3.3 Keynote - Jane Piirto

Dr. Jane Piirto
Ashland University

Organic Creativity in the Classroom: Teaching to Intuition in Academics and in the Arts. 

Creativity can be taught and nurtured, and we can build classrooms in which creativity thrives. Twenty-three educators with over 500 years of classroom experience in K-18 have discussed how they use the Seven I’s (intuition, inspiration, insight, improvisation, incubation, imagery, and imagination), Five Core Attitudes (group trust, risk-taking, openness to experience, self-discipline, and tolerance for ambiguity), and General Practices for Creativity (ritual, exercise, a decision to live a creative life) in teaching students in literature, mathematics, social science, science, physics, foreign language, theatre, visual arts, songwriting, dance, music, arts education, educational psychology, gifted education, school counseling, and school administration. This session will focus on their common strategies.

Jane Piirto has helped thousands of teachers and administrators to gain their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and endorsements. She is a published and award-winning poet and novelist as well as Distinguished Scholar for the National Association for Gifted Children, a Torrance Creativity Award recipient, and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Mensa Education and Research Association. Among her books are 3 editions of Talented Children and Adults: Their Development and Education; 2 editions of Understanding Those Who Create; “My Teeming Brain”: Understanding Creativity Writers; Understanding Creativity; Creativity for 21^st Century Skills; and her latest book (2014) is Organic Creativity in the Classroom: Teaching to Intuition in Academics and in the Arts. Among her literary work is Saunas: Collected Poems, and A Location in the Upper Peninsula, a book of collected poems, stories, and essays.