Revelation

By now, those of you who regularly read my posts would know that I love to throw in clips and videos.

But why would I start my post with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles?

Well, it’s a long story.

For a long time I have had a gnawing feeling. Something biting at my heels – gently at first but growing more persistent and fierce recently.

At first it started out as a need to blog – start writing, reaching out to people. To have an outlet to voice my thoughts on life and teaching. Something to share teaching ideas. A place to build a community of like minded people. I thought I could monetise the site eventually and sell resources.

What I didn’t expect was that through writing, I would experience such a strong feeling of creative pleasure. And whilst my writing would provide relief from my overactive creative brain in the short term, it had actually opened a flood gate.

And what has emerged is bigger and more amazing than I could have imagined. It is vibrant. It is colourful. It is full of hope. It is BIG! And if I can pull it off, I believe it will change my life for the better.

So, what does this all mean? – yes, it’s very cryptic – and I’m still sorting out the finer details. But, what I do know is that I have traversed from that feeling I have felt many times before in my teaching career that “teaching is killing me”, to suddenly realising that it is much, much worse.

Teaching is killing my creativity.

I know, I know. What the? Has she gone crazy?

I spend my whole professional life being creative. Making music, drawing, designing, making, dancing, singing, putting on performances, writing scripts, you name it, I probably do it EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

I also spend a vast majority of my “mum life” being creative. Cooking, doing school projects, helping with show n tell, making costumes, colouring and making, baking, gardening, even cleaning in creative ways.

And then there’s MY creativity. The music I want to play and get lost in. The space I want to have to create the plays and performances I want to – on my terms and by my clock. The dreams and ideas I want to have time and creative space to pursue. The message I want to spread about how important creativity is to everyone – young and old. The message that education and business should be making time and space for people’s creativity, not smothering it with schedules and unrelenting demands.

And of those 3 creative lives I am madly and badly trying to juggle, I am not prepared to give up on my family or my dreams.

And so, I am making space. Slowly. But it is happening.

I have said it before – I am making changes to be happier and healthier. But this is even bigger. I am making changes to find a better way.

They say that innovation and creativity go hand in hand. Well, I can tell you, there is great divide appearing between schools who are truly being innovative in their approach and educating in creative new ways, and those who are just too scared and are going to be left behind. There are so many educational institutions and teachers who just tick the box – yes, we are being “collaborative and creative”. But they are terrified of creativity and collaboration. They have forgotten. So how can we possibly educate students on these essential skills that are the fundamentals of innovation if the people teaching them have forgotten their creativity?

Seek, an Australian job website, writes:

Many of today’s school children will work in jobs that haven’t even been invented yet. That “eventually” day will arrive faster than you think.

Who’s going to come up with these new jobs?

The Creatives!

The Innovators!

And while I currently sit in a conventional profession, I have decided it is time to make a new path for me. To create a new career. And you know what? I can make it whatever I want it to be – as long as I believe in it, it is fulfilling and it has space for me and my creative spirit.

I’m not saying that I will quit teaching – I am hoping they can co-exist in some form.

For now though, you will see some changes happening in my blog, on Instagram and Facebook as I start delving into the realm of creativity and innovation. And I hope you all come along for the ride. I hope that through my journey and the messages I’ll be sharing, that your creativity will reappear and begin to shine again.

I want to leave you with a quote from Eddie Woo – a very inspiring Australian Maths Teacher and YouTuber. A truly innovative and creative teacher.

“We shouldn’t say, “Oh, someone’s “Just a Teacher””. We should say, “You’re amazing! You’re a Teacher! You change young people’s lives. And you equip them to be something they never dreamed they could be or achieve. It’s a miracle, every single time.”

Eddie Woo from “Australian Story: Channeling Mr Woo Part 2”

Happy creating!

Danielle x

PS… Why The Buggles were called The Buggles (care of Wikipedia) – ‘Downes claimed the group’s name derived as a pun on the rock band the Beatles, saying: “It was originally called the Bugs … studio insects—imaginary creatures who lived in recording studios creating havoc. Then somebody said as a joke that the Bugs would never be as big as The Beatles. So we changed it to the Buggles.”^[7] Horn later spoke of its name: “I know the name’s awful, but at the time it was the era of the great punk thing. I’d got fed up of producing people who were generally idiots but called themselves all sorts of clever names like the Unwanted, the Unwashed, the Unheard … when it came to choosing our name I thought I’d pick the most disgusting name possible. In retrospect I have frequently regretted calling myself Buggles, but in those days I never really thought much about packaging or selling myself, all that really concerned me was the record.”‘