How Do We Encourage "Creative Thinking"

So it is a big question. How do YOU encourage "creative thinking" in your classroom? If you have ever had a chance too see any of the Sir Ken Robinson TED lectures then you know that creativity in the classroom is a big proponent of what he has to talk about. He feels to often we are substituting and sacrificing creative thinking and engagement for standardized tests and test scores. Is he right? 

Personally, coming to teaching as a second career I was skeptical of his thinking. I worked in the fast pace world of business and marketing, where results trumped creativity. Yet, without being creative how could you get results. So why was it all right to throw creativity in the classroom out the window like a day old donut. 

Now in my third year in the best profession possible (yes I am talking about teaching) I am trying to foster creative thinking on a daily basis in the classroom. Whether it is through my lessons or trying to solve a problem on the schoolyard I am constantly asking my students to think it out. Be creative in how you come up with your conclusion or solution. 

Now that the second term is upon us at my school I am stepping up my game in the creativity field. I am encouraging my students to be creative in their writing, reading, art, science, and well I think you get the picture. I've taken to our recent use of Google Classroom to engage the students with weekend creative thinking as well. As we know our students these days have the source of technology at their fingertips daily. They also like to check sites that they are apart of daily. So on Friday I have been posting pictures and asking my students to be creative with their thinking to solve the problem. As Ken Robinson says"to be creative you actually have to do something". Well this is me trying to do something. 

Here are some examples of things I've asked in the past week. 

How can you get the pen cap out of the bottle without touching the bottle or the desk it is on? 

Why is can we see a rainbow in -21 degree weather? I thought rainbows only appeared after rain storms.

Change Up Those Book Talks

There are lots of ways to change up the mundane activities that we do in the classroom. One of those things that we often do that needs to be thrown a curve ball is how we conduct book talks. You remember those nice 2 minute book talks when a student gets up front of the room and sounds as boring as the teacher from Ferris Buller while trying to convince, their peers to really read this book. Yeah good-luck on that job and if it works you are going to be a real estate mogul!

The front of the bookmark

The back of the bookmark

Instead of having a student just retell about the book why not tap into their creativity and have them create a bookmark about the book they just read. On the front of the bookmark have them come up with a creative hook that represents the book they just read. On the back they can write a quick summary of the book and why they enjoyed it. Here is an example of a bookmark done for the classic Roald Dahl book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

For the whole package with templates and rubric take the Great Glass Elevator over to our site on TPT.