About

The landscape of education is changing. People like Ken Robinson speak about how schools are killing creativity and that schools are set up to fulfill an outdated factory model of knowledge-construction. Teachers are paying attention, but often don’t know how or where to start. The aim of this website is to give teachers background knowledge about creativity and practical, tested ways to bring this into classrooms.

Why Creativity?

When students are creative, they:
  • love learning.
  • think about the world in a way they never have before.
  • take risks and try new things.
  • reflect about their learning.
  • develop skills that will help them navigate an uncertain future.
  • discover things about themselves they might never have known.
  • engage in rich conversations with each other.
  • waste less time with behaviour disruptions.
  • feel empowered.


When students are creative, teachers:
  • are invigorated.
  • fall in love with their jobs all over again.
  • take risks and try new things.
  • are creative, too.


Who Are We?

The Creativity Collective was born when seven strangers took a transformative graduate course in the faculty of education at the University of Calgary called Creativity in Educational Practice with Robert Kelly. Our journeys have taken us in different directions since then, but we honour our original alumni members. You can e-mail the Collective at thecreativitycollective@gmail.com.


Erin Quinn

Erin Quinn is an educator who prioritizes creativity, design thinking, and collaboration in her work and life. She teaches middle-school humanities and art, and has also taught and codesigned graduate courses in education focused on creativity, design thinking, and social innovation. She has extensive experience designing and presenting professional learning for teachers. She has also disseminated her work through numerous written and presented conference initiatives. You can connect with her at @luckybydesign. Other than educating, Erin loves to make: art, food, design, and everything in between. She lives with her sister and their two cats, Oddly and Mortimer.



Stephanie Bartlett

Stephanie Bartlett is a PhD student in educational research at the Werklund School of Education at
the University of Calgary, where she is also a post-secondary instructor at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels. She has been a codesigner of graduate courses in education focused on creativity, design
thinking, and social innovation. Emerging from her personal, professional, and scholarly experiences in collaborative creativity and human-centred design, her research also focuses on education for reconciliation, Indigenous pedagogies, poetic inquiry, and life writing. You can connect with Stephanie on Twitter at @sj_bartlett.


Erin and Stephanie, along with their mentor Robert Kelly, and two other creative educators, Keith Christensen and Carla-Jayne Samuelson, published a book in the fall of 2020 entitled Collaborative Creativity Idea Book for Educators: Collaborative Creativity Idea Book for Educators: Activities, Tactics and Strategies for Building a Collaborative Culture of Creativity. You can find your copy on Amazon Canada or Amazon US.

Alumni Members

Trina Penner

You can connect with Trina via twitter @Twnpenner

Sandra McNeil

You can connect with Sandy via twitter @smcneil73.

Dana Witte

You can reach Dana on Twitter at @dana_witte.

Kim Miner



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