5 Ways to Encourage Child Creativity

Schools don’t have to kill the creativity Sir Ken Robinson laments in his popular video. To follow are a few ideas that can teachers can share with parents, or use in their classrooms, to provide young people with the inspiration to be creative.  

1) Create safe havens

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way tells the guardian that by “Creating safe havens where our children are allowed to dream, play, make a mess and, yes, clean it up, we teach them respect for themselves and others.”

2) Interact with your child

Spend time interacting with your child while she is learning. For example when learning about historical events you can discuss questions like, “what do you think happens next?” Then you can compare what they thought would happen with the reality and talk about what outcomes might have been had events occurred in another way.  These “inbetween” lesson times are ideal for creative thinking. You can find materials for these types of activities at places like the Library of Congress Primary Source Sets or Pencil Street kids history resources.

Face off: @Twitter verses @Remind101 for family outreach via texting

To engage or not to engage? That is the question when it comes to figuring out the best platform for strengthening the home-school connection with texting.

Schools know that texting is a great way to reach out to families. It’s better than the “robo-calling” that is only one-way, is overwhelmingly reported as an annoyance to the Better Business Bureau, can disturb parents at work, or set off all the school staff phones ringing at the same time. They also know texting works well if you have a population that is less likely to have reliable, ongoing access to the internet. It’s also one of the best ways to get information right from your school and into the pockets of those who care about students.  

But with so many choices out there, which is the best one to choose?

Twitter and Remind 101 are two of the most popular free services available to text parents. But how do you know which one is best for you?

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Looking to create a social media or BYOD policy? L... Jun 3, 2012,	4124
Does Twitter have a minimum age requirement? Jun 13, 2013,	1719
How to showcase #TeacherEffectiveness using digita... Feb 9, 2014,	1526
Student @CGressmanTHS explains the power of her PL... Feb 3, 2014,	1382
8 Real Ways Facebook Enriched Ms. Schoening’s Firs... Jul 15, 2010,	1287
Safety first but don't forget what's next when stu... Feb 23, 2014,	1226
Another reason responsible social media use must b... Feb 14, 2014,	1207
When and How Should Kids Learn to Type? Feb 8, 2011,	1158

The Innovative Educator named top #Homeschool #EdTech blog

When we think of innovative educators, we often think of classrooms and teachers, but we sometimes forget parents are employing innovative strategies to support learning outside of school.  For home educators this is just a way of life, but parents who choose school can also play a key role in helping their children learn. When they do, I am happy to know that The Innovative Educator was named a top five ed tech blog for homeschoolers by WizIQ who provides an online learning platform on which to deliver classes.

Other blogs named were Free Technology for Teachers, Get Me Geeky, and The Wired Homeschool.  Check out the article and these other great blogs at http://blog.wiziq.com/top-5-ed-tech-blogs-help-integrate-technology-homeschool 

Scholarships infographic - Were you aware of these facts?

Innovative educators know that as spring is about to be sprung upon us, so are the deadlines for most scholarships and financial aid. Check out this interesting infographic from FluidReview that gives you the skinny with facts and figures about various scholarships they've collected over the years as a result of offering one of the top scholarship management software platforms on the web today.

Some interesting facts you'll find include distribution by race and sex, average amount awarded, and perhaps most important, some unusual scholarships that are out there such as tall people, coffee lovers, and skateboarders.

Check it out.

The answer to helping teens find an internship or apprenticeship

Innovative educators want students to be able to find a job after completing their education, but as reported by the Associated Press more than half of America's recent college graduates are either unemployed or working in a job that doesn't require a bachelor's degree.

Anthony Cody explains that it is not that schools are failing to teach students to become skilled workers, but that schools are not providing them with enough experience doing things in the world.

Innovative educators can help change that by helping teens find an internship or apprenticeship.  I share some ideas to do that with my post in Answers.com here.

The post hits on the key elements for success listed below.