Teaching creatively despite constraints

How can teachers embrace creativity in their classrooms when faced with rigid curriculums, standardized testing, and limited time?

That’s the question I’m exploring today with Trevor Muir, a teacher, author, creator, and co-founder of the New Teacher Academy. His books have helped teachers worldwide to create purposeful and dynamic learning experiences. Trevor has taught in middle, high school, and college classrooms, as well as pre-service teachers at Grand Valley State University.

In this article + podcast episode, Trevor shares personal stories from his own classrooms, including how vulnerability helped him connect with students and why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for engaging learners.

We cover topics such as:

• How to redefine creativity beyond art and big projects to include everyday teaching challenges
• Why vulnerability and failure are essential for creativity and how to model these for your students
• Practical strategies to encourage student risk-taking and buy-in through feedback and collaboration
• How storytelling can make lessons more dynamic, memorable, and relevant
• The benefits of involving students in the creative process to empower and engage them
• Why cultivating creativity in your personal life can positively impact your teaching.

By embracing creativity, you can create a classroom experience that energizes you, engages your students, and brings joy back to teaching. Read or listen in!

Listen to episode 319 below,
or subscribe in your podcast app

Defining creative teaching

ANGELA: Trevor, creativity often feels like a luxury in education when teachers face so many demands. How do you define creative teaching, and why do you think it’s so essential even when there are so many constraints?

TREVOR: Yeah, I think that’s a really good question. The way I think about creativity in teaching is just it’s facing the reality that kids are all individuals—they’re unique. This idea that you would teach them all the same or that the one way you teach one student is going to meet the needs of all of your other students—it’s like, that doesn’t make sense when you know what people and kids are like. Creativity in teaching is figuring out how to creatively adapt what I’m teaching, how I’m teaching it, and even where I’m teaching it to meet the needs of my students.

When I was teaching at a high school once, we had kids from all over the county coming to our school. Some were living in the inner city, and others lived way out in the country, busing in to come to school. I found that the way I connected with some of my students, who had completely different lives than their classmates, was not the same as how I connected with others. It required me to think about how to connect with them. How do I make this relevant to students who might not live in the country? Connecting with those students who have unique needs, interests, and passions required a different approach than with my students living in the city.

It requires creativity and pivoting—figuring out how to connect with all of them, which is a tall task. But I found that the more space I had to be creative, the more I could personalize and make things relevant, which allowed me to connect with more students.

Creativity through the lens of adapting to students’ needs

I love the idea of thinking about creativity as adapting things for student needs. Often, we think of creativity as amazing lessons, classroom transformations, and things like that. Student needs can feel like a barrier to creativity—it’s like, “I had this amazing creative lesson planned, but now you need this, you want that, and you’re interrupting and distracting from my creative plan.” What you’re talking about is thinking about student needs as an outlet for creativity.

Oh, isn’t that the truth? I remember when I started teaching, I had the mindset that if I just planned the perfect, big, awesome lesson or unit, I would get every one of my students excited about my classroom. Then I had this one student named Zeke. I always had my kids working in groups, doing dynamic projects. Zeke just wasn’t doing anything. I thought, “What’s wrong with this kid? Why isn’t he buying into the program like he’s supposed to?”

At parent-teacher conferences, I explained to Zeke’s mother how he wasn’t participating and how his groupmates complained about him not contributing. She told me, “Mr. Muir, Zeke really doesn’t like your class.” I thought, “What? Everybody likes my class! Why is that?” She explained that Zeke is a bit of an introvert and gets really intimidated by constantly having to work with other kids. Zeke had told her, “He’s extra.” I asked, “What does that mean?”

What I learned was that my approach wasn’t working for an introvert who needed space and quiet to recharge and collect his thoughts. By constantly putting him into groups and forcing him to think on the spot, I wasn’t meeting his needs. I consulted with mentors and realized I had to creatively adapt my classroom for Zeke and others like him. I created space for him to work alone or step away from group settings to recharge. With these adaptations, Zeke flourished.

To me, that’s creativity—meeting the needs of students in ways that weren’t originally planned. Creativity can involve creating cool lessons and projects, but it’s also about finding solutions to problems.

Advocacy for creativity in a restrictive system

What inspired you to advocate for creativity in teaching, and how has that transformed your own practice?

One time, I was speaking at a school in Tennessee, talking about designing learning units with the shape of a story and solving real problems. A teacher pulled me aside and said, “I love what you’re saying, but our principal expects us to finish the sentence of the teacher next door when he walks into the room.” I asked, “What?” She explained that they were so scripted that they couldn’t deviate in how they presented content.

That shocked me. In the first school where I learned creative pedagogy, my principal trusted me and supported creative risks in the classroom. Hearing about this teacher’s reality grounded me. Many teachers face systems that stifle creativity. When I asked teachers how they felt about teaching now, the top response was feeling tied down by administration or rules.

There’s so much creative potential in teaching, but the system can be restrictive. I believe we need to advocate for more creativity, personalization, and freedom for educators to exercise their creativity.

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Incremental changes toward creativity

What did you say to the teacher who had to follow a strict script? Do you advise teachers to stay in those situations?

I acknowledge how difficult that is. Telling every teacher dissatisfied with their creative freedom to “just find another job” isn’t realistic. Some teachers can make incremental changes, such as finding ways to deviate at times or incorporating activities to reinforce learning. For example, you can follow the script for 40 minutes and then use the remaining time for a Kahoot, simulation, or a problem-solving project.

I once had students create tools to help refugees adapt to life in America while learning about the Industrial Revolution. Most of the class time was still spent on content learning, but the project motivated students to work harder and learn deeply. Even small creative adaptations can make a big difference.

Creativity and standardized testing

How can we incorporate more creativity and approach standardized testing and mandated preparation in ways that are engaging and fun for both teachers and students?

This is out of most teachers’ hands, but I think part of it is that we need to change some of these benchmarks for students. Standardized testing has been dominant in education for the last 20 years, with a focus on studying data to improve instruction.

I was just reading something this morning about how some of these practices, like analyzing data to guide teaching, have largely been ineffective. This came from a study by the Harvard Business School or the Harvard School of Education, which examined the impact of using data to prepare students for standardized tests and found that by and large, it has been unsuccessful.

I saw that. Yes, it was amazing.

Yeah! We’re getting this data, but we’re not planning interventions based on it. So what good was it? Nothing. It didn’t work.

We’re preparing students for a standardized test they won’t take until junior year of high school, at the very end of K-12, and it’s only meant to predict how they’ll do in college. But we’re not even using that data in a meaningful way. It’s not being applied as it should be.

I think we need to shift some of that, but there’s also reality. Standardized test scores are still one of the biggest metrics colleges use for admissions. They’re also one of the main criteria for evaluating teachers—whether they’re rated successful, effective, or highly effective. So we still have to meet those expectations. But I believe strong creativity from teachers actually leads to better test results. When teachers personalize lessons and make learning relevant, student engagement increases, leading to deeper learning and less apathy.

I saw research recently from the Minnesota School of Education showing that when students engage in service learning—where the work they do isn’t just about themselves but serves a greater purpose—it has a significant impact. Teachers who creatively integrate service into their lessons help students develop not just academically but also socially and emotionally. Their collaborative skills improve because the work matters. The same study found that this approach also boosts cognitive development. When students are motivated by something bigger than grades or a future standardized test, they learn at a deeper level. And that makes sense—we’re all more motivated when what we’re doing has real meaning.

I always ask teachers, ‘Has anyone ever been in a staff meeting that could have been an email?’ And, of course, everyone says yes. Those meetings feel pointless. When you’re in one, do you find yourself reaching for your phone? Sitting near a friend so you can whisper and joke around? Everyone says yes to that too.

Then I ask, ‘What about a staff meeting that actually mattered? A big initiative where everyone needed to be on the same page? A student issue that required all hands on deck? Have you been in one of those?’ And unanimously, people say yes. ‘Okay, so in that kind of meeting, were you less tempted to check your phone? Were you more engaged? When your principal said to turn and talk, did you actually participate in the discussion?’ Yes. That’s what purpose does. It keeps people engaged, invested, and actively learning.

So when it comes to standardized testing and preparing students, I think the key is making learning more meaningful and authentic. If we can do that, it will naturally have an impact on how well students retain and apply what they learn.”

The power of storytelling in the classroom

I want to pivot a little bit and talk about the role of storytelling in engaging students. This is something that you and I have been discussing on Voxer, and just the power of that in making the learning stick and creating an experience for students that is memorable for them. I know that’s something that you’re really big on and something that you advocate a lot for. How can teachers use storytelling to make their lessons more dynamic?

I’ll tell you what—the things we remember most from childhood, from school, are usually stories. We remember the stories from our lives, and there’s so much neurological research and historical evidence showing that we are wired to retain information when it’s presented as a story. We remember moments that involved real conflict, a problem that mattered, and the journey of trying to solve it. That’s what our brains latch onto.

That’s why we love good stories. It’s why we can recall sitting on a parent’s or grandparent’s lap, listening to them tell a favorite tale. It’s why we can sit through a two-and-a-half-hour movie without checking our phones—it’s one of the only places where that still happens. Stories capture us because they’re memorable.

The best learning experiences work the same way. They engage students in a story where they encounter a conflict, a meaningful problem, and then work to solve it. The real creativity in teaching comes from figuring out how to connect the content to that story.

Take the refugee project I did with my students. At the start, a guest speaker shared the struggles of moving to our city as a refugee. That was the inciting event. Then came the rising action—students had to ask, ‘What can I do? What do I need to learn? What can I create to address this problem?’ It all built toward a climax—when they presented their work to an actual group of professionals.

Finally, there was resolution. Students reflected on what they had learned, reinforcing their understanding of both the content and the real-world impact of their work.

This isn’t new or groundbreaking—it’s human. We all remember dissecting a frog or creating a diorama, not just because of the task itself but because there was a purpose behind it. That’s the power of story in learning. If we’re intentional, we can design curriculum that follows this structure, engaging students in a way that sticks with them long after the lesson ends.

And that doesn’t mean every lesson has to be an elaborate, over-the-top production. Authenticity is about understanding what makes students tick, what feels purposeful to them, and then weaving the content into a meaningful problem they can solve.

Designing curriculum as a story

A good curriculum can be structured like a story. The teacher provides a compelling conflict or challenge that matters to students, then guides them through the process of solving it. The creativity lies in connecting the course content to the story, making learning purposeful and relevant.

Authenticity is key. It’s not about creating grand, over-the-top experiences but about tapping into what students care about. When teachers tie classroom learning to real-world problems, they help students see the value in their education and inspire them to engage more deeply.

This storytelling approach reinforces the idea that learning is not just about passing tests but about solving meaningful problems and creating memorable experiences.

Encouraging Creative Thinking and Risk-Taking in Students

How can we encourage students to think creatively and take risks in their learning when so many of them are afraid of failure? There’s consequences for failure—they might get left at. They don’t want to get a bad grade. How can we encourage and model this for kids?

I think we start by modeling it ourselves. As a kid, I remember thinking my teachers weren’t completely human. You’d see them at the grocery store and think, What are you doing here? And they’d say, I’m buying food for a project. And you’d think, No, you’re buying food to eat. You’re a real person.

I saw my teachers as different from everyone else I knew. But when you start teaching, when you spend time with other teachers, you realize—they’re just as human as the rest of us. And sometimes, it’s hard to let students in on that fact.

It starts with vulnerability. Letting students see that you fail too, and that you know how to move forward from failure. That took me some time to learn. I remember planning an activity that I thought would be amazing, only to have it completely flop. Instead of pretending otherwise, I told my students, Wow, I thought this would go better. I thought you’d love this. I guess not.

Just naming it makes a difference. That kind of honesty requires vulnerability, but as Brené Brown says, vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity. You can’t be creative without risk. Anytime you create something, you risk people not liking it, judging it. Being creative means being vulnerable.

That’s why I tell students, This is a fail zone. You’re allowed to fail here, as long as you’re committed to learning from it and moving forward. Sometimes, we just have to name that reality. It may sound cliché, but it’s true.

We have to teach students to add yet to their self-doubt. I can’t speak publicly. No, you can’t speak publicly yet. I don’t work well in groups. No, you don’t work well in groups yet. I’m not good at writing. No, you’re not good at writing yet. You just need practice.

Sometimes, the simplest shift in mindset can make all the difference.

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Helping teachers tap into their creativity

What would you say to teachers who feel like they are not very creative themselves? That that’s not something that they’ve ever really learned how to draw out of themselves. They don’t think of themselves as being creative teachers. They feel like they struggle to come up with new ideas. How can they tap into their creativity and bring that out in their teaching?

“I think it starts with redefining what creativity means. Many people assume creativity is about drawing, painting, making music, or coming up with wild lesson ideas that make students laugh.

Sure, those are examples of creativity. But so is figuring out how to manage an out-of-control student while keeping 29 others engaged. That’s creativity.

Talking down an angry parent who’s at a level 10 and helping them see a new perspective, bringing them down to a level three—that’s creativity. It comes from the same part of the brain that fuels artistic expression. Creativity is problem-solving.

Thriving as a teacher despite the challenges you face every day—that takes creativity, too.

So no, I don’t believe you’re not creative. I think you just haven’t exercised that muscle in certain ways yet.

I see this all the time. Teachers hesitate to try new things because they’re afraid of messing up. I struggle with this myself—learning not to fear failure. But I’ll say this: take the risk. It’s always worth it.

Failure isn’t the end of the world. In fact, sometimes it feels good to be humbled, to step back and think, What can I do differently next time?

We all want our students to be brave, to take risks, to push through challenges, and to lead. But that has to start with us. It starts at home with parents. It starts in schools with teachers. We have to show them what courage looks like.

So be a risk-taker. The consequences of failure are almost never as bad as we imagine.”

Practicing creativity outside the classroom

I think you get more comfortable with creativity when you practice it outside the classroom. Try something small—experiment with a recipe, swap out an ingredient, and see what happens.

Low-stakes risks like that help you see how creativity can enhance what you do. Cooking comes to mind because it naturally invites experimentation. Sometimes I realize I’m out of an ingredient and think, Maybe I can substitute this instead. That small shift often sparks new ideas and inspires me to try something different.

Practicing creativity in everyday life makes it easier to bring into teaching—it becomes second nature instead of something forced.

I love that.

And that’s something that I talk with teachers a lot about is how what we do outside of the classroom impacts how we show up in the classroom. And thinking about ways to be creative, practice risk-taking outside of the classroom so it becomes more natural. It’s not something we have to force ourselves to do, and it doesn’t feel so scary when you do it at work when that’s just something that you inherently do in your personal life as well.

Like you said, I’ve gotten really into cooking this past year. My daughter—she’s nine—and I have had so much fun in the kitchen this winter, learning how to cook together. It’s been a great way to stretch ourselves, especially for her since it’s all new.

I had maybe five recipes I knew how to make, so we kept pushing ourselves to try new things. Sometimes, it didn’t turn out well. It wasn’t what we expected. We’d laugh, toss it out, and try again. But other times, it worked, and we’d say, Wow, we actually made this, and it’s delicious!

And every time, I’m glad we took the risk. The more you practice creativity in everyday life, the more naturally it comes in your work.

Practices to cultivate creativity

Can you talk about other practices that we can do in our personal lives that help cultivate creativity and help us to think outside of the box, be more innovative, be more willing to take risks?

A lot of it comes down to how we talk to ourselves. Speaking from my own experience, it’s easy to get stuck in a negative feedback loop—You’re not good at this. Other people are better. Maybe you shouldn’t even try. But that mindset isn’t helpful.

I’ve found it’s important to shut that voice down when I’m taking creative risks or trying something new. Imposter syndrome can be loud. One thing I do is create videos for educators—usually quick, off-the-cuff clips where I share an idea or experience. I pull out my phone, hit record, and post it for whoever wants to watch.

But sometimes, I think, What if I made something bigger? What if I really invested time, energy, and effort into creating something different? So, this past year, I did. I worked with a filmmaker on a video I’m incredibly proud of. And yet—it’s still sitting on my computer. I haven’t uploaded it.

Because there’s something about putting your work into the world that feels terrifying. What if people don’t like it? What if teachers disagree with the message? What if no one even watches it? And then I start thinking, What if I wasted all this time and money? That fear of failure is real.

But then I remind myself: When my daughter and I made Thai chicken the other day, and it turned out awful, it wasn’t the end of the world. We laughed, tossed it out, and moved on.

What if most failures are like that? What if they don’t destroy us but instead give us a chance to learn and adjust? The more we practice taking risks in everyday life, the more courage we build for the bigger ones.

So, I’m posting that video tomorrow. And in the classroom, I try to take the same approach. Instead of lecturing, I might say, You know what, guys? Today, we’re trying something different. We’re going to do a Socratic seminar, and I’m not leading it. You’re coming up with the discussion questions, and I’ll sit back and watch.

Maybe their questions won’t be great. Maybe the discussion flops. That’s fine—I’ll adjust and try again tomorrow. But maybe it works. Maybe they take ownership, engage deeply, and it’s one of the best lessons of the year.

Creativity is a muscle. The more you flex it, the stronger it gets. The less you use it, the more it atrophies. So take the risk. Try something new. It’s always worth it.

Inviting students into the creative process

Yes! And you can try creativity in so many different areas. That’s what makes it exciting—it sparks ideas in ways you wouldn’t expect.

I love your point about telling kids, This is something brand new. I’ve never done it before. That immediately grabs their interest. They’re intrigued, thinking, Ooh, let’s see if this works. Maybe she’ll mess up. There’s something engaging about a teacher being a little off-kilter, trying something alongside them.

Sometimes, I’ll say, I want to test this out with you to see if I should use it with next year’s class. When we’re done, I’ll ask for your feedback—what should I change? What should I keep? You can do the same at the end of a unit: What were the best parts? What should I use again? What should I throw out? What should I tweak?

Involving students in that process helps normalize feedback. It shifts from a top-down dynamic—I’m evaluating you—to a mutual exchange: You get to evaluate me, too. And it’s not about what went right or wrong but about refining the learning experience. How can I make this better? What would help next year’s students?

Treating teaching as a creative experiment—rather than something that has to be perfect from the start—takes the pressure off. Instead of thinking, I have to get this exactly right, you’re telling students, I haven’t tried this before, and I want your feedback. I think this could be really engaging, meaningful, and help you understand this concept better—let me know what works and what doesn’t.

Inviting students into that process is powerful. It makes learning feel dynamic, collaborative, and something they have ownership over.

Oh, that’s such a great thought. It shifts students’ mindset from I’m just here to learn to I’m actually part of this process, too. It taps into that same idea—when people feel empowered to contribute, they become more invested.

Growing up, I saw teachers as the holders of all knowledge and power. My job as a student was to absorb as much as possible so I could move on to the next level. That was the whole motivator. But once you start teaching, you realize students are so much more engaged when they’re actively involved in the learning process. When they feel like their contributions matter, they buy in at a much deeper level. And that takes creativity.

How do I get more student buy-in? How do I empower them to take ownership? That’s the creative challenge. And what you brought up—it’s almost like magic.

Even if I don’t necessarily need their feedback in a given moment (though I usually do), just asking for it makes a difference. Students want to feel like their voice matters. Simply saying, Hey, what do you guys think I could do better next time? makes them feel invested. The more you invite them into the process, the more engaged they become.

The joy and impact of creative teaching

Let’s close out with a Takeaway Truth. I want to hear something that you wish every teacher understood about teaching creatively, even with restraints.

I’ll say this: In education, we often talk about how it’s all about the kids—how students deserve everything we’ve got because their success and growth come first. And I hear that. I love that sentiment. Of course, we prioritize students—why wouldn’t we? Education is about their development.

But I also think it’s about the teachers. There are millions of educators in this country, and the more we create opportunities for students to do meaningful, creative work, the more it benefits teachers too. Teaching creatively isn’t just about serving students—it serves you as well. Creativity is human. It feels good. It makes you go home at the end of the day and think, Wow, I did something hard today. I tried something new. That felt invigorating.

A huge number of teachers leave the profession because they’re bored. They feel stuck, doing the same thing year after year. And yes, the system plays a role in that.

But sometimes, we have to shake things up. Try something new.

Of course, you’re bored if you’re using the same lesson plans from 20 years ago. Adapt them. Change them. Use the technology now at your fingertips to make small but meaningful shifts.

That shift might be exactly what reignites your passion. The more creative I am, the more my students engage. And the more they engage, the more energized I feel as a teacher. It creates a cycle where creativity fuels both student learning and teacher fulfillment.

That’s what I’ve seen in my own work, and it’s what I hear from teachers over and over. When students are into what they’re learning, when they’re invested, it transforms the way teachers feel about their work. Creativity isn’t just for students—it’s what keeps us going too.