Creativity and Thinking

Our group had a "summit" yesterday.  We pondered our digital presence.  We outlined topics that need to be shared more widely:  our professional development opportunities, the great instruction and learning going on in ESC Region 11 districts, Tools to recommend, and how-to tutorials.  But we got stuck.  I had a creativity/thinking block.  Looking for the big picture....the brand....the logo....the motto...that describes who we are, what we do, and what we are about.

It will come...but it got me thinking again about THINKING and CREATIVITY  and COLLABORATION.
I came across this blog post today.  I love the simplicity of the statements.  In fact, I'm going to print for a poster in my office as a reminder prompt.  Then I came across a great video on CREATIVITY.

Again, the simplicity!  A video I need to watch until these simple ideas are ingrained.

Last week, while visiting North Crowley High School, I was blessed to witness some amazing students collaborating.  I don't think they were intentional about their strategies, I just think it is what they  do.  But I started to script to capture their tools.  My summary of behaviors of good collaborators:

• think aloud
• use appropriate and precise vocabulary and terminology
• summarize
• ask questions
• clarify
• defend responses with facts and data
• check with team
• double check with team
• independently return to task when distracted
• honest
• focus on the work, not the people

It was an exhausting week, with lots of hard thinking.  I am finding that I need to be more intentional and reflective on THINKING and CREATIVITY  and COLLABORATION.  Am I employing simple tools that seems to work for others?