Last spring, my colleagues at work and I developed a plan to explore how we all interpret creativity.  We gave a fistful of cash to each of ten students, and asked them to return with ten identical objects (and a receipt).  We handed out the goods… then we set out to play with those objects, and to eventually create new works using the random collections.

I’ve documented my piece here.  The title, Divergent Conversation, comes from three topics this piece tries to address:  1)  divergent thinking – via exploring potential new uses for the selected objects; 2) conversation / planning space, which is really important and challenging in just about any school; 3) an open dialogue about creativity and its role in education.

What else?

The original prompt

My proposal / statement for the piece

A collection of audio used in the piece

My colleagues and I talking about our work

Three questions that might spark a reader’s contributions: (1) (2) (3)

I have no conclusions for now, but it’s been fun to put this together.  I’m too schoolteacher-y about my approach to the whole thing, I suppose, but so be it.  Feedback welcome.