Creativity Comfort Levels

I find to allow creativity in a university design studio context that Focusing on empowering the students to be confident to take risks in the process of making allows for more creative exploration

My comfort level is 39 and I feel very comfortable in the art class, getting messy, getting students to find creative ways to respond or solve a problem. I have given presentations on art making at the National Art Education many times in USA. Currently I am taking my Masters in Art Education from Boston University, this being second Master's, the first one is in Tourism Management.

My comfort level with creativity was 38 at first and I went back and thought "Do I really like a messy classroom?" and a few other questions I switched to agree instead of really agree (or whatever it was). I do lead others in my school - on occasion and I enjoy being led. We have a very creative staff as well as lots of technology and encouragement to use it. Currently, I am teaching 6, 7 and 8 graders Adobe Illustrator - they are creating an Infographic. Other teachers would be happy to take any projects that my students create (that relate to content) and use that work as a grade.

When my new position began this year, several teachers have come to me with ideas or a concept that they wanted to refine and make workable. We are a good team and I also work closely with the Gifted and Talented teacher and I have been a special education teacher for 15 years.

Presently, I am pushing myself - right now! The more I learn, the examples I set are encouraging to my students and to other teachers.

I want to get better using the Adobe Suite for my own art as well as to learn it so that I can teach it. We have it at school, but it is pretty overwhelming for my students IE: Adobe Illustrator and the concept of an Infographic, but I am going to keep on it!

I believe that my comfort level with creativity is quite high, and that the questions asked did not address the linear, technical skills required to execute creative ideas. A perfect case in point – is your Adobe training :-)

But, it did cause me to reflect upon what I do, and as a result I'm going to apply for sabbatical my college in order to create art every day of my sabbatical. If I want to teach creativity, I have to create space in my life to be creative. and I know that this opportunity would allow for me to teach an approach my students, with a greater depth and breath of how to get them to think through their problem-solving. Wish me luck on my sabbatical application.

Good Luck! And I need to create space as well - to be creative again. You would Laugh Out Loud if you saw my house - crammed with art supplies, looms, beads - all from my life before teaching. I am enjoying this particular discussion and hope to hear how your personal creative training works out.

I'm in the inspiring range.

It’s hard for people where I work to find the time to get together and discuss things, especially if it’s not an ‘institutional duty’, if I may say so. So, I’ve decided to create a blog where I quote some of the things I’m learning about creativity and write my personal point of view or reflection about it. I’ve invited my branch colleagues and some members of my department to join the discussion and, at the beginning, some of them did. However, as time goes by, people get carried away by their everyday duties and just forget about it. But I haven’t given up.

The most challenging part of pushing creativity in education, is placing yourself into the position that is most comfortable for the people you are trying to influence. It is so easy to run in your own direction, but if you want other people to come on the ride they need to feel comfortable.

Inspiring Level: I can use goal-setting ideas to grow even more and to encourage others to promote creativity. Explore having students use different forms of creative output: artistic, class performance, spoken presentation, or visual representation. Let them have choices and be part of the decision-making process, giving them more freedom to direct their learning.

My score was leading, i already took the course of train the trainers and i got certified, i think that was a very good start and im planning on get better every day. I think activities and group projects are an excellent way to foster creativity with your students. Im working in a course on using Acrobat as a presentation tool. My goal is to share this course with my colleagues.

My score was "leading" and I am very interested, dedicated and excited about instilling creativity in my students. This process is exciting as I am developing both teacher training materials and in the process of planning a learning community with English and Photography. My weakness, as a self-starter, is encouraging group work. I am going to plan some group projects to help my students and stretch my comfort level.

What is your comfort level with creativity? Are you able to inspire and lead others in fostering their own comfort with creativity in the classroom? I have always felt very at home with trying new things and processes, and pushing the envelope. I have been involved in creative careers my whole life and so feel very comfortable with creativity. Teaching art to high school students gives me the opportunity to get them to learn to trust themselves and try new things, I tell them that my class is the one where I don't give you the answer, but the tools to find the answers, my class is about problem solving not memorizing answers or formulas, and it is okay to fail, but what I really want is for them to learn to trust their own ideas, and test them and rework them if it something doesn't work. Don't give up if success doesn't come on the first try, the important thing is try again if you fail, and believe in yourself that you can solve the problem if you let yourself think outside the box.

What successes have you had in pushing yourself to grow even more and encouraging others to promote creativity? Last year I was the star teacher for my school, achieving this honor was even more memorable because I was the first "elective" teacher to attain this honor in my school's thirty year history. I enter my students in artwork in every event I can for them, I believe strongly that acceptance into juried shows goes a long way in establishing a student's confidence. I don't believe art teachers should encourage students to compete if they are not entering jurored competitions themselves, so as an artist I enter competitions each year to keep my work developing and growing. Since joining my current school I have developed a curriculum and classes that give my students the opportunity to explore their creativity in the areas of drawing, painting, sculpting, and photography. This past year even though our programs are very successful, I worked with my co-teacher to redesign the entire curriculum to make it more current adding animation and video classes, and what we are offering is now even more challenging and thought provoking for our students and our enrollment in our classes is larger than ever. Change is good, and I believe it stimulates exploration and growth for my fellow teacher, our students and myself.

What is your comfort level with creativity? Are you able to inspire and lead others in fostering their own comfort with creativity in the classroom?

Inspiring is my comfort level based on the self assessment. Yes we are seeing results in this area.

The self assesment has placed me in the inspiring level.As aa science teacher I always put open ended questions to the students in clss I wait for their answers before explaining the topic in detail.I make them relate incidents in day to day life to explain a concept.

If I co-teach a course with my colleague, I usually share what my planned activities and products will be and my approach towards the subject matter. It serves two purposes, one which is consistency in the course and encourage other faculty to share my belief in creativity.

The self assessment is showing me at inspiring level. I always try to adopt creative techniques in problem solving to create and induce creativity in students. As a teacher I allow students to find different approaches to solve a question and always encourage creativity in students.

The self assessment is showing me at inspiring level. I always try to adopt creative techniques in problem solving to create and induce creativity in students. As a teacher I allow students to find different approaches to solve a question and always encourage creativity in students.

The self-assessment showed me as a leader, but I often feel as though I'm simply following in the footsteps of those who taught me using creative techniques. For me it really boils down to being clear about what I want to achieve in training people and then thinking about all the different paths that can get there, depending on the tools chosen, the group structures, the participants, etc. It's good to allow several ways to achieve the learnings so that people can dive in at the level they feel challenges them without being overwhelming.

Use creativity all the time. Graphic design requires creativity.
Creativity should be encouraged in any classroom, familiarize the student to the creative process is imperative in today's world, where information is the key to the survival of businesses, the need for creativity has become even more urgent manner.

I land under the category of "inspiring". This seems accurate to me because I am able to give them the opportunity to have different options where discussions can be made and a development of their projects will arise. Allowing to see discussions from each of their different perspectives and being able to have open discussions, leads to being able to find solutions. Allowing the students to choose their best method of expressing them selves when it comes to projects is something that has helped promote creativity. Not only because each student has different ideas or ways in expressing their thoughts, whether it be through poster boards, on the computer, drawings, etc, within their ideas I am able to merge them and come up with a creative idea myself which I then present to them making it a new project.

I am at the leader level of creativity. I have the privilege of teaching creativty to high school students. Some embrace it and others have been so programed by being taught to the test that they struggle. It is encouraging to see their progress. I would like my goal to match my growth of instruction to assist fellow teachers in understanding and implementing creativity in their classrooms.

I am at the Inspiring Level of "Creative Comfort". We do have limited time in our classrooms but encourage the students to think of problems and solutions while I am away from the class. (I am a mentor with AYV in Chicago.) I have had students come up against each other in large group projects, and find solutions through open discussion, which is a skill I highly encourage. If a student cannot speak out now then how are they going to in later life. (Believe me, it's gotten feisty at times) But they have been able to work out the difficulties and seen other points of view. They come up with creative solutions together as a group.

For individual projects like posters and images, the fact that they are allowed to even try such creative things in their classroom is something that goes a long ways. We, the teachers and I, try to foster their individual creativity in "the moment" due to the limited time frames; with a group it is that moment when they come up with a shared solution, for an individual, it is that spark, when they "get it" and see that a tool can help or that an idea they had is feasible.

Encouraging open-ended, creative projects does take more time and the biggest challenge here are the constraints to cover standards. I am working on covering multiple standards within one project and taking more time for fewer projects.

In a graduate class on teaching youth and children in a religious setting students are placed in teams where they design a "program" for a specific age grouping. This includes various spaces (physical, social, intellectual, spiritual) which guide the age group toward specific learning outcomes. They are free to design as they see fit using various media for presenting their space(s) to the other students.

This challenges the students to use what they know from their experiences, what they are learning in class, and what they know from their religious guidelines.