Imagine

Imagine 250 senior students sitting in circles, all fully engaged in an activity. 

Imagine glue sticks, fragments of papers … and then writing, writing, telling bits of their own stories. 

This has been my experience for the past ten years. The magic carpet ride began when I participated in an Innovative Resources The Literary Therapist workshop in Castlemaine. It completely opened up a new world to me and although I loved my art teaching job, and my taking on a new position of Head of Senior School at a wonderful college, something in this workshop challenged me to think differently about my teaching and the deep need in students to connect to their interior landscapes.

A huge leap of faith, and ten years later, I have been privileged to have had thousands of students pass through my hands, engaging in alternative ways, using many of the support materials from Innovative Resources and also developing my own materials.

I have found that younger people and also older people have loved working in this way, and the last few years have seen the workshops extend to staff professional development days; a nerve wracking experience for me!

Sometimes we need to step out of our comfort zone and to listen deeply to what our lives are offering us.

In this day of two dimensional communication, which often comes without voice or expression, and with learning incorporating more two dimensional modalities, I think my workshops have offered something very special and much needed. As well as being very hands on, students can make their thoughts visible using symbol and metaphor. Learning more about their own gifts has been the main theme; with the challenge to make these gifts part of their lives, the call.

Now my studio calls me full time and it is time for a younger voice to stand in my place. For your own personal satisfaction, I highly recommend the workshops offered by Innovative Resources. They started me on my way.

By Chris Sage, Illustrator of ‘Storm in a Teacup’ a picture book published by Innovative Resources   
Chris has her own studio and website