How not to conform: Creating spaces for imagination and exploration

My name is Angela Mee Lee (or Ange ML for short)! I am a musician, an international educator and designer of learning spaces. I am presently working for UNIS Hanoi, Vietnam as the Lower Elementary Music teacher.

I began my teaching career as a Music and Physical Education single subject teacher (or specialist teacher) and quit the profession after 10 years thinking ‘there had to be more to this gig.’ In my teaching role, I wanted to have deeper connections and relationships with the children and, following a rigid syllabus, felt inauthentic and uninspiring. I went back to university and completed a Music Therapy degree, after which I practiced for 6 years. Even within this new field, and as interesting and rewarding as it was, I felt bound to conform to yet another system and once again required to follow a rigid way of practice. Missing education, I returned to international teaching and discovered the Reggio Emilia approach, where I instantly experienced a long awaited ‘aha’ moment. The Reggio Emilia  approach is an effective and meaningful way of learning that is both child-centered and child-directed. Finally, a community of learners whose values and beliefs aligned so closely with my own!

Facilitating Creativity with the Reggio Emilia Approach

With this new approach to learning I began to change my idea of being ‘just’ the Music teacher to ‘a facilitator of creative experiences’. Music was just one way for children to express their ideas and thoughts. I co-pioneered a Creative Arts program with the Visual Arts teacher, where we developed and offered a new framework that held the child at the ‘center’ of ALL the learning. This required us to both listen and document what the children were seeing, talking about and doing.

In addition to this new framework, we designed a physical space that offered opportunities for music, art, 'maker’ and performance. Children could choose and explore how they wanted to express themselves, alongside discovering their creative passions. These spaces were created to align with the children’s ideas and wonderings and called the ‘atelier’ inspired by the infant-toddler centers in Reggio Emilia.

We became motivated and intrigued with building a thoughtful and nurturing atelier for our Creative Arts program. Its formal name became the ‘Creative Arts Space’ and was presented as a place of learning that offered freedom of choice, a safe environment to voice any idea, and a chance to have a moment to pause. Creative Arts sessions became a time during the regular school day, where children could simply ‘be’ themselves and as such became a ‘favorite’ subject area.

Challenging Mainstream Education

The image above shows the before image of a traditional middle school classroom.

The after image shows a middle school classroom transitioned into an atelier space.

The desire to develop spaces that are both meaningful and beautiful for all has been a continued process and journey over these past seven years and has become one of my deepest passions.

It is difficult to change mainstream education. There are people, schools and companies that are leaders in offering a ‘possible’ new way to learning in a holistic way, but the desire to ‘get good grades,’ ‘get into a good college’ and ‘get a good job’ remains the steadfast narrative for most people and is the ultimate end goal.

After 20 years, I understand that as an individual within education, I can offer the idea of different possibilities. This presents itself in the design of the physical learning space; the learning experiences co-created with children and the spoken language that is used. All of which invite children to know that ‘anything is possible’ and there is a different way to exist.

I cannot change the world, but I can ‘plant the seed’ of the idea of ‘possible’ to both children and the wider community.

As I continue to grow on my journey, I have learned to follow my own system; my own framework of offering a type of learning for children that reflects the values and beliefs of the Reggio Emilia approach.

I collated my ideas and created a course called ‘atelier in a kit ‘to offer educators different tools and strategies for learning in a more wholistic way. This included reflecting on one’s:

1.    Philosophy

2.    Setting up of a physical space and

3.    Practice

I also co-produced a musical called ‘Goatee the Goat’ which is about the idea of ‘possible’ and was inspired by living in Mumbai, India (a city known for being the ‘City of dreams’).

To find out more about myself, please click on www.angelameelee.com

Twitter–@angelameelee

Instagram – @angelameelee and @circlesandcycles.in

LinkedIn – Angela Mee Lee