Being creative rewards one with a cornucopia of benefits and opportunities. A classroom without creative minds lacks enthusiasm and can fade into a hideously boring one. Why not nurture a creative environment where students can get cheered up and inspired to chase goal after goal? Here’s how you can magnetize creativity in the classroom! Customize Your Classroom With a Theme What could be more entertaining than draping the whole classroom in a weekly theme? Choose any strikingly interesting theme from history or literature. For example, you choose the Victorian era. Now you’ve to drench every little thing in your classroom with a Victorian touch and train your students to speak English as awe-striking as the characters in novels set in the Victorian period. Let students be Jo March from Little Women, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, and many more captivating characters. This will enhance their creative flow of language as well as their enthusiasm to learn. Fill the Walls With Posters of Great Quotes There are many quotes with different shades of emotions. Some quotes are just meant to shake our hearts while other quotes are meant to make us ponder and change into someone new. And some quotes look as if it’s written for us. So let the walls of your classroom be decorated with powerful quotes. It’ll immensely help your students remember and quote them on suitable occasions, and they’ll be admired for their cleverness. Create a Vision Board Create a big vision board for the academic year, and let all the students devise their weekly goals to stick on. Encourage the students to craft goal after goal to chase and achieve. Reward them with stickers or any school stationery item. While complimenting the achievers, don’t forget to cheer up the ones who are pacing like snails. Build a Classroom Library Cultivate reading habits in the classroom by creating a mini library. Motivate students to buy, exchange, and discuss books they have read. Making students compete by reading more, it’ll gradually mould them into voracious readers as well as enhance their cognitive functioning to build their realms of creative worlds. Give Them Creative Assessments Instead of making them write assignments with long, boring paragraphs, tell them to edit videos with pictures and audio describing the topic as creatively as possible. Let them present the topic in a story-telling format, song, or even comics. The more options you toss, the more creative they craft. By implementing this method, the classroom not only becomes an imaginative realm but also becomes engaging and comprehensive.

Hands That Talk Louder Than Mouths Ever watched two Italians chatting from across the street? It’s like witnessing a silent movie in real-time. Welcome to the fascinating world of Mediterranean gestures, where hands do as much talking as mouths. In the sun-soaked lands around the Mediterranean, communication goes way beyond words. Here, a flick of the wrist or a tap on the nose can speak volumes. It’s a secret language that’s been evolving for centuries, and boy, is it fun to decode. Let’s start with Italy, the undisputed champion of hand gestures. Did you know they have a gesture that means “I couldn’t care less”? It involves flicking your fingers under your chin as if you’re brushing away crumbs. Next time someone asks you to do the dishes, try this one out (but don’t blame us for the consequences). Now, hop over to Greece, where they have a gesture that’ll make you scratch your head. When Greeks want to say “no,” they don’t shake their heads – they jerk them upwards while clicking their tongues. To foreigners, it might look like they’re trying to catch flies, but it’s a firm negative. But here’s where it gets really interesting. In Malta, there’s a gesture that looks like you’re twisting an invisible doorknob. Any guesses on what it means? It’s their way of saying someone’s a bit crazy or eccentric. Talk about turning ideas on their head. You’d be shocked to know that in some parts of Spain, making a circle with your thumb and index finger doesn’t mean “OK.” Instead, it’s considered a rude gesture. So be careful with your hand signs when ordering that perfect paella. Not only that, but gestures can vary wildly even within the same country. In southern Italy, touching your nose can mean “watch out” or “be careful.” But in Sicily, the same gesture might be used to say “This person is cunning.” Context is everything, folks. One of the most universal Mediterranean gestures is the “evil eye” ward-off. You’ll see people pinching their thumb and pinky together and pointing them downwards to protect against bad luck. It’s like a miniature force field for your fingers. But perhaps the most charming gesture is found in Turkey. When Turks want to show affection, they might place their hand over their heart and bow slightly. It’s a silent way of saying “you’re in my heart”,  way more poetic than a simple “I like you,” right? Learning these gestures isn’t just fun – it’s a window into Mediterranean culture. These unspoken signals reveal how people think, feel, and interact. They’re living history, passed down through generations and evolving with each new hand wave. So next time you’re in a Mediterranean country, keep your eyes peeled for these silent conversations. You might not understand all the words being spoken, but with a keen eye for gestures, you’ll never be out of the loop. Just remember to use them wisely, in the world of Mediterranean gestures, a little goes a long way.