Matthew Worwood:
Hello and welcome to the beginning of our 2024 listen and learn Summer series. And we are super duper excited to be introducing this show. And I have to obviously point out that we’re in this kind of gear, aren’t we, Cindy? Because we’ve got the sunglasses on because.

Cyndi Burnett:
You may be listening at the beach or on vacation or as you’re in the long car rides with the kids. So, you know, the whole purpose of this is to give you a little bite of information as you continue on with a joyous and restful summer.

Matthew Worwood:
Absolutely. And you know, this listen and learn series is basically going to take place over six weeks and we’ve got a little bit of game. And really the objective of this introductory episode is to talk a little bit about the format and also introduce a super duper addition to the fueling creativity and education podcast. But we will heighten anticipation and talk a little bit more about that addition later on.

Cyndi Burnett:
So Matt and I came up with a listen to learn series last year in an effort to support professional learning for educators and emerging scholars. And last summer we focused on ten tips for bringing creativity in the classroom based on the tips that that were generated by our guests. And over the winter we offered a short series introducing generative AI in the classroom. So if you’re not as interested in what we’re about to showcase for you, go back to those listen and learn series and listen to those ones again.

Matthew Worwood:
And as a reminder, we do want to respect the fact that you might be at a beach and you might be relaxing. And even if you’re not at the beach, hopefully you’re doing something over the summer that is just giving you a little bit of a disconnect from the classroom. For that reason, these summer listen and learn series are super duper short, where we just focus, as Cindy referenced on one specific item.

Cyndi Burnett:
Now, over the last few years, Matt and I have produced over 150 episodes centered on bridging the gap between research from the field of creativity and the knowledge of educators based on their extensive experience inside the classroom.

Matthew Worwood:
And although we’ve interviewed many highly respected researchers and practitioners from both sides of this pendulum, we haven’t really dedicated an episode to the history of creativity and creativity research. Therefore, this listen and learn series we are producing for this year is going to offer episodes centered on some of the classical literature of the field of creativity.

Cyndi Burnett:
And this literature not only helped define a scholarly perspective of creativity as a construct, but also launched various perspectives to which we now research, discuss, and evaluate creativity and its relationship to teaching and learning.

Matthew Worwood:
Absolutely and for the following six episodes, we will discuss one article or one book from the field and highlight some key takeaways and make connections to some of the past episodes that we feel might relate to some of those takeaways.

Cyndi Burnett:
And to make things extra special for.

Matthew Worwood:
This, we should take our sunglasses off. I mean, this is pretty big. I mean, this is, this is, this is a really exciting addition to the fueling creativity and education podcast.

Cyndi Burnett:
This is very exciting. Maybe I’ll toss my cap like that. So we are very excited to introduce our first fueling creativity and education scholar in residence, Jimmy Wilson, who will be sharing some of his thoughts on our website, wheelingcreativitypodcast.com, about each of the articles that we share with you. So welcome to the show. Jimmy Wilson.

Jimmy Wilson:
Jimmy, oh my gosh. Thank you for the amazing introduction. Like sunglasses coming off, half thrown in the air. I am just so thrilled to be here with Matt and Cindy, and I’m so grateful for you for allowing me to join. Like you said, I’m Jimmy Wilson. I’m a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut at the Renzui center for Creativity and Talent Development. I actually work pretty closely with frequent guests, Doctor James Kaufman there, and I’m very passionate about creativity and education, especially with neurodiverse learners. Just really excited to share my insights and experiences with you all as a scholar in residence.

Matthew Worwood:
And just to pick up on those insights. Jimmy. And secondly, it’s just great to have someone on you being able to, in essence, offer this kind of youthful, emerging perspective of all of these great conversations that we’ve had on the show. You’re going to be listening to some episodes, not all of the episodes, and providing some commentary in the form of blogs. And I think we’ve got some plans to bring you on the show during our regular season, and you recently listened to one of our episodes and actually wrote up on that. So can you tell us a little bit about that episode and what you shared just to kind of give the listeners a little bit of a sense of what we mean by emerging scholar and what you’re bringing to the show?

Jimmy Wilson:
Yeah, definitely, Matt. I’m trying to bring in literature from the research field and connect it more tightly with what you guys are doing. And for instance, a recent episode with Doctor James Kaufman and Dana Rowe about the importance of theatre arts in the classroom. And one of the things that really struck me is that identity exploration and the way that acting with multiple Personas in the theater encourages that. And I connected it to a Boston college psychologist, doctor Peter Gray who’s really passionate about independent play and independent activity in children. And he wrote a paper in the Pediatric Journal of Medicine, jpeds. I’m butchering that name. Sorry about how he thinks that a lot of the mental health crisis correlates with the lack of independent play and independent activity that kids get in day to day basis.

Jimmy Wilson:
And I think that’d just be such a fascinating thing to look at, is how does the theater arts, how do they help with kids mental wellbeing?

Cyndi Burnett:
That sounds really interesting. And I have to say, Matt, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I ever knew more of what was happening in the field, like being on the cutting edge than when I was a doctoral student.

Matthew Worwood:
No. And just listen to Jimmy right now. Right. Like, so my gut feeling is, Jimmy, you’re immersed in some of the most recent literature. You’ve referenced your working on side people like James Kaufman, and it allows you to make these connections that are highly relevant to the field and also highly relevant to people like you who are looking to find that space that accommodates their interests but also gives back to the field of creativity. And posing the question that you referenced, I remember I’d shared in that show that I’m still kind of exploring different aspects of what is it about theater communities that we get something from? And actually, just the last couple of weeks, I found myself pondering, you know what? There’s probably different types of people that get different things from those communities. But I started to wonder also, does it attract a certain type of person to those communities as well? And I think the question you’re asking is a really highly relevant question, I think is closely associated with that. And, of course, someone can then go on a scholarly journey to try and answer that question through scientific research.

Cyndi Burnett:
I also want to mention that, Jimmy, you were a teacher before you became a scholar in residence, correct?

Jimmy Wilson:
That’s right. Yeah. I’ve spent the last decade teaching in schools and urban schools in Texas and rural schools, elementary school students, middle school students, but mostly 9th through 12th grade creative writing and english language arts. And that really got me into the research field of how can I expand this work to reach more people? Just like your mission here on the podcast.

Matthew Worwood:
And before we transition, and we are going to transition, and, Jimmy, we’re actually going to get you to do a very special thing on the episode and for the listen and learn series. But what I do want to emphasize is that, Jimmy, you had been listening to some shows, and then you reached out to us via email, or you reached out to me because I’m at the University of Connecticut as well, and you kind of just said, hey, I’d love to connect. I want to keep putting that out there to our listeners because we really do enjoy it when we get classroom practitioners or emerging scholars like yourself who reach out to us, just want to connect and kind of, like, have a conversation about, you know, the type of relationship that they might have on the podcast. And we’re certainly receptive to continuing to have the conversation similar to what we’ve had with you. And certainly we’re really excited because this idea of an emerging scholar only came about, in essence, Jimmy, because you wrote that email and reached out. So thank you.

Jimmy Wilson:
Wow. Well, thank you, guys. I’m so excited to start this journey on the podcast with you all and to share what I found out online and in the show.

Matthew Worwood:
Okay, so before we go, we want to let you know about us a kind of interactive game that we started with last year’s listen and learn series. And it’s very simple. Basically what we do is we share a secret code word at the end of every single episode. And of course, you have to take. I just use the word code word again. What I mean is we share a letter at the end of episode, and of course, that letter contributes, makes up a secret code word. And so what you have to do, of course, is to work out what that code word spells. Cindy, I hope no one does it, because I suddenly realize we now live in a world with generative AI, and someone could just plug all of the letters into generative AI, and you’re not allowed to do that.

Matthew Worwood:
Okay? That’s a rule. That’s rule breaking. You can’t use AI. So the key point is we get to share these letters at the end of the show. You come up with a code word, and you have to email us with that code word@questionsuelingcreativitypodcast.com. dot. That’s questionsuelingcreativitypodcast.com. and we gotta get that code word before August.

Matthew Worwood:
And in addition to that, we ask that you just kind of share a kind of short summary of what you’ve taken from one of these classical pieces of work and how you think it’s gonna inform what you’re planning for the upcoming academic year.

Cyndi Burnett:
Yes. And like past winners of this game, we will be giving out great prizes to those of you who guess correctly and email us before the end of August, as Matt mentioned. And one lucky winner will receive a very special fueling creativity and education prize pack and we will also invite a special guest on our show. So, anything else, Matt?

Matthew Worwood:
No, I think we can tee up, Jimmy.

Cyndi Burnett:
All right, so, Jimmy, you’re going to give us not one, but two letters. So you’re going to give us the first letter, and then we will go back and forth on words that start with that letter, and then you will give us a second letter. But first, we must do a drum roll.

Matthew Worwood:
Jimmy. The letter is.

Jimmy Wilson:
The first letter is a, as in apple.

Cyndi Burnett:
Artichoke, avocado, anchovy, Apollo, asparagus.

Matthew Worwood:
Okay, I think we’re good there. It was interesting. We kind of. I was like, just for the record, I clearly was the creativity one. Right. Because I broke with the food. The food thing.

Jimmy Wilson:
You had more flexibility, but Cindy had more fluency, so.

Matthew Worwood:
Oh, I like that. That was a good political answer. That was.

Cyndi Burnett:
I could have kept going. Matt’s the one that stopped.

Matthew Worwood:
Yeah, I struggle with the spelling. You’ll see. I struggle with the spelling.

Cyndi Burnett:
All right, we have another letter, right?

Matthew Worwood:
Yeah, we do. Because you picked a word that was eight letters.

Cyndi Burnett:
Okay, so let’s. Yes. So this word is eight letters. So we got the first letter, which is a. The second letter is.

Jimmy Wilson:
The second letter is n, as in Nancy.

Matthew Worwood:
Neanderthal. Neptune.

Cyndi Burnett:
Night.

Matthew Worwood:
Jimmy, you gotta give us one.

Jimmy Wilson:
Noodle. Noodle night.

Cyndi Burnett:
Neck. New nincompoop novelty.

Matthew Worwood:
Ooh, nincompoop. We’ll end it on that. That’s a great addition there, Jimmy. Nincompoop. That’s probably the best way of describing the word that I decided not to share. Nincompoop. It was going to be naked. I don’t know why I connected noodle and naked to each other.

Matthew Worwood:
So I was like, that’s just a weird connection. I know, I know, I know. All right, so we’re going to end it there. My name is Doctor Matthew Worwood.

Cyndi Burnett:
And my name is Doctor Cindy Burnett.

Jimmy Wilson:
And I’m Jimmy Waltham.

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