Kristin Lehman [00:00:00]:
A lot of these kids that are gifted are bored and so they daydream. They have already figured out whatever the problem on the board is or whatever the writing assignment is and their teacher is going on to explain it. So they’ve created a whole world in their head and they’re off figuring out an engineering problem or creating a whole fantasy world or, you know, there’s all these different things and so they’re looking like they’re disengaged and they’re just bored.

Kristin Lehman [00:00:24]:
Or not getting their needs met.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:26]:
Hello everyone. My name is Doctor Matthew Werwood.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:29]:
And my name is Doctor Cindy Burnett.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:31]:
This is the fuelling creativity in education podcast.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:35]:
On this podcast, we’ll be talking about various creativity topics and how they relate to the field of education.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:41]:
We’ll be talking with scholars, educators, and resident experts about their work, challenges they face, and exploring new perspectives of creativity.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:49]:
All with a goal to help fuel a more rich and informed discussion that provides teachers, administrators, and emerging scholars with the information they need to infuse creativity into teaching and learning.

Matthew Worwood [00:01:01]:
So let’s begin.

Matthew Worwood [00:01:03]:
Hello and welcome to another episode of the fueling Creativity in Education podcast. And if you are interested in learning more about the concept of twice exceptional learners or mathematical artistry, this is the episode to check out because we have Kristin Lehmann, an eclectic learner with a rich background in mathematics education, currently serves as the director of educational services at Hewitt Learning. In this role, she implements innovative strategies to enhance learning experiences for all students with a masters in math. Kristen’s approach goes beyond conventional teaching methods, embracing creativity, innovation and the interdisciplinary concepts. As a co founder of the independent Innovator Challenge and a key contributor to the US National Innovator Challenge, she is committed to encouraging young minds towards innovative thinking. Additionally, Christine’s work as a send gifted model parent group facilitator reflects her dedication to supporting the holistic growth of vice exceptional children and their families. Her diverse interests and commitment to education highlight her role in shaping adaptive and inclusive learning environments. Welcome to the show, Kristin.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:13]:
It’s a pleasure to be here.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:15]:
Thank you.

Matthew Worwood [00:02:16]:
So we’re going to get started with the term twice exceptional learners. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that means? And most importantly, what makes a student a twice exceptional learner?

Kristin Lehman [00:02:26]:
Yeah, twice exceptional. The formal definition is two standard deviations apart on assessments. That’s the the formal piece. What it means is gifted with some sort of learning disability, some sort of exceptionality. So it could be that they are.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:43]:
Highly capable, gifted with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, even refugees that are coming where English.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:52]:
Is a second language, something that.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:55]:
Where the two opposite ends of the.

Kristin Lehman [00:02:56]:
Spectrum kind of mask each other. And so you get one of three scenarios. The, with twice exceptional kids, either the giftedness shines through and the learning disability.

Kristin Lehman [00:03:08]:
Never gets worked with. You get the learning disability is the.

Kristin Lehman [00:03:13]:
One that reigns supreme and the giftedness never gets identified, or they kind of mask each other and neither one gets identified. And so in any one of those.

Kristin Lehman [00:03:23]:
Three cases, the student doesn’t have the.

Kristin Lehman [00:03:27]:
Resources to work to their full potential. So that’s kind of the twice exceptional.

Kristin Lehman [00:03:32]:
Nature of the students.

Cyndi Burnett [00:03:33]:
So what do we do about twice exceptional? How do we identify these students that have specific gifts and then are on the opposite side of the standard deviation?

Kristin Lehman [00:03:43]:
That is the million dollar question that everybody in this field is looking for because they are hard to diagnose. Typically, you find a high proportion of these students in the homeschool world because standard learning isn’t a good fit, and they oftentimes need a little bit more of that one on one attention. Teachers often can identify them if they’ve got a student with an IEP in English but is way high in math. That type of thing can showcase twice exceptional learners. Other times, it’s, this kid is working awfully hard. They seem to know what they’re doing. They seem sharp, they seem bright. If I talk to them and have a conversation, they’re on top of it.

Kristin Lehman [00:04:28]:
But then I get their tests and they’re flunking. That’s another one of those identifiers that it’s like, okay, they’ve got it all up there, but it doesn’t translate from their brain out onto paper. That could be a potential twice exceptional learner. Just keeping those eyes open and being aware for those out of sync kids.

Matthew Worwood [00:04:47]:
And I think you touched on one of the challenges that I’m sure you’ve probably spoken a lot about, is you said, oh, when they score really high for math. And of course, math is something that we celebrate and cherish and test for in learning environments. But I’m assuming with twice exceptional learners, there’s a whole bunch of other things where they might be exceptional, but we don’t necessarily test and probably harder to identify, right?

Kristin Lehman [00:05:12]:
Absolutely. And in fact, there’s a lot of these twice exceptional students who are highly creative and artistic and outside of the box thinkers that are brilliant in so many ways but are horrible at math. Absolutely horrible. They might have dyscalculia. They might have, you know, the dysgraphia. They can’t write. There’s all these different pieces that can impact how a student shows up on their performance. And quite often, because of necessity, these.

Kristin Lehman [00:05:42]:
Twice exceptional students, students are fabulous creative thinkers.

Cyndi Burnett [00:05:47]:
Well, Kristen, this really gets me excited because just a few weeks ago we interviewed Doctor Todd Lubert, who is a creativity researcher in Paris. And I’m not sure if you’re familiar with his work, but he has a battery of tests around, it’s called epoch, which is the evaluation of potential of students. And he looks at creative potential of students. And you can test students at the age of five for creative potential in different areas, not just one or two areas, but all different kinds of areas. And they’re expanding on those potentials. And I said to Matt when we interviewed him, wow, wouldn’t it be amazing if we were testing kids for this creative potential at an early age? And so when you see those things, like they’re not paying attention or they’re not engaged or there might be some sort of disability there that you also have this other data that shows, hey, but they’re scoring high on this creative potential.

Kristin Lehman [00:06:38]:
Absolutely. And a lot of these kids that are gifted are bored. And so they daydream. They have already figured out whatever the problem on the board is or whatever the writing assignment is and their teacher is going on to explain it. So they’ve created a whole world in their head and they’re off figuring out an engineering problem or creating a whole fantasy world or, you know, there’s all these different things. And so they’re looking like they’re disengaged.

Kristin Lehman [00:07:02]:
And they’re just bored or not getting their needs met.

Matthew Worwood [00:07:06]:
Also, in terms of keeping with the theme of identifying these students, we have the teachers in the classroom. But when you’re talking about five year olds, obviously the parent piece is super duper important because some parents, they probably have like, oh, this represents being good at school and this is what you’ve got to learn. And I’m sure everyone listening to this episode right now is nodding their heads, right? Imagine we’ve got some parents listening. Now. How do they identify that, particularly the ones that don’t fall into the obvious, like, oh my God, they’re reading at five. No. How do we find those connections with these things that aren’t standing out and we might not care as much about.

Kristin Lehman [00:07:45]:
One of the easy ways is looking.

Kristin Lehman [00:07:49]:
At the standardized tests a little bit later on, like third grade, and seeing their 80th percentile in reading and only 30th percentile in math. That big gap is a statistical way.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:01]:
To say that there’s something going on. But there are other kids that even that standardized tests aren’t an accurate capture of that. My best advice for parents is trust your gut that it’s not always going.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:20]:
To show up on a test because of the way our system is set up. Some school districts just aren’t going to have the capabilities to be able to assess accurately. And that’s one of the things I would love to see change. I would love to have every kid have access to those resources that meet them where they’re at. So as you’re doing it, it’s a.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:42]:
Lot of helping your child learn to.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:46]:
Adapt to the world around them, helping your child learn to advocate for their own needs. And so if your child has sensory.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:55]:
Processing issues and you find them at.

Kristin Lehman [00:08:59]:
Five years old covering their ears every time they go to a public restroom and the hand dryer turns on that.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:07]:
Sort of thing, that’s okay.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:08]:
That’s normal for those types of kids. They have sensory issues. So instead of saying, oh, it’s not.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:15]:
That loud, get them the noise canceling.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:17]:
Headphones that they can wear, let them advocate for themselves and then get them those environments where they can learn. Because teachers are being trained in the background at these professional developments to be able to work with these kids. And so let the kids advocate for.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:31]:
Themselves and say, you know, miss Hole.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:34]:
Whoever my teacher is, it’s too loud for me. Can I put on my headphones? And teachers will gladly work with that. And so teaching the kids at a young age to be able to advocate for themselves, I think, is a critical piece because they’re the ones that are going to have to drive their own.

Kristin Lehman [00:09:51]:
Education eventually if they’re twice exceptional, so.

Cyndi Burnett [00:09:55]:
Driving their own education. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about agency. So what could teachers do to support students who are choice, exceptional?

Kristin Lehman [00:10:04]:
I think a lot of it comes.

Kristin Lehman [00:10:06]:
Back to creative thinking. I’m gonna that creative piece of. We have teachers at five, six, you know, the preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers. Oh, the sun has to be yellow, the grass has to be green, the lake has to be blue.

Kristin Lehman [00:10:21]:
Well, if you have a five year.

Kristin Lehman [00:10:24]:
Old who’s wanting to color the lake red, instead of saying, oh, it has to be blue, ask questions, get creative, and say, why are you coloring the lake red?

Kristin Lehman [00:10:33]:
It could be that you’ve got a.

Kristin Lehman [00:10:34]:
Creative thinker who’s thinking about sunset and the light reflecting off of the lake, and so they’re coloring it red because it’s the colors of the sunset. They could be having an imaginary world where it’s on Mars and Mars is the red planet. And so instead of just saying, no, it has to be this way. Have the teachers embrace their own creativity and their own curiosity. Instead of saying, you know, it has to be green, the grass has to be green. Why are you coloring the grass blue? Ask them questions and get creative.

Kristin Lehman [00:11:04]:
And I think that ability for teachers to be curious and ask the kids.

Kristin Lehman [00:11:11]:
What’S going on that will give teachers.

Kristin Lehman [00:11:13]:
More information than any assessment is just.

Kristin Lehman [00:11:17]:
Have the teachers get curious about what’s going on.

Kristin Lehman [00:11:19]:
Ask the kids questions.

Matthew Worwood [00:11:21]:
Kristin, I love the curiosity piece, the idea of being curious of your students. And, you know, I think I might bring that up on a debrief episode. So, Cindy, I claimed that one. But one of the things I do want to kind of go back to is a conversation that Cindy and I had with talented and gifted researcher Jonathan Plucker. And one of the things that he spoke about, and I think it kind of fits in with this idea of parents trusting their gut, is that typically students who are expressing gifted abilities or just being exceptional at something are typically doing it. You’re typically seeing them doing an activity related to that. And I was just wondering, Cindy, I don’t know if you’ve got anything more to add related to that episode or, Kristin, you’ve got anything more to add regarding that? But I think whether it’s making movies or, to your point, drawing and painting and all these different things, we see kids doing all these things. Sometimes we’re like, yeah, they’re just into this.

Matthew Worwood [00:12:17]:
I don’t know why, but they’re just into it.

Kristin Lehman [00:12:18]:
Right. And it can be things that you.

Kristin Lehman [00:12:23]:
Wouldn’T necessarily consider, like building a Minecraft world or being really good at a video game. They are obsessed with video games because it’s a world that they can control. And so they’ve gotten really, really good at that particular zelda, whatever it happens to be. They’ve gotten really, really good at that particular video game. And so sometimes that hyper focus can lead them.

Kristin Lehman [00:12:45]:
Sometimes it’s people.

Kristin Lehman [00:12:46]:
You got adults whose hyperfocus is learning how to interact with people. And so they may have autism, but it gets masked because they’ve hyper focused on how to connect with people. And so they look really, really good.

Kristin Lehman [00:12:59]:
At interacting with people. And so that twice exceptionality can mask the challenges sometimes.

Kristin Lehman [00:13:08]:
And so just allowing that not everything is on the surface, that sometimes there’s something a little bit deeper, I think.

Kristin Lehman [00:13:16]:
Is another piece of the puzzle.

Matthew Worwood [00:13:23]:
Do you want to bring more creative and critical thinking into your school? Look no further than our podcast sponsor.

Cyndi Burnett [00:13:29]:
Curiosity to create curiosity to create is a nonprofit organization dedicated to engaging professional development for school districts and empowering educators through online courses and personal coaching.

Matthew Worwood [00:13:42]:
And if you’re craving a community of creative educators who love new ideas to don’t miss out on their creative thinking network, get access to monthly webinars, creative lesson plans, and a supportive community all focused on fostering creativity in the classroom.

Cyndi Burnett [00:13:57]:
To learn more, check out curiositytocreate.org comma or check out the links in the show notes for this episode. So Kristen, one of the reasons why we really wanted to bring you on the show is because of a post you had on LinkedIn about mathematical artistry. And as soon as Matt read it, he screenshot it and he sent it to me and he said, I wanna talk about this on the show. What is mathematic artistry and what sparked your interest in this area?

Kristin Lehman [00:14:24]:
Let me start with what sparked it.

Kristin Lehman [00:14:26]:
It’ll help explain what it is.

Kristin Lehman [00:14:29]:
I in my journey, like Matt said.

Kristin Lehman [00:14:31]:
At the beginning, I’m a very eclectic learner. I like learning for the sake of learning.

Kristin Lehman [00:14:36]:
And being able to focus in on.

Kristin Lehman [00:14:38]:
One thing sometimes is hard for me because I like learning so many different things. And so in my educational journey, there was one point in my life after my undergrad was done, I was literally in my parents basement screaming, I’m never going to touch math again. I hate math. I don’t want to do math. I am never going to touch math again. And the next day, I was signed up for my master’s in math. It just kind of how the universe works. It’s, there’s this whole story behind it, but it’s something I was good at.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:07]:
And I did enjoy, and I enjoy communicating it. And so with math, it was always.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:15]:
Something that came natural to me, but it wasn’t necessarily something that was my go to. This is what I’m excited about. And so when I got into my master’s program, it was really the first time in my educational career that I understood what it was to sit in.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:35]:
A classroom and feel like my teacher.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:37]:
Was speaking Greek, that I could not understand a word that my teacher was saying. And I would sit in my professor’s office and it still wasn’t registering.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:48]:
And that experience, for me, was probably.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:53]:
The best thing that ever happened to.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:54]:
My teaching ability, because it taught me.

Kristin Lehman [00:15:59]:
What it meant to break a concept down, and that every concept could be broken down further and further and to be able to get that curiosity and say, okay, where is the whole? Where is the whole? And understanding. Okay, I’m explaining it this way. That’s not making sense. Let’s go another way. One of the things I tell my.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:16]:
Students quite often is, when going to.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:19]:
Grandma’S house, you can go over the river and through the woods, or you can take the freeway. As long as you’re following the rules of the road, you’re going to get there.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:25]:
And so if the freeway’s not working, let’s go over the river and through.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:30]:
The woods until we find the path that makes sense to you. And so that experience of sitting in that class and struggling for the first time was one of those pieces that.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:41]:
Helped me learn how to do that.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:43]:
What then happened is, going into my thesis, I was looking for something that.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:48]:
Was interesting to me, something that would.

Kristin Lehman [00:16:52]:
Make me want to spend hours and hours and hours on a thesis. And one of the things that always appealed to me was Mc Escher’s artwork. And I had happened to take a class on hyperbolic geometry. And hyperbolic geometry is one of those blow your mind type maths.

Kristin Lehman [00:17:09]:
So everybody in high school learns, parallel lines never meet, right? And squares have four right angles.

Kristin Lehman [00:17:20]:
That’s the definition of a square. Hyperbolic geometry throws out one assumption, and all of a sudden, parallel lines are meeting in infinity, and there’s no such thing as a square with four right angles. All this sort of stuff.

Kristin Lehman [00:17:34]:
And it’s completely logical.

Kristin Lehman [00:17:36]:
It’s completely accurate, all of those pieces. And so I had taken a class in hyperbolic geometry where it kind of shifted my perspective on what assumptions mean. And so then I went, I want to do my master’s thesis on this. I want to explore the math behind Mc Escher’s drawings. And I discovered that Escher had been in dialogue with Poincare, a mathematician of his day, who was developing the rules behind hyperbolic geometry. And so I dove into that, and I looked at the tiling of the hyperbolic plane.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:09]:
So I see Matt kind of glazing.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:12]:
Over with all these mathematical terms.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:14]:
If you look at tiling in your bathroom tile, you want all the pieces that fit together right? You want everything to line up nice and neat on your bathroom wall.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:25]:
Now take that and throw it into.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:27]:
A world where there is no such.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:29]:
Thing as squares, there is no such thing as rectangles. How do you make that concept work? Tiling, fitting all these pieces together in.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:39]:
A world where there are no squares? And so that was what prompted my.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:46]:
Master’S thesis, and that kicked off my love of mathematical artistry, because it was this combination of the logic of math.

Kristin Lehman [00:18:58]:
And the creativity of what we think of as art. The escher is the one who does.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:05]:
The never ending staircase and the waterfall that flows up those thinking outside of the box. How can I reimagine reality? And so mathematical artistry is, in my mind, a different way of looking at the world. It’s how do we take the concepts that are in math, the algorithms, the formulas, the different pieces, and look at them through the eyes of an artist.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:32]:
And say they’re the same concepts, no.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:35]:
Matter which lens we look at.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:37]:
But we’ve got all these creatives, these.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:39]:
Twice exceptional people, we’ve got all of.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:41]:
These people who math isn’t what they love.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:45]:
And so let’s take the same concepts and move them into a world where.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:50]:
It resonates with them.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:52]:
And so instead of looking at just fractions, let’s create mandalas.

Kristin Lehman [00:19:57]:
Let’s break up a circle and get compass work in and get all the.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:03]:
Different pieces at different levels. We don’t have to stick to the set structure. We can take these other concepts and work them in and engage these kids in other ways. Fractals are another really good way to do it. So fractals are a repeating pattern, in essence. And so the Sierpinski triangle is a fun one to do because it’s a triangle.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:26]:
And then you break it down by.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:28]:
Fractions, and you’re learning fractions, you’re looking.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:29]:
At exponents, you’re learning all of these.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:33]:
Different concepts by being able to draw or build something three d. And it’s.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:38]:
A fun way to be able to take what has historically been a dry.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:45]:
Topic and move it into the hands on, tangible, practical world for the creatives.

Kristin Lehman [00:20:52]:
So did that answer both questions?

Matthew Worwood [00:20:54]:
It did, and I’m not going to try and repeat some of the words that you said in that, but I have to say, I really like the example. There are times where I am in the bathroom and I’m looking at the floor. You go into restrooms, you look at the floor, and I do find myself kind of amazed, shall I say, or wondering, how did you know? Every five tiles that are not squares or not rectangles, they’re joining up, but they’re also joining up in a kind of pattern. And you kind of say, like, how did they make sure that the tile that had the black on the top right side was always on the top right side every five? And so the idea of bringing that into a classroom environment, I absolutely love. And the idea of looking at things from different perspectives, I mean, everything you’ve just said there resonates so much from a creativity perspective. But one of the things I found myself wondering is does the average math teacher have that level of expertise that they have the means of kind of flipping the script in such a way? I’m just curious because I don’t know what the level of a math teacher is if I’m honest with you, and I don’t know what level, you need to be able to feel comfortable enough flipping the script. Is it really as easy as you just made out?

Kristin Lehman [00:22:06]:
Yes and no. It depends.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:09]:
So the teachers having enough background at.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:13]:
The higher levels, at the high school.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:16]:
Levels, they have to have at least like an undergrad in math.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:19]:
Depending on where you teach a minor.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:23]:
I’ll say a minor in math. The hesitation or the difficulty for most teachers isn’t the ability, it’s the structure, it’s the admin. Most schools are tied into a set curriculum. You have to cover these things to be able to be assessed by this time.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:44]:
And it’s scary to be able to flip the outlook, the activities, because right now it’s not tested.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:52]:
It’s a outside the box thinking.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:54]:
There’s not the proof yet that hey.

Kristin Lehman [00:22:57]:
If you approach it this way, they’ll be able to score higher on these tests.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:02]:
And so many teachers have their salaries, their everything tied into how their students.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:08]:
Perform on these standardized tests.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:10]:
Or the school has to approve the curriculum.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:13]:
And so because a school has to approve the curriculum, it’s sometimes hard to branch out to these other activities. I know a ton of teachers that are extremely creative that are coming up with some of these things all on.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:27]:
Their own and using these types of.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:31]:
Activities within the structure of their classroom. Or, you know, say they have to.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:36]:
Use this, this math textbook.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:38]:
So they’ll take the lesson on whatever it happens to be and flip it just for that one lesson.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:44]:
But it’s hard to do because there’s.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:47]:
So many different things that they have to get through in a set amount of time to be able to get that standardized testing in.

Kristin Lehman [00:23:53]:
So I think that’s more the difficulty.

Cyndi Burnett [00:23:55]:
So, Kristen, if I’m a teacher who teaches math or I am a parent who has a child who loves math, where can I find resources to start using mathematical artistry in my classroom or my home?

Kristin Lehman [00:24:11]:
Right now there are a couple of.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:15]:
Books that are out there and we.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:17]:
Can put them in a link. I am pulling together a blog post on Hewitt’s resource site that will link to several of these. It doesn’t exist yet, but I am pulling it together right now.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:29]:
It’s a matter of googling all these.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:31]:
Different blog posts that exist out there. Google mathematical artistry, and there’s a ton of teachers and blog posts of people that are creating it and then finding.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:41]:
An activity that fits whatever concept you’re trying to do. Hopefully one day.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:45]:
I am. I am talking with a university professor that I. Former colleague of mine who teaches chaos.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:52]:
Theory and has worked with linear dynamics.

Kristin Lehman [00:24:56]:
And chaos theory and all these different things and working with it in the high school and bringing these college concepts into a mathematical art artistry program in the high school. And she and I are hoping eventually to pull together a curriculum, but it does not exist yet. I have not seen one, a full curriculum yet.

Kristin Lehman [00:25:12]:
Wow.

Cyndi Burnett [00:25:12]:
Fantastic. Well, Kristen, we have to wrap up this episode, but we really enjoyed our conversation with you on twice exceptional and mathematical artistry. So we end every show by asking our guests if they would give us three tips to help bring creativity into the classroom or into lessons. So what three tips would you recommend?

Kristin Lehman [00:25:35]:
The first one is more of an understanding that when you build creativity in one area, it builds creativity in other areas. So if you are wanting to do something like an independent innovator challenge or a STEM project and you’re building creativity and outside the box thinking and brainstorming in that, that brainstorming skill will cross over to English and writing. And what are you trying to write.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:03]:
About in this paper and that brainstorming piece?

Kristin Lehman [00:26:05]:
The second tip I have is get curious. Figure out what is going on with your students.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:10]:
Ask questions as much as you give answers.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:13]:
You are there to guide. Be that guide on the side, not always the sage on the stage.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:18]:
It’s one of the sang parent group pieces.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:22]:
And so being able to be that guide for students is what they need along the way. Being able to say, here, let’s explore this path together. Let’s get creative. Let’s try this.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:32]:
Instead of a student who’s melting down saying, I can’t do this, just say, what about this?

Kristin Lehman [00:26:39]:
Have you tried this yet?

Kristin Lehman [00:26:40]:
Those types of questions? And then the third thing is, don’t be scared of interdisciplinary learning.

Kristin Lehman [00:26:50]:
So you don’t have to just teach English or just teach math or just teach science. There’s a lot of overlap between all of them. A lot of people are familiar with the Fibonacci sequence. Not very many people are aware that it was actually discovered first by an indian poet who looked and found that pattern in sanskrit poetry. And so it’s these patterns that are across disciplines that lead to creative discoveries. And so don’t be scared of interdisciplinary learning.

Cyndi Burnett [00:27:20]:
So thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the feeling, creativity and education podcast. Kristen, thank you so much for joining us.

Kristin Lehman [00:27:28]:
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Cyndi Burnett [00:27:30]:
So if you like this episode or you know of someone who would really appreciate this episode, send it along to them. And if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us@questionsuelingulingcreativitypodcast.com. My name is Doctor Cindy Burnett, and.

Matthew Worwood [00:27:47]:
My name is Doctor Matthew Worwood.

Cyndi Burnett [00:27:50]:
This episode was produced by Matthew Warwood and Cindy Burnett. Our podcast sponsor is curiosity to create and our editor is Sam Atkinson.