Being Creative in the Least Creative Environment

You have 7 hours of quiet, uninterrupted time. But you can’t read, you can’t write, or draw, or doodle, or scribble, or make lists. No words, pens, pencils, paper, or crayons allowed. The only thing you are allowed to do is walk around a room for nearly 7 hours and actively monitor students taking a standardized test.  So what do you do?

 

I found this list on the weareteachers blog, but I modified it to things we are actually allowed to do. (No food, candy, or silly putty allowed.)   The rest of the list consists of my own ideas or ones I found in the comments on this link. http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/01/29/17-more-things-you-can-do-while-actively-monitoring-a-standardized-test

 

1.  Make it an exercise challenge. See how many times you can circle the entire room. 

 
2. Think about your responses to these “Would You Rather” questions or create some of your own.


Would you rather have pogo sticks for legs or fully-retractable arms?


Would you rather live in the worst place you can think of but have a travel budget to go anywhere you wanted in the world for 3 months out of the year, or be able to live anywhere in the world but never be able to leave it?

Would you rather own a dragon or be a dragon?

 

3. Pretend to be a ninja. Do a lap around the room as silently as possible.

 

4. Pretend to be a car. I like to make the “scrrrrr!” noise in my head as I round the corner of a row.

 

5. Pretend to be a spider making a web. Think about what pattern you would make if you were leaving a web behind as you weave around the room. Then think about how weird it would be if you were a human leaving a web behind. Then try not to laugh.

 

6. Find things in the room that rhyme or almost rhyme: cord, bored, snored

 

7. Listen to the soundtrack of a musical just before testing and enjoy every single song being in your head for the next 8 hours. “Into the Woods” and “Les Miserables” work 100% of the time.

 

8. Send each child positive vibes one at a time. I imagine positive vibes being these yellow spaghetti-like wobbly tubes that actually connect between our brains, but you can imagine them however you’d like.

 

9. Think about what school would be like if you were the principal. Mandatory post-lunch naptime, for starters.

 

10. Think about how you would describe the color red (or any color) to a person who cannot see. 
 

11. Think about what you would get on a vanity license plate. If you get bored of that, think of what your favorite characters from literature or history would get on their vanity plates if they had them.

 

12. Find something in the room for every letter of the alphabet. And then do it backwards. 

 

13. Count how many times you walk in a figure eight by weaving in and out of the desks.

 

14. If you are a math person, figure out what percentage of the students wear glasses, are left-handed, wearing hoodies, wearing sandals, tennis shoes etc.

 

15. Write an acrostic poem in your head for objects you see in the room:

 

W

I

N

D

O

W

 

16. Play mental scattegories: Choose a category and then see how many things fit into that category that start with a certain letter.

 

17. Think up a list of your favorite words ever.  Find one for every letter of the alphabet.

 

18. Create alliterative nicknames for each kid in your room.

 

19. Pick a book, movie, tv show, etc. and decide which student is which character. Things like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings make good ones because you can first decide which house/species the student is. Also you can choose which animal each student is most like.

 

20. Think up character names you love and will use for your next story. Do one for every letter of the alphabet.

 

21. Every time you look up at the clock start singing Bohemian Rhapsody:

 

I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me.
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity.

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go. (Let him go!)
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let him go!)
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let me go!)
Will not let you go. (Let me go!)
Never, never let you go
Never let me go, oh.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh, mama mia, mama mia (Mama mia, let me go.)
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.

Mandy Yates is currently an elementary reading specialist and children's book writer. She has an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and has been published multiple times in Highlights Magazine. 

She also assists Mira in teaching The Craft and Business of Writing Children's Books. http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/writing-childrens-picture-books.html, as well as The Chapter Book Alchemist  http://www.childrensbookacademy.com/the-chapter-book-alchemist.html .

Find some of her teacher resources over at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mandy-Yates.