How to Stay Creative? 

Introduction: Amy heard an artist speak about creativity the night before she she did this assignment who included a list of her own ideas that was quite similar to similar to what Amy's students came up with. The speaker's presentation sparked the idea for this lesson with her 8th grade art elective classes. See Twyla Tharp's Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life:

The Problem: List rules that artists should remember in order to stay creative with their work, and to keep challenging themselves. 

Students came up with the list below without input from Amy or paraphrasing on her part.

13 Rules for Artists:
How to Challenge Yourself and Stay Creative

 by Grade 8 Art Elective, Spring 2003

1. Do something new each time you make a piece of art.
   
2. Try new materials and processes. Don’t limit yourself!
   
3. Keep an open mind.
   
4. LOOK around you.
   
5. Don’t get upset about the artwork you make.  If  you aren’t happy with a project, don’t throw it out.  When you are done with it, someone else might like it and then you will too.
   
6. After mastering one way of working with an idea, try doing it a different way – you might get a better result.
   
7. Try never to do the exact same thing twice.
   
8. Learn background information and do research about the idea you are interested in working on.
   
9. Keep the fun of art alive!
   
10. Get opinions from others.
    
11. Do something original. Copying is for learning only. Use your own ideas in your art.
    
12. Practice = growth.
    
13. Stay focused.  If you don’t, you will lose track of your idea and your project won’t come out as well as it could.

Some Links for Creativity:
Link to Creativity Web sites - Marvin Bartel , Goshen College
Teaching Creativity - Marvin Bartel, Goshen College
Creativity Killers - Marvin Bartel, Goshen College 

Creativity and Early Childhood Education from Early Childhood News:

For full article, go to:
http://www.brightring.com/creativity.html

Fostering Creativity
by MaryAnn Kohl
Copyright © 1999-2001 Earlychildhood.com LLC.

There's no doubt about it: Creativity is as natural and necessary for children as fresh air and sunshine! By exposing children to creative experiences, we give them the gift of a rich and memorable childhood while laying the foundation for a lifetime of creative expression - all topped off with a heaping helping of important learning skills.
  
What Is Creativity?
Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product.
Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining. Creativity is found in the obvious art and music, but can also be found in science and play. Because we think of art, music, dance, and drama as examples of creative ideas, we may have forgotten that creative thought is found in all aspects of a growing child's life and can be learned from daily. Just look at how creativity shows itself when a scientist discovers a cure for a disease, how a business owner decides to increase sales, how the grocery clerk bags the groceries, or how a parent finds a way to entice a reluctant child to head off to bed.

Getting Started: Inviting Creativity
Providing the opportunity for creativity is as easy as allowing children to draw with crayons on blank paper, to bang a pot with a wooden spoon in time to music, to build an inviting reading area with blankets and cushions, or to hop and bop to a favorite children's recordings. Something as easy as drawing on a blank surface is surprisingly important. Research shows that children who draw frequently do better in reading and math and will shine at focusing on learning tasks. Choosing their own drawing materials empowers children and opens their eyes to the world around them.

What can we do as teachers to help creativity take hold? When a child presents you with a drawing and says, "Look at what I made!", respond by saying, "Tell me about your drawing," or ask, "What do you like about your drawing?" These open-ended responses let the child evaluate his own creativity while initiating conversation about the work at hand. Try not to guess what that gooey green glob of paint is supposed to be because it may only be a gooey green glob of paint. By not assuming anything about the child's work of art, the door to self-evaluation and communication opens.

How Can Teachers Encourage Creativity?
...more at website...
http://www.brightring.com/creativity.html

Twyla Tharp's Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life:

Editorial Reviews 
From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps the leading choreographer of her generation, Tharp offers a thesis on creativity that is more complex than its self-help title suggests. To be sure, an array of prescriptions and exercises should do much to help those who feel some pent-up inventiveness to find a system for turning idea into product, whether that be a story, a painting or a song. This free-wheeling interest across various creative forms is one of the main points that sets this book apart and leads to its success. The approach may have been born of the need to reach an audience greater than choreographer hopefuls, and the diversity of examples (from Maurice Sendak to Beethoven on one page) frees the student to develop his or her own patterns and habits, rather than imposing some regimen that works for Tharp. The greatest number of illustrations, however, come from her experiences. As a result, this deeply personal book, while not a memoir, reveals much about her own struggles, goals and achievements. Finally, the book is also a rumination on the nature of creativity itself, exploring themes of process versus product, the influences of inspiration and rigorous study, and much more. It deserves a wide audience among general readers and should not be relegated to the self-help section of bookstores.  This information Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. (I copied this without permission - but I am sure they won't mind)

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