How do you add creativity to your teaching?

I use stories and real-life examples in my lessons. This helps students relate and understand better. I also use games and hands-on activities. It makes learning fun and interactive. I listen to students' ideas and include them in our class. This way, they feel involved and get more excited about learning. Lastly, I often change things up, so students stay interested and curious.

In my experience as a painting professor I liked to built self confidence in the student. Asking questions that made them think encouraged independent thinking which build their confidence and creativity.

I find students learn skills best when they are modelled, and creativity is no different. I often share with my students that I'm not the most artistically nor musically inclined, but when I model and talk through my creative processes, it helps break down the steps for students, helping them realise that creativity isn't some unreachable, intangible goal reserved only for the talented.

Add creativity? Teachers don't need to ADD creativity to their teaching. Let the students do that! Ask the students creative questions. Play games. Write movie scripts... I had my k-6th graders write their own Christmas pageant. Hook had just come out, so they decided to do Peter Pan's 1st Christmas. They wrote the plot and the dialog, designed and built the sets, wrote the songs and lyrics (including a double round!) designed the costumes... They learned music, rhyming, some cultural history of the indigenous people from that part of the state, story development, special effects... All of this in a music class.

Getting students to present their understanding in different modalities is a great way to get them to really think deeply about what they know, and create neural links that will strengthen their retention of the content. An example from my Biology class is getting students to draw a comic strip about Wally the Water Molecule to explain water uptake and transpiration in plants. Another example when learning about nutrition: to create a balanced 3-course menu with all macro and micronutrients. I gave bonus points for students who actually made the meal at home and took pictures!

Reflection is important in order to continue improving your lessons. I often critically (and sometimes ruthlessly) assess how a planned activity worked out, so I can tweak it and make improvements for next time. Don't be afraid to ditch the idea completely--it's all part of the learning process, both for yourself and your students!

Gamification is a great way to engage students and to inject some healthy competition and fun into lessons. I often use games for Assessment for Learning, or topic review. This can range from simple game show-style quizzes, to more elaborate activities like scavenger hunts and escape rooms. These may take some time and effort to create, but it's well worth it when you see the enjoyment and intense concentration on the students' faces!

I am in the process of doing my mid- term assessment for my English Language classes. I am presently doing vocabulary with my grade 9 students. One of the assessment activities is having them play a 'wordo' game (similar to bingo). The students will record the winning word for any team or student in a mind map, then state three different pieces of information about the word by selecting the preprepared instruction card .