Stick 'Em Up Brainstorming

In March 2026, after being given the green light for a mural, my coworker Anna Emerson and I thought it would be a good idea to start planning right away with the Art Club we co-advise.  In my classroom I have a CPS kit with sharpies, scented markers, post-its, and stickers begging to be used. I also knew Anna had a white board in her classroom underneath her projector so I proposed some Stick 'Em Up brainstorming.

Before we started the brainstorm I briefly introduced the 4 Divergent Guidelines: Defer Judgement, Strive for Quantity, Seek Wild and Unususal Ideas, and Bulid off/Combine Ideas. I thought the students took to them really well; I heard students reminding each other to defer judgement and they truly did get silly with their ideas. They enjoyed writing the ideas on post-its and then handing them off to Anna and I to read out loud. 

About 10 minutes later the whiteboard was filled with all kinds of ideas. I explained to the students that it was time to Converge our ideas. Each student was given 3 stickers to place on their favorite ideas. We ended up with an overarching idea of "No Artificial Intelligence" along with themes of building community, black lives matter, diversity, and including the school mascot. Anna asked our students what the idea of "No Artificial Intelligence means to them and from there we told them it was now their turn to begin making designs. 

Anna and I plan to extend the mural project further by announcing the idea to the whole school so we can get a wide range of deisgns for the mural.