2025 Spring Newsletter
A MESSAGE FROM MARINA, KEVIN, AND THE CC TEAM
The best parts of our jobs are the days spent in the schools we work with, interacting with the kids and watching them light up as they connect to their creativity and the 10 Principles. We inspire each other! The kids’ genuine expressiveness and authentic curiosity shines in every classroom. The hallways, lined with our posters and bulletin boards filled with patient work and inventive ideas, are bursting with the constructive mindset of Choose Creativity.
We want to thank our donors for helping us to bring our work into these schools that face so many challenges. Empowering teachers and children with the ability to access and harness their creative superpowers is invaluable. These tools, encouraging kids to be optimistic problem solvers and resourceful changemakers, will guide them into a brighter future.
SUPPORTING FAMILIES WITH THE 10 PRINCIPLES
Our curriculum, Learn with Creative Confidence, creates a bridge and common language for the entire community. A key portion focuses on family engagement — providing parents and caregivers with tools and resources to use creativity as a mindset, and empowering them with the 10 Principles as a language that can be used at home with their children.
This year, we’ve participated in family events (Literacy Nights, PTA Workshops, and Family Fridays to name a few) at our schools in East Harlem, bringing parents and caregivers into the conversation around creativity. Parents are appreciative and energized to learn ways that creativity can be applied to their everyday life with their children.
We particularly loved this story: One mother was telling us how buying second-hand clothing made her feel self-conscious. But after learning more about the Resourceful Principle, she understood what an important skill it is for her children to learn.
Demonstrating in real-time how to be resourceful is an incredible teachable moment for young children.
INSPIRED STAR STORYTELLING AT P.S. 146
We are so excited to watch teachers bring our curriculum to life for their students and families. This past winter, a class of third grade students from P.S. 146 took part in a workshop with their families highlighting the Inspired Principle. Families were challenged to create a personal constellation based on the people, moments, and ideas that inspire them.
Each personal constellation was filled with meaning and self-expression. Families left feeling more connected and thankful for one another. We hope that they will look up at the night sky with a little more appreciation (and a good viewing of their personal constellation)!
ENHANCING PROGRAM IMPACT WITH HARVARD
We have joined forces with the Harvard Graduate School of Education once again to further strengthen our program and to ensure it meets the needs of the communities we support. Through exit surveys and in-depth interviews, we have gathered valuable feedback from teachers, parents and caregivers, which will help inform and refine our curriculum and future initiatives.
For example, we’ve learned that in the first year of using our program, teachers saw a 22% increase in their students ability to draw from their prior knowledge and existing skills when faced with new problems. We are proud to see that students are activating the Resourceful and Intuitive Principles in the classroom.
Thank you for reading! xxo the Choose Creativity team
Our mission: Choose Creativity empowers children to develop into confident, resilient learners through an asset-based social and emotional learning curriculum. www.choosecreativity.org
