Beyond Words-Reclaiming Learning Through Art, Design, and Multimodal Literacies

I am an educator of German and Scandinavian descent,

born in Canada,

raised within a cultural tapestry that values structure, design, and thoughtful craftsmanship.

I live and teach on land layered with histories, stories, and untold truths,

on territory that compels reflection, creativity, and justice.

I believe that art is not extra.

It is not decoration.

It is not dessert.

Art is essential.

Design is thinking made visible.

And multimodal literacy is the language of a world too complex to be captured in words alone.

At the heart of my practitioner research lies a driving question:

How can we assess critical, reflective, and creative thinking in ways that go beyond written word?

What if we let design processes, visual metaphors, and layered media become valid expressions of complex understanding?

What if student thinking could be captured in gesture, image, sound, audio, architecture, and artifacts?

In a world where literacy is evolving,

I reject narrow definitions.

I embrace the power of multimodal design,

where sketch meets script,

sound meets silence,

and movement meets memory.

Here learning lives.

I commit to teaching design as a process,

not just a product.

I value the messy middle,

the iterations, the doubt, the revisions.

In every creative act,

there is thinking,

and in every act of reflection,

there is potential for transformation.

I commit to examining my own lenses,

acknowledging how cognitive biases shape how I interpret student work.

I push against rubrics that privilege neatness over nuance,

grammar over growth.

I know that assessment itself can be an instrument of exclusion,

and I seek to change that.

I commit to connecting learning to what matters-climate justice, equity, identity, connection.

Art and design are not escapes from the world,

they are lenses into it.

My students design shelters for climate refugees,

visualize water inequity through layered collage,

and remix historical narratives through digital storytelling.

The world is our classroom,

and the questions are real.

I commit to honoring student voice in all its forms:

A student’s photo essay about a forgotten alleyway.

A stop-motion animation that captures the pulse of protest.

A song parody that flips the beat, rewrites the rhythm, and gives voice to what silence forgot.

A sculpture made from salvaged metal that whispers climate grief.

These are not just “projects.”

They are texts.

They are arguments.

They are truths.

I commit to assessment that is formative, reflective, and human.

I use peer critique rooted in values.

I provide feedback that asks, not answers:

“What do you want your viewer to feel?”

“How does this choice reflect your thinking?”

I make space for self-assessment,

artist statements,

and process journals.

I believe a sketchbook can be as rich a record as a written essay.

I believe students are not empty vessels to be measured.

They are makers,

thinkers,

challengers,

storytellers,

changemakers,

and researchers of the now.

This manifesto is my promise,

to design learning environments that reflect the multiplicity of human expression

and to advocate for assessment practices

that recognize the full spectrum of student brilliance.

Words matter,

but so do colours,

textures,

voices,

movements,

and meaning that lives

in the spaces between.