Learning to swim without my arm floaties, my first time riding a horse, singing a solo in the school musical, and my inaugural drive down a real highway in our red ford pickup; each conjured this intense full bodied flood of anxiety, elation, fear, exhilaration, and satisfaction.

With years and experience, I encounter this BIG sensation less often. I’ve settled into the skill sets where I feel most competent and certain. I grow the garden I have already planted, BUT there is something rare and shimmering in the act of cultivating something new.

The future goes out of focus. Questions congeal and dissolve as we navigate a state of ambiguity. As teachers we get to step into our students’ gardening boots and recall how it feels to nurture an unfamiliar seed, to wonder and worry as only true Beginners can.

We invite you to imagine creative routines you can bring into your classroom as seed packets, each containing the potential (if planted and maintained) to produce some brave and vivid new blooming of ideas and competencies in your classrooms.

In our courses, we’ve emphasized diverse creative routines, pulling from different skill sets and artistic modalities.