Blog
Changing the world one student at a time.
My focus for teaching and learning is inspired by and grounded in the core practice and design principles of Expeditionary Learning as a model for engaged multi-tiered learning and in critical literacy, hands-on, art-infused, placed-based strategies that meet the needs of all learners regardless of language, learning or behavioral challenges.
I am an artist, constructivist-reading teacher, and special education teacher by training and a social-reconstructivist and bibliophile by nature. I believe that multi-sensory learning and place-based teaching foster the capacities needed for a successful, purposeful, and joyful life, ignite an intrinsic passion for learning, and inspire responsibility for self, community, and the world. My social-reconstructivist pedagogy emphasizes and addresses social questions and strives to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social reform as the aim of education. I believe that when children (or an adult’s inner-child) get smarter and/or healthier, the world becomes a better place. See my blog, “One Social Re-constructivist’s Journey on the Road to Building a More Just and Ecologically Resilient World” to read more about this.
Creatively yours, Sasha
Our latest blog posts
Art and Nature – ARTing En Plein Air
Anyone who has stopped to admire the beautiful colors of a sunset over the river or to listen to the chorus of wildlife sounds, flowing water, rain falling, wind in the leaves, or crickets chirping knows that nature and [...]
What is Expressive Arts Meditative Creativity?
It is as simple as it sounds - the melding of expressive arts with meditation & mindfulness practice, to create a blend of multi-sensory, body-based experiences, used to be present for & to explore what is showing up in [...]
Where’s My Creative Muse?
I recently got an email and maybe you got my email that asked, " Have two years of pandemic living silenced your Inner Muse? Has the continuous need for flexibility zapped your inspiration? Has the relentless uncertainty left you [...]
What is Expressive Arts and the Open Studio?
You can only learn about your creativity through your own experience of it. ~ Shaun Mc Niff You might be wondering what an Expressive Arts (ExA) Open Studio Is? You might even be wondering what the expressive arts are! [...]
Yes, please! Let’s Ring Out the Old and Ring in the New!
Expressive Arts, which utilizes more than one art process in a session, sometimes uses poetry, visual arts, clay, movement, sound, guided meditation, and breathwork. I like to include poetry in my expressive arts workshops, online open studios, and face-to-face classes [...]
On Art Education … three wise souls and the rest of us …
"Educators and administrators cannot justify giving the arts an important position in the curriculum unless they understand that the arts are the most powerful means of strengthening the perceptual component without which productive thinking is impossible in every field of [...]