Teaching is not merely a technical process- it is one that requires creative and inspirational thinking, not only on the part of students but for teachers themselves as artful, reflective beings. The purpose of this book is to provide educators with creative experiences which unlock their imaginative potential so they can re-envision their curriculum to promote active learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and differentiated instruction. This book guides the reader through a series of experiences intended to tap into the right side of the brain, and provide educators opportunities to re-imagine their existing curriculum in new ways. Through this re-imaging (or re-envisioning) of the creative potential within themselves, teachers can redesign their curricula in ways that best meet the needs of their learners, schools, and communities. This book emphasizes creativity in teaching as a collaborative effort. The experiences and ideas presented in this book are intended to inspire small groups or whole communities (including schools) to work together and support each other in their creative efforts. Creativity does not just exist for individuals in isolated contemplation but resides instead in the relational work that community members create together toward a shared vision. In order to encourage imaginative students who will have the capacities to see the world, not merely as it is, but as it could be, we need to encourage teachers to tap into their creative imaginative capacities to teach as well. Such work cannot be performed in isolation. Creative social change requires that we imagine together that which we cannot do alone.

This book is intended for educators, parents and community activists interested in reclaiming our public schools and reclaiming the public narrative around education policy. The book infuses research about the recent history of education policy reform, the strategies United Opt Out uses for fighting back against these policies, and proposes solutions that work to create sustainable, equitable, anti-racist, democratic and meaningful public education. This book is for anyone interested in an "insider's look" behind the scene of forming an organization, or leading a resistance. Simultaneously the book provides scholarly-based research about the broader issues, policies and data around education reform, and the opt out movement. Education policy has been heating up ever since NCLB but especially since the roll out of Race to The Top and the Common Core State Standards. Nationally publicized debates and discord over these policies are garnering public attention of teachers, parents, and whole communities. We hope this book will add to the library of other recent books such as Mercedes Schneider's A Chronicle of Echoes (2014), Diane Ravitch's Reign of Error (2013) and Bowers & Thomas (eds) Detesting and Degrading Schools (2012), that have exposed the complex corporate interest in shaping education policies and the destructive influence such policies will have on our children and on our democracy. This book uses first person narratives infused with research and scholarship, to create personalized accounts into the life of education activism. Each chapter includes an Activists Handbook section to provide support for our activist/ readers in their own efforts. We hope that our experiences will inspire others to take this charge upon themselves as well.

In Blood's Will: Speculative Fiction, Existence, and Inquiry of Currere, main character Campbell Cote Phillips-a successful university professor, mother, and wife-faces the question "what would she give up to have everything else?" Her comfortable life takes an unexpected turn when she discovers that not everything is always as it appears to be. The story unfolds between the 1970s and contemporary Baltimore, weaving together the experiences of Finn (an unusual vampire with a strange history) and Campbell-along with a cast of characters across different generations-whose stories are portrayed in base-relief against the promise, or peril, of immortality. Blood's Will is about love and desire, but it is also about family, friends, and the choices we all make. To be human is to sacrifice. To be vampire is to have endless opportunities. As Noel Gough writes, "Understanding curriculum work as a storytelling practice has been a key theme in the reconceptualisation of curriculum studies during the last three decades, encapsulated by Madeleine Grumet's formulation of curriculum as 'the collective story we tell our children about our past, our present, and our future.'" Situated as a story embedded in the four stages of currere, the journey of the book's main characters exemplifies the journey of recursion: the regressive, the progressive, the analytical, and the synthetic. Blood's Will is an example of speculative fiction that "can contribute to an aspect of effective deliberation that Schwab called 'the anticipatory generation of alternatives'" (Gough). This book is a useful reading for courses examining roles of narrative, fiction, and currere as fields of inquiry.

In Blood's Will: Speculative Fiction, Existence, and Inquiry of Currere, main character Campbell Cote Phillips-a successful university professor, mother, and wife-faces the question "what would she give up to have everything else?" Her comfortable life takes an unexpected turn when she discovers that not everything is always as it appears to be. The story unfolds between the 1970s and contemporary Baltimore, weaving together the experiences of Finn (an unusual vampire with a strange history) and Campbell-along with a cast of characters across different generations-whose stories are portrayed in base-relief against the promise, or peril, of immortality. Blood's Will is about love and desire, but it is also about family, friends, and the choices we all make. To be human is to sacrifice. To be vampire is to have endless opportunities. As Noel Gough writes, "Understanding curriculum work as a storytelling practice has been a key theme in the reconceptualisation of curriculum studies during the last three decades, encapsulated by Madeleine Grumet's formulation of curriculum as 'the collective story we tell our children about our past, our present, and our future.'" Situated as a story embedded in the four stages of currere, the journey of the book's main characters exemplifies the journey of recursion: the regressive, the progressive, the analytical, and the synthetic. Blood's Will is an example of speculative fiction that "can contribute to an aspect of effective deliberation that Schwab called 'the anticipatory generation of alternatives'" (Gough). This book is a useful reading for courses examining roles of narrative, fiction, and currere as fields of inquiry.

This book is intended for educators, parents and community activists interested in reclaiming our public schools and reclaiming the public narrative around education policy. The book infuses research about the recent history of education policy reform, the strategies United Opt Out uses for fighting back against these policies, and proposes solutions that work to create sustainable, equitable, anti-racist, democratic and meaningful public education. This book is for anyone interested in an "insider's look" behind the scene of forming an organization, or leading a resistance. Simultaneously the book provides scholarly-based research about the broader issues, policies and data around education reform, and the opt out movement. Education policy has been heating up ever since NCLB but especially since the roll out of Race to The Top and the Common Core State Standards. Nationally publicized debates and discord over these policies are garnering public attention of teachers, parents, and whole communities. We hope this book will add to the library of other recent books such as Mercedes Schneider's A Chronicle of Echoes (2014), Diane Ravitch's Reign of Error (2013) and Bowers & Thomas (eds) Detesting and Degrading Schools (2012), that have exposed the complex corporate interest in shaping education policies and the destructive influence such policies will have on our children and on our democracy. This book uses first person narratives infused with research and scholarship, to create personalized accounts into the life of education activism. Each chapter includes an Activists Handbook section to provide support for our activist/ readers in their own efforts. We hope that our experiences will inspire others to take this charge upon themselves as well.

Teaching is not merely a technical process- it is one that requires creative and inspirational thinking, not only on the part of students but for teachers themselves as artful, reflective beings. The purpose of this book is to provide educators with creative experiences which unlock their imaginative potential so they can re-envision their curriculum to promote active learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and differentiated instruction. This book guides the reader through a series of experiences intended to tap into the right side of the brain, and provide educators opportunities to re-imagine their existing curriculum in new ways. Through this re-imaging (or re-envisioning) of the creative potential within themselves, teachers can redesign their curricula in ways that best meet the needs of their learners, schools, and communities. This book emphasizes creativity in teaching as a collaborative effort. The experiences and ideas presented in this book are intended to inspire small groups or whole communities (including schools) to work together and support each other in their creative efforts. Creativity does not just exist for individuals in isolated contemplation but resides instead in the relational work that community members create together toward a shared vision. In order to encourage imaginative students who will have the capacities to see the world, not merely as it is, but as it could be, we need to encourage teachers to tap into their creative imaginative capacities to teach as well. Such work cannot be performed in isolation. Creative social change requires that we imagine together that which we cannot do alone.