We opened this chapter by posing the paradox of wanting to simultaneously teach for academic learning and creativity, but feeling caught between the dual tensions of fearing curricular chaos when teaching for creativity and worrying about stifling creativity when teaching for academic learning. In further elaborating on Sawyer’s (2004) concept of disciplined improvisation, our goal was to describe how teachers can start to resolve these tensions. We provided a few examples of how teachers might approach the planning and teaching of their academic curricula with a disciplined improvisational approach. Although we feel there are no sure-fire recipes for navigating the uncertainties that emerge
when the curriculum-as-planned meets the curriculum-as-lived, we believe that teachers can (with experience and practice) start to find ways to meaningful blend and rework fixed and fluid aspects of their curriculum to simultaneously support student learning and creative expression.