Meet the Author
Misty Paterson
Angela Thompson
Creativity is often a dialogue between concept and material. The process of artistic creation is not just a question of thinking of an idea and then finding a way to express it. Often, it’s only in developing the dance, image, or music that the idea emerges at all. (Ken Robinson, 2001) Misty Paterson is a Vancouver-based educator and consultant, but her Pop-up Studio concept and philosophy have taken her around the world. With a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction, a certification in Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI), and over 20 years of teaching experience, Misty’s passion for life-long learning makes her an inspiration and a leader in educational design. Let’s meet Misty. TingL: What inspired you to create Pop-Up Studio? When I reflect on the most memorable and significant learning moments in my formal education (Pre-K to now PhD studies), I can see that they’re all rooted in an aesthetic experience with hands-on materials that invited me to make sense of something authentically interesting to me. In 2005, well before makerspaces were popular in classrooms, I was introduced to the Reggio Emilia philosophy as a teacher of middle schoolers and vice-principal of a kindergarten to Grade 7 school. This reawakened a desire and argument within me that all children, regardless of age, deserve playful, artful learning that honours and extends their cultural experiences. I began exploring the role generalist teachers have in inviting beauty and community into the classroom. Serendipitously, I began a Master of Arts class in Living Inquiry (Meyer, 2008). I learned that every day is a site for inquiry that can be taken up in critical yet life-honouring ways that develop awareness (both conceptual ideas and a feeling, as Maxine Greene says, of being ‘wide awake’). Students found new meaning in their lives through observing, journaling, and other literary practices alongside artful representation. This was so exciting! I had my own classroom and could work with existing furniture and materials to document and play with the ideas I was being exposed to. I had a fair bit of autonomy and the support of being at an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program school where inquiry is the primary methodology. In 2010, I had the privilege of flexible teaching in a variety of contexts but, no longer did I have an autonomous continued on page 12
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