CRUSHING IT
WITH
CREATIVITY
@IntentionBook@amyburvall
EdTechTeam #VirtualSummit

Students using creative expression
to demonstrate deeper thinking
and the nuances of understanding content

Being creative
can mean many things –
It’s painting, it’s dance,
writing songs we can sing
It’s the essence of humanity –
it’s how we survived
It’s the very best part
of being alive!

But, though we are born
creative souls, all
Often we feel
we are hitting a wall.
Ideas fail to come,
the page remains bare
The artist, upon a blank canvas
must stare.

Is there a way –
a tip or a trick
To get unstuck
and make things stick?
To flow with that
creative juice
To untie
the internal editor’s noose?

All good things
come with practice, it’s true.
But of course, you first
must know what to do!
So let’s unpack creativity…
Find out what it is,
essentially.

It’s sometimes
frantic ideation…
But often, stillness –
incubation.
It can flood
in a manic wave,
Or come as habit,
day by day.

It’s both consumption
and production –
At times
even destruction.
It’s novelty,
but remix, too…
Mash up the old
to make the new.

It’s all about
connecting dots;
Finding relationships
others see not.
It works best with constraints,
perimeters, rules –
Things like time,
resources, tools.

Let’s de-silo disciplines,
Be unafraid of big questions,
Train ourselves to notice more,
And craft a clever metaphor!
Play and tinker without fear,
Turn the status quo on ear.
I hope this rhyme did resonate…
I’ll see you there…
let’s go CREATE!

CREATIVITY CREDO

CREATIVITY
IS A BIRTHRIGHT

everyone
is an
artist

Creativity is not just “ART”…
…or even “talent”

We all write poems…
…it’s simply that poets are the
ones who write in words
- John Fowles

@hrheingold

CREATIVITY
IS A TAO

McKinsey Creativity Score
(Cannes Lions Winners)
DAILY
PRIORITY
EMPATHY with USERS
FAST
AGILE (adaptable)

CREATIVITY is not a talent…
it’s a WAY of operating…
for its own sake
John Cleese

MINDSET
at Google, Washington, D.C.

It’s seeing juxtapositions…

JUX
TA-
PO
SI
TION

Do you see the
twisted unicorn?
LOOK DOWN

CREATIVITY
IS DERIVATIVE
MOST USED REMIX?

CREATIVITY IS
DERIVITIVE

“idea ancestors”

CREATIVITY IS
ABOUT
CONNECTING DOTS

CREATIVITY is…
…connecting dots

to dot connect
you must have the dots

Help students grow
their “dot forest”

Egon Schiele meets
Thom Yorke
of Radiohead

need blend of direct instruction
and open inquiry

CREATIVITY
CRAVES
CONSTRAINTS

We flourish with
conditions, rules, parameters
Creativity is NOT total freedom
Time
Deadlines
Finances
Resources
Space
Materials
Energy

sometimes the way out of the box
is via the shackles

“The wonderful thing about
writing is that there is always a
blank page waiting.
The terrifying thing about writing
is that there is always a
blank page waiting”
- JK Rowling

10X10 Challenge
10 materials
10 minutes
What do you currently
know about your research topic?

4 icon challenge

CREATIVITY CAN BE
CULTIVATED

the skill
of the century:
LEARN
UNLEARN
RE-LEARN ANEW
@AmandaJeane2

“if they build it they will get it”
@wickeddecent
CREATION REVEALS COMPREHENSION

CREATIVITY
is content
agnostic

THE WOW IN
THE NOW

Wonder Walks

“Screams and Whispers”
Metaphor +
Wonderwalk
@llarmand @perfinker

Idea!
nature walks to
create characters
and scenes..or
poems!

stuff your eyes with wonder
Ray Bradbury

Typography Hunt
great for poems!
try as collaborative
project

ideas are butterflies
- notebook is net
Try a
MULTI-SENSORY
JOURNAL

low barrier entry points: photo-a-day

your class is
not your classroom

Pareidolia
use existing
found objects
Unexpected
Materials

Pareidolia WARM-UP
ask students to
show what they know
using things from
their backpacks /
things around the room

Pareidolia
REMIX: draw over
existing landscape
Paper 53 app
The World as a Canvas

Space as Muse…
…mise en scène
design experiences
offer resources

“A man is whatever room he is in “
- Japanese proverb
Google Switzerland

instead of work time?
time

LIVE IN THE
QUESTION

Forming
Questions
5 Whys
How Might We…?
What if…?

Via Craig Cantile,
Vancouver

I have the answers to the questions
they never ask
- Gwen Burvall

the Weird Wonderful Worrisome
tag board

QuestionStorm…
silent brainstorm first
only questions
…pool together

Question of the Week
Track a Question on SM
Question Faires
Wonder walls
QuestionStorms
What’s the Question?

Q-LLISIONS
(based on 50 people 1 question)
deep, open-ended
provocations
that require short,
poignant responses

3 Image
1 Question
Presentation

HUMAN
MAGNETIC
POETRY

Story Starter for Alternative Faerie Tale?

VOCAB VOLLEY

Tableaux

Music Genre Body Data Viz

MAKE DISCIPLINES
DANCE TOGETHER

Combinatorial
Play
Albert Einstein

THE BIG THEME?

walkabout?
“host” your room
…tourists
in our own land?

3-2-1 BRIDGE
3 things you know / thoughts
2 questions
1 analogy / connection

Binary voting?
Place around campus
with poignant binary questions
use whimsical materials

Book Spine Couplets

Play with
stacking

create your own!

CUT UP POETRY
William Burroughs

“…a way to practice mindfulness while still learning.
The stress was melting away from my students
as they created” - Kendra Rosales

Haiku Plot
Couplet Remix

MASTER
THE METAPHOR

Metaphors have a way
of holding the
most truth
in the least space
orson scott card

you can make
visual metaphors
with anything!

3rd grade students

PLAY with METAPHOR
…as students learn
new vocabulary /
concepts
* try an analogy WALL

Star Wars Analogies: Biology

Colour
Palette
www.colourlovers.com/
metaphor
justification

http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/add
To Kill a Mockingbird palette excerpt
@wickeddecent

Jay Nickerson
Collaborative
CLASS
Community
Palette

use the titles as inspiration - or develop your own

Nuances
of Vocabulary

pre-writing
shapes of stories…

@MrsClineELA

“Playlist a Life”PLAYLIST

Internet
Censorship
Minimalist
Poster

PERSONIFICATION

Yearbook Math
What if the concept was
a High School Senior?

Explain something in
your discipline using:
Fairy Tales
Food
Cars
Animals
Everyday Objects
ANALOGY
BATTLE

a ________ is like ___________
https://sidewaysdictionary.com/#/

CLOCK
YOUR CREATIVITY

CAPTURING WITH A
COMMONPLACE BOOK

DREAM DIARY

Start a Series…

student work, Fahrenheit 451

gather visual
affective data
* try a “GIF-FLECTION”

MISS YOUR MARK…
SO YOU CAN FIND YOUR TARGET

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones
to keep.
Scott Adams

“…just slap something on it”
- Vincent Van Gogh

PLAY / TINKER

Almost all creativity involves
purposeful play
- Abraham Maslow

@MsCapwell
“Tinker Trays”

Remix Labs and Deconstruction Zones
as well as Maker Spaces?

@Angela Stockman

creative constraint:
1 OREO
change any way you like
#IntentionOreo

Oreo a Social Issue: Climate Change

FEED YOUR MERAKI

Henri Matisse, bedridden
MERAKI:
Creativity
+ Love

You are a
mashup
of what you
let into
your life
Austin Kleon

travel
exercise
incubation
STIMULATION

MEET UP
STAND UP
GET OUT
STAY IN

go
(best colour
for inspiring creativity)

“creative stereotype effect”

your big takeaway
lingering question
your personal challenge:
what can you try out tomorrow?
@amyburvall @edtechteam