I came across this wonderful quote this morning :

You can’t be creative unless you are willing to be confused

~Rick Wormeli

Think about all this quote has within it…..

To be confused leads to creative thought.

To be confused leads to great questions.

To be confused leads to being curious.

To be confused can lead to problem solving.

To be confused can lead to collaboration.

We need confusion in our learning. Without the opportunity of confusion and question asking, there is no question making. Think about how often we provide the chance for students to ask questions. Now think about how often we ask students to make questions. Making questions and asking questions are related, but one can drive deeper thinking than the other.

Let’s challenge ourselves to broaden our thinking, to embrace confusion so that we may all become more creative problem solvers.

Confusion can prompt so many creative opportunities for all learners. As I sit in an elementary math class I wonder where the confusion is, where the question asking, and question making is for our students.

These students could be collaborating and asking questions that drive their thinking deeper, but we have a lot of teacher talk. My thinking would be that the more our students are talking and making sense of confusing problems, the more engaged and empowered they are. It can’t be a teacher to student conversation, but a conversation with many different voices and questions.

To be confused can lead to creativity. How much confusion occurred in your class today? How much creativity and problem solving occurred because of that confusion. I challenge you to monitor your classes for #confusedcreativity and post it on social media using this tag.

Let’s challenge ourselves to broaden our thinking, to embrace confusion so that we may all become more creative problem solvers.