Just a couple of days ago, my blog was featured on the $trictly 4 My Teacherz blog as part of this new thing (VALE A PENA...) invading the blogosphere. It seems if someone is put on one of these lists, it is imperative one must make a list of their favorite blogs, avoiding naming blogs that have already been mentioned. Flattered to be mentioned and placed at the very top of the list. (Thank you, Nicholas.)
Since the other bloggers have probably exhausted all the notable ELT/EFL/ESL/TESOL/Applied Linguistics/Second Language Acquisition related blogs, I thought I would share a few blogs on a topic close to my heart, creativity.
These nine (not-quite-ten) blogs might interest you if you: (a) want to become a more creative teacher, (b) would like to help your students develop creatively, or (c) just find the topic of creativity in general worth reading about. Pay attention, and you just might notice one blog that actually has something to do with ELT...
First on the list, Roger von Oech's Creative Think blog contains some smart posts on creative thinking. Here's a good example, "What's Your Creativity Style?". I can also recommend von Oech's books, A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants.
Tim Hurson's blog, Think Better, offers engaging posts with catchy titles, such as You Can't Mow the Lawn With a Chainsaw. I read Hurson's book, Think Better, last year, and I was very impressed with his fresh take on the Creative Problem Solving model. His blog has not been updated in a while, but it's definitely worth exploring.
James C. Kaufman, a creativity researcher, has a blog titled And All That Jazz, which can be found on the Psychology Today website. Some very witty posts that do a good job of relating the findings of creativity research to everyday life and pop culture. His book, Creativity 101, is an excellent introduction to the research on creativity. You can read an excerpt here.
Michael Michalko is one of my favorite writers on creativity. His books Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity are beautifully written and offer a wide range of creativity exercises. His blog on Amazon.com hasn't been updated recently, but it has some great posts. Also, check out his website for even more of his work.
Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin blog (a.k.a. Digital Roam) presents some of his ideas on solving problems through drawing, or visual thinking.
Chaz Pugliese published his first book a few weeks ago on creativity and ELT, titled Being Creative. I was fortunate enough to get a copy and I think it's a great addition to the Delta Teacher Development Series. Earlier this year, he blogged for a few weeks on the Delta website, which you can see here.
Mary Beth Maziarz has a blog to go along with her new book, Kick-Ass Creativity. Take a minute to read this post, Why Does Creativity Matter?
Celestine Chua covers a large number of topics (including creativity) on her blog titled The Personal Excellence Blog. I bookmarked this post on 25 Brainstorming Techniques which appeared on her blog last year.
Another blog that has some superb posts on creativity is Psyblog, Jeremy Dean's blog all about scientific psychology and everyday life. Three posts well worth your time here: Boost Creativity: 7 Unusual Psychological Techniques, Why Group Norms Kill Creativity, and Brainstorming Reloaded.
Well, there it is...my list of recommended blogs on creativity.
In just a few days, as promised, the first guest blog post in my series on self-publishing in ELT. See you soon!
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