Creating our world together - as an adventure, through imagination and play, giving us the ability to thrive -

this is how I strive to build communities.  Communities of learners, that come together to solve the problems and connect with the world around them.  Communities where everyone shares their superpowers.

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Connecting people, ideas, and struggles to solutions is one of my favorite things to do.  Recently, I have realized how much of my work is fueled by creating communities and building connections.  This is the mission of my new projects.  My BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal as Jim Collins and Perry Porras coined the term) is to connect communities and resources that bring creative, mindful curriculum, ideas and products to children world wide.

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I have been teaching 23 years to date.  Each new school, classroom, child brought different challenges, experiences, and possibilities to grow.  Some of the past challenges included schools that were under funded, classrooms that were overwhelmed, and children that couldn't thrive.  Today we may face the same challenges of lack of resources, but we also face the challenge of children who are now growing up in an age of too much information at their fingertips.  For instance: technology that both supports and destroys children's creative thinking skills, imagination, and social emotional intelligence.

 

In the past, teachers needed help in failing schools without art programs due to lack of funding, and classrooms full of children needing to learn how to read but all speaking different languages, not one of which was English. The solution: connecting artists to these schools to volunteer time in the classrooms. After redesigning the curriculum to be taught visually through creating, we gave the children opportunity to play with their imaginations, grow their vocabulary, and connect with each other.  As they say... a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

This became Creative Community Connections that connected communities and supported children in need for eight years. The premise of the project is continued in all my work to this day.

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Today classrooms and parents see more and more anxiety, stress, and loneliness in children. They are connected to a virtual world, but do not know how to navigate the real world.  This is why I am developing Create-Kids and Leonardo's Farm - as tools, resources, and guidance to help children explore creative thinking and mindfulness. 

 

You can learn more about these initiatives on the projects page to see current and future endeavors.

And if you would like to connect, share resources, or grow our community, please reach out to me at: hello@sharoncowley.com

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