Our team recently had the robust pleasure of attending and presenting at Deeper Learning Conference in San Diego.

The event was woven through with immersive musical and story rich experiences. There was feasting, singing, and great quantities of laughter. It struck me how deserving these teachers (traveling from as far as Canada, England, Alaska, and Mexico) were of such a rejuvenating and uplifting few days.

We led a Deep Dive titled Marvelous Multimodal Meaning Making, a highly experiential and collaborative opportunity to play with creative modalities for learning that activate the body, our sensorial meaning-making system. Embodied learning is a vital and underutilized way to provide deeper learning opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. In the deep dive, we began by engaging with student work on exhibition around the High Tech High campus.

We explored the work through embodied practices of soundscaping, movement, and story. These multi-sensory processes are useful tools for expressing, observing, responding, and reflecting. We introduced the “creative resources framework” as a lens to illuminate our students’ creative expression and shared a protocol for deepening artwork analysis. Our participants blew us away with their insightful reflections, their heartfelt vulnerability, and their gestural communication.

This reflection by one participant kind of says it all:

“I am so grateful for the deep intentionality and passion with which our guides facilitated our session. The structures honored various modalities of taking in and expressing learning, moving from the safe to the more risky throughout the day. We learned, laughed, cried, and moved! Thank you for using your creative resources and inviting us to do the same. What joy!”

By the way, this conference is amazing.

Check it out here: Deeper Learning