Rewriting riffs

Being asked to watch or read anything by Sir Ken Robinson is always a joy, as "Do schools kill creativity?" has to be one of the most motivating speeches I have watch during my life in education. So when asked to watch Sir Ken Robinson talk more about creativity and education in "What is creativity", I was thrilled. But what surprised me was the reading by Mishra and Henriksen, Revisited and Remixed: Creative Variations and Twisting Knobs. Here, Mishra and Henriksen propose that creativity "builds on that which already exists". I loved the ideas that they suggest, where the wider the experience and knowledge that one has, the more "knobs" and possible combinations there are to remix and inspire. It drives home the idea cross-curricular links and encourages interdisciplinary projects in order to encourage the development of creativity in students. This reminded me of a video about Deep Purple's song Smoke on the Water and how the famous riff came about. Enjoy!

During my CEP 818 course we also had to think more deeply about creativity as well as interview someone about their thoughts on creativity. Reading through the responses from the interview reminded me that creativity is everywhere. In the science labs and the counselling office to the art studios and the PE fields of a school. But how do we as teachers help students? Below I created a trading card for Creativity to represent it as it lives in our minds. I was inspired by the movie "Inside Out" and the interviews that I did in which my friends shared that it is "the sprinkles on top of the ice cream" and "it is the combination of all the science we already know seen through a new lens". However creativity's weakness... Time restrictions! So something I will take away from my first zoom call for this course was the 6min challenge. Learning to engage our imagination and creativity under time constraints might be something we have to practice with our students as well.

Creativity - Legendary Supporter and Master Imaginator

References:

• HundrED. (2020, November 6). Mitchel Resnick Professor MIT Creativity in Education | HundrED 2020 Innovation Summit. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYAz7r3kk2s

  
  

• Atlantic Rim Collaboratory. (2017). Ken Robinson - What is creativity? [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1c3M6upOXA

  
  

• Mishra, P., & Henriksen, D. (2014). Revisited and remixed: Creative variations and twisting knobs. TechTrends, 58(1), 20-23. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-013-0714-5

  
  

• Gemini Google AI. (2023). Inside Out-style character "Creativity" with rainbow hair, holding an ice cream cone at a control panel [AI-generated image]. Gemini.