Creativity for Learning

TOOL 1   FIVE MINUTE CREATIVITY BUSTER It's important to recognise that creativity is not a mystical quality possessed by the select few. Instead, it's is a skill set and state of mind that we all can develop. Just like any other life skill we can learn how to be more creative. But we need to believe that we can in order for our innate creative abilities to shine though.   Here are five simple principles that will help you to develop your creativity:   1. Be open to new ways of thinking and acting throughout your day at work and at home - these could just lead you to exciting new horizons.    2. Take pleasure in the unexpected or surprising - you might discover something that you will find really useful.   3. Strive to break out of old routines that might seem comfortable - take a new route to work, plan in a different way, start a new interest.   4. Make sure you find time to be yourself away from the pressures of work - you need a calm, uncluttered mind to be creative.   5. Never say to yourself it's too late to learn something new - tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.   If you are passionate about helping your students to be creative, then you must start with yourself. Be a role model for creativity and then try to develop it systematically in your classroom.	Top tip: use this tool if you want a quick and easy way to explore your creative abilities
TOOL 2   SO YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT CREATIVE?   We sometime meet teachers who are convinced they are not creative. Some of these teachers understand that creativity is a continuum and that we can't all be as creative as Einstein. But they still believe that because they struggle to come with new ideas they must not have the capacity for creativity.   We want to challenge this view by encourgaing those who are sceptical about their creativity to ask themselves some simply questions:   1. Have you ever solved a problem on your own? What was the solution to your problem and how did it help?   2. Have you ever tried something new in the classroom that you had a hunch might work? What was the result?   3. Do you allow yourself flights of fancy and let your imagination run freely? how often?   4. Do you create the mental space for quiet thinking about your work and home life? What is preventing you from doing so if you currently find this difficult?   5. Have you ever worked with someone else to plan a new scheme of work or a lesson? Did some of your ideas get used? What was the effect on the lessons that followed?   Finally, remember that Walt Disney came up with a wonderful phrase which warns about self-fulfilling prophecies - he said: 'If you believe you can or believe you can't you're right'	Top tip: use this tool if you're feeling sceptical about your creative abilities
TOOL 3   FINGERSMITH   Fingersmith is a tool for blocking out interference in your thinking and allowing deeper unconscious thougths to filter through.   Hold both hands in front of you, palms upwards.  Begin by focusing on an problem you would like some creative solutions to.  Define in your mind the challenge you face and think about any solutions you've already conisdered.   Next at the same time on each hand, bring your thumb and first finger together, then thumb and middle finger and then thumb and ring finger and then thumb and little finger together. Then go back the other way - thumb and ring finger, thumb and middle finger, thumb and first finger again.  repeat over and over again for five minutes.   Notice the insights that come into your mind during the activity and afterwards.   The process blocks conscious thought processes and allows the unconscious part of your mind to bring intuitive responses to the surface.
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