3 creative routines to help foster a safe learning environment

Laura Vazquez
Group of Young Children sat on the floor, laughing with a teacher

“The world is undergoing revolutionary changes, we need a revolution in education too.” -Creative Schools, Ken Robinson

In February 2006, the late Sir Ken Robinson delivered a talk at TED titled: . This was some years ago and time seems to have stood still in education since then.

Creativity is a key 21st century skill. Our young students need to harness it in order to be successful in further education and the workplace, especially now that technology is advancing at such a rapid rate.

So what can we do to encourage creativity and create a safe learning environment? I’ll take you through three activities that I use with my own students to help them flourish.

Clear and structured objectives

To nurture and encourage creativity in the classroom, it is important to have clear, well-structured objectives and routines that give students a safe learning environment. Here’s a breakdown of a few you can try in your classroom.

1. Monday activity

As part of your routine, do something different every Monday and have your students guess what it is. For example, you could change your earrings or only wear one. You could shave your mustache, wear a hat, or do something less obvious.

Students should participate too, so have them do something different every week. Select a student in the class and everyone must guess what has changed that Monday.

This activity is designed to encourage students to pay attention to each student in the class and notice things about them during the week. At the same time, it will encourage them to be creative and think about how to do things differently and mix up their own routines.

2. Friday team building challenge

Every Friday, my class play a team building challenge activity which helps them set and follow rules, be respectful to one another, and work and play with students from different circles.

Here’s a simple, energetic team building activity you could try:

  • Have students call out all the new vocabulary words they learned during the week. Write them on the board as they do so.
  • Split the class into teams of four or five students.
  • Tell them they have to use their bodies to spell each word (if there are lots of words, pick the top three). Wipe the word off the board and explain that they can stand up, lie down, and use their arms and legs – but they should work together to form the shapes of the letters. The first team that correctly spells the word you dictate wins a point!

3. "Hurray, I failed” activity

The final activity is all about celebrating failure. Start by putting students in a circle or a line, and have them each name a color out loud. If someone repeats a color or takes longer than five seconds to answer, they must stand up, dance, and shout “hurray, I failed!” as loudly as possible.

You can select any topic – such as nouns, countries, or, even better, your students’ interests. The intention is to create a safe learning environment for your class, where students feel supported and being wrong is fun and okay. This will enable students to participate in class without fear of judgment or criticism.

Try it out until your students become comfortable with dancing and 'hurraying' in front of everyone in the group.

This activity has yielded fantastic results with groups of people I’ve worked with, regardless of their age group (young, old, junior high). Participants may feel silly or shy, until one participant starts doing it for fun, and then the rest of the group will start feeling comfortable with being wrong. They will realize it’s okay, and the exercise will start to flow with greater ease.

If your group is shyer or your students are more introverted, you can ask the person who makes a mistake to wear a silly hat – until the next person fails.

Explore our courses and how we can help enhance your language teaching

More blogs from app

  • a woman with headphones around her neck writing notes at a table

    How to reduce anxiety using to-do lists

    By Rachael Roberts

    Help reduce anxiety using to-do lists

    Many teachers have a to-do list a mile long or even several to-do lists in different places.

    Theoretically, a to-do list is a good idea. When we write something down, the brain can stop holding onto it quite as tightly, which can reduce anxiety and any feeling of overwhelm.

    This tendency to obsess about unfinished tasks is called the Ziergarnik effect, after the Russian psychologist Bluma Ziergarnik, who noticed that waiters only remembered orders before they were served. As soon as the meals were delivered, the memory vanished.

    So, if your brain is constantly nagging you about tasks that remain undone, write them down or make a rough plan and the anxiety will often disappear.

    The downside of ‘to-do’ lists

    I once had a list of jobs that needed doing about the house which had some items dating back several years. Simply writing down a task doesn’t guarantee that it will get done. A lengthy to-do list can enable you to procrastinate and avoid doing important tasks as they are hidden amongst any number of others.

    Long lists can also be overwhelming and off-putting in themselves, and as you cross items off the list becomes cluttered and disorganized.

    Making better use of your to-do list(s)

    1. Learn to prioritize

    It is vital to distinguish between tasks as this will help you decide how to prioritize, delegate and ignore. Categorize your tasks in the following way:

    • Important and urgent (prioritize these).
    • Important but not urgent (book in a time to do these, and stick to it).
    • Urgent but not important (see if you can delegate these, or consider if you need to do them at all).
    • Not urgent and not important (you could almost certainly take these off your list altogether).

    2. Keep separate lists for separate areas of your life

    It’s much easier to see what needs to be done and to prioritize things if you keep separate lists. If you are comfortable with tech, there are plenty of apps to help you with this. You can flag things as important and set reminders and deadline alerts while keeping separate lists. and are just a couple of the options available. If you’re more old school, you can have separate pages in a notebook.

    3. Break tasks down

    Understandably, you might avoid getting started on a big task that will take a long time. There never seems to be a suitable time slot to get it done. Instead, break it down into smaller tasks and tackle them one at a time. For example, break down marking 30 books into three slots of marking ten books.

    4. Know your next actions

    Before you finish work on part of a bigger task, make sure you know your next step, so that when you come back to it, you can get started straight away. This also works well when you decide at the end of a working day what the first task you’ll do tomorrow is.

    5. Review weekly

    A regular review is essential. Look through what you’ve achieved and feel good about it - and remove it from your lists. Analyse where you tried to do too much (try to stick to 3-5 tasks a day) and consider this when setting yourself tasks for the following week. Take note of any tasks you should have done but didn’t get around to and, assuming a certain task is a priority, decide exactly when you will do it next week.

    Good luck!

    Teaching requires you to juggle 101 different things, and that’s before you take your home life into account as well. Get on top of your to-do list, and not only will you feel less overwhelmed, but you may also even find yourself a bit more free time.

  • A man sat at a laptop with headphones on

    7 tips for learning English online

    By Gemma Considine

    Learning English online is very different from studying in a physical classroom, and there is not always a teacher looking over your shoulder. And more often than not, you have to motivate yourself and keep yourself on track.

    In this blog, we’ll share seven tips to help you learn English online – including how to set goals, create a study schedule, and stay focused. Let’s explore:

    1. Set SMART goals

    Lots of students wonder how to learn English online. And we know getting started is often the most challenging part. So before you begin studying English online, we recommend setting some SMART goals. These are goals that are:

    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Relevant
    • Time-bound

    Let's say you:

    • Have an ultimate goal to get a high score in an English language exam (like ), so you can study abroad.

    You’ll need to plan how to reach this. An excellent way to start is to begin planning your short and medium-term goals. For example:

    • Short-term goal: Learn ten words each day
    • Medium-term goal: Improve practice test scores by 5% over the next month

    2. Make a study schedule

    Creating a well-thought-out schedule will help you to study English online and stay organized. It’ll also mean you dedicate enough time to each language skill – speaking, reading, writing and listening:

    • Pick times that work best for you – You may prefer studying at certain times of the day when you have more energy, or after doing something energizing like working out.
    • Stick to it – Once you’ve set a regular fixed time, stay with it to ensure it becomes a routine habit.
    • Make time – Give yourself as much time as possible to finish each task (especially in case life gets in the way) and some time to relax.

    3. Create a comfortable learning space

    Where you study . For example, sunlight can lead to better learning outcomes. Temperature and noise can also affect the way you learn. If you can, make sure that your learning space is:

    • well-lit
    • temperate
    • quiet (and private if possible!)
    • relaxing
    • organized

    You might also want to decorate your study space, perhaps with an indoor plant – they can !

    Also, before you start, do you have everything at hand? Do you have water? Is your coursebook close by? And is your computer fully charged? Having all your supplies on hand will help you stay focused – and learn English online faster.

    4. Eliminate distractions

    To learn English online, you need to eliminate distractions. Logging off your social media accounts and anything else distracting you until you’re done studying is good practice. If you find yourself logging back in, you might want to use a focus app (like , which can block up to thirty websites).
    If you can, turn off your phone altogether and put it away and out of sight. If you’re tempted to pick it up again, ask yourself why. Sometimes, there’s no good reason, and it’s best to keep studying.

    5. Try the Pomodoro Technique

    The Pomodoro Technique is a great way to break your studying into manageable chunks, which will also help you stay focused.

    The technique:

    • Set a timer for 20 minutes
    • Each time the timer goes off, write a tick on a piece of paper
    • Take a five-minute break
    • Continue to set the timer for 20-minute intervals
    • When you've got four ticks, take a 20-minute break

    This time management system works well because it gives you frequent breaks to look forward to and helps you concentrate. You can use this time to stretch, have a snack, take a walk – or do anything that gives your mind a rest.

    6. Use self-study resources

    There are lots of English learning materials available online – including worksheets, mock tests, games and grammar exercises. There are also various games and quizzes available online.

    7. Find a study partner

    We all know studying online can get lonely! That’s why we recommend you find a study partner. With a partner to work with, you can practice speaking and listening. You’ll have someone to check over your work. But most importantly – you’ll have someone to hold you accountable and help you stay motivated. Perhaps you know a friend or family member who is also studying English, and you can work with them. You can sometimes find local study groups or clubs depending on your location.

    If you're unable to find a local study group or an in-person partner, there are many places to find a study partner online – for example, or dedicated social media groups. You might also want to try out silent Zoom meetings; students and professionals keep each other focused by simply working together on mute.

  • A group of children in a classroom, one is sat at a desk drawing a picture, another is smiling at the camera

    Connecting with your students using simple creative activities

    By Laura Vazquez

    “We are all creative, but by the time we are three or four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us. Some people shut up the kids who start to tell stories. Kids dance in their cribs, but someone will insist they sit still. By the time the creative people are ten or twelve, they want to be like everyone else.” — Maya Angelou.

    We want our kids to excel in everything they do. This is partly down to the media, which has fostered the idea of celebrity kids and football leagues that encourage kids to become professional athletes at the age of eight or younger.

    However, we have missed the most crucial thing in their education – and that is to build their character through everyday creative activities which encourage the formation of human connections.

    Moving from kindergarten to elementary school

    Consider how nervous a first grader must feel after leaving the safe kindergarten playground and entering a strange new 'grown-up' world. The playgrounds are bigger, the kids are older, they have to line up to buy their first meal at the school cafeteria. The classroom has changed too: the desks look different, the books are bigger, and there are new challenges too.

    Some are thrilled to feel part of the older kids’ environment. Others, of course, are frightened and insecure. They have to understand and accept all the new rules and regulations, which now apply to them too.

    High expectations from parents must be met

    We also have moms, dads and caregivers worried for their little ones. They have high hopes for them. They want their children to become successful learners, multi-medal athletes, excellent readers, mathematicians or perhaps scientists…

    Professor David Healy, director of the North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, said:“We want kids to conform to ideals based often on parental insecurities and ambitions.”

    Elementary school has therefore become something resembling a battlefield, where children must thrive in spite of (and not because of) their interests. Only top grades and excellence in everything will make parents proud.

    But what if a child is not successful? What if their reading skills are below average? What if their daydreaming about a trip to the moon doesn’t allow them to concentrate?

    Then we have two lists of kids, the thriving kids with excellent grades and the other ones.

    So how can we take the pressure off and help all kids to thrive? Here are some simple creative activities to help.

    Reaching out to your students with a simple hello

    When did we forget that education is about promoting playfulness, imagination, and creativity to build up confidence?

    My very first and most important recommendation would be this:

    Before you start a class, give yourself a moment to say"Hello"to each individual in your class. Take that moment to make eye contact with every student and see how they are doing that day.

    Make this an important part of your routine. Then have them do the same with their classmates. You could even introduce phrases such as:

    • "How was your day yesterday?"
    • "How are you feeling today?"
    • "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"
    • "I notice you look nice today!"

    You can also try another creative activity. Ask your students to say good morning to the new day and think of something they are grateful for or someone they are grateful to. For example:

    • "Thank you mom, for my breakfast."
    • "I am grateful because all my classmates are here."
    • "Thank you moon, for your light every night."

    These are just a few simple creative activities. But the most important thing to consider, if you want to introduce creativity in the classroom, is that every student needs to feel in a secure and welcoming environment, free of criticism or judgment of their ideas. If you achieve this in your classroom, you will be well on your way to exploring your students’ creativity and building new connections with them.