EP319 Teaching creatively within the constraints of the system (with Trevor Muir)
Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers
Angela Watson
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How can teachers embrace creativity in their classrooms when faced with rigid curriculums, standardized testing, and limited time? That's the question I'm exploring today with Trevor Muir, an educator, author, and advocate for creative teaching. Trevor's taught at the middle, high school, and college level, and applies that experience to his numerous books, courses, and in-person PD sessions.
In this episode, Trevor shares personal stories from his own classrooms, including how vulnerability helped him connect with students and why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for engaging learners.
We cover topics such as:
- How to redefine creativity beyond art and big projects to include everyday teaching challenges
- Why vulnerability and failure are essential for creativity and how to model these for your students
- Practical strategies to encourage student risk-taking and buy-in through feedback and collaboration
- How storytelling can make lessons more dynamic, memorable, and relevant
- The benefits of involving students in the creative process to empower and engage them
- Why cultivating creativity in your personal life can positively impact your teaching.
By embracing creativity, you can create a classroom experience that energizes you, engages your students, and brings joy back to teaching.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 319 of Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. |
| 0:07.1 | I'm your host, Angela Watson, and I'm here to speak encouragement into the hearts of educators |
| 0:11.9 | and get you informed and energized for the week ahead. |
| 0:15.8 | Today, I'm talking with Trevor Muir about how to teach creatively despite constraints. Visit truthforteachers.com |
| 0:23.6 | for an easy-to-read, easy-to-share version of this podcast episode. |
| 0:30.4 | If you're listening to this episode because you need a little dose of encouragement, make sure |
| 0:35.1 | you're on my email list. I send one message per week on Sunday |
| 0:39.5 | evenings to help take away the Sunday scaries and give you something useful and positive to focus on. |
| 0:45.5 | Each email I send is personally written by me and is a message from the heart. And it's typically |
| 0:51.5 | different from what I release on the podcast that week, rather than a |
| 0:54.6 | duplicate. So if you'd like to have an encouraging positive message from me at the start of your |
| 0:59.6 | workweek, just go to truthforteachers.com and sign up at the box at the very top of the page. |
| 1:06.6 | My guest today is Trevor Muir. He's a teacher, author, creator, and co-founder of the New Teacher Academy. |
| 1:13.6 | His books have helped teachers worldwide to create purposeful and dynamic learning experiences. |
| 1:19.6 | Trevor has taught in middle school, high school, and college classrooms, as well as pre-service teachers at Grand Valley State University. |
| 1:29.2 | Trevor has a deep passion for teaching creatively, so I invited him on the show to address a question |
| 1:35.0 | that has been submitted to me a number of times from folks who listen to the show. |
| 1:40.1 | And that is, how do I hold on to my creativity as a teacher when the profession is increasingly |
| 1:46.0 | being standardized? Listen in as we discuss what creativity looks like even within systems that |
| 1:53.4 | aren't designed to foster creativity. Trevor, creativity often feels like a luxury, an education, when teachers face so many demands. |
| 2:05.7 | How do you define creative teaching? And why do you think it's so essential even when there's so many |
| 2:10.5 | constraints? Yeah, I think that's a really good question. You know, the way I think about creativity |
... |
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