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Editor's Notes

• #3: I have extensive teaching experience in primary, secondary and third level education. In each teaching and learning setting we are required to use a multitude of strategies to address the diverse range of learning needs in multilingual classrooms. These challenges have ‘forced’ me to be creative and I actively try to understand my students more in order to create relevant student centred learning.
• #4: We have many language, ethnic groups and nationalities in our classrooms. When I was teaching 14-19s in a college in north London, I was responsible for a number of young unaccompanied Albanians, some of whom had little or no formative education in Albania and subsequently found the academic language of school a real challenge. After a particularly difficult lesson, when a row broke out between a group of Somali and Albanian students, and one of the young Albanian men turned around and said, “Miss, learning just isn’t for me and I’m not coming back to class”. I had been teaching this group for two years and I knew them very well and I believed him. I had tried everything to engage them and when I went home that night, I really struggled to find a way to move the situation forward. I believe that education will only work when the school, parents and community pull together. That night I bought a ticket to Albania and when I went to school the next day I showed the students that I intended to go there, find their parents and tell them exactly what they were like in class. And I went. I visited a family in Tirana, got an interpreter and I travelled up to Kuksi and over to Tropoje to meet families. Needless to say, the experience changed my life and allowed my to move my teaching practice away from the Euro-centric model (in which we are trained) to reflect the needs and interests of our multilingual students. I made two more trips back to Albania and each time brought a photographer and graphic designer and between us, we started to document life in Albania.
• #5: This prompted trips to other countries, where I repeated the same process. It also gave me time to examine the theme of the ‘Universal Teenager’ and I subsequently, adapted my teaching resources in accordance with the learning needs I was faced with.
• #6: In terms of my own creative development, what I have learnt from all these experiences has pushed me down the mobile learning route and I set up a creative agency for education, to provide all young people with beautifully created resources that are based on sound pedagogical practices, which they can access on their phone. The mobile apps (Keywords English https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/keywords-english-photosynthesis/id651051522?mt=8) are available for biology and I have been testing them in schools in the UK and Ireland. I will be presenting the findings at the UNESCO mobile learning week in Paris later on in February 2014 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/unesco-mobile-learning-week-2014/. I have also developed CLIL worksheets for biology in a number of languages and a set of visuals for each topic to promote visual literacy skills.
• #7: Some definitions focus on characteristics of individuals whose work is determined to be creative (What is a creative person like?), whereas others consider the work itself (What makes this creative?). In either case, most definitions have two major criteria for judging creativity: novelty and appropriateness. For example, Perkins (1988a) defined creativity as follows: “(a) A creative result is a result both original and appropriate. (b) A creative person—a person with creativity—is a person who fairly routinely produces creative results” (p. 311). Although Perkins’ propositions are broad, they tie together the concepts of creative people and creative activities in a neat practical package. Even so, each aspect of this simple definition poses questions. How do you define originality? p.17 We can only define appropriateness when we take into consideration the cultural context in which creativity is based. One important factor in determining appropriateness is the cultural context in which the creativity is based. Just as intelligence is viewed differently in various cultures (Sternberg, 2000b, 2004), so the vehicles and focus of creativity vary from culture to culture and across time.Cultures in fact, differ in their conceptions of the nature of creativity itself (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2006; Liep, 2001; Lubart, 1999; Weiner, 2000). The product-oriented, originality-based phenomenon emphasized in this book is a Western orientation, whereas some Eastern or traditional cultures conceptualize creativity as a process of individual growth, spiritual journey, or evolution (rather than revolution) in shared community culture. Cultures in fact, differ in their conceptions of the nature of creativity itself (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2006; Liep, 2001; Lubart, 1999; Weiner, 2000). The product-oriented, originality-based phenomenon emphasized in this book is a Western orientation, whereas some Eastern or traditional cultures conceptualize creativity as a process of individual growth, spiritual journey, or evolution (rather than revolution) in shared community culture. It is interesting to think about which areas in our culture are most tied to our cultural values and how that may affect our openness to creativity. It seems likely that the types of problems and modes of expression will vary in any multicultural society such as the United States. In facilitating creativity in schools, it is important for the teacher to consider the cultural contexts of students’ lives. It is necessary to provide multiple vehicles or strategies to appeal not just to students’ varied abilities or learning styles, but also to their diverse social and cultural values. This varied sense of appropriateness perhaps makes defining creativity more complicated, but it also allows richness and diversity in the types of creative efforts that are attempted and appreciated.An idea or product is appropriate if it meets some goal or criterion. Creativity is purposeful and involves effort to make something work, to make something better, more meaningful, or more beautiful.
• #8: Robert Epstein, creativity specialist, University of CaliforniaCapturing—preserving new ideas.Challenging—giving ourselves tough problems to solve. Broadening—boosting creativity by learning interesting new things. Surrounding—associating with interesting and diverse things and people. He suggests teachers provide students with a way to capture their ideas on a daily basis in an idea folder or idea box. "So-called 'creative geniuses' are all strong with capturing. They jot down a new idea when it pops into their head. If they can't preserve it, they get frustrated," Epstein says .Nurturing those skills in the classroom is an important task, but it does not have to be a daunting one. Educators can effectively implement strategies in their daily teaching to help students tap into their creativity. "Teachers have the power to establish these creativehabits. You're giving young people permission to have these ideas," Epstein says. Modeling Creativity in the Classroom in their book How to Develop Student Creativity, authors Robert Sternberg and Wendy Williams state, "The most powerful way to develop creativity in your students is to be a role model. Children develop creativity not when you tell them to, but when you show them” One way to model creativity is to show imagination in teaching.
• #9: You need to think how you model creativity in your class for your own students.
• #10: Creativity is a very personal process and everyone needs an opportunity to express and develop according to their ability and interest.
• #11: Thinking outside the box, is easy to say, but can be difficult to achieve, particularly as we strive to develop higher order thinking skills. You own ability is critical here in order to encourage students to think outside the box.
• #12: Childrendon't want to make mistakes; they want to be told how to solve the problem. In these instances, teachers must give students permission to make mistakes. Before we can expect our students to make mistakes (publicly), we have to be very open to making mistakes and to being open and transparent about these mistakes. I often record my lessons and ask students to critique them. I feel it is very important to put my own ‘mistakes’ on display, particularly as I expect students to be both reflective and critical of their own work.
• #13: My ideas come from everywhere. I love generating ideas and when I see something, I immediately get an idea for a lesson. I share these ideas with my students on a regular basis.
• #14: It is imperative that you and your students record your ideas. With my groups, we regularly bring our notebooks/sketchbooks/photographs into class and we discuss and reflect on the work we are all doing. I always start with mine and try my best to ensure to place myself at the same level as the student.
• #15: I came across this wonderful lesson from a training session I did with Jeremy Harmer and I was no moved by the story, I really couldn’t wait to try it in my class. Given that I had a lot of students in my class from the Balkans, I thought it might be an interesting way to bring their own experience into the classroom. I also really wanted to explore the concept of music. I used this lesson to teach the concept “the human spirit in the face of adversity”. This in turn introduced me to YoYo Ma and his project, which I also included in my lessons.
• #16: One of Mr. Ma’s goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication and as a vehicle for the migrations of ideas across a range of cultures throughout the world. Expanding upon this interest, in 1998, Mr. Ma established the Silk Road Project, a nonprofit arts and educational organization. Under his artistic direction, the Silk Road Project presents performances by the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble, engages in cross-cultural exchanges and residencies, leads workshops for students and partners with leading cultural institutions to create educational materials and programs. Given that I had students in my class, I thought it would be an interesting concept to look at music along the Silk Route paying particular attention to the traditional music played in their countries.
• #17: I used this model for a web quest and encouraged students to do their own research about music from their countries.
• #18: These were just some of the follow up activities we did from this lesson.
• #20: Epstein recommends that teachers dedicate five minutes a day (15 minutes a week total) of class time to creative training exercises. "It doesn't take much; it's not like you need to teach a whole course on creativity," he says. "But you need to keep creative tendencies alive in students. "For example, Epstein encourages teachers to set aside a few minutes a day to allow elementary students to just let their imaginations run wild. "There's no greater freedom than the freedom of daydreaming," he says.For example, I was in the shop the other evening getting something for the tea and I came across these alphabet shapes and I thought it would be a great idea to see how students would use them in the class, so we had a quick brainstorming session. Students regularly bring in an idea and we brainstorm it for 5 minutes.
• #21: What are the benefits of using this strategy? It acts to remind students of the importance of creativity, that we expect it. It’s another way of getting to know your students even more. If they give you an idea which sheds light on something they are interested in, then that allows you to tailor your lessons around their needs and interests and of course tap into their intrinsic motivational levels. It gives them confidence in the area of brainstorming, an increasingly important transferable skill.