In the EPIClearners community I co-facilitate, we are in the midst of a book discussion of Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead and how it applies to creating Daring Classrooms. My colleague Terry Elliott had the brilliant suggestion to include a playful activity each week to enhance our shared learning and reflection.

This week, we are examining the quotation which serves as the through line of Brown’s work, Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena.” We are creating artifacts that express our interpretation of this quote and sharing them. These types of activities always impress upon me how creative work of all kinds is iterative, and also how rewarding it is to get into a flow state, to leave aside for a time the responsibilities and burdens of my “regular” life.

An initial draft of my interpretation: