The Teacher Renewal Program was a vital element of the Urban Imagination Network, a six-year partnership in which Imagine Chicago paired six museums with seven Chicago public schools to improve reading comprehension and strengthen learning connections among children, parents, teachers and administrators. Personal renewal retreats were created for teachers to renew their vocations, connect to the natural world, and participate in an inspiring learning community of their colleagues.

We teach who we are. Great teachers bring energy, concern, meaningful connections, and an openness of mind and heart to their classroom. These qualities help them be present to their students and colleagues and to facilitate their own and each other’s learning. The Teacher Renewal Program offered space and time for teachers to deepen their vision and commitment to learning, and to gain perspective on the fears and stresses that inevitably arise within a standardized and depersonalized education system.

The Teacher Renewal Program was held at the Chicago Botanic Garden, a public space that quickly became "sacred ground" for the teachers. Content was organized around seasonal themes; reflection work included a variety of large group, small group and solitary settings with an abundance of arts-based and outdoor activities. The two year series of quarterly weekend retreats:

· gave teachers time to build trust and to speak from their hearts rather than accepting conventional images of "being too busy" to attend to their own learning;

· provided opportunities for teachers to articulate and explore their own experiences and gifts;

· offered ways for teachers to "reframe" their experience so they could understand and respond to it more deeply, as an opportunity for personal integrity;

· helped teachers develop their own language, images and methods to explore "spiritual" development themselves and with their students;

· reconnected teachers to natural cycles so they could appreciate what supports life, and recognize that the teaching vocation offers opportunities for entering daily into an organic cycle of renewal and growth.

This effort differed from other professional development efforts, because it was not focused on professional competence or teacher retention (though it supported both). Imagine Chicago believes that content alone cannot create an environment for learning. Instead, good teaching and learning happen from the inside out; teachers need to be passionate students in order to inspire a love of learning in others. The Teacher Renewal Program engaged and impacted teachers’ intellectual, affective and spiritual lives, challenging them to re-envision the purposes and practices of education, to rediscover the "heart" of teaching. This meant listening for and sharing their own inner strength, balance and resiliency. Engaging in arts and play also fueled teachers’ innate creative capacities and reminded them of the importance of play for their students. Developing habits of reflection and awareness helped teachers realize that silence may be as important to learning as speech. What often resulted was a spiritual re-awakening in which joy and love were discovered.

As one teacher summarized eloquently, "I used to bring conditioned love for myself and my students into the classroom. My love for my students was conditioned on how well they paid attention, how well they performed. My love for myself depended on many of the same things. Now I try to bring unconditioned love to my classroom every day."