Inspired by Xolo by Donna Barba Higuera, this year’s Habla Chicago Teacher Institute explores how stories help us navigate the spaces between worlds—imagination and reality, past and present, the known and the unknown. Drawing on Mesoamerican cultural traditions and the enduring significance of the Xoloitzcuintli, participants will explore how stories and art help us understand ourselves and the cultures around us. 

At the center of the institute is the idea of journeys. In traditional stories, the xoloitzcuintli is known as a loyal guide, helping travelers find their way. 

Our essential question for this institute will be: How do we move between different worlds and spaces?

Journeys Between Worlds  will immerse teachers in multimodal, hands-on learning that connects literature, history, science, and the arts. Participants will work with a range of materials—visual, textual, and performative—to explore themes of identity, imagination, and transformation. Through performance, visual art-making, sound creation, and writing, we will create classroom experiences that bring a sense of magic to our day-to-day learning.

Grounded in the cultural traditions of Mexico and the histories of Mesoamerican civilizations, the institute will explore how architecture, storytelling, and artistic expression reflect ways of understanding the world. Participants will examine archaeological sites, cultural practices, and visual symbols as living texts. 

As always, the Habla Teacher Institute will demonstrate how we can create spaces that amplify our students’ stories, lived worlds, languages, and their creative and intellectual capacities. Teachers will receive a set of concrete, interdisciplinary tools that can be applied across disciplines, age groups, and settings.

At this institute, teachers will learn how to:

• integrate multiple modalities in student work, including visual, textual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning
• move beyond traditional delivery models toward experiential, inquiry-driven approaches
• apply strategies and structures that engage every student and support differentiated learning
• build classroom communities that honor identity, story, and cultural knowledge
• design learning journeys that culminate in meaningful exhibitions of student work

The Habla Institute will be highly interactive and participatory. Sessions are hands-on workshops where participants will “learn by doing.” The institute will culminate in a final exhibition of learning, modeling how student work can transform classrooms into spaces of meaning, beauty, and connection.

The institute is designed for educators across disciplines and age levels, from early childhood through higher education.