As many of you know, I love to dress up in costume!  Tomorrow is Superhero Spirit Day and I cannot wait to transform into my all time favorite superheroine from my childhood (the late 1970s...yikes, dating myself).  There’s something extremely liberating about shedding my day-to-day persona and taking on a new identity for a finite period of time.  For me, it connects to imagination and the outer limits of possibility.  What IF we could really fly?  What IF we could gain super strength to move objects 5 times our size?  What IF we could spew ice through the air to make travel pathways?  What IF we could transport ourselves to a new location by simply thinking of that place?

In Angela Maiers’ book, Classroom Habitudes:  Teaching Habits and Attitudes for 21st Century Learning, she dedicates a whole chapter to imagination.  One particular passage captures for me the essence of why imagination is so critical in life, “If we cannot see the possibility, we cannot achieve the outcome.  Imagination is our mind’s eye and give us the capacity to jump from present facts to future possibilities.  Our capacity to dream, hope, and plan for the future is influenced and impacted by the control and understanding of imagination’s remarkable power ... Imagination helps us cope with and solve problems.”  Some of the greatest inventions in life have been the result of one’s imagination paired with knowledge and perseverance to transform an idea into reality.

One of the best ways to spark imagination is to play; something we tend to do less and less of as we grow into adults.  At this week’s staff gathering, the Almond 2014-15 iLearn Team (Joann Martinez, Laura Ohlund, and Jill Williams) lead us in a team, non-verbal, Skittles sorting game during our “getting connected” time.  Three years ago, LASD created the iLearn program as an additional way to nurture and foster creativity in our teaching staff. Each summer teachers throughout the district gather for a full week to learn, practice, and apply the latest techniques around innovation in education.  Not only do we engage in these creative practices as a staff for our own growth as educators, but also to learn new activities to take into the classrooms for our students.

I look forward to seeing our children dressed up tomorrow for Superhero/heroine Spirit Day!  Let us shed the confines of what reality deems possible and allow imagination to propel us into the endless possibilities that our minds can generate.