Teaching from the Inside Out The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching (And Living)

Daily expectations often rob teachers of the energy and interest necessary for personal expression and the creative solutions needed for the demanding task of how and when to teach what. Teachers and their students face sterilized robot-like school days if they don't pay attention. They miss the crocuses blooming outside and inside themselves and lose their greatest resource -- their own interests. When personal interests are encouraged to become a source of creative imagining about how and what to teach, teachers naturally discover enthusiasm for their work, which then translates into the classroom, energizing and empowering the students. Examples from the author's own and others' experience narrate the many forms that creativity can take to produce lively classrooms where both teachers and children are inspired and challenged. The stories demonstrate how using artistic approaches to learning can support self-expression, self-discipline, and alert observations on the world around us as well as to inspire confidence in one's own source and power of creativity. Sue Sommers is an artist and educator. As an educator, she has worked as a facilitator and artist-in-residence primarily in the Chicago Public. Her particular interest has been to foster the creative potential in teachers ever since she worked on a Ford Foundation grant in the 1970's.Sommers, Sue is the author of 'Teaching from the Inside Out The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching (And Living)', published 2001 under ISBN 9781929059027 and ISBN 1929059027.