Take a look at just a few of the wonderful things we saw….

Photos taken during the State Tournament are available for purchase. With only two photographers and almost 300 teams is was impossible to be everywhere but we did our best! Any profits from the sale of photos will go back to Destination ImagiNation Colorado. View photos here: DI Gallery

This will be a fun filled evening for everyone…. bring your team, bring the family from 7:00 – 9:00 pm!

Can’t make it to the Tattered Cover that night? Purchase your copy of Jump! here and Bob will make a donation to Destination ImagiNation Colorado.

Agendas for the trainings will be posted here once we have them. We are currently reworking all sessions based on feedback from last years trainings. Additional resource materials will be available for sale at the trainings.

Please bring your lunch and a drink with you.

Team Manager Training Information

January 8, 2011: South HS, Denver, CO (map)

A Box? A Spaceship? What Makes Kids Creative?

When art teacher Kandy Dea recently assigned fourth-graders in her Walnut, Iowa, classroom to create a board game to play with a friend, she was shocked by one little boy’s response: He froze.

While his classmates let their imaginations run wild making up colorful characters and fantasy worlds, the little boy said repeatedly, “I can’t think of anything,” Ms. Dea says. Although she reassured him that nothing he did would be judged “wrong,” he tried to copy another student’s game, then asked if he could make a work sheet instead. She finally gave him permission to make flash cards with right-and-wrong answers.

Americans’ scores on a commonly used creativity test fell steadily from 1990 to 2008, especially in the kindergarten through sixth-grade age group, says Kyung Hee Kim, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. The finding is based on a study of 300,000 Americans’ scores from 1966 to 2008 on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, a standardized test that’s considered a benchmark for creative thinking. (Dr. Kim’s results are currently undergoing peer review to determine whether they will be published in a scholarly journal.)

The Torrance tests have been used in the U.S. and abroad for decades and are often used in schools to determine which children are admitted to gifted programs. The test is considered a reliable indicator of divergent thinking—the ability to generate many different, new and appropriate ideas, says James C. Kaufman, an associate professor of psychology at California State University, San Bernadino, and an author on creativity. However, he says it falls short in measuring other dimensions of creativity, such as the ability to put these ideas to work to make new and useful products.

Researchers believe growth in the time kids spend on computers and watching TV, plus a trend in schools toward rote learning and standardized testing, are crowding out the less structured activities that foster creativity. Mark Runco, a professor of creative studies and gifted education at the University of Georgia, says students have as much creative potential as ever, but he would give U.S. elementary, middle and high schools “a ‘D’ at best” on encouraging them. “We’re doing a very poor job, especially before college, with recognizing and supporting creativity,” he says.

Many parents are stepping into the breach by nurturing their kids’ creative skills. They are challenging them to generate new ideas or encouraging them to notice problems in the world around them and research possible solutions. By tolerating “wrong” answers or allowing their children to live in a fantasy world for a while, parents can put off the emphasis on skill-building and achievement, researchers say.

In the past, researchers thought of creativity as the ability to generate lots of new ideas. But in recent years, experts have begun assigning equal importance to learning how to pick the best ideas and solve specific problems, often by working in teams.

Some parents are signing their children up for programs designed to foster creativity. One such program, Destination ImagiNation, Cherry Hill, N.J., is an educational nonprofit that involves nearly 100,000 students in annual competitions. Volunteer coaches guide teams of up to seven kids, grouped by age from kindergarten through college, who work together after school to come up with creative solutions. They’re given projects like designing weight-bearing structures from foil, wood and glue, solving a community problem or, for small children, creating a play about bugs to show how they interact with nature and animals. Similar programs include Odyssey of the Mind, Sewell, N.J., and Future Problem-Solving Program International, Melbourne, Fla.

To nurture creative skills at home, parents can invite children to come up with possible solutions for everyday problems, and listen to their ideas with respect, says Don Treffinger, president of the Center for Creative Learning, a Sarasota, Fla., consulting group. A child who notices that an ailing neighbor is snowed in might shovel her sidewalks, for example. A child who is troubled by photos of Haitian disaster victims might donate allowance money to a relief fund.

Asking open-ended questions and showing interest in answers can help. When Meg Richey sat down a couple of years ago to write a speech about activist Rosa Parks, her opening was a clunker: “Rosa Parks was an important person in American history,” says Meg, now 10. “It was dull.”

But after her father Brett, of Charlottesville, Va., a volunteer coach for several Destination ImagiNation teams, praised her effort, encouraged her to dig deeper and asked open-ended questions about how she might improve it, Meg says, she thought up a new introduction: “Can you imagine being kicked out of your seat just because of the color of your skin?” The speech was a winner at a youth-group competition. Now, Meg says she goes through the same process on her own when she writes. “I ask myself all the questions my dad asked, and it gets the creative juices flowing,” she says.

Parents also need to refrain from judging kids’ ideas, even if they seem crazy or naive. When Linda Rice’s son Jacob, 10, told her last spring that he wanted to make a lot of money writing, publishing and selling a global newspaper and an accompanying website, she listened, then asked a few questions. Who would be the best people to ask first to buy subscriptions, the Plover, Wis., mother and former teacher asked. Drawing on her past experience working with gifted students, Ms. Rice encouraged him to think about what kinds of stories he would include.

Jacob decided to limit his early subscription sales to family members and friends. When he ran out of ideas for stories, Ms. Rice prompted him with questions about what readers might enjoy, and Jacob decided to make up some puzzles. His eight-page newspaper had a successful four-month run with 10 subscribers, earning him $90 before he lost interest, Ms. Rice says.

It is best to avoid paying too much attention to the outcome of kids’ creative efforts, says Dr. Kaufman, the professor. “The more emphasis put on the final product—’It’s so beautiful I’m going to frame it and tell my friends about it,’ ” he says, the greater is “the risk that the kid is going to do pictures for the praise, and not for the enjoyment.” Instead, emphasize effort over results.

When Maureen Dougherty’s three kids were small, she and her husband Brian encouraged them to make up their own lyrics and dances to nursery rhymes, says Ms. Dougherty, of Stephens City, Va. Hearing Mr. Dougherty and the kids laughing one night years ago, Ms. Dougherty opened a door to find them stumbling around with their eyes closed, singing original lyrics to “The Three Blind Mice.”

After inventing spontaneous lyrics for years, their children, now 14, 18 and 20, enjoy public speaking and “can think of things to say right off the cuff,” Ms. Dougherty says.

Raising a creative child can be taxing. Such kids tend to have above-average “spontaneity, boldness, courage, freedom and expressiveness,” Dr. Kim says. So they sometimes behave like little anarchists.

Parents can explain when it is OK to be whimsical, and when they have to toe the line, Dr. Kaufman says. If your child loves to parody lyrics to children’s songs, for example, “you have to let them laugh and giggle,” and then explain that “you shouldn’t do this at school,” he says.

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com

leadership and communications consultant. Dan is excited to be contributing to our blog, giving us expert advice on teamwork, leadership and competition. We are working on adding DI Team Manager to Dan’s resume

Mantra of ‘Fun, Learn, Compete’ Transforms Activity into Passion

When it comes to working with kids, we need to make sure we’re accomplishing three things with their activities:  they should learn, they should be challenged (competitive), and they should have fun.

When we create an environment where they can achieve this trifecta of Fun, Learn, Compete, we tap a special place in their souls and activity transforms into passion.  Engagement soars, performance improves, energy spikes, and enthusiasm is at an all-time high.

This is true whether it’s a baseball game, piano lesson, or chess club.  Our adult role as coach, adviser, teacher, or mentor is to help create a fertile environment for learning, competing and having fun.  We should encourage kids to explore each of these three areas.

Learn. Kids should gain insights about activity, they should discover new things about themselves, and they should learn life lessons.  Let’s face it – kids are like sponges.  Our task, often, is to set the stage and get out of the way.  Their natural curiosity takes over and we need only to channel it in a productive way.  Other times, though, we need to help them connect the dots, for example, between effort and success, uncover a hidden strategy, or see the deeper meaning in the unfolding events.

Compete. Kids must be taught to compete.  Life is full of competition – for scholarships, jobs, and even mates!  Youth activities are a perfect environment for kids to learn how to read a competitive situation and elevate their performance to succeed.  Healthy competition challenges kids to know themselves.  They become skilled at managing around their weaknesses and leveraging their strengths to best the competition.  This acquired skill-set is ideally learned as a youth when our sports and activities aren’t life or death.  This safety net encourages risk-taking and learning from mistakes.
Another facet of competing is that kids must be at the right level.  Things shouldn’t be too easy or too hard.  The sweet spot is where the outcome is in doubt and neither success nor failure is guaranteed.  This is true for both individuals and teams.

Fun. Above all, we should encourage kids to have fun with their activities.  If they have fun, they’ll want to continue and get better.  As a coach, one important measure of success I have for myself is if the kids want to play again next season.  If they didn’t have fun, the answer is often “No.”  Good things happen when we have fun, often without even knowing it.  We work hard, we focus on the needs of others, and we laugh.

As we start to infuse the Fun, Learn Compete model into our efforts with kids, we quickly see that they feed off of each other.  Learning is fun.  The thrill of competition fosters new learning.   Kids enjoy a challenge.   The best teachers, advisers, and coaches help kids enjoy all three.

In the next post we’ll explore strategies adults can use in each of these three areas to make them come alive for kids.

Dan Clemens is the author of A Perfect Season:  A Coach’s Journey to Learning, Competing, and Having Fun in Youth Baseball. A leadership and communications consultant, he’s been a youth coach for 9 years and maintains a website for coaches at http://www.CoachClemens.com.  Dan plays competitive baseball in an adult league, has run four marathons, and climbed 50 of the 54 mountain peaks in Colorado that rise above 14,000 feet.  He lives in the Denver-area with his wife Bev and two kids, Alan and Rachel. You can email him at Dan@CoachClemens.com.

Building the Skills for Instant Challenge Success!

• Teamwork
• Creative Problem Solving
• Presentation Skills
• Properties of Materials

If you’ve taken our IC workshop before, you learned what kinds of Instant Challenges to expect.  Now get ready to learn how to teach your team the skills they need to solve any DI challenge they encounter!  This hands-on class includes strategies and exercises as well as new challenges for practice and insight to new IC competition trends.  If you think you’ve done this one before, think again!

Date: Saturday, December 4, 2010

Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Where: Englewood High School Lunchroom, 3800 S. Logan

Cost: $20 per team manager (no team members at this training)

Information: Phone: 720-394-8597

Email: kris@extremecreativity.org

All participants must register in advance. To register download the PDF: IC Success Training Flyer Dec 4 2010

Send check made payable to Destination ImagiNation Colorado along with registration information to:

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM MST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: Sign Up Here!

This webinar will be exactly the same material and presenters as the “Verses!  Foiled Again” Team Manager training that will be presented live in Denver on November 13, 2010.  If you are unable to get to Denver’s Team Manager trainings because of time and distance constraints, here’s your opportunity to get the training you and your DI Team want and need for the “Verses!  Foiled Again” Challenge.

We will make this training as close to a “live performance” as we can.  We will answer questions both via e-mail (chat feature) and over the audio connection as much as possible.  If we are unable to answer your question because we are overwhelmed, we will try to respond to your questions directly after the Webinar.

The Team Manager Training Session will be November 16, 2010 at 6:30 PM and all you need are your trusty computer (for the video) and a set of speakers or a headset (for the audio) parts of the presentation.  The audio and video will be handled over the Internet so you won’t need an additional phone line for audio connectivity.  A high speed or Broadband Computer Internet connection is recommended.  Dial-up web access will not be an acceptable connection for this training.

Once you receive your notice of Registration, please do not share it with others – it is uniquely yours and I am not sure if any given registration can log in more than once.

We hope to “see” you there!

– Your “Verses!  Foiled Again” State Challenge Masters – Nora Johnson, Ron Dutton and Jim Sirko.

Title: “Verses! Foiled Again” Team Manager Training #1
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM MST
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

James M. Sirko, P.E.
Sirko Associates, Inc.
12130 Pennsylvania St. #102
Denver, Colorado  80241
(303) 428-0901
jsirko@sirko.com
www.Sirko.com

“I think I am a better manager when I attend.  Training really does make a difference.”

“We need to get the word out somehow just how important the TM training is. Many teams show up for the tournaments and the team coach did not attend a TM training session and therefore the team is at a disadvantage. “

- responses from 2010 Team Manager survey.

Team manager training is fast approaching, and you don’t want to be left out!

This is your chance to get up-to-date information about specific challenges as well as to learn new skills that will help your team be successful.  The challenges are new every year, so there is always something new to learn. Morning workshops are scheduled so novice Team Managers can meet in separate groups to get their questions answered and more experienced managers can get the information they need.  In the afternoon, we will have skills workshops for team managers at all levels and years of involvement.

You are welcome come for as much or as little of the day as you want, but it’s important to know that TM’s who do not attend training often miss out on important information that helps their teams understand the challenges and be successful.

Team Manager training is our chance to support you as you take on the most important challenge of all – helping your kids to reach their full potential.

There are two dates for training; November 13, 2010 and January 8, 2011.  Choose to attend one or both trainings. The cost of this training is included in your membership and affiliate fees!

Metro Area Team Manager Training

November 13th, 7:45 am

Rangeview HS 17599 E Iliff Ave, Aurora, CO 80013

Agenda

South Area Team Manager Meeting

There is also a Team Manager training in Pueblo, also on 11/13. Details to follow. Save the date.

To download your Roadmap click here: Roadmap

1. Roadmap is in beta, which means it is still in a testing stage. To advance Roadmap to its final stage, we need your help! Please send your feedback to roadmap@dihq.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Any comments on how Roadmap could be improved, or feedback centered on what worked for your team, would be greatly appreciated.
2. Roadmap is a complementary resource. It does not replace the DI Program Materials, nor will it tell your team exactly how to solve its Team Challenge. You will need to refer to the DI Program Materials and use the Roadmap according to your team’s needs.
3. Your team can complete the Roadmap sessions however you choose. For example, your team may want to complete two sessions per week. It’s up to your team. Be aware that your team will likely need to schedule additional time to complete its Team Challenge solution.
4. Roadmap’s path is not the only path your team can take to a Tournament. It simply suggests a course. Your team may need to take detours, or spend more time on certain sections. Every team is different!
5. The PDF version of Roadmap is available for free. You can order a hard copy here for a nominal $15 charge.

Don’t forget to send your feedback to roadmap@dihq.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it !

Survey Form

With your help we can assist you in bringing your kids a successful and productive Destination ImagiNation Colorado tournament year.