#MaximumCreativity

Research tells us that there’s a time in our teaching when we start to shift the focus from our own survival to our students’ learning. Then, if your really comfortable and you push yourself to the edge of #WhatYouKnow and consider #WhatCouldBe, the pedagogical script starts to write itself in real time. I still remember when these shifts started in my own teaching, and when they started shifting gears rapidly… the terror, the excitement, the ‘I don’t know but I didn’t want to stop’. While there are key memories that anchor some of these shifts, those moments were both intentionally made and stumbled upon. Equally exciting and equally confusing.

As I dug into my own questions, opened my thought process to consider perspectives I had not previously been exposed to, and started asking students more and telling them less, I came to realize what was obvious to them (students) and lost on me (teacher): nobody can speak more about student interest than…students 😳 “So, tell me about…”

Now, my current place is so simple, so powerful, and so meaningful. How can we create an environment that allows for and encourages #MaximumCreativity from students, with students, and for students? Students know their own interests, students can speak to their own relevance, students can articulate what they wonder. So now we shift from pedagogical teller to space facilitator…still the expert on many levels, but not the expert of their creative interest. That’s where our partnership begins (and my journey continues)…