Fostering a Creative Classroom Environment: 5 Ideas from Creativity, Inc.

Creativity, Inc.: 5 Ideas for Fostering a Creative Environment

We expect a lot from our students. Providing a classroom environment that encourages thoughtful, critical and creative thinking needs to be dynamic. Procedures, structure, and systems should model a process we want our students to apply to their learning. After reading about Pixar’s working climate, I’ve been thinking about how, through my role as the classroom teacher, I can promote a creative atmosphere. 

Here’s the idea I’m playing around with: unlimited homework passes. Any time a student doesn’t complete an assignment, they can submit a pass. No questions asked. Below are five principles about the working climate from Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. and the questions they’ve inspired me to ask. After, I’ll explain what I hope my students will perceive about our classroom culture through this homework pass idea. 

1: Creative people realize their visions over time and through dedicated, protracted struggle. 

Classrooms should be a place that fosters creativity and problem solving. A place where students contribute their best work. Staying true to Catmull’s experience, this level of work takes time which may look different from the traditional classroom expectation that dictates students master a daily objective. 

• How do we make sure our students see objectives as guides instead of boxes to check? 
• If we believe that a child’s best growth results from a dedicated and protracted struggle, how do we ensure they believe they’re somewhere that values this above all else? 
• What have we done in the time between the first day of school and when our students trust us? 
• How do we show that we presume they’re talented and that they want to contribute? 
• Trust takes time, patience, authenticity, and consistence. 
• What principles guide intentions, goals guide our procedures? 
• How are we demonstrating that we’re dedicated to providing each student the optimal conditions?

2: Step to the boundary of what we know and what we don’t.

Discovering unexpected relationships between unrelated concepts and ideas is imperative for developing a habit of higher-level thinking. It's a hallmark of creativity. Creativity demands that we travel paths that lead to who-knows-where. Accepting the unknown enables us to offer rationale for our decisions without connecting their outcome to our personal success. When we can remain detached from our ideas, we can present them for what they are- and will hopefully avoid speculation from students about the "hidden agenda." 

• If we: plan out every step of the process, gather exemplars of the products we expect, pass out rubrics outlining exactly how to get there, and precisely anticipate student misconceptions; how do our students see us embracing the unknown? 
• How have we shown our students that we know we’re wrong about things we think we know? 
• Why do they feel safe to respond to our surveys with candor? 
• How do we make room for other viewpoints to add to our environment? 
• What have we done to instill our students’ belief that we are always capable of admitting mistakes, changing course, and moving forward? 

3: Never expect you know what it is, be confident that you’ll figure it out together.

“If you’re sailing across the ocean and your goal is to avoid weather and waves, then why the hell are you sailing? You have to embrace that sailing means that you can’t control the elements and that there will be good days and bad days and that, whatever comes, you will deal with it because your goal is to eventually get to the other side. You will not be able to control exactly how you get across. That’s the game you’ve decided to be in. If your goal is to make it easier and simpler, then don’t get in the boat.”

Planning and spontaneity don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Ford developed the assembly line to keep rolling. Time is money, so only top management had the authority to stop production. When Toyota adopted the model they modified the practice. If anybody, anywhere on the line noticed a problem they were encouraged to halt production. Toyota believed that when everybody takes ownership over the process, it will lead to happier,  motivated workers who create a better product. When people step up to solve problems on their own accord, it reflects well run management. Our procedures and lessons are for the benefit of the students in our class. 

• How do we make sure our routines are for our students as opposed to for ourselves? 
• How can we create opportunities for students to influence our systems?
• How do we show students that we presume they’re talented and that they want to contribute?
• How do we encourage a culture that solves problems together so our students independently transfer the mentality to classroom issues?
• How do we acknowledge what sucks?
• What can we do to ensure everyone feels comfortable offering incomplete ideas?

4: Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil they’re the inevitable consequence of doing something new.

The Captain’s job is to say, ‘Land is that way.’ Maybe land is actually that way, maybe it’s not. If you don’t have somebody pointing a course, the ship goes nowhere. As long as you commit to a destination and drive toward it with all your might, people will accept when you correct course.”

Student shouldn’t see mistakes as something we simply tolerate until they’re fixed. Instead, errors should be seen as a sign that they’re doing something right: they’re operating in new territory. If students wear mistakes as a badge, they won’t be reluctant to dive into the unknown. The faster and harder they dive, the quicker the mistakes will surface, and they’ll be solved more efficiently. If they’re not experiencing failure, it could be a sign of something far more dangerous: they’re being driven by avoiding it. 

• What can we do to model failure and mistakes, not just within our work but within the context of our classroom?
• How do we show students we’re willing to take risks on their behalf? 
• Why do our students trust our collective ability to solve problems?

5: Randomness is a concept that defies categorization. It comes out of nowhere and can’t be anticipated.

Good fortune, lucky breaks, good days and bad days, crazy coincidence, wrong place at the wrong time: these are all ways we explain randomness. When we embrace that randomness will occur in the classroom, the more easily we’ll be able to capitalize on the benefits. 

I enjoy going into a unit or a project with a direction, not with a destination. If my students perceive the route has already been determined, I worry they won’t contribute. I want my students to alter the course. Often, what one student has made work is far beyond anything I could have projected. A few years ago, I had the idea of using 6 Word Memoirs as an introductory activity. The thought of posting the text for other students to guess crossed my mind. But I didn’t want to set it as the destination. I just told them that I wanted to do something with them but I didn’t know what. After countless student suggestions it developed into a tribute to the recently departed Steve Jobs. You’re welcome to view the result here.

• How can we establish a culture that embraces randomness?
• How do students know they play an active role in discovering the destination. 

Unlimited Homework Passes:

Missing a deadline creates anxiety. If students have 4 assignments every night, that’s 20 “deadlines” a week. What ever the reason may be, it causes stress at home, before bed, the next morning on the bus, and throughout the day. 

• I want every students to come in to class ready to contribute to their best. 
• I want students to view the classroom as a safe place free from outside challenges.
• I believe that my students will enjoy much of the homework I assign. I also fully believe that students will understand the benefits of assignments they may not enjoy and take ownership of that homework. 
• I assume students will be skeptical and waiting for “the catch.” This presents the opportunity to explain why I would never then hold the passes over their head. 
• As an incomplete idea, I recognize there may be unintended consequences and that we may have to reevaluate. 
• It establishes a climate that represents trust to solve problems that arise together. 
• It promotes self-efficacy. 

If anybody has examples of how they establish a creative culture or would like to weigh-in, I’m eager to delve deeper into beliefs about classroom culture. 

The next post about Creativity Inc. will tackle structures that unintentionally impede a creative culture.