This may include but is not limited to having designated duties for different team members – timekeeper, summary person, questioner, reader, etc. With a young team, try to come up with different “roles” or jobs for each to have responsibility during the Instant Challenge. Please don’t assign these roles, but to describe them and discuss with the group who they think would be good at this role or like to try it? If more than one person, you can have TWO in a category – can’t hurt. If nobody volunteers, have them draw “roles” from slips of paper for a few times and see if they find an area they are comfortable. Or if they’ve chosen roles and it doesn’t seem to mesh, that’s the time to insist everyone try a new role.

Possible Roles and Responsibilities:

1. The Rule Person – This person reads the Instant Challenge and throughout the working time is the person who refers back to the written challenge to be sure they are solving as directed and following rules. Many an Instant Challenges has run aground when a team has an amusing presentation, but talks in a nonverbal, or touches the tape that can’t be touched, or changes the item that “can’t be changed.” The rule person keeps the focus on what is allowed.
2. The Points Person – This person makes sure the team is getting the most points possible. Example: If the challenge said 10 points for a skit and 50 points for each creative costume, the rule person would remind the team that costumes were important, point-wise. Especially if they got stuck writing a skit and forgot to dress up! –Yes, rule person and points person might seem redundant, but you WANT two kids checking the rules and paper and points throughout, so there are two slightly different roles that overlap.
3. The Timekeeper – This role can take two forms. One – The designated Timekeeper’s role is to continually ask the appraiser how much time is left in the challenge. This is generally used with younger teams where watches are harder to use. Two – This person must have a watch and must get used to checking it and telling the team when they are half-way through, or have a minute left, whatever is appropriate. You can always have two Timekeepers, each one tracking the time both ways.  REMEMBER: If you are using your own watch/device it will ALWAYS be the Appraisers timer that is the official time. Make sure there are no bells, ringers, alarms etc. armed on the device the team is using. This needs to be a verbal countdown by the team member.
   
4. The Laughmeters – Often more than one person volunteers for this, but this is a job to be sure that the skit or whatever is funny (assuming it is supposed to be funny) and suggests quirky actions, character voices, funny lines and whatever else tickles their fancy. While we tell Appraisers that “kid humor” is different than “adult humor” it’s best to remind team members that if your grandma wouldn’t find it funny…. most likely the Appraisers won’t either.
5. The Brainstorm Facilitator – This is the moderator of the group, who makes sure that everybody is participating and encourages the less-outgoing kids to speak up, and asks the babbling kids to “hold that thought” while another idea is heard. This person makes sure that there is some order to the teamwork and participation; if several people want to talk, this person identifies people in turn to speak, so that everyone gets a turn. This team member is a future diplomat!
6. The “What If?” Person – If you don’t use up all your kids with jobs above doubling up, add a “what if?” person. This person listens to the first two ideas and then says “what if…” and adds on or changes one of the ideas. Even if they don’t do this in a meet, this is great practice for thinking outside the box. There can be more than one “what if?” person. Example: Someone says the skit can be animals in a zoo. The “what if?” person says, “or what if it can be animals on a farm?” or “what if?” person says “what if it was an ANT farm?” and so on…..

Hearing:

Another factor to keep in mind is that in Instant Challenge the Appraisers must be able to hear a team’s brainstorming in order to accurately score them on team work. Remind your team not to whisper when they are brainstorming. This is not the time to pretend you’re in the library. Practice Idea: Have one of the team members try sitting away from the team while they brainstorm. Afterwards, discuss as a team if the team member sitting out could hear everything.

Time:

It’s hard for even adults to know how long 2 minutes is or how much they might get done in that length of time. Practice Idea: Using a stopwatch have the team sit in a circle, ask them to raise their hand when they think two minutes is up. Don’t call out time until everyone has raised their hand. Is it longer than you think or shorter? What about 5 minutes? Use a practice Instant Challenge and talk through what can the team can do while the clock is running.

On December 6, 2011, Colorado citizens will come together again to raise millions of dollars for nonprofits like ours. Last year, the goal to raise $1 million for Colorado charities was exceeded — $8.7 million was distributed instead!

Destination ImagiNation Colorado has a goal of raising $5,000 this first year of our participation. That $5,000 will help train team managers across the state, provide seed money to start a creativity day camp this summer, and help us reach communities and students across Colorado who may not have access to the Destination ImagiNation program.

Please include us in your holiday giving plans!

To make a donation, click here: Colorado Gives

• November 5th at Eldorado K-8, 3351 S. Indiana Street, Superior. (map)
• January 7th at South HS, 1700 East Louisiana Avenue, Denver, CO (map)

Time: 7:45 until 3:00

Agenda: Team-Manager-Training-2010-2011

The agendas for these trainings will be identical. You will:

• Learn about DI
• Meet your Challenge Master
• Practice Instant Challenges
• Choose classes on Creative Problem Solving, Storytelling, Conflict Management and many other topics chosen from Team Manager suggestions.

Can you be a Team Manager and not attend a training?

Of Course…. but why would you want to? Why would you miss all the great information to give your team the best advantage? Why would you make the Destination ImagiNation year harder on yourself by missing all the wonderful tips and trick? Why miss hanging out with other adults taking on the same challenge your team has taken on?

Best of all…. we’re just a really fun group!

The PDF of our program is here: South Metro 2011 Program

A map of Douglas County High School: Douglas County HS map to Challenge Sites

Information for the Tournament Day:

Information/Sales Booth: We will have an information booth and sales table in the North Building entry way. Please make sure your families have all the information they will need. The teams challenge name, the time the team needs to check in (not the performance time!) Grandparents need to know the school name as well. I have put together a Team Information Sheet for you to hand out to parents. Please encourage them to make copies for everyone they are bringing with them. We have so many lost grandparents every year! Team Information Sheet

Weather: We are given one day through the school district to put on our tournament. While we’d love to think there’s a snow date on the calendar we could have – there isn’t. Unless you see here on our web site we’ve had to cancel assume we are going ahead. If there is bad weather please help your team plan how they are going to get their props to and from the high school.

Food: Douglas County High School will be providing food throughout the day. We ask that you please support them generously. They have very graciously given us use of the school without charging us which we appreciate very much.

Parking: North Building – There is a large parking lot on the west side of the building. The drop-off lane is available for teams to load and unload their props. If you park there YOU WILL BE TOWED.  No exceptions. South Building – there is parking on the west and south side of the building. The South Building has handicap access but you may need to get a hold of the Challenge Master to get a key to the elevator.

Please note: You cannot drive between the two parking lots without getting on Front Street. Someone put a football field in the way.

Shirts and Pins: There are a limited number of shirts available for sale $15 and plenty of our South Metro pins $4.

Lost and Found: Will be at Instant Challenge and then at the Awards Ceremony. Items not claimed within 10 days will be donated to Goodwill.

If you have any other questions please contact me Debi Tipton

It’s a bit messy and once I have a bit more time I’ll get it cleaned up and a version in pdf form for you to download. But I know you’re all dying to know the schedule! So here it is, the 2011 South Metro Regional Schedule:

2011 South Metro Tournament Schedule

Team Manager Meeting

Don’t forget our Team Manager’s Meeting this Thursday at 7:00 pm. Douglas County HS (map)  2842 Front Street, Castle Rock, CO 80104-9433. This is the perfect opportunity for Team Managers to look over the challenge site, pick up any shirts and pins the team ordered and ask those nagging questions you have. We will be in the North Building in the Lunchroom. Please do not arrive before 7:00, the tournament committee has work to do before we meet with you. If you can’t attend the meeting you are more than welcome to contact your Challenge Master with any questions.

Shirts and Pins

If you ordered shirts and pins but are unable to attend the Team Managers meeting to pick up your items we will have a location at the tournament holding them for you. Additional shirts and pins will be available for sale tournament day. Shirts are in limited supply/sizes and strictly first come-first served.

This will be a fun filled and educational evening for everyone…. bring the family, bring your team from 7:00 – 9:00 pm!

Can’t make it to the Tattered Cover that night? Purchase your copy of Jump! here and Bob will make a donation to Destination ImagiNation Colorado.

When: February 25, 8:00pm – February 26, noon. Yes, it is an overnight lock‐in with DI Colorado officials. Students will not be allowed to leave in the middle of the night.

Where: Henry Middle School, 3005 S. Golden Way, Denver, CO 80227

Who: High school students, and their adult Team Manager, limited to 12 teams.

What: Come and see how great you are thinking on your feet. Your team will be competing against other HS teams to solve a murder mystery using your DI skills.

Cost: $150 per team, up to 7 members, and one Team Manager

What’s included: All materials you need to solve the challenge, coffee, soda, pizza (at the stroke of midnight), snacks, breakfast, adult supervision and a whole lot of fun.

What to bring: Adult Team Manager, sleeping bag, pillow, any additional snacks or drinks your team may desire.

Registration materials here: DIExtreme2011

Date: February 12, 2011

Directions: To get to St Mary’s Academy (map)

Parking: Please park in the parking lot on the North side of the property. It is a larger lot and closer to the Middle School building where your team will check in. Signs will direct you to the Middle School building

Appraiser: Part of your registration is to provide an appraiser. Please confirm that your appraiser is available. If you have a name other than the one supplied on the registration form please contact me (Debi Tipton) ASAP with the name of your new appraiser so we may get information about the day to them. It is vitally important your appraiser be there!

Check in time is 9:30. Please DO NOT arrive before 9:30 as there is no place for the teams to wait except out in the cold. The teams will begin the first challenge at 9:45 and will finish at 10:45.  In this time the team will complete four instant challenges.

St Mary’s – Reyes     St Mary’s – Evans     St Mary’s – Rael     St Mary’s – Mauk     Charles Hay – Greenly     Buffalo Ridge – Carlson

Cherrelyn – Fritzche    Cherry Hills – Howard   Highland – Gains     Highland – Marker     Charles Hay – Pine     Charles Hay – Nickerson

Northridge – Marlow     Northridge – Vasquez     St Mary’s – Tolkacz     Northridge – Weiser     Aspen Academy – Fouracre

Aspen Academy – Duggan     St Mary’s – Hoogerwerf     Wilder – Soluka     Cherry Hills – Kent     Cherry Hills – McNaul     Cherry Hills – Wiesner

Heritage – Miller

Check in time is 11:00. Please DO NOT arrive before 11:00 as there is no place for the teams to wait except out in the cold. The teams will begin the first challenge at 11:15 and will finish at 12:15. In this time the team will complete four instant challenges.

St Mary’s – Diecidue     Roxborough – Zambruk     Roxborough – Teklits     Roxborough – Narog     Clayton – Robideau     Clear Sky – Lorton

Clear Sky – Martin     Fox Creek – Bedell     Mackintosh – Marizza     Pine Grove – Hoger     Sandburg – Wikowsky     Fox Creek – Cholez

Wilder – McCouire     Roxborough – O’Haire    Roxborough – Tolbert     Roxborough – Cole     Powell – Klein      Macintosh – Schwanitz

Rocky Heights – Mitchell      COVA – Akins     ELA – Johnson     ELA – Kloewer     Fox Creek – Klein     Northridge – Jaing

Check in time is 1:00. Please DO NOT arrive before 1:00 as there is no place for the teams to wait except out in the cold. The teams will begin the first challenge at 1:15 and will finish at 2:15. In this time the team will complete four instant challenges.

Leigh Glade     Highland – Butscher     Cherrelyn – Tucker     Cherokee Trail – Dawson     St Mary’s – Stein-Plog     Arundhuti Guha

Kim Christianian     Lori Wagner     Goddard – Clouse     Goddard – Sanders     Sierra – Hoeger     Richard Crushing     Jessica Sanderson

Celeste Chrapro     Kim Snowdon

Check in time is 2:30. Please DO NOT arrive before 2:30 as there is no place for the teams to wait except out in the cold. The teams will begin the first challenge at 2:45 and will finish at 3:45. In this time the team will complete four instant challenges.

Jodi Debs     Rolling Hills – Chartrand     Michelle Miller     Jennifer Gottschalk     Elizabeth Soper      Tavie Maroncelli      Hagen Holmes

Kern Karkos     Leslie Maegley     Aishie Selway     Arapahoe – Klein     Englewood – Ricklefs     Orla Sullivan     Jessica Sanderson MS

Jennifer Thomas

Additional resource materials will be available for sale at the trainings.

Please bring your lunch and a drink with you.

Team Manager Training Information

January 8, 2011: South HS, 1700 E. Louisiana Avenue, Denver, CO (map)

A Box? A Spaceship? What Makes Kids Creative?

When art teacher Kandy Dea recently assigned fourth-graders in her Walnut, Iowa, classroom to create a board game to play with a friend, she was shocked by one little boy’s response: He froze.

While his classmates let their imaginations run wild making up colorful characters and fantasy worlds, the little boy said repeatedly, “I can’t think of anything,” Ms. Dea says. Although she reassured him that nothing he did would be judged “wrong,” he tried to copy another student’s game, then asked if he could make a work sheet instead. She finally gave him permission to make flash cards with right-and-wrong answers.

Americans’ scores on a commonly used creativity test fell steadily from 1990 to 2008, especially in the kindergarten through sixth-grade age group, says Kyung Hee Kim, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. The finding is based on a study of 300,000 Americans’ scores from 1966 to 2008 on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, a standardized test that’s considered a benchmark for creative thinking. (Dr. Kim’s results are currently undergoing peer review to determine whether they will be published in a scholarly journal.)

The Torrance tests have been used in the U.S. and abroad for decades and are often used in schools to determine which children are admitted to gifted programs. The test is considered a reliable indicator of divergent thinking—the ability to generate many different, new and appropriate ideas, says James C. Kaufman, an associate professor of psychology at California State University, San Bernadino, and an author on creativity. However, he says it falls short in measuring other dimensions of creativity, such as the ability to put these ideas to work to make new and useful products.

Researchers believe growth in the time kids spend on computers and watching TV, plus a trend in schools toward rote learning and standardized testing, are crowding out the less structured activities that foster creativity. Mark Runco, a professor of creative studies and gifted education at the University of Georgia, says students have as much creative potential as ever, but he would give U.S. elementary, middle and high schools “a ‘D’ at best” on encouraging them. “We’re doing a very poor job, especially before college, with recognizing and supporting creativity,” he says.

Many parents are stepping into the breach by nurturing their kids’ creative skills. They are challenging them to generate new ideas or encouraging them to notice problems in the world around them and research possible solutions. By tolerating “wrong” answers or allowing their children to live in a fantasy world for a while, parents can put off the emphasis on skill-building and achievement, researchers say.

In the past, researchers thought of creativity as the ability to generate lots of new ideas. But in recent years, experts have begun assigning equal importance to learning how to pick the best ideas and solve specific problems, often by working in teams.

Some parents are signing their children up for programs designed to foster creativity. One such program, Destination ImagiNation, Cherry Hill, N.J., is an educational nonprofit that involves nearly 100,000 students in annual competitions. Volunteer coaches guide teams of up to seven kids, grouped by age from kindergarten through college, who work together after school to come up with creative solutions. They’re given projects like designing weight-bearing structures from foil, wood and glue, solving a community problem or, for small children, creating a play about bugs to show how they interact with nature and animals. Similar programs include Odyssey of the Mind, Sewell, N.J., and Future Problem-Solving Program International, Melbourne, Fla.

To nurture creative skills at home, parents can invite children to come up with possible solutions for everyday problems, and listen to their ideas with respect, says Don Treffinger, president of the Center for Creative Learning, a Sarasota, Fla., consulting group. A child who notices that an ailing neighbor is snowed in might shovel her sidewalks, for example. A child who is troubled by photos of Haitian disaster victims might donate allowance money to a relief fund.

Asking open-ended questions and showing interest in answers can help. When Meg Richey sat down a couple of years ago to write a speech about activist Rosa Parks, her opening was a clunker: “Rosa Parks was an important person in American history,” says Meg, now 10. “It was dull.”

But after her father Brett, of Charlottesville, Va., a volunteer coach for several Destination ImagiNation teams, praised her effort, encouraged her to dig deeper and asked open-ended questions about how she might improve it, Meg says, she thought up a new introduction: “Can you imagine being kicked out of your seat just because of the color of your skin?” The speech was a winner at a youth-group competition. Now, Meg says she goes through the same process on her own when she writes. “I ask myself all the questions my dad asked, and it gets the creative juices flowing,” she says.

Parents also need to refrain from judging kids’ ideas, even if they seem crazy or naive. When Linda Rice’s son Jacob, 10, told her last spring that he wanted to make a lot of money writing, publishing and selling a global newspaper and an accompanying website, she listened, then asked a few questions. Who would be the best people to ask first to buy subscriptions, the Plover, Wis., mother and former teacher asked. Drawing on her past experience working with gifted students, Ms. Rice encouraged him to think about what kinds of stories he would include.

Jacob decided to limit his early subscription sales to family members and friends. When he ran out of ideas for stories, Ms. Rice prompted him with questions about what readers might enjoy, and Jacob decided to make up some puzzles. His eight-page newspaper had a successful four-month run with 10 subscribers, earning him $90 before he lost interest, Ms. Rice says.

It is best to avoid paying too much attention to the outcome of kids’ creative efforts, says Dr. Kaufman, the professor. “The more emphasis put on the final product—’It’s so beautiful I’m going to frame it and tell my friends about it,’ ” he says, the greater is “the risk that the kid is going to do pictures for the praise, and not for the enjoyment.” Instead, emphasize effort over results.

When Maureen Dougherty’s three kids were small, she and her husband Brian encouraged them to make up their own lyrics and dances to nursery rhymes, says Ms. Dougherty, of Stephens City, Va. Hearing Mr. Dougherty and the kids laughing one night years ago, Ms. Dougherty opened a door to find them stumbling around with their eyes closed, singing original lyrics to “The Three Blind Mice.”

After inventing spontaneous lyrics for years, their children, now 14, 18 and 20, enjoy public speaking and “can think of things to say right off the cuff,” Ms. Dougherty says.

Raising a creative child can be taxing. Such kids tend to have above-average “spontaneity, boldness, courage, freedom and expressiveness,” Dr. Kim says. So they sometimes behave like little anarchists.

Parents can explain when it is OK to be whimsical, and when they have to toe the line, Dr. Kaufman says. If your child loves to parody lyrics to children’s songs, for example, “you have to let them laugh and giggle,” and then explain that “you shouldn’t do this at school,” he says.

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com