As we continue to prepare our students for not just future careers but life, we realize that, because of the rapidly changing advancements in technology, we need to build additional skills rather than just rote memorization.  While it may have been something you talk about just as enrichment activities, the need to build and promote creativity and innovation for our students is becoming increasingly necessary.  In addition, students working together in teams collaborating to share ideas and unify around common goals and plans is also developing as essential qualities for success.  While I get the opportunity to see our teachers create engaging lessons and units throughout the school year to introduce and enhance creativity through collaboration among their students, I have been enamored with the hard work of our students, teachers, and volunteers coming together under Destination Imagination!

Destination Imagination (DI) is an international, volunteer-led creative problem-solving competition focusing on students generating ideas and doing their own work “free from adult interference.”  In Oakwood Schools, two teachers, Ceci White and Mallory Bright, serve as amazing “district coordinators” to help lead, align, support, and direct the work of over 100 students in 17 teams ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade.  We have the only program in the State to span all grade levels!

Annually, DI offers seven new standards-based Challenges in STEM, Improv, Visual Arts, Service Learning, and Early Learning. Each Challenge is open-ended and enables student teams to learn and experience the creative process from imagination to innovation.  I am appreciative of parents, staff, and community members to serve as coaches working with student teams around October and throughout the winter leading up to competitions in the early spring.  I had the opportunity to visit one of the team practices. I was in awe of the sacrifice of the parent who not only invested her time but transformed her basement for the team’s cause through posters to foster creativity and the design process, work plans with timelines and action plans, and the materials and supplies for students to create and explore!

This past weekend, our teams traveled to Sinclair Community College to showcase their hard work and participate in a Team Challenge.  There was a flood of energy, excitement, and nervousness among our students as they had to set up their materials, read/recite their lines, and share their learning.  After their “performance” which demonstrated their learning, they were asked a flurry of questions from the 5-6 judges asking questions about their project, their script, their preparation, and their collaboration.  Each team also completes an Instant Challenge in which the team is given a performance and/or task-based challenge to be completed on the spot!  The students must use teamwork, cooperation, organization and ingenuity to complete the given challenge! 

While many of our teams received high remarks and awards, I was even more pleased with the opportunity they were given to take on a project and engage with their peers in a sustained manner.  In talking with parents, it is clear that Destination Imagination has helped to “unlock” their child’s creativity, foster a sense of team, and identify passions and curiosity into the future.

The State Tournament is in early April, and I am already excited to visit the students again to cheer them on!