Gayle T. Dow and Katie Kozlowski, researchers at Creativity Research Lab at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, discuss how the brain makes us creative and what teachers can do to encourage creative learning in the classroom.

"Techquity," as the author defines it, means merging the effective use of educational technologies with culturally responsive and culturally relevant learning experiences to support students' development of essential skills. Technology, distributed and used equitably, enables opportunity and voice, dismantles barriers around learner…

Being creative always involves risk, and educators need to support students in taking "beautiful risks"--actions that have the potential to make a positive, lasting contribution to other's lives. To offer such support, educators must take risks too. Beghetto describes three "beautiful risks" educators can take to foster…

Do your students occasionally seem bored? That's ok, says John Spencer. Doing tedious tasks or spending some time without stimulation can actually be great for creativity, freeing up your brain to make connections it might not otherwise have made. Spencer walks us through why our modern culture is so resistant to boredom and how we can cultivate…

Elementary school teacher Bret Turner uses storytelling as a way to build classroom community and inspire creativity with his students.

The traditional academic research paper isn't always the best form in which to judge student writing. When students are given a choice in form and genre, their true talents and creativity can be unleashed. Miller offers up classroom examples and ideas on how to let students express their creativity in writing literary papers, research papers, and…

English language arts teacher Zachary Wright describes how he uses "Mad-Lib"-like templates to help his unconfident writers (which is most of his students) see precisely how to do things like write a thesis statement, extract examples from the text, and structure a coherent essay.

Helping young people develop good hearts and good minds is key to developing emotionally healthy kids. Carol Ann Tomlinson lays out some principles for educators to both teach and practice as they guide students to becoming more human in their minds and hearts. Developing healthy minds involves more than simply building academic knowledge. It also…

Drawing on their research in creating the Vibrant School Scale, Megan Tschannen-Moran and Davis Clement describe the three characteristics of vibrant schools: enlivened minds, emboldened voices, and playful learning. The authors also detail a four-step, strengths-based process called appreciative inquiry that can help school members have…

Author and educator Owen Griffith shares how leaders can infuse small acts of gratitude to energize their schools and create a positive, thriving culture. Leaders must begin by practicing gratitude personally, then slowly introducing the practice to their faculty and eventually students. With the right attitude and creativity, the acts of…

Creativity has become a hot topic in education. From President Barack Obama to Amazon's Jeff Bezos to "Newsweek" magazine, business leaders, major media outlets, government officials, and education policy makers are increasingly advocating including student creativity in the curriculum. But without a clear understanding of the nature of creativity…

This author contends that the United States neglects creativity in its education system. To see this, he states, one may look at the Common Core State Standards. If one searches the English Language Arts and Literacy standards for the words "creative," "innovative," and "original"--and any associated terms, one will…

Guided by its arts educators, every school can learn to design activities that foster the serious play of a creatively invested learner. Bring arts educators into one's planning meetings; give them opportunities at faculty meetings to catalyze teachers' creative instincts. This effort does not require a new program or new curriculum. Teachers…

Creativity is a simple concept that can be difficult to get one's head around. In its most basic sense, creative means "original and of high quality." Probably the foremost characteristic of creative students is that they put things together in new ways. Teachers can assess creativity at every grade level and in every subject, using both basic and…

Students are so creative! How can teachers help them use that creativity to learn? This question haunted the author while she was teaching art in a K-8 public school. In art class, she frequently saw students demonstrate refreshingly original ideas in their drawings and paintings as well as innovative problem solving related to their projects.…