infusing creativity in the classroom

Unleashing the Power of Creativity

Infusing Creativity and Creative Thinking Skills in the Gifted Classroom

I love the outdoors. Some of my best ideas have come to me while letting my mind wander as I walk my dog. Nature is like that. The fresh air, the smells, the beauty of nature, it inspires and engages my mind in a way that being chained to a desk never could.

Isn’t it sad that students end up spending the majority of their time chained to a desk? It must be so uninspiring for them!

Over the last decade creativity and creative thought have been de-emphasized because of a focus on standardized testing in education.

As a result, the United States has fallen significantly behind other industrialized nations in the area of research and development, which is highly dependent upon creativity and creative thought.

In “Infusing Creativity and Creative Thinking Skills in the Gifted Classroom”, Bob Iseminger discusses the importance of developing creativity in today’s classrooms, and provides strategies for embedding creative development in classroom lessons and content.

Iseminger is an educator, speaker, and author with over 25 years of experience in public education. He currently serves as a staff development consultant for school districts nationwide in addition to making presentations at state gifted conferences.

The Big Problem with Creativity – What do you assess?

How do you assess creative thinking? That’s the big problem. Most standardized tests have no assessment for this ability. Since there is such a strong focus on testing, we tend to put creativity on a backburner. As educators, we need to look for ways to embed creativity into lessons so that state standards are being addressed, AND so that students are given the capacity to think creatively in every subject area.

In this course, Iseminger engages with teachers to uncover the answers to questions like:

Creative thinking in gifted classrooms

  • What is creative thinking?
  • Are there degrees of creative thinking? If so, what do you think they are?
  • Can everyone think creatively?
  • What keeps us from thinking creatively?
  • Can creative thinking be taught?
  • What influences our creative thinking?

Children today don’t know what creativity means

Iseminger provides leading definitions on creativity, but also challenges educators to develop their own definitions so that students know exactly what it means to be creative and when it’s appropriate to be creative. This course offers tools to help teachers:

  • Define creativity at a grade appropriate level
  • Help students and teachers inventory the process
  • Engage students according to their individual processes
  • Understand the importance of developing creativity

Education unchained through creativity

Creativity is the key to unchaining the minds of our students. In order to do that, we must build four structured creative thinking skills in students:

  • Fluency – Producing a large number of ideas or responses
  • Flexibility – Changing one’s way of thinking by producing alternative ideas or categories
  • Elaboration – Expanding on a single idea by adding details, making changes, or crafting complex ideas
  • Originality – Producing unique or novel ideas and responses that are are new to oneself through fluency, flexibility, and elaboration…this cannot be taught, it can only be fostered by teachers

Picasso started out his art career with realism, landscapes, and human figures. Somewhere along the way, he came up with an entirely different way of looking at the world and invented the concept of modern art. That was a highly original thought, but no one taught him to do that. He used his prior experiences and his environment to produce an original idea.

Iseminger offers numerous practical activities to develop the fluency, flexibility, and elaboration in your students.

Start infusing creativity into your classroom today!

Iseminger doesn’t just talk about infusing creativity, in this course he details and demonstrates actual strategies for unchaining your students and making creativity a reality in your classroom.

Delivering Quality Training – No Matter Where You Are
Did you know that this course is mobile ready? That means you can complete this course on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, or any other mobile device!

Get this Course
Just click here to order, or call 915.532.9965 if you prefer to speak to someone.

(Photos courtesy of Flickr via

[JO]² – Immortal Lens  – Youssef Hanna and Flickr via CollegeDegrees360)