Creative thinking

Hello all. My public speaking course continues and today we are going to talk to you about creativity.

The creativity in tasks has always been something of a burden for me. I didn't really understand how you can be creative and how creativity can be evaluated if it's not inherent in your nature. At the last lesson, however, it became clear to me that even if you are not naturally gifted, you can still develop your ability to think creatively and produce something unusual with some techniques and interesting tips. We've explored three techniques : brainstorming, mind-mapping and "lateral thinking". Two of them were already familiar to me from the methodology course, and one was completely new. We were even able to try them out at the class. Our group chose mental maps. This technique helped us to think of a whole programme for the summer camp, which we could reveal in a public speech in front of parents. (Our theme and task were to tell parents about the summer camp)

This is the kind of mind map we were able to develop. First, we wrote down the topic, then we wrote down the primary associations and then the secondary associations. Then we started connecting these associations and this is what we came up with:

1. We decided that since the camp was for learning languages, there would be a choice of languages to learn. The groups would be divided according to their interests. 

2. The team leaders will be real native speakers. They will not only supervise the children, but also conduct speaking clubs.

3. Children will study languages and at the same time the cultures of the target languages (music, literature, sports, cuisine, etc.). Various workshops and competitions will be held (sports in the swimming pool/cooking in the canteen).  During the competitions we plan to develop teamwork and cooperation. 

4 Since the camp will be outdoors, we decided that it would be eco-friendly. After all, in today's world the problem of ecology is quite acute.  It will be revealed in English. The children will enjoy nature and protect it.

5. Because the camp is not only about learning, but also about having fun, we plan to hold special discos and evenings where the children can socialise, make friends and have fun. We would also like to have a day off, when the children can just relax as they like with their friends. 

This is what we have achieved. I belive mind maps are not bad ways to get creative. It has helped to stimulate our minds in a fairly small amount of time and generate some pretty interesting content for the children's camp.  Do you think our result can be called creative?