escWorks

Day 5 focuses on creativity as an essential part of learning for gifted/talented students. In this self-paced course, participants will explore how creative and critical thinking can be fostered through classroom experiences that encourage curiosity, flexible thinking, originality, problem solving, reflection, and meaningful student expression.

Throughout the course, participants will examine definitions of creative and critical thinking, identify characteristics of creatively gifted students, and explore strategies that help students generate ideas, consider multiple possibilities, take intellectual risks, and revise their thinking. The course will also introduce practical classroom approaches such as divergent thinking, brainstorming, mind mapping, inquiry, student choice, creative problem solving, technology integration, and reflection. These areas align with the objectives found across the Day 5 materials, including understanding creativity, identifying creative characteristics, learning creative teaching strategies, enhancing traditional teaching strategies, and engaging in reflection.

Participants will also consider how creativity can be intentionally nurtured in the classroom rather than treated as something separate from academic learning. The session emphasizes that creative thinking is not limited to artistic ability. Instead, it includes the ability to generate multiple ideas, make connections, approach problems in new ways, elaborate on ideas, and communicate understanding through varied formats.

By the end of the course, participants will have practical ideas for designing learning experiences that increase creativity, inquiry, and student engagement while supporting the needs of gifted/talented learners. This course may be used as part of the additional training hours within the 30-hour foundational G/T training sequence, with creativity identified as a highly suggested focus for Days 4 and 5.