“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” — Albert Einstein

“All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” — Pablo Picasso

As an educator, I always look for ways to make learning engaging, inspiring and fun. Children learn by seeing, listening in other words observing and then doing something themselves. One easy way to teach is by doing things yourself first. For example, if we want children to learn from their mistakes the teacher should be willing to do the same.Or if we want children to overcome their fears the teachers should make their own efforts of overcoming their fears to the children.

One of the agreements we have in Kairos is ‘I create beauty in everything I do’ — meaning both teachers and students. One of Rudolf Steiner’s beliefs is that learning must invoke “The good, the beautiful, and the true.” One of the ways we create beauty in our classrooms and books is through art. Drawing is a part of our daily timetable at Kairos.

Teachers’ chalkboard drawing form an integral part of this emphasis on beauty in our school. In many of our classes, a board drawing grows from the introduction of a month-long theme and develops organically, as the exploration into the theme grows. Children watch the teacher’s process and are encouraged to develop their own creativity and growth as the theme develops. From the beginning through to the conclusion, students are not just passively observing the drawing, they are part of the development. I love making daily changes on my board drawing. Although it takes hours of my time, planning, thinking and erasing, until I get it right, the reward is so meaningful.

As most of our stories in Kairos are not read but told orally to the children, with eye contact and with something of a stage performance, our board drawings are a way of the teacher illustrating the story visually for the children. The children are able to explore age-appropriate academic and artistic tasks from the story in their books, resulting in the teacher and children engaged in a process of collaborative exploration together.

Although, both the children and I experience a sense of loss when the drawing is erased at the end of each term, this is a reminder to us that nothing is permanent. The theme has ended, the journey is concluded, but the memory lives on within us. In this way, both the teacher and the student have grown together, the community of the class has deepened, preparing ourselves for the next story and the next theme.