creativity – Katie Kearns

A love letter to educational developers

A large fire in a firepit. The fire is about person-sized, with sticks at the bottom. It is bright orange.

This is an invitation for educators of goodwill to put fortitude, hope, and courage into the collective pot to share and borrow as needed. Below is what comes to mind for me today.

What’s my vision of the future?

In a fire cauldron, a large fire burns that is mostly orange

I don’t recall the series of prompts that invited our imaginations to speak of our future-visions. Yet this campfire scene is my vision of the future that came to me during that keynote. In this future-vision, I move among groups of people as they share stories of memory-keeping, surviving, and thriving. Through songs and recipes, children’s games and elders’ wisdom, they make space for each other’s nourishment, wonder, play, growth, companionship, and comfort.

Not just a course design institute

"Imagine if you will...the academic chalk talk" is at the top of the image. There is a picture of people sitting around a round white table. A woman is standing looking at a computer screen and presenting.

“Transforming Your Research Into Teaching” (TYRIT) came about because eight people, each leading their own course design institutes for graduate students and postdocs at different institutions, thought there must be a better way to do this. We were each delivering the same course design content in workshops, and we were finding ourselves reiterating the content in one-on-one consultations about job application materials. Drawing upon previous work from a member of our team, we started asking questions about the potential design of a course institute for grads and postdocs. Most of all: What if multi-institution, flipped model, hybrid workshops weren’t just about delivering content at scale, but about supporting boundary-crossing communities of belonging and purpose?

I am the snapping turtle

A loggerhead sea turtle on the beach heading toward the water

That late-summer evening in 2019, in cutting a snapping turtle free from lake weeds, I started the process of setting myself free from codependency and internalized oppressive mindsets.

Drawn to the light

a woman in shorts and t-shirt standing in front of a short stone wall. There's a canyon behind her and colorful trees. There's a book bag at her feet.

You’re not wrong, surviving and thriving is challenging right now. And also, I want to share some beautiful things in the midst of all that.

Hey there, punty girl!

A blue and green swirled vase in the center of the image. It is connected to a rod. In the background is a man's legs (he's the teacher)

I earned the title Punty Girl last night in glass blowing class. My classmates harmoniously sing out “Punty” to get my attention and request my assistance. I am honored to serve the role and I enthusiastically offer my punty abilities to my glass blowing classmates. I’ve already made some Weird Al songs variations for myself: Hey There, Punty Girl and Pass the Punty.

Glass, alchemy, and community

a glass furnace with a glowing circular hole. There's a pipe going into it with a blob of glass attached

There is differentiation at the same time there is harmony, synchrony, and integration. We call each other by our preferred names now. Without prompting, each of us has taken on a role we’re happy to do.

Guest post: Collaging as Creative Exploration and Academic Production

cut outs of fruit pictures from the grocery mail insert - lime, orange, grapefruit. Cut outs of words from magazines: I had kimchi dreams, becoming, almost everything, something, a little, fortified, torn torn, don't, break, sleek metal, neat strips, No it won't be too much, leftover husks and small pebbles, light infusion, light sweetness, Let US Take You

Maggie: “I think a big part of why learning to view myself as creative was so difficult was that it required so much unlearning…I had to unlearn what I thought it meant to be good at creating and to be more intuitive and fun with my work. Creative work, just like scholarship, is iterative, collaborative, reflective, and never really finished. ”

What I learned from Blown Away about my own learning communities

three people stand around a glass installation. there are two men next to each other on the right and a very tall woman on the left. There are glass bell jars over glass objects on the table

Graduate students have heartaches that need care and witnessing as well as successes and dreams. What can Blown Away teach about facilitation of graduate student learning communities?

Follow the Bubbles

A photo from underwater. At the bottom, the water is dark and at the very top center is brightest. There are bubbles in the center.

What if, instead of drowning in everyday life of productivity and competition, we did what lights our spirits, brings us meaning and purpose, and puts our gifts in service to others?