This year for ITEC (Iowa Technology Education Connection) Conference I took a risk. I wanted to have participants to be creative. When teachers experience being creative they remember what it like to be creative as a kid. I had 45mins to explain why it is important for students to be creative and share a few creativity resources, which isn't a lot of time, but I wanted to make sure I left enough time for explore/play time! I didn't want the participants to feel like they were drinking from fire hydrant, instead I wanted them to play in the splash pad!
Participants were asked to create a superhero who resembled the strengths they felt that had. My examples is below. If I was going to ask a room full of teachers to do this, I had to model one.
Unfortunately, the internet wasn't working well during my session so many people couldn't participate but a few didn't give up, they tweeted theirs out later using the hashtag #superherosareread. I even had an educator share that she was taking a risk today after going to my session a few weeks ago.
That wasn't the only risk I took during this session, I also wore an Avengers Shirt, instead of my usually professional attire, if I want to go all out maybe I will wear the cape and everything next year.
Here is a link to the presentation: bit.ly/ESCitech1
The newest creativity app that I learned about when putting this presentation was Drawp, you have to check it out! You can set up student accounts and link it to each student's family members so they can receive artwork with a simple swipe. (not an advertisement)
Are you taking risks? Are your students encouraged to take risks? Are your teachers encouraged to take risks?
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