"Creativity IS Montessori" with Dr. Wendy Agnew

On November 30, please join CAMT as we welcome Dr. Wendy Agnew. Dr. Agnew, a well-known member of the Canadian Montessori Community, infuses children’s lives with curiosity, exploration and creativity. Her enthusiasm for Montessori comes from her mentor Audrey Sillick, one of Canada’s Montessori pioneers and naturalists. Since becoming a Montessori educator, Dr. Agnew has developed a great appreciation for the creative genius of human invention.

A visionary and inventor, Wendy brings her dreams to fruition. For thirty years, she has conducted long-term educational initiatives in Africa, Asia, and North America. Her focus is emergent, child-centred learning, life skills education, and active engagement with environment as progenitor, mentor, and muse. She has co-founded two nature-framed theatre companies, a citizens group dedicated to environmental reform and Sustainability Frontiers for which she has just completed a ten-month life-skills-learning reform project in Central West Africa. Wendy’s publications form an eclectic blend of poetry, prose, and academic writings highlighting creative collaboration for peace and regeneration and her students’ vibrant eco-aware murals may be seen on three continents.

Dr. Agnew has been a teacher educator for two decades and is currently facilitator and director of integrated arts and nature-based learning for the Sunshine Montessori School in Kitchener, Ontario.

Her series of workshops and speaking engagements are specifically designed to stimulate frontiers of change while deepening principles of conservation.

CAMT is thrilled to have Dr. Agnew share her expertise with the CAMT community. Exploration and creativity come hand in hand when one is open in heart and mind to the potential of the child.

Webinar Description: Creativity IS Montessori

“We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.” Maria Montessori

Children have taken the lead in various projects at all ages and stages of my journey as educator. The question is – how to follow them with elegance, grace and economy … Through puppetry, active semiotic engagement, creative visualization, nature and arts immersion, children and adolescents achieve a sense of their role in forming an active and creative peace.

I would like to share the following initiatives and transformations realized by engaging students at all ages in leadership roles. Like walking through a forest, the surprises, diversities, and thrills are endless and enlightening, keeping Montessori’s adage to “follow the child” front and centre in the learning process.

Initiatives we will explore include: Planting of pollinator gardens; Arts-infused inquiry; Farm immersions; Public Mural installations; Forming theatre companies; Student Odysseys great and small, and perhaps more …