Fueling Creativity in Education
Episodes
Tuesday May 20, 2025
Tuesday May 20, 2025
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Listen to Part Two of the Double Expresso here!
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, hosts Dr. Matthew Worwood and Dr. Cyndi Burnett engage in an enlightening conversation with Dr. Teresa Amabile, a world-renowned expert in creativity research. Teresa shares fascinating insights from her impressive 50-year career, discussing her journey and the many chapters of her groundbreaking work. The conversation begins into her early interests in childhood creativity, sparked during her time in kindergarten, and how these experiences led her to study motivation and its effects on creativity. Teresa emphasizes the importance of intrinsic motivation and reflects on how extrinsic factors can sometimes bolster creativity, sharing practical tips for teachers and administrators.
The episode also highlights Teresa's reflections on creativity within educational environments, stressing that creativity is not solely an individual trait but is significantly influenced by context. The discussion touches on her book "Creativity in Context" and explores how school environments can either nurture or stifle creative potential. Teresa advocates for a flexible, personalized approach to education, where students are encouraged to explore and play without the constraints of rigid, standardized assessments. Throughout the episode, Matthew and Cyndi explore these themes with Teresa, drawing valuable connections between research and practical application in educational settings.
Creativity in Context
About Dr. Teresa Amabile:
Dr. Teresa Amabile is a world-renowned expert in creativity research, with 50 years of groundbreaking work in the field. She is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor, Emerita, at Harvard Business School and originally trained as a chemist before earning her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. Her research has explored the intersection of creativity, motivation, and the work environment, shaping how we understand and foster innovation. Dr. Amabile is the author of several influential books, including Growing Up Creative, Creativity in Context, The Progress Principle, and most recently, Retiring: Creating a Life that Works for You, as well as over 100 research articles and scholarly chapters. Her work continues to inspire educators, leaders, and organizations to cultivate environments that nurture creativity and innovation.
Eager to bring more creativity into your school district?
Check out our sponsor Curiosity2Create.org and join their Creativity Network for Educators at Curiosity2Connect!
Check out our Podcast Website to dive deeper into Creativity in Education!
For more information on Creativity in Education, check out:
Matt's Website: Worwood Classroom
Cyndi's Website: Creativity and Education
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
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How does the focus on relationships and trauma-informed care revolutionize the approach to creativity in education?
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, hosts Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood are joined by educator Jonathan Garra to explore the crucial role of relationships, trauma-informed teaching, and student readiness in fostering creativity. Jonathan shares his insights from 17 years of teaching experience spanning both independent and public schools. The discussion explores the foundational importance of relationships in education and how recognizing students as whole individuals can empower them to become confident learners and creative thinkers.
Jonathan emphasizes the importance of creating a positive classroom climate, where simple actions like greeting students and learning their names can have a significant impact. The conversation also touches on the challenges of integrating creativity into the curriculum in diverse educational settings and the pivotal role of sleep in student readiness. As they navigate these educational landscapes, the hosts and guest reflect on how creativity can serve as a powerful tool for healing and empowerment.
About Jonathan Garra:
Jonathan Garra brings 17 years of teaching experience, spanning independent and urban public schools, along with eight years of experience mentoring incoming freshmen at SUNY Buffalo State University in the Educational Opportunity Program. His commitment to student success is rooted in a passion for fostering confidence and creativity, particularly for those overcoming socioeconomic challenges, through dynamic and engaging instruction.
Eager to bring more creativity into your school district?Check out our sponsor Curiosity2Create.org and join their Creativity Network for Educators at Curiosity2Connect!Check out our Podcast Website to dive deeper into Creativity in Education!For more information on Creativity in Education, check out:Matt's Website: Worwood ClassroomCyndi's Website: Creativity and Education
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
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Listen to Part One of this Double Expresso here!
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education Podcast, hosts Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood continue their dynamic conversation with their guests, Jaap Haartsen, known for his pioneering development of Bluetooth technology, and Jayme Cellitoci, the Senior Director of Education for the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The discussion delves into the implications of technology in society, highlighting the ethical considerations and unintended consequences that accompany technological advancements. Jaap shares his insights on the dual nature of innovations, emphasizing the importance of educating people to use technology responsibly, while Jayme discusses the importance of invention education and the role of creativity in problem-solving and innovation.
As the conversation unfolds, the guests share personal anecdotes that illustrate the positive impact of hands-on learning experiences and the exploration of technology with young learners. Jayme narrates a touching story about a child creatively repurposing a camp invention project to aid his family during a storm-induced blackout, underscoring the practical and empowering nature of creative education. The episode closes with both guests sharing their most memorable creative educational experiences, reinforcing the podcast’s mission to enrich and inspire educators, students, and innovators to harness creativity for positive change.
Guest Bios:
Jaap Haartsen: A pivotal figure in the development of Bluetooth technology, Jaap offers invaluable insights into the ethical considerations and responsibilities inventors face in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape. His reflections highlight the importance of educating future innovators on the potential repercussions of their creations.
Jayme Cellitoci: As the Senior Director of Education for the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Jayme passionately discusses the role invention education plays in fostering creativity and ethical decision-making in young learners. Her work focuses on empowering students to see everyday materials as potential innovations and to question the ethical dimensions of their creative endeavors.
Eager to bring more creativity into your school district?Check out our sponsor Curiosity2Create.org and join their Creativity Network for Educators at Curiosity2Connect!Check out our Podcast Website to dive deeper into Creativity in Education!For more information on Creativity in Education, check out:Matt's Website: Worwood ClassroomCyndi's Website: Creativity and Education
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
Tuesday Mar 25, 2025
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In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, hosts Matthew Worwood and Cyndi Burnett are joined by Santosh Zachariah, an educator with a rich background in STEM fields and a passion for fostering creativity in his students. Santosh shares insights from his journey from civil engineering and software development to teaching and educational technology coordination. He underscores the importance of intrinsic motivation and the power of removing grades to cultivate meaningful learning experiences. The conversation delves into the challenges and strategies of creating grade-free environments, emphasizing student reflection and metacognition as tools to fuel curiosity and creativity. Santosh offers practical examples from his experience at the Evergreen School, where intrinsic motivation is prioritized to help students explore their interests and develop skills rather than simply achieving grades.
The episode explores broader themes around how educators can nurture creativity by promoting metacognitive strategies and fostering engagement through meaning-driven tasks. Santosh reflects on the challenges of assessing process over product and the importance of scaffolding learning to support creativity in any content area. The discussion touches on examples of real-world creativity, such as the innovative responses of teachers during the pandemic and the impact of a professional development experience at Western Kentucky University that emphasized creativity in teaching. Santosh's insights highlight the ongoing need for educators to adapt their approaches to inspire meaningful learning and creativity in the classroom. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on how these strategies might be applied in their own educational settings to enrich teaching and learning experiences.
About Santosh Zachariah:
Santosh Zachariah has happily found himself in late elementary and middle school STEM classrooms at The Evergreen School for the past 15 years, having first meandered from Civil Engineering to clincal Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to Biomechanics research to software engineering. At The Evergreen School, he is involved in their Strategic Growth Initiative whose goal is "To educate students to develop the competence of Creativity."
Eager to bring more creativity into your school district?Check out our sponsor Curiosity2Create.org and join their Creativity Network for Educators at Curiosity2Connect!Check out our Podcast Website to dive deeper into Creativity in Education!For more information on Creativity in Education, check out:Matt's Website: Worwood ClassroomCyndi's Website: Creativity and Education
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
What is a Personal Interest Project (PIP) and how might it benefit students’ creativity?
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity in Education podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak with Dr. Elizabeth Radday, an educator who’s been working in education for over 12 years. Currently working in Skills21 and School Services for EdAdvance, Elizabeth is passionate about student-driven personal projects, like Capstone, and loves to see what students can do when they are given the space to explore their interests. The Capstone curriculum and Personal Interest Project (PIP) curriculum she wrote are now being used by thousands of students in Connecticut each year.
Tune in to learn about this fascinating high school program that’s built on students identifying and furthering their creativity and interests while at school. Liz provides inspiring examples of Personal Interest Projects and describes how schools and educators can creatively implement them into students’ curriculums.
Plus, Liz breaks down the most successful format of PIPs and Capstones, what types of educators can best facilitate a Capstone course, her recommendations on rubrics, stimulating motivation in struggling students, and much more.
Liz’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Give kids voice and choice. They need to feel control over the process.
Find the time to work on Personal Interest Projects. Start small if you need to.
Do your own PIP or Capstone project alongside your students and share your experience (and mistakes) with them. Also, it’s important that you choose something unrelated to school.
Resources Mentioned:
Skills21 Personal Interest Projects
Skills21 Capstone
Portrait of a Graduate
Listen to the episode with Heather Lyon
Listen to the episode with Dr. Sally Reis
Listen to the episode with Jonathan Plucker
Listen to the episode with KC Lathrop
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 Elizabeth Radday:
Dr. Elizabeth Radday has been working in education for over twenty years. She first started teaching as a teenager doing arts and crafts at sleepaway camp. After college, she spent sixteen years in the middle and high school classrooms teaching STEM subjects and working with students with learning disabilities. She now works for EdAdvance in Connecticut for Skills21 and School Services. She is passionate about student driven personal projects like Capstone and loves to see what students can do when they are given the space to explore their interests. The Capstone curriculum and Personal Interest Project curriculum she wrote is now being used by thousands of students in Connecticut each year.
Connect with Elizabeth Radday on LinkedIn
Follow her on Instagram
Follow her on Twitter
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ecskills21
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ecskills21
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
How does culture impact a person’s ability to learn and be creative?
In this episode of the Fueling Creativity podcast, Dr. Cyndi Burnett and Dr. Matthew Worwood speak withGenein Letford, Founder and CEO of CAFFEE Strategies, a top 'intercultural creative thinking' professional development training organization that trains employees to unleash their innovative thinking and create sustainable, organizational inclusion strategies. Tune in to learn the fundamentals of cultural competence and Intercultural Creativity™ along with neuroscience-backed tips for teachers on helping kids grow their cultural competency.
As a trainer on creative thinking and Intercultural Creativity™, Genein has inspired and led many to reconnect to their creative abilities and produce innovative ideas for an inclusive workspace.
Genein shares her thoughts on the impact of knowing your students’ cultural value as well as how to help students become aware of their value and their cultural capital. She highlights the powerful role of emotions and storytelling in learning, then breaks down a few of the gems from her book, The 7 Gems of Intercultural Creativity, including empathetic imagination and perspective shifting. Plus, Genein sheds light on how her work as an educator has inspired her role as a mother.
“We can’t really ask people and young people to be at their full creative best if they’re not in an inclusive environment that really has those cultural connections… That cultural competence is a big part of your creative thinking and creative growth.” - Genein Letford
Genein’s Tips for Teachers and Parents:
Share last. Your perspective may skew the perspective of the students, so encourage them to share their views and ideas first and then share yours afterwards.
Say “thank you” to students who share their answers, ideas, and views.
There are miracles in the metaphors. Bring metaphors into your day, your lessons, and your meetings and have fun with it.
Arts are key. Artistry helps grow creativity.
Observation is also key. You can’t be creative if you have no data to be creative with, so create activities that combine sensory information, for example, going outside and listening to the sounds of nature.
“Knowing that the cultural capital and the cultural experiences that the children are coming in with is key. That is gold because the brain doesn’t learn by just throwing new information to it, the brain learns through integration, by integrating new information to already learned information. And so, if the teacher or the educator… doesn’t know what the child already knows and what is important to the child, that integration is low.” - Genein Letford
Resources Mentioned:
The 7 Gems of Intercultural Creativity by Genein Letford
Listen to the episode with Dr. Vlad Glaveanu
The Torrance Incubation Model (TIM)
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 74
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 66
Listen to Create and Grow Podcast Ep 79
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 Genein Letford:
Genein Letford is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author and corporate trainer on creative thinking and Intercultural Creativity™. She is the founder of CAFFE Strategies, and has inspired and led many to reconnect to their creative abilities in order to produce innovative ideas for an inclusive workspace. Her unique training intersects creative thinking development with building a culture of inclusion and belonging. She believes creative literacy is a critical skill and she is often called ‘America’s Creativity Coach’ for her work in reigniting creativity in our workforce.
Visit Genein's website
Connect with her on LinkedIn
Follow her on Instagram
Listen to the Create and Grow Rich Podcast
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!