So the Imaginarium is a learning lab for the educational imagination.

It's a space in which students and I collaborate in order to create a very unique kind of curriculum that's built on students developmental abilities, interests, and gifts.

My journey began about three years ago at Traylor.

There wasn't a visual arts program at the time, and so I saw a unique opportunity to build from the ground up.

The question for me became, you know what?

If we created a space just for our imaginative ideas to play themselves out within the context of each other in this dynamic kind of movement, in dance between interests and ideas and passions and concerns.

And that's what this program has been.

Where it will go is kind of up to students.

I like art class because like, you can like show your creativity without like talking.

You can just draw or paint or color.

I like coloring a lot.

I feel like the lights go down and feel more relaxed, and all you want to do is just like, calm down kind of.

And you want to be like, sometimes kind of be by yourself when you're like creating something so you don't get like interrupted.

We were reading the book Where the Wild Things Are, and I remember sitting at the table with Jack, a kindergartner, and he's drawing as well.

Thing.

And he asked me like, just this question.

He's like, Mr. Q, what's in the closet?

It was this closet where I keep the technical drawing materials so I don't open it very often.

And so in that particular moment, I was just feeling playful and like, I don't know, Jack, probably a monster.

What do you think?

Maybe wild thing.

And he's like, oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

And then Jack had a connection that I probably would never have made.

And he said, you know what, Mr.. Q if the art monster needs art, then that would make him an Artivore.

And from there on out, we've had an Artivore living in the classroom.

It's like, kind of like a monster.

That is for, like, the little our kids.

And, like, you leave trash or like, art that is, like, ripped into pieces for it to eat.

And it's just kind of fun, like school tradition that our art teacher does.

It's sort of the the quintessential, like example of how great ideas and curriculum come directly from kids, and it simply requires a teacher listening for them.

Learning and education doesn't always allow us to see.

So the question for me was, what happens when we break down some of those barriers to allow the space to become more dynamic, to allow for more student agency, more creative freedom, more voice, and more choice in student learning.

Youre thinking about like the whole child, this is really important.

Like the whole child.

It's art.

Yes, it's physical education.

It's social emotional learning, it's intellectual, and it takes an entire ecology.

You know, it takes an entire team with everybody playing into their own special gifts and their passions.

All the teachers.

And so I think that's special, that we have a place where we get to determine what we want to learn and how we want to learn it.

That's a very valuable learning experience for students.