The Creative Classroom

Can you encourage your students to be more creative? In this lesson, you'll discover how to find your students' creative talents and recognize their hidden talents. You'll learn how to encourage creativity and help your students become creative thinkers and learners. You'll also examine how thinking relates to creativity, how to teach students about how they learn, and how to use questioning to initiate the creative process.

Does your classroom learning environment encourage creativity? In this lesson, you'll explore whether your classroom is nurturing or neglecting creativity. The lesson will provide you with the tools you need to make your classroom a creative classroom—a learning environment that inspires, encourages, and promotes creativity! You'll also explore how to create classroom rules and objectives that encourage creativity, as well as creative testing and grading.

Can you create a space for creative learning in your classroom? Imagine a classroom where students learn about reading, writing, plants, animals, and mathematics at the same time, with learning taking place throughout the classroom. It's time to set up creative learning labs in your classroom, and this lesson will cover everything you need to know! You'll learn how to design creative learning labs for different learning styles, create theme-based learning labs, and best yet, find grants and other resources that can help you turn your learning lab ideas into realities.

How do you encourage reluctant readers and motivate creative students? This lesson will go over many creative techniques you can use to transform reading reluctance into enthusiasm. You'll explore ways to liven up those everyday reading assignments and make books come to life through creative reading. The goal is for you to open your books and teach students to read, respond, remember, and relate—using creativity as your tool!

What happens when students can't write? In this lesson, you'll take a look at creative ways to eliminate your students' writer's block and encourage them to write creatively. After you get your students' pencils moving, it's time to fine-tune their writing skills with some creative assignments that will challenge them, encourage them, and make them enjoy writing, even if they can't yet write their names. You'll also explore freewriting, dramatizing, imaginative writing, and writing circles.

How do you encourage creative thought through art? Even if you don't consider yourself to be an artist, you can teach your students to create art and use creativity. In this lesson, you'll learn how the process of creating produces creative art. The lesson will talk about how to help students turn those early art creations into classroom masterpieces as you explore creative ways to introduce drawing and painting. Then, you'll turn your classroom into an art museum for displaying mixed media creations. After that, grab your easels because you'll take art into your writing, math, and history lessons, too.

What does it take to get a student interested in music and acting? In this lesson, you'll learn how to put students on stage—a friendly stage, a creative stage. You'll explore how to creatively teach music and drama through self-expression and how to provoke student interest in the performing arts across the curriculum. Some of the techniques that will be discussed include using self-expression in music—using mime, identifying with instruments, and even thinking musical moods. When you go into acting, you'll learn creative methods you can use to teach students to determine characters' emotions, create costumes, and create sets.

Is science creative? Through problem solving, scientists find answers by using some very creative techniques. In this lesson, you'll find out how to turn your creative students into creative scientists. You'll start by exploring the scientific method and how to use it in all your classes. The lesson will discuss how to use scientific knowledge in your everyday routines, like classroom discipline and testing. You'll learn how to take science out of the classroom as you explore some creative labs and field trips. Grab your lab coats, microscopes, and lab notes and prepare to think creatively!

How do you make a connection to the world from inside your classroom walls? In a world full of facts and figures, there are creative ways to make these items real. In this lesson, you'll learn creative ways to teach students to analyze, interpret, and be active participants in the subjects they're studying. You'll start by relating social studies to your students' lives by using the social studies connections in your classroom: the school's chain of command, classroom rules, and collaborative learning. You'll also use critical thinking to analyze social studies textbooks and create social studies learning labs and field trips.

Can math be fun and creative? In this lesson, you'll look at ways to make mathematical challenges fun through problem solving. You'll make math engaging, creative, and fun by organizing math field days and look at ways that you can help your students relate their everyday lives to math through math learning labs, field trips, and much more!

Can you imagine a classroom of students eager to participate in physical activity? Good, because imagination is the key! In the final lesson, you'll learn how to get students moving by helping them to use their imaginations. You'll learn about creative movement, creative team games, creative cooperative games, and creative assessment. You'll also learn creative ways to keep your students healthy as they promote healthy topics and flex their creative muscles. You'll also learn how to use conflict-solving techniques that will teach students to think of creative solutions for their problems.