Menu
Creative Engagement for Health
Creative Engagement for Health is a resource for teachers to help provide meaningful opportunities for students to engage creatively with their peers for the purpose of building a sense of autonomy and belonging in the classroom. It also introduces the idea that we can use our creative resources as tools for understanding ourselves and each other more deeply. Finally, we believe that the simple act of engaging with creative practice can be a meaningful path toward wholeness and well-being.
There are 6 modules in this curriculum.
Our introductory lesson provides an overview of how creative practice and reflection can support students’ health and well-being, while also highlighting the importance of setting the conditions for creative engagement that allow students to take risks, be vulnerable, and thrive in various creative explorations.
Each of the 5 core lessons will focus on a “Creative Resource” such as Empathy, Humor, Gratitude, Curiosity, and Tolerance for Ambiguity.
Each core lesson will include an introduction to the creative resource, a primary creative challenge, and one or more creative routines that can become a regular part of your classroom culture.
We have developed this curriculum in partnership with local teachers and mental health professionals and have been working in the field of arts integration for many years. As this is a new curriculum, we can’t guarantee that it will work for every group of students in the way we have designed it. We appreciate hearing about your experiences, both good and bad, and any adaptations you try as you work to make this material relevant for your students.
Gratitude
Gratitude comes from the latin word for graciousness GRATIA
It is the quality of being thankful; Gratitude is a readiness to show appreciation for something or someone.
Humor
Humor provides a gateway to laughter and the health benefits of laughter are undeniable. Humor offers a pathway for social connection. According to the Mayo Clinic, the physiological effects of laughter include reducing stress, relaxing muscles, and lowering blood pressure.
Tolerating Ambiguity
The creative resource of Tolerating Ambiguity offers us an opportunity to engage on multiple levels. First, we can strive to set a path for students to tolerate or even embrace ambiguity as it presents itself in daily life. Second, studies show (see articles in additional resources) that students are consistently more engaged in a classroom that offers space for uncertainty. Genuine learning happens when the path is not overly structured. How can we make space for uncertainty in our classrooms?
Curiosity
Curiosity can be cultivated. We can practice looking and listening with increased alertness. We can ask questions of others and ourselves to further illuminate what we see and hear. We can be Everyday Detectives, looking for mysteries, oddities, and beauty in our world. We can practice asking questions as they occur to us.
Empathy
Empathy serves to connect us and sometimes protect us. Humans are social animals. Our ability to read each other’s noverbal cues is critical for harmonious coexistence. Empathy can be seen as a sort of antenna, detecting the signals of joy, sadness, comfort, fear, affection, or even malintent that others may be feeling.
Sou'Wester
A week-long artist residency program providing our team with space and time to ideate, create, iterate, experiment and reflect. The experience allowed us to step into the role of our professional development recipients and try out new systems for collaboration and communication.
Contact us
We work with teams of all sizes--and all disciplines--to facilitate experiential creative learning.
