Creativity is a valuable quality in many careers not just teaching.  Paul Merton, comedian best known for his appearances on ‘Have I got news for You’ has fantastic creativity.  His genius is to take topics put a surreal twist on them.

The clip below sees Merton taking part in the typically chaotic missing words round based upon headlines some of which have come from guest publication Rabbits Only -the magazine for rabbit owners everywhere.  Merton is ably (!) assisted by the Mayor of London.  Well worth a viewing especially if you’ve had a tough day…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?=a1gcJUKR_z8

Creativity is inhibited by tiredness and stress.  Some people are naturally more creative than others.  For those of us who find creativity more difficult, using a structure such as CREATE helps generate ideas. 

Lessons for our lessons

For example take lesson openings….

C-Combine-what could you combine with the learning outcomes to make them clearer e.g. a picture

R- Random Input-take a random word and throw in into the mix e.g. Movement - how could movement help to make the beginning of the lessons more engaging etc.

E- Eliminate- could you eliminate procedures that prevent learning taking place quickly e.g. taking register (fit it in later?)

A -Alternatives-Could you use a mystery for students to solve instead of just narrating the actual story

T- Twists/reversals-How about setting the room out into workstations, putting students into small groups and only giving them a list of instructions about what they have to do.  This will encourage them to problem solve and listen to each other.  I’ve seen this work well in a chemistry lesson with groups moving from one workstation to the next.

E -Elaborate-Encourage students to consider how they can prove that their answer to a specific question is correct.

Try using CREATE to focus on creating opportunities to reduce your input as teacher and create more opportunities to raise student input.