When imagination becomes habit, it can transform your work and your life The best corporations know that innovative thinking is the only competitive advantage that cannot be outsourced. The best schools are those that create cultures of imagination. Now in paperback, Imagination First introduces a wide-variety of individuals who make a habit of imaginative thinking and creative action, offering a set of universal practices that anyone can use to transform their life at work, home, and play. These 28.5 practices will enable anyone to become more imaginative and to teach others to do so as well from corporate executive to educator to platoon sergeant. Bonus content includes * Winning "practices" submitted by the public * Guidelines for educators who want to cultivate creativity in their classrooms * Expanded resource section The book is filled with illustrative stories of creative leaders, teachers, artists, and scientists that clearly illustrate the original practices and new material that shows how to bring imagination to life.

In "One Vision, Many Voices," Gail Noppe-Brandon shares the results of a twenty-year experiment in generating dialogue-both on paper and between people. She outlines her life-changing "Find Your Voice" coaching method and provides an eclectic compilation of plays, scenes, and monologues from fifty powerful and moving works of dramatic literature written in response to evocative photographs.

Noppe-Brandon builds on her unique approach to communication training while instilling an appreciation for the written, spoken, and literary tradition of the theatre. She shares the creative works of both new and experienced multicultural writers-ranging in age from twelve to eighty-who connected to the power of their own unique voices in memorably moving plays that explore a multitude of relatable issues, including coming of age, body image, aging, and addiction. In this rare collection, actors of every age and background will find worthy audition material, and writers, creative clinicians, and teachers of all subjects will see what is possible when they ask the "write" questions. One Vision, Many Voices, with a Foreward by acclaimed Narrative Therapist, Robert Neimeyer, PhD, builds a crucial bridge between the worlds of theatre making and meaning making.

This book, which describes a thought-provoking collaboration between eight colleges/universities of teacher education and Lincoln Center Institute (LCI), offers hope for public education that is dramatically improved by non-traditional educational methods.

From the new Introduction by William Ayers, education activist : “Here is Maxine Greene in full―in her astonishingly distinctive voice she urges us to challenge all the clichés and received 'truths' that clutter our minds and senses, to open our eyes!” For 25 years, Maxine Greene was the philosopher-in-residence at the innovative Lincoln Center Institute, where her work formed the foundation of the Institute's aesthetic education practice. Each summer she addressed teachers from across the country, representing all grade levels, through LCI's intensive professional development sessions. Variations on a Blue Guitar contains a selection of these never-before-published lectures touching on the topics of aesthetic education, imagination and transformation, educational renewal and reform, excellence, standards, and cultural diversity―powerful ideas for today’s educators.