Monday, April 4, 2011

professional development

I'd file everything I've experienced in the past looong 2 weeks as Xtreme Professional Development.
But darkness, meet light: a booked-long-ago professional development session I was doing with a class of adult learners just made my day. In my chapter in 20Under40 I conclude with a call to honor and support the "gardeners" of the tender sprouts of the next generation of thinkers and creators - early childhood caregivers, teachers, and parents. I spent my Saturday morning with a posse of these gardeners, fully committed to really drop the craft-habit and give their kids opportunities to do their thing. their teacher is really doing something right - they love her class and arrived clearly ahead of the game in many ways. We shared our tragic scarred-for-life moments when the artist in us was squashed by a well-meaning adult... and committed (by signed contract!) to do our best... well, I'll let them tell you themselves. I'll be posting something on everykidsanartist.com soon. I think this group will help me get some really helpful content on there - they were real, insightful, and passionate people. Here's a list they came up with when thinking about creativity outside of artmaking.
Wordle: creativity