By Greta Visscher-Pau (Secondary FSL Teacher) It’s 2020, and you are on a train. You carry nothing but a backpack, filled with clothes, toiletries and a guidebook explaining how to get from A to B. As you wait for the train to pull out from the station, a smiling person walks […]
By Terri Zolob (K/1 Teacher) You never know what’s in store when you begin a journey. Perhaps it is a bit of the unknown that intrigues us to take that first step. That first step for me came 5 years ago when, as fate would have it, I met Kieran Egan. It in the cozy […]
By Jolene McFadyen-Nein (Kindergarten Teacher) Working in a school that is nestled in the heart of our community has sparked my interest in Place-Based learning. Many of my students live close by, but have very little understanding of the place in which they live. I have pushed to ensure that my students have emotional ties […]
I’m pleased to announce that the Walking Curriculum is expanding! Coming soon: Resources for secondary school students that look at issues of “walkability”, social justice, and community development. So please stay tuned! This set of walks and resources (Set #10) was suggested by the awesome teachers in Surrey, B.C., Canada, who participated in a “#getoutside” […]
By Emma Huvos (ECE Outdoor Educator, Founder, Riverside Nature School) When I taught in a traditional preschool classroom, I was constantly spending time and money I didn’t have to create what I thought were inviting, exciting spaces intended to foster deep and meaningful play. Week after week, I fussed over signs and props and materials […]
By Jailson Lima (Chemistry Professor, Vanier College, Montreal, QC, Canada) Playfulness is crucial in setting the mood for exploring creativity and imagination. In my History of Science course (which is mandatory in the Liberal Arts program at Vanier College) we study the evolution of science going from Aristotelian cosmology to Newtonian Physics, and then to Einstein’s view […]
“For children, play is learning” (Keynote, Children & Nature Network, April, 2017) Some topics get a lot of airtime in education. The value of play for children’s well-being and intellectual development is one such topic. There is ample research to back up this claim (e.g. Ginsburg, 2007; Lewis 2017). But if I change one word—“For […]
By Katie White (Educational consultant, Author, Assessment Associate, & Art Instructor) Consider, if you will, that the importance of imagination and creativity inside our school spaces is not up for debate. Let’s begin by moving past this discourse and, instead, asking ourselves how often we associate imagination and creativity with assessment? For some readers, these concepts might […]
Great teaching inspires learners. By “inspire”, I mean it leaves them feeling emotionally engaged or connected with the content knowledge. Emotional engagement matters as much in primary school as it does in graduate school. It matters as much in K-12 Art, History, Mathematics, Science or Languages classrooms as it does in institutions of Higher Education. Whatever […]
By Ira Rabois What is critical thinking? One element of critical thinking that most everyone agrees on is “higher order thinking,” which includes evaluating the appropriateness of evidence, the truth of propositions, and the soundness of arguments. But is this enough? I think you need to add imagination, mindfulness and empathy, and to think of critical […]
“No matter how much a grown-up cares for you, sometimes they can’t really change how you feel inside or you could be too afraid to tell them that you are being bullied. I wanted to create an app where kids could solve that problem immediately.” Melissa R, Grade 4 (View Melissa’s […]
BEFORE YOU DIG IN…Why the monstrous hamburger? This post was originally a 5-minute presentation I delivered at #GetFed, an #EDVent in Vancouver hosted by @gabrielpillay1 (and his wonder-team) that had a “food” and “dining” theme. My topic: “Practices that feed the mind and nourish the imagination.” And so I chose to focus on a hamburger. My writing […]
By Ira Rabois As a child, I dreamed of being an adventurer. My parents traveled every year to different places and countries, and this stimulated my imagination. For me, college was not just a time to learn a profession or for intellectual study. It was an opportunity for the possibilities of life to reveal themselves […]
Welcome back to the Tools of Imagination Series—a set of posts offering cross-curricular resources and teaching strategies for maximizing student engagement and learning. This TIP in our series will be most effective with learners demonstrating a “philosophic” kind of understanding of the world but–as you will see at the end–it is not only for our oldest students. (Note: This […]
