“Coaching everyday creativity means practicing new insights that can take place when we train our mind to look at things from different perspectives” ( Lonka 2018)
During 2020, teachers have, with incredible speed, adapted; now we look at the process with reflection & slowing down, so we can see how we allow improvisation (and when), and when allowing improvisation it is not a missing out on education but rather the opposite. it is planned & purposeful.
I invite you to take this journey and see for yourself.
Doing the essential
It might also mean minimum, but when we are taken by surprise it serves critically assessing what are the minimum/essential things I have to teach/learn. As you allow yourself to focus on that ( the essential), you ease the process for yourself & students. You allow yourself to be creative, as you are no longer perceiving the situation as a stressful/”fight or fly” situation..
Not too strict
Many teachers used roles during online-onsite learning & teaching during 2020. Roles have proved to help teachers & students a lot. For example, it allowed students to focus on the learning material from one perspective, they could also feel more excited about learning & schooling (online included) as they got to experience diversity (different roles, different perspectives on the same knowledge). Roles also allowed teachers to not manage educational content but actually organize the learning itself ( and that was a creative process and positive emotional ease with possible online burnout). During this period teachers found being less strict with roles helps; it is more important the process then the result itself, and keeping a steady easy process, once kids & the group get to feel more confident then the teachers might go back and raise the bar.
Safety before
I am not referring here to the CORONA virus but what it taught us very quickly. Safety first! When it came to learning, this period allowed many new ideas. When one ideates ( using prototypes), there is a process of vulnerability as each idea means shifting our mindset/what we till then considered “how learning is done”. For the learning to happen with these new ideas coming so quickly we needed a space in which to feel safe. In wellbeing, it is called “a place of nurturing”.
Interview guest & journaling
My guest is Justyna Mialik school teamleader & teacher, you can follow up this interview with your own journaling, following these questions for yourself & co-learning with interview guest.
Q: Looking back,how did you start prototyping with “intention” ?
Q: How do you make space for the uncertainty & vulnerability of the prototyping ( new ideas) ?
Q: Focusing on the process rather than the outcome of creativity & prototyping, how do you ensure feedback from other teachers, students, parents etc & integrate?
Q: How has teaching with prototyping made you & your learning community more resilient than before?
Q: If you look back what is one element of surprise (letting go of control) in all this process of learning & teaching by prototyping?
Q: What is one thing that no longer serves you as a team leader & teacher now for education?
Interview with English subtitles, for German or other language subtitle please click on “automatic translation” and choose the language in which you would like to follow
