Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom

Inspiring and exploring creativity opens pathways for students to use creative expression to demonstrate content knowledge, critical thinking, and the problem solving that will serve them best no matter what their futures may bring. Intention offers a collection of ideas, activities, and reasons for bringing creativity to every lesson.“‘Rigorous whimsy.’ I'm in.”—Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think “Bravo to Burvall and Ryder for showing us how to bring out more creativity in the classroom. All teachers, parents, and students will find something to steal here.” —Austin Kleon, New York Times best-selling author of Steal Like An Artist “What I would have given to have educators like Amy and Dan in my early years … doodling, remixing, iterating, discovering, playing to learn with all your might. The world needs thinkers like these two and the world also needs this book.”—Sunni Brown, best-selling author of Gamestorming and The Doodle Revolution “Intention is a work of art and genius. Burvall and Ryder explore the rich tapestry of ways in which academia can embrace curiosity and creativity, provide tools with which to dissect it for values, and take that further with actionable exercises that empower the reader to put these ideas into practice. A beautifully executed exploration of creativity in learning.”—Adam Bellow, co-founder of Breakout EDU “Don’t just read this brilliant book of recipes for classroom creativity. Make it your intention to digest, deliberate, and doodle all over it. (I did!)”—Bryan Mathers, founder of VisualThinkery

Dan Ryder:
High school English teacher by title, idea wrangler, design thinker, improviser and educator by practice, Dan Ryder has taught for nearly 20 years at Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington, Maine.  He has presented his work on critical creativity, empathy fueled problem solving, and the improviser's mindset at numerous conferences and workshops, including SXSWedu and Stanford d.School's K12 Summit. Co-founder of education consultancy, Wicked Decent Learning, and an advocate for online tribe finding, Dan can be followed @wickeddecent across the social media edu-sphere.  He lives with his brilliantly beautiful librarian wife and their two creatively hilarious kids in western Maine.



Amy Burvall:

Amy Burvall is a 25+ year educator and artist and is currently consulting, creating, and curating in the fields of creativity, visual thinking, and digital literacies as well as working in the corporate learning sector. She was an early YouTuber with her History for Music Lovers project and remains an advocate of remix in learning. Her tagline, "the cloud is our campfire", alludes to her passion for transparency and networked knowledge and creativity. In the ether you can find Amy sharing her work @amyburvall in all spaces.