DOCUMENTATION
PHILOSOPHY
To open the chest of humanity to connect, feel, express
By creating a student centered, authentically honest space
For there to be wonder, curiosity and appreciation
While experiencing the rituals of making, investigating and expressing
Resulting in works of honesty, intention, authenticity and power
With everlasting learnings to carry
About the self, about the student, about the world
To run into our lives rapidly
Filled with hope and commitment
Creating the Worlds we dream of
THE LONGER WORDED
I believe that I am here to be a facilitator:
Presenting a collection of dots for my students
To draw the lines between them
How they see fit
As they connect to the world around them
Within and between them
In the appreciation of art
With the ability to create
In flow, in critical and creative thinking
While making artistic choices
That are in alignment with who they are
What they find important
& connected to self
To me a teaching philosophy can only be grasped
If embodied, if experienced, if witnessed.
The greatest tool: is to learn how we learn.
Then transforming myself and my classroom
To meet the students that stand before me.
Learning happens through experience
Through the senses. Through the hands.
Through digestion of multiple angles and mediums
Through the heart. Through the mind.
Through the open and curious soul.
Through a deepening and expanding of self.
Once we learn how we learn:
We have unlocked the beasts
Of the students of life
So to prepare, I choose to embody my philosophy
Every morning waking up the senses
defined and undefined
As I place my feet on the ground
With the imperfect intention to create and appreciate
Some would say life, my senses say magic
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For when we breathe in the world around us
We can pick apart every thread of it to marvel in
Eyes widening to witness the beauty in the details
As they tip toe around me searching for symbols and meaning
While igniting sense of self: identity, culture, elders
Being whole, open and curious as we seek to understand other
While letting our hands feel through the history of humanity
As we attempt to understand the fossils we stand on
While feeding our soul’s the findings to digest
Marinating and brewing a planet of experience
Waking our spirits up to listen silently and mindfully
Until they begin to weave the next attempt
To express what it means to be human
What matters. What story needs to be told.
What awareness needs to be shared.
What really needs to be witnessed and heard.
Imperfectly
Again and again and again
It’s the magic that is already around us
The light and shadows stirring within us
& this thread that is weaved through
Each and everyone of us
To teach is to strum on these threads
Awaken the giants of the youth
To feel, to express, to create, to learn
As we all fumble to take our hearts
& share the experience
Of being an imperfect human.