Creativity in School is a blog and resource I run to share the learnings of my journey to ignite the creative power of the students I teach.
Hi, I am Henrique Monnerat.
I help to create products, learning spaces, and curricula focused on technology, entrepreneurship, and design thinking in schools.
My Story
I am a product designer who developed a passion for creativity in education when faced with the challenge of teaching design to graduate students at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
Like many teachers, I believe that the ability to use one’s creativity will be key for students to excel in the future economy.
What do I know about creativity and education?
I graduated in Industrial Design from the Offenbach am Main School of Arts and Design in Germany and obtained a German equivalent of a master’s in Biomimetic Design from the same school. Before starting this blog, I worked for ten years as a product designer developing products and creative technologies for large and small companies in Germany, Holland, and Brazil and as an entrepreneur developing Designoteca, a platform for creative designers to promote the projects they create
However, I fell in love with teaching in 2009 when I was invited to join the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro teaching team and was faced with the challenge of helping prospective product designers develop their creative sense and practical skills to design solutions for all kinds of problems.
I discovered that teaching creative design is very challenging because projects constantly present you with new situations, and you are forced to frame every problem differently depending on the context in which the people you are designing for are immersed in.
This challenge made me fall in love with trying to help design students develop solutions for the problems they care about, as much as I loved creating my products and inventions.
From then on, I started searching for every opportunity to engage people of all ages in learning through creativity and design. Without a definitive plan, I was becoming an educator little by little.
Today, I live in the USA with my wife and daughter, working as a Technology Teacher at an independent school in Monterey, CA. I still practice design because of my joy in making and inventing things.
My Definition of Creativity
Whenever I think of creativity, it is more an incredible skill than a special gift some individuals have.
This skill comprises a handful of methods and frames of mind for questioning, imagining, experimenting, and sharing new ways of doing things.
When teachers embrace creativity as an integral part of their classrooms, an endless world of possibilities opens up both for them and their students.
With creativity, teaching becomes an epic adventure full of discovery and excitement.
To take our students on this adventure, we must help them pack their backpacks with the right tools, charge their batteries with confidence, and be ready to embrace and support them with their discoveries.
My Wish as an Educator
The best part about my job is to get students and fellow educators excited about making a positive mark in the world with their ideas.
As an educator, my main wish is that students learn how to improve things around them, whatever they may be.
I am moved by the fact that in this adventure of becoming an educator, I have met incredible teachers and students with whom I have had the opportunity to collaborate, design things together, and learn a lot.
About Creativity in School
Creativity In School is a curated list of lessons organized with the support of Designoteca.
Designoteca was born in 2012 with the mission of helping designers make their ideas viable.
At the time, our first product was a web application to facilitate collaboration between designers and manufacturers.
The web app helped community members promote, sell, and collaborate on the innovative projects they originated and were developing.
Gradually, it became clear that Designoteca’s strength revolved less about developing an app and more about promoting and teaching design and its powerful methods.
Today, Designoteca focuses exclusively on supporting K-12 schools and teacher communities with professional development and lesson plans to bring design technology education to students.
Join Educators Who Are Passionate About Creative Education
If you have come this far down my welcome page, I think it is safe to say that you are also very excited about the potential of creativity and design in schools. That makes me very happy.
Whether you have been doing this for a long time or are new to teaching, I hope you join me by reading this blog frequently and sharing your thoughts.
You now know a little bit about me and what Creativity in School is about; make sure to try some of the curriculum ideas with your students and sign up for our newsletter, as I frequently share tips, tools, and methods that will help you spark the creative power of your students.
With kindness,
Henrique Monnerat