For the first time in two years, we were back in-person for Habla’s 14th Annual Summer Teacher Institute. As a way of celebrating this happy homecoming and of lifting our teaching and learning beyond limited, earthbound notions of covering content, we actively explored how we and our students can work by ourselves, with each other, and with our local and expanded communities to fly in our classrooms, moving far beyond mandated expectations of pre-determined “achievement.” The very notion of “flight” itself became a powerful metaphor for:
- Creating new and original work from our thoughts and imaginations
- Becoming global citizens connecting across borders and cultures
- Feeling a liberatory sense of belonging, community, and support
Our core text for this institute was The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline
Woodson and Rafael López.
As always, the Habla Teacher Institute was structured to be highly interactive and participatory. All sessions were hands-on workshops where participants “learned by doing,” and culminated in an exhibition of work on the final day. Careful attention was given throughout the institute to modeling manageable, invigorating, and uplifting ways for bringing performance and visual art-making into our global education communities and classrooms in ways that give us wings to fly.