but we also need to reappraise and place more value on creativity-"creating original ideas that have VALUE."

Another part of the video that was particularly interesting, was the story about a young girl who was struggling in school. This girl created disturbances in class and could not focus.  She was taken to see a specialist to find out what was "wrong" with her.  It was discovered that the girl had a incredible talent for dance and went on to become a very successful dancer.  If her dancing skills had not been discovered, she would have been classified as LD and would not have been able to develop and share her talents with the world.  Robinson stated, "This girl is not sick.  She is a dancer."  The definition of intelligence is very fluid and driven be the culture and society that we live in.  Who are we to place a higher value on one type of intelligence/ability over another?

As teachers, we have the huge responsibility to provide as many opportunities as we can to draw out and develop a students natural abilities.  We must realize that learning is process that occurs in different ways in every unique student we teach.  We cannot  be a force that stifles creativity, instead we must developed and draw it out.

 I am reminded of a quote by the late Dan Rather, "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'." Teachers must act as guides for their students, showing them the path, imparting new information, and driving them to explore and inquire.  A great teacher pushes and inspires students to reach new creative heights. Pro-Creative is the way to be!

Please watch the video below and reflect upon it.   It is 20 minutes well spent! : )