Fueling Creativity in Education
Episodes
Tuesday May 02, 2023
Tuesday May 02, 2023
How is creativity connected to engagement in an educational environment? In this throwback episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood revisit their conversation with Dr. Heather Lyon, author of Engagement is not a Unicorn (It’s a Narwhal) and The BIG Book of Engagement Strategies.
Listen in to learn Heather’s unique formula for engagement, the differences between student engagement and adult engagement, and engagement impacts our ability to be successful learners. She details her 4 Levels of Engagement and what causes someone to shift from one level to another, as well as the manifestations of each of these engagement levels.
“Compliance is not engagement”- Heather Lyon
Heather’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Teachers are models for students. Students do what they see, so teachers who are engaged and creative have students that are also engaged and creative. Be willing to celebrate both the progress and the struggle.
Compliance is not engagement. Stop being okay with students who are simply doing what they’re told.
Creativity is the fuel for engagement. The more a person has choice, voice, input, and control over what they are doing, the more likely they are to be at least interested, if not absorbed, in the learning.
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episodes with Ron Beghetto
Listen to the episode with Dr. James Kaufman
Listen to the episode with Sally Reis
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
About Heather Lyon:
Heather Lyon is author of Engagement is not a Unicorn (It’s a Narwhal) and The BIG Book of Engagement Strategies. Heather is a former English teacher and has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and an Ed.M. in Reading from the University at Buffalo. She is an Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology for Lewiston-Porter Central School District in Western New York. Heather has been a staff developer and held various administrative titles, but the professional title she likes best is learner. She is also a proud wife and mother who struggles with but values the importance of boundaries and balance—which are so critical for all of us. Heather lives with her husband and three children, who make her smile and teach her the importance of kindness, respect, and patience.
Visit Heather’s website
Follow her on Twitter
Connect with her on LinkedIn
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Tuesday Mar 28, 2023
Calling all teachers! Do you need a boost of confidence in your career? Are you ready to take your profession to the next level? This is the episode for you!
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome back Dr. Kulvarn Atwal, an educator, principal, and author of The Thinking School and The Thinking Teacher. The Thinking Teacher was written to share the findings of Kulvarn’s doctoral research, which highlights how educators can create a more expansive learning environment through quality teaching.
Listen in to learn how you can take charge of your own professional learning, transform your mindset around teaching, and boost your confidence and resilience as an educator.
In England, 33% of teachers leave the teaching profession within five years. So, Kulvarn has made it his mission to figure out how we can help teachers enjoy teaching more and make it a long-lasting career.
Tune in as Kulvarn shares powerful, research-backed advice for new teachers and teachers who want to leave the profession. He speaks on how schools and teachers can continue innovating and fueling creativity after the pandemic is over. Then, he highlights the importance of teacher agency in their professional development and how that impacts students.
“Sometimes, we look at other education systems and think, what is their magic ingredient? It’s not magic. Just improve the quality of teaching. So, this is about them taking charge for themselves, empowering themselves, and giving them the confidence to know what they’re doing.” – Dr. Kulvarn Atwal
Kulvarn’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Look outside of your classroom for inspiration.
Take as many risks with your practice as you can.
Don’t be afraid of getting things wrong, making mistakes, and failing.
Be yourself and share with your students what you’re doing to fuel creativity.
Recommended Resources:
Listen to Kulvarn’s first episode of Fueling Creativity in Education
The Thinking Teacher: How to transform your mindset and your teaching by Dr. Kulvarn Atwal
The Thinking School: Developing a dynamic learning community by Dr. Kulvarn Atwal
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Please rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Dr. Kulvarn Atwal:
Dr. Atwal has been teaching in East London schools for over twenty years and is currently Principal of two large primary schools. He has spent his entire career focusing on teacher learning, and his doctoral thesis investigated the factors that impact upon teacher engagement in professional learning in schools. His work was published in 2019 in his first book, The Thinking School. He has recently published his second book, The Thinking Teacher.
Follow Kulvarn on Twitter
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
How does creativity play a role in problem-solving? In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Dr. Teresa Lawrence, who is recognized as the subject matter expert on the integration of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) into project management.
Listen to how educators and school administrators can use creativity in their leadership roles. While detailing this, Teresa highlights her strategies and frameworks for teaching the integration of creativity and creative problem-solving in schools.
Plus, the trio discusses deliberate approaches to the creative problem-solving process, how to use creativity to build trust and get faculty buy-in to school initiatives, and how to ensure every person feels their voice is heard and acknowledged throughout the problem-solving and decision-making processes.
“My goal in working with school leaders is to allow them to manage challenges better with intentional and active inclusion of all voices.” – Teresa Lawrence
Teresa’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
A little bit of creativity is better than no creativity.
Ask your administrators: What are you working on to be better at your craft?
Ask your students: How am I doing?
Recommended Resources:
Listen to the episode with Dr. Edward Clapp
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Teresa Lawrence, PhD, PMP, CSM:
Teresa is recognized as the subject matter expert on the integration of Creative Problem Solving into project management. She is a previous Superintendent of Schools and is currently fulltime faculty in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. In 2016, Teresa established International Deliverables, LLC, a certified New York State Women Business Enterprise (WBE). Teresa helps individuals, teams and organizations innovate and implement solutions that build organizational capacity and ensure value realization. International Deliverables, LLC, was a 2019 Small Business Administration Home-based Business Award recipient. Since 2017, over 80K individuals have been trained by Teresa or have participated in a session she facilitated.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drteresalawrence
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drtlawrence
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Have you ever heard of the participatory framework of creativity?
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood welcome Dr. Michael Hanchett Hanson, a developmental psychologist, author, and leader of the Participatory Creativity Lab. Among many other notable roles, Michael is one of the leading advocates for the participatory framework of creativity, emphasizing the diversity of roles people take up as participants in change.
Listen in to hear Michael break down the participatory framework of creativity and how it can be applied to educational environments and maker spaces. He highlights how the participatory framework of creativity fosters a continual creative process in a child’s day-to-day life and helps students become aware of the creative processes happening in their classroom.
“Once you make this slight shift in how we think, there are really broad and deep implications… The core question implied by the idea of creativity shifts.” – Michael Hanchett Hanson
Michael also sheds light on a few ways to support teachers’ creativity, then shares what he learned from writing his new book, “Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications”.
Michael’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Think about it as creativity in the service of good education, not education to produce creative people. If people are well educated and deeply engaged in a domain, they will have ideas.
The combination of formal, traditional education and self-directed learning is different in each case, but both are absolutely necessary.
Really good education is understanding the deep questions that drive domains of knowledge.
Recommended Resources:
Learn more about Participatory Creativity Lab
Creativity and Improvised Educations by Michael Hanchett Hanson
Listen to the episode with Dr. Vlad GlaveanuListen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker
Listen to the episode with David Cropley
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Have a question? Email Dr. Burnett and Dr. Worwood at questions@fuelingcreativitypodcast.com!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Michael Hanchett Hanson:
Michael Hanchett Hanson is a developmental psychologist; Director of the Masters Concentration in Creativity and Cognition at Teachers College, Columbia University; leader of the Participatory Creativity Lab (www.participatorycreativitylab.org); and a founding board member and Secretary of the International Society for the Study of Creativity and Innovation (ISSCI).
Michael is one of the leading advocates for the participatory framework of creativity, which emphasizes the diversity of roles people take up as participants in change. He has written on the history of the construct of creativity within psychology; creativity in education; the ideological uses of the construct; ironic thought patterns as a creative heuristic, and creative practices in the construction of the self. His most recent book, “Creativity and Improvised Educations: Case Studies for Understanding Impact and Implications”, looks at case studies of creative work across a variety of domains and what these cases can teach us about the roles of education in lifelong creative development.
Connect with Michael on LinkedIn
Buy his book, Creativity and Improvised Educations
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
How do you facilitate teacher-led change in the classroom? In this throwback episode Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood revisit their interview with Dr. Kulvarn Atwal, an executive headteacher of two large primary schools in East London and author of The Thinking School.
Listen in to hear Dr. Atwal share his thoughts on educational leadership and how to facilitate teacher-led change in the classroom. He sheds light on the importance of trial and error in school systems, how school leaders can support the creativity of teachers, and ways administrators can spark curiosity and professional development in tenured teachers.
Dr. Atwal also gives advice for teachers who crave professional development but don’t have opportunities to foster it. Then, he talks a bit about his next book for empowering teachers, The Thinking Teacher.
“The greatest single factor that impacts upon the quality of children’s learning in school, students’ learning, is quite straightforward. It’s the quality of teaching.” - Dr. Kulvarn Atwal
Dr. Atwal’s Tips for School Administrators:
Give teachers more opportunities to collaborate with other teachers and engage in dialogue without having to report back or hit a target.
Create culture in which you actively inquire or ask about what your teachers are good at and what they’d like to improve in. This works well if you lead by example.
Express your school’s values, mission, and goals. Don’t deviate from those.
About Dr. Kulvarn Atwal:
Dr. Kulvarn Atwal was born and educated in East London and has been headteacher for nine years of the school he attended as a child. in 2018/19 he was Executive Head Teacher of two primary schools; both of which were graded Outstanding in all areas by Ofsted. His doctoral thesis, completed in 2016, examined the factors that influence teacher learning in schools. He has recently published his first book, ‘The Thinking School – Developing a Dynamic Learning Community’.
Follow Dr. Atwal on Twitter
Resources Mentioned:
Learn more about Highlands Primary School
Buy The Thinking School by Dr. Kulvan Atwal
Read Dr. Atwal's Blog Posts here:
The Need for Creative Thinking in Our Schools
Cultivating An Environment for Creativity in Schools
If You Want Creative Thinkers, Focus on Emotional Literacy
Five Strategies for Building a Thinking School
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Why is inquiry-based learning such a powerful part of modern education? In this episode of Fueling Creativity, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Frank LaBanca, a teacher, educational researcher, and change agent based in Connecticut. Frank is one of the few public-school principals, nationally, that teaches students in his own classroom. Tune in to learn his approach to inquiry-based learning, a significant part of his strategic planning in founding the Westside Middle School Academy Magnet.
Frank shares why he prioritizes inquiry-based learning in the classroom over other approaches to education as well as the role of inquiry-based learning in developing creativity and problem-solving skills. He speaks on the power of teaching students to ask meaningful questions, how he does that, and how he helps teachers develop the capacity to implement and manage project-based learning in the classroom.
“Inquiry is questioning and investigation. In that simple elegance, it’s a wonderful way to approach learning because children can ask meaningful questions and seek their own idiosyncratic, diverse methods to try to solve those problems.” - Dr. Frank LaBanca
Frank also highlights the value of teachers not being the ultimate evaluators of students’ work, rather their work being evaluated by others in the real world. Then, he divulges how he selected new faculty for his school, the challenges he and his administrative colleagues are currently facing, and how his creative projects outside of school that inspire his professional development.
Frank’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Spend time problem-finding. Don’t rush students through the process of developing ideas for study.
Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. Let it be exciting to not have answers for your students’/kids’ questions. Have confidence to facilitate the process of finding their own answers.
There’s a continuum between developing ideas and solving ideas. Don't be focused on just solving ideas.
“Developing questions takes time and students need and deserve the time to go through that process of evaluating questions.” - Dr. Frank LaBanca
“I think a really important part of inquiry is you learn to do and about at the same time.”
- Dr. Frank LaBanca
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episode with Natalie NixonListen to the episode with Jeffrey Davis
Listen to the episode with Dr. Vlad Glaveanu
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
About Dr. Frank LaBanca:
Dr. Frank LaBanca is a teacher, educational researcher, and change agent. He is the Founding Principal of the Westside Middle School Academy magnet in Danbury, Connecticut. Previously he was the Director of the Center for 21st Century Skills at Education Connection as well as a 16-year high school biology and science research teacher. Dr. LaBanca has also taught and supervised research at the university level in both Biology and Educational Leadership. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, whitepapers, and research conference presentations. Having taught well over 2000 students, Dr. LaBanca’s most meaningful contribution to education is conducting extended open-inquiry authentic applied research with students. Over his tenure, numerous students have been nationally recognized for their work. He is one of the few public school principals, nationally, that teaches his own class with students.
Visit Frank’s website
Visit his blog
Follow him on Twitter
Connect with him on LinkedIn
Friday Dec 10, 2021
Friday Dec 10, 2021
How is creativity connected to engagement in an educational environment? In this episode of Fueling Creativity, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Heather Lyon, author of Engagement is not a Unicorn (It’s a Narwhal) and The BIG Book of Engagement Strategies.
Listen in to learn Heather’s unique formula for engagement, the differences between student engagement and adult engagement, and engagement impacts our ability to be successful learners. She details her 4 Levels of Engagement and what causes someone to shift from one level to another, as well as the manifestations of each of these engagement levels.
“Compliance is not engagement”- Heather Lyon
Heather’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Teachers are models for students. Students do what they see, so teachers who are engaged and creative have students that are also engaged and creative. Be willing to celebrate both the progress and the struggle.
Compliance is not engagement. Stop being okay with students who are simply doing what they’re told.
Creativity is the fuel for engagement. The more a person has choice, voice, input, and control over what they are doing, the more likely they are to be at least interested, if not absorbed, in the learning.
About Heather Lyon:
Heather Lyon is author of Engagement is not a Unicorn (It’s a Narwhal) and The BIG Book of Engagement Strategies. Heather is a former English teacher and has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and an Ed.M. in Reading from the University at Buffalo. She is an Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology for Lewiston-Porter Central School District in Western New York. Heather has been a staff developer and held various administrative titles, but the professional title she likes best is learner. She is also a proud wife and mother who struggles with but values the importance of boundaries and balance—which are so critical for all of us. Heather lives with her husband and three children, who make her smile and teach her the importance of kindness, respect, and patience.
Visit Heather’s website
Follow her on Twitter
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned:
Listen to the episodes with Ron Beghetto
Listen to the episode with Dr. James Kaufman
Listen to the episode with Sally Reis
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean! Make sure to rate, review, and share the podcast if you enjoy it!
Friday Oct 08, 2021
Friday Oct 08, 2021
In this episode of Fueling Creativity, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood interview arts and creativity educator, Donna Luther, about how she nurtures a culture of creativity and problem solving as Head of Inly School, an all-gender PreK-8 Montessori day school in Massachusetts.
Donna highlights how her students are inspired to act on their ideas, why it’s so impactful to think about a school as a start-up, and how she encourages teachers and students to take risks and be okay with experiencing failure.
She also speaks on the characteristics she looks for in teachers that she hires and what really makes a creative educator, including openness and willingness to evolve and innovate. Plus, Donna tells the incredible story of why she started Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts (spoiler: it was inspired by Britney Spears!).
“It’s our responsibility, not only to stay current, but actually to stay future focused. Not only what do we need for today, but what do we need for the unknown of tomorrow for our students.” - Donna Luther
Donna’s Tips for Teachers – Montessori Philosophies That Can Be Applied to Any School:
Go beyond the four walls of the classroom. What can you do in your hallways, playground, and your community to explore and help your students discover something new or discover a passion?
Practice saying YES to ideas. Remember, be open!
Always ask yourself: How might we prepare our students for a world that we can’t predict? Learn how to question, problem solve, and to take two very disconnected ideas and find ways they can connect.
Resources Mentioned:
Learn more about Inly School: www.inlyschool.org
About Donna Luther:
An arts and creativity educator, Donna Luther is currently Head of Inly School, an all-gender independent, Montessori based day school in Massachusetts for students ages 2 – 14. She is a member of the Leadership Development faculty for the Creative Education Foundation, where she teaches Creativity in the 21st Century Classroom, Advanced Strategies for Educators, Facilitation through the Arts, and Integrating Creativity and Leadership to educators and business professionals worldwide. As an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University, she has taught in the national and international M.Ed. program for Creative Arts in Learning. She has presented at conferences throughout the United States and in Brazil, China, South Africa and Israel. Donna is founding director of Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts.
Eager to bring more creativity into your home or classroom?
Access various creativity resources and tools & listen to more episodes of The Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast by visiting www.CreativityandEducation.com.
What to learn more about Design Thinking in Education?
Do you want to build a sustained culture of innovation and creativity at your school? Visit WorwoodClassroom.com to learn how Design Thinking can promote teacher creativity and support professional growth in the classroom.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter!
You can also find The Fueling Creativity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and PodBean!