Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity

• Journals
There are many types of journals that can be created and utilized. Journals can be
made from scratch, covering and designing pre-made journals, or using pre-made journals.
This activity should include creating and making the tangible journal as well
as the purpose of the journal. Selecting a topic related to other professional development
topics may be helpful for teachers. Many teachers utilize journals; however, it is
important to emphasize the creative element, so making journals provides ownership
for the students. There are many resources for creating various styles and types of
books/journals. The following are some types of journals.
• Idea journals allow teachers to keep the content open by adding websites,
differentiation techniques, strategies, quotes or anything to help them with a
lesson(s) in the future.
• Art journals can be utilized to focus on various artistic elements seen in projects,
techniques, or inspirational pieces.
• Reflection journals include entries for specific reflections on teaching practice,
professional development topics, learning process, or readings.
• Artist Trading Cards
This is a format to create two-inch by three-inch (or any other size) cards that can be
traded with others (but is not required). The cards can be created with a specific artistic
medium or can be topic focused. The smaller design size is a less intimidating space
for creation and exploration. To see examples, a general search on the Internet will
display a plethora of beautifully created cards. Keep in mind that professional artists
create many of the images found in the Internet search.
• Creative Challenges – physical materials or dramatic
Physical Materials
• Often these types of creative challenges include building or creating some
thing with a limited set of materials for the purpose of solving a problem.
These are often open-ended problems such as build as many hats as you can
out of seven pieces of newspaper and labels. There are many books that focus
on creative challenges. In addition, organizations such as Destination Imagination
and Odyssey of the Mind publish materials with guidelines for creative
challenges.
Dramatic Challenges
• Dramatic challenges encourage acting out a scenario or story to address a
problem. Some utilize props while others may request no verbal language.
The goal is to use drama to solve the challenge. There are many books on
creative dramatics providing possible scenarios.
• Open Ended Problems
These can be short stories with a question to be solved (a five-minute mystery
type story) or open-ended mathematical problems. These are often the
logic-based problems which also engage critical thinking skills.
• Origami
Origami is a wonderful way to include a hands on activity that is instruction
oriented but requires good spatial understanding. This is often seen as a
“safe” choice for individuals who do not consider themselves artistic. When
introducing and using origami in the classroom as a creative tool, make sure
there are a variety of skill level directions available.
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