I'm creative, are you?

There, I've said it.  It's even online, so it must be true.  

The truth is, one of the driving factors of why I even started this class is related to that statement.    As soon as I tell someone I'm an art teacher, I will often hear apologies or regret emanate from their lips. 

"Oh, I wish I were creative!" 

"I can't do any of that crafty stuff!" 

"I'm just one step above finger painting!" 

"I can't even draw a straight line!" 

And I think to myself,  how sad. These are completely competent adults who have let themselves believe that they are unable to access a very vital part of their brain. There are all types of creative thinking. Some people are good with paint, or words, or numbers or figuring out how to keep an old engine running.

"Creativity and innovative thinking are essential life skills that can be developed." 

This is the first Enduring Understanding, (EU),  in the next generation of National Visual Arts Education Standards (to be completed and released Spring, 2014).

This is pretty exciting stuff, "essential life skills".  Everyone is creative, and I can prove it to you if you promise to let go of the stereotype that you have to be able to draw realistically in order to be creative.

Two summers ago, I attended an International Creativity Camp called MindCamp in Orillia, Ontario.  It was the first conference that I had ever gone to that wasn't for educators.  It was for creative professionals.  It had never occurred to me before then that people actually get paid to help other adults access their creative abilities.  I guess when you are the classroom for so long, you tend to get educator tunnel vision.  I attended many sessions on creative problem solving, design thinking and even took a class where I got to mess around on a ukelele.  It was great.  I hope I get the chance again sometime soon.  I picked up some pretty great definitions of creativity although I regret now that I cannot credit the sessions I got them from directly. Here's the summary:

Everyone is creative. Some seem more creative than others.  This is why.

Highly creative people make up stuff at least twice, once for themselves and than once again to put out into the world.

imagination: To conceive of something which is not  (think of a pink giraffe... can you? ok, you have an imagination)

creativity:   To put an imaginative thought out into the world (draw that giraffe badly or write a poem about it, or sew a stuffy one or tell a joke about a pink giraffe, do something with the thought and you have created something!)  Not so tough, right?

innovative:  To put an imaginative thought out into the world that is of use to someone else This is a little more advanced, but you can do it. ( put your crummy giraffe drawing on a t shirt, develop pink hair dye for giraffes, use the giraffe logo as your trademark during breast cancer awareness month).

We all have imaginative ideas, highly creative people just have more practice throwing their ideas out there and have learned how to quiet their inner critic. 

Disclaimer: “Creative Endeavors” is an experiment in helping people recognize their own creative potential. Everybody goes to middle school. I’m catching them here before they grow up. I’m on a mission to change the world, one kid at a time!

2013 MAEA state conference

I had a great time last weekend at the Michigan Art Education Association Annual State Conference. This year, it was held on Mackinac Island at the famous Grand Hotel.  It's always so refreshing to have opportunities to share ideas and collaborate with other art teachers from around our state.  I had the good fortune of presenting my work through a session called "Creating Creative Problem Solvers" and through a more intimate "Tea Talk" where we were treated to the Grand Hotel's formal tea service.  As I had promised, I'm sharing my presentation here. :)  Enjoy!Creating Creative Problem Solvers Prezi

Beginning the adventure

Hi, My name is September Buys.  I am a teacher in Greenville, Michigan. This is the very first post on my blog about a little experiment I'm conducting called "Creative Endeavors".  I've been meaning to set this up for some time now and now I've finally done it! I hope that people will share and comment on this project. Collaboration is vital to the success of this work.

The idea for the class started two springs ago. I was introduced to a book called "The Global Achievement Gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need - and what we can do about it" by Tony Wagner.

In it, he wrote about the seven skills schools need to be giving our kids in order to compete in our new creative economy.  I had heard our superintendent had given a copy of this very book to all of our building administrators. I began to think big (as I too often do, despite the self induced stress I cause when I do that) and I put together a little presentation to show the heads of our school.    I was proposing that we look at all of the research out there that is supporting these same ideas and make radical changes.  I was offering to serve as a "creativity coach" for the teachers in our district and help them learn how to teach creative problem solving skills. Here's a copy of my creative coach proposal.

Like a lot of my ideas, it was just too ambitious.  I received my figurative "pat on the head" and I returned to my art classroom.  It was about the same time that an "encore" or elective opening became available in our middle school. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I physically ran (ok, maybe quickly walked) down to my principal's office when she sent out an email asking for "suggestions on offerings for different kinds of classes".

I teach in a fairly large rural school district. When I started here in 2001, there were two art teaching positions for our 900+ 6th - 8th grade students.  Michigan, like many states, has had some economic struggles over the past decade and one of our art positions had been cut as a result.  As the only art teacher for some time, I found it frustrating that there were so many kids that wanted to have an art experience, but just couldn't fit it in their schedule.  I offered as much as I could, after school gifted programs, weekly art club meetings, private lessons, workshops for special populations (art therapy for the emotionally impaired, team teaching workshops for the cognitively impaired) during my lunch or planning time . But there was only one of me and over 900 of them.  What's an art teacher to do?

But now, there was an opening.  I knew asking for another art teacher wouldn't be enough.  My principal wanted "different" classes so that kids would have more options.  So, I thought, what if I focused on teaching creativity?  That can't be so hard, right?  I could use all of my research on creative education and experience teaching art to help me.  I could focus on idea development over skill development.  We could fill the position with a new art teacher to cover art history, art careers  and observational drawing. The proposal worked.

Welcome to my adventure.