Cultivate Creative Thinkers in the Classroom

Cultivate Creative Thinkers in the Classroom

https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers?language=en#t-314534

Research has shown that creative thinking takes place at a sweet spot. If people answer the question too early, they seldom are creative in their answer or have time to be creative in their answer. If people wait too long, either they won’t have time to implement their creative idea, or they were just procrastinating and not really thinking about the problem anyway. About midway between are the original, creative thinkers with new ideas. They have had time to think about the problem (whether actively or subconsciously) and they have time to implement the idea.

Think about the question you are asking in class. Can students answer it immediately? Then it probably requires no creative thought. If the question requires no creative thought, how are students benefitting from answering the question? If the question requires student think time, give student think time.  Prepare for the think time, prepare for the gathering of ideas, prepare for the testing of ideas, and prepare time for reflection on why ideas had success and failure.  Have a culture in the class that the ideas succeeded or failed, not the idea givers.

Cultivate creative thinkers.

Love

It's funny what love does. On a really simple level, I've been thinking about love, just in terms of my neighbors. 

Now I know I should love all of my neighbors (the Bible says so, right?). Needless to say, I love some less than others...a lot less.  And, to tell the honest truth, I barely know most of them.  

We had a next-door neighbor who, let's just say, I had issues with. Everything he did bothered me. Part of the trouble stemmed from the fact that he did idiotic things (like cut down some of my trees without asking, let his dog whine (not bark, but whine) all day, smoke in his side yard so the lovely odor (and cancer fumes) wafted into my master bedroom, seriously, the list goes on). But I know, most of the problem was I simply didn't like him.  The new neighbors that moved in, when he lost his house in foreclosure, are delightful people. I also have known them for years. I like them a lot. The difference? I offered to pay to have the rest of the same row of trees removed so they can fit their motor home in the side yard, when their dog barks (which is rare), I find myself smile and playfully say the dog's name, and although they don't smoke, the occasional fumes of BBQ float over (which do make me a tad nauseous), but, once again, I smile and am happy they are enjoying their new large backyard. 

I wonder what would have happened and how I would have felt if I had taken the time to get to know my old neighbor. Would those annoying things he did have bothered me as much?


"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." Proverbs 10:12