We have all been there. Staring down at an empty piece of paper and not being able to come up with anything. This also happens with our students when they are working on assignments. Even if it’s not writing, we have all come across some sort of other mental obstacle that prevented us from thinking outside of the box. We sat and we sat, but nothing happens. Well our students have the same experience just as often. Here are some ways to bring out the creative nature in your students to help fight off that empty page!

  1. Open-ended assignments/projects: Provide only basic guidelines and requirements that they need to build off of, but let your students decide how to best accomplish that using their skill and knowledge. You may have to try this with some students at first, or build up to this much freedom, but it’ll help push your students to approach projects differently.
  1. 20 time: Set aside some time during the day or during the week for your students to explore something they are passionate about. Whether it’s writing in a journal, or reading about aquatic life allow them to do as they choose and enjoy this creative time. You should also spend this time doing your own version of this!
  1. Idea generation: Encourage your students to come up with several ideas before choosing one. This will help your students become better at brainstorming and coming up with better ideas. You can also have your students brainstorm together as a group and encourage them to build off of each other’s ideas.
  1. Reward creativity: It is important that when students show creativity in their work and the classroom that they get some recognition.  This will encourage them to keep being creative while also encouraging other students to think of new ways to approach their assignments.
  1. Creative Collaboration: Instead of letting students pick their teammates to work on something, put students with different skills and abilities in groups that require them to work together.  Create an activity that will require them to have to utilize other strengths to become successful.
  1. Be creative yourself! Along the line of getting your students to be creative, don’t forget to practice this yourself. Whether you bring a new approach to a lesson, introduce new projects, flip your classroom or just change the layout, show them that doing things outside the norm is something worth pursuing.

Using these tips we hope you can help bring out the amazing creative ideas within your students and get great results.  What other ways have you been able to introduce creativity into your classroom?

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