Educator as Creator

Since I am waiting for the school year to get settled in before I start my classroom visits, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching to prepare and reflect.

While recently reading Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Teachers and Children from North America, I came across a particular story that was very interesting to me, perhaps even empowering.  The story is written by Carol Brunson Day who is known for her role at the National Black Child Development Institute and her advocacy for disenfranchised communities.

Brunson Day speaks about the idea that within Reggio approaches, the teacher is a creator, not an imitator.  In that sense, new creations are made every year.  Projects and lessons are not repeated year after year and are not copied from colleagues.  This idea asks us, as educators to grow and to be constantly changing.  It is almost as if education is something that has life, something that is breathing.  As Brunson Day says “It is alive and changing, making and remaking itself.” The school then becomes more than a building.  The school is the relationships and interactions between children, families, and teachers and in my case, museum educators too.  As participants of the school, we are able to make it something new every year.  Brunson Day challenges teachers to be empowered in the process and “to construct curriculum that builds together with the children and families in a deeply personal way”.

As an artist and an educator, I often think of what I do in the classroom as art.  The “art of teaching”, I suppose.  The idea that the curriculum can constantly be rebuilt and recreated supports this connection between teaching and art practice.  

How are you actively stimulating new creations in your school community? How are you being a creator?