 More than ever, teachers and librarians want to connect children and youth to the resources to enable them to flourish in today’s uncertain world as problem-solvers for the planet.
Wonder is an essential, and frequently under-estimated tool for doing this. Consciously using and inspiring wonder, cultivates creative thinking, increases positive emotions, deepens a mindful connection to Nature and capacity-builds key skills used in innovation and entrepreneurship. This interactive session will give you strategies for using wonder through reading and across academic subject learning, to engage your students of all ages. You will learn: Why wonder works to increase wellbeing; How wonder is used in social innovation to bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to sustainability and sustainable development in communities; What ‘wonder’ activities you can immediately initiate in your libraries and classrooms with your students.
#flowinaction #futuresthinking #wonder #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #designthinking #systemsthinking #planetcentreddesign  I wonder what you wonder...about a drop of water?
A question for kids of all ages...so feel free to have a go too. Share this with your kids and get them wondering...as a homeschooling activity. When we wonder, we connect to our imagination and creativity. We see things from new perspectives. We problem solve in different ways. Wondering keeps us well and hopeful. Your kids can share their ideas on the platform at this link. https://hazu.io/flowinaction.org/wonderlab Also...if you're an educator, librarian, youth worker ...then sign up for the online training with me for creating your own Kids Wonder Lab for your organisation at www.flowinaction.org/wonder #flowinaction #purejoyofcreating #imagination #ideas #creativity #innovation #entrepreneurship #wellbeing #sustainability #sdgs #love #wonder #awe #lovetheplanet #designforflourishing #peopleandplanetcentreddesignthinking #flourishing #purposedriven #teacher #librarian #youthvoices  TAKE THE TRAINING
Learn how to set up your Fill Your Kids With Wonder Lab! Join this group coaching workshop and get the one-stop solution you need to run ongoing, fun, easy, inclusive creativity activities for kids – use wonder to build wellbeing, banish boredom and inspire kids’ imagination, ideas and learning. Find out more and sign up TODAY In the UK, the Durham Commission on Creativity & Education was published in mid-October, citing:
"The increasing recognition of the economic and social value of creativity and creative thinking has brought a fresh urgency to the development of entrepreneurship and the skills of the future workforce." This is extraordinarily well-timed as Global Entrepreneurship Week 2019 takes place 18th – 24th November. Why celebrate GEW in your school? Because it is a fantastic way to build youth wellbeing, complex problem-solving skills and solutions to challenges in your community.  When was the last time you remember feeling wonder?
Can you remember? Can you picture what you were looking at or thinking about? I’m asking, because wonder is a powerhouse, creating a chain reaction to real and radical impact in what you do.  The moment when someone allows an idea to form fascinates me.
It is like watching the Universe tenderly kiss them on the brow and encourage them out into the spotlight. Whether a child or an adult, it’s a moment so pure in its vulnerability, a splitting of light refracted as they surrender to that unique expression of their unprecedented self. It is a moment of great courage, suspended between two shores; a choice to step past fear and shame and doubt to take the risk on what may seem impossible. The fact that I get to see and share this moment with people of all ages, like the start-up entrepreneurs working in Capacity Zurich’s amazing entrepreneurship programme for refugees and migrants, is a great honour; or the students from British School India in my workshop at the UN last week. I am filled with an urgency to create these moments with you, because we need to imagine a different future than the trajectory that we are on. We need to imagine it in order to create it; and we need to create it by designing around happiness. With that in mind, I am prescribing ‘wonder’ for everyone as a fast-track approach for inspiring incredible ideas for doing more good for people and planet. Diane Ackerman wrote, “Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time.” I’ve been having some chats with Dr Vlad Glavneau, Director of the Webster Center for Creativity & Innovation Unit at Webster University in Geneva, and his working definition of wonder is: “Wonder and wondering define a particular type of experience whereby the person becomes (more or less suddenly) aware of an expanded field of possibility for thought and/or action and engages (more or less actively) in exploring this field.” (Glavneau, V.P., (2017) Creativity and Wonder. The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 0, Iss. 0, pp. 1–7) I love creating the spaces for wondering, as powerful, alchemic places of embedding wellbeing and resilience; as well as the tools for taking action. Children and young people are so open and passionate in their creativity, it’s like watching a blizzard of butterflies emerge. As adults, you just take a bit longer to get to this place, because you’ve forgotten how to break your rules and take the risk on opening your hearts. Ah, but when you do, it’s a thing of great beauty. We need more wonder and wondering. It is a reclaiming of being ‘fully human’ in our connection to the planet and each other which needs to happen rapidly. It is a groundswell of more love as a social mission, the start of change, the seed of incredible ideas. Me, I’m a Star Wars watching, wild mountain woman walking under the full moon, rebellious librarian-type of wonderer. And you? What do you wonder? What do you find wondrous? Take a breath, open up to wondering today. Listen to the revolutionary response inside of you and roll with it. I’ll wrap up with the wisdom of Alice Walker in The Color Purple, “I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.” |
Elaine FranceInspiration for opening up your unique blend of creativity to take action for people and planet Archives
June 2020
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