Journal of Teaching for Creativity - Remote Version

Here we go!

Its that time of the year when school kicks off anew.

Remote education has tripled since the pandemic. How to bring 21st century skills and especially creativity into remote education is the focus of this blog.

Why creativity ? Why indeed. Let’s start with that.

Creativity.

Three words are bundled in this one word.

To create, a verb; creative, an adjective; and creativity, a noun. Hmm. Ok, that’s ambiguous. Tolerate for just a minute or two longer.

Pro tip- Tolerating ambiguity is one of the golden rules for being more creative.

Creativity is our highest order thinking skill. That means having a capacity to do something with information. Learning information, taking ‘it’ in, whatever the subject is, is of course important. And that’s where the internet is an extremely powerful tool. Everything is online, right?! Maybe.

Yes, and how to filter, evaluate, synthesize and make something of the information, a new understanding, an innovation?

That’s the create, creative, creativity part(s).

Creativity is the number one ‘soft skill’ in demand. In fact, creativity has been recognized as the most important leadership skill since at least 2010. Soft skills are about how we humans interact. Some human interactions might be soft, and easy. Yay. Really though, human interactions, on any scale, at home or globally can be pretty tough. Challenges abound. Rigidity is everywhere. It’s life. Oof.

“To live is to have problems. To solve problems is to grow intellectually.” -J.P. Guilford, founding creativity scholar.

So how is it that our highest order thinking skill, creativity, which also happens to be highly in demand, is probably the most missing skill from education? That’s my hypothesis, and I’m not exactly alone on this.

Like with everything, it’s complicated. Creativity is a 21st century skill. How does creativity show up in education?

This blog explores that question.

Teaching for Creativity is about deliberately bringing Creative Thinking Skills alongside content for learning. That’s what I’ll also be reporting on in this blog.

So here we go. Starting point for the year, for every class, for becoming more creative.

Begin each lesson with a warm up. Warm ups separate from what came before. They loosen the class up and get students ready for learning. The Brain Dance is a researched series of functional movement patterns. These may seem silly, especially to older students. That’s ok.

Silly is good. Teachers can be human. When students are laughing they’re feeling more comfortable. Playful, kinesthetic learning is a great combination for imagination, for movement and for direct learning.

Basic movement patterns are real; they emerge as we grow. As we continue to grow, we typically move less, and less naturally. Bring functional movement patterns into class for wellness, language learning and some laughs.

Great teachers inspire, and by that I mean, when students start contributing to class, it’s because they feel inspired and safe to do so. When students are doing they are being creative for learning.

A simple movement activity at the top of class is activating. Just like warming up for sports, warming up for learning makes sense.

Customize words to the actions of the Brain Dance. We practice prepositions for the actions -over, beside, next to, between, etc. Students from summer classes are now seasoned and teaching the newbies. And just like that, we learn from each other, without even realizing it.

And, just like in a traditional class, having a class assistant works wonders. I might be remote, however the students are together. What if a student assistant elaborates processes on the teacher’s behalf? That’s ok. Also, if there is a need for translation for clarification, I welcome it, especially for logistics.

Originality is creativity. Student artwork adds to a sense of connection, with a new common understanding among us. Drawing for learning is good stuff.

Oh, and if moving around the room or going outside is a constraint, then move from the chair. It’s all good. Being creative means doing anything and everything to make something work. Teachers are creative by nature. There are lots of constraints. And the lessons must go on.

So onto video making this week, or at least stills of the Brain Dance for a wider audience. Ooh, accountability! Collaborating on a video is builds classroom community. Making use of technology is also a 21st century skill. Bingo.

And we’re off to a new school season.

This journal captures Tanya’s experience in part for her doctoral research adding creativity into remote education.

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The Brain Dance

Breathe

Tactile

Core Distal

Head Tail

Body Sides

Thank you Anne Green Gilbert for sharing the Brain Dance with the world, more at www.creativedance.org

Artwork by Sayah.

Tanya Knudsen teaches remotely to students at Wings of Change, a vocational hospitality school and hotel in Madagascar with the twin purpose of lifting young adults out of poverty and impacting the community.

Creativity Through English deliberately combines Creative Thinking Skills with English as a foreign language.

Tanya has been teaching for Wings of Change since 2021. She was an in-person guest teacher this summer. Yep!

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