The Maker Faire is this weekend, in San Mateo, California. It is a gigantic event. In fact, I'm not sure it's possible to take in all of it even if you were there for all of the hours it is open.
But here's what we mostly saw:
- Met the people of RAFT, or Resource Area For Teachers - they were teaching cool Japanese braiding and other things. They gather up materials for fabulous projects and then get them to teachers. You can even sponsor a teacher's membership. As the guy there said, "My wife is a teacher. She gets a million Peet's Coffee gift cards each year - then she turns around and uses her own money to get supplies for projects." So consider these guys next time you want to help a teacher, or hey, it's a fabulous end-of-year gift!!
- Made an Ewok sock puppet, and learned that Fabri-Tak is the best stuff for making puppets and gluing fabrics together - it's cold to the touch until it dries, and it dries fast and cleans up easily.
- Checked out cool moving sculptures by Applied Kinetic Arts - a lot of which was just beautiful. There were these robots with heads lit from inside and one sculpture with a whole scene that played out inside of it. I was really taken with those.
- Stood inside a soda bottle wave by Reuben Margolin while the steampunk lady reminded people not to touch it
- Hung out with the Electric Giraffe
- There were also tons of Legos, a guy who made both instruments and sculptures out of piano parts, a paper airplane that flew by being pushed along through the air with a piece of cardboard, and many people riding around on various configurations of bicycles. Oh, and the world's most confused concessions-stand employee.
This is just the smallest cross-section. If you are in the area, go! I think our summer is going to involve a lot of Fabri-Tak, photovoltaic cells, Legos, and found objects. Just a feeling.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Case for Working with Your Hands
A fascinating article in the New York Times today.
You know, Leonardo and Galileo and Marie Curie didn't have computers. They figured things out in the "dirt world." Love computers. But screens aren't everything.
You know, Leonardo and Galileo and Marie Curie didn't have computers. They figured things out in the "dirt world." Love computers. But screens aren't everything.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sure Kid, I'll Draw Ya a Bunny.
When you're a cartoonist and you work with kids, here is a phrase you hear a lot:
"Could you draw me a....?" (Bunny, Elephant, Princess, Spider-Man, Robot, Horse...)
Used to be, I would try to get out of this. Not a good pattern, I thought. I'm here to help them draw and learn from drawing, not be a drawing service.
I'd even heard various art teachers say things like, "Never draw for them," "Never show them how to draw something..." so I figured this was going to short-circuit their creative little brains and turn them into un-creative non-drawing potatoes. Or something.
So I tried saying, "I'll draw you something if you'll draw me something," or, "I'm sure you can draw an aircraft carrier really well," or the classic, "Nope."
But see, I've realized something. Kids know what they need to learn something. Their curiosity tells them. Then they tell me. I should listen.
Seriously. Kids are hard-wired to learn things. It's what they do for a living. They learn how to swim by jumping off the step in the pool a hundred million times. They learn what different foods do by mixing them together. In this way, they master things like talking. This is no small thing.
So who am I to tell them that the thing they are curious about, they can't have?
And, it turns out, they have a plan. Sometimes it involves coloring whatever I've drawn. Often it's tracing the lines, then adding their own details. And they'll even take it away and then draw their own version. See? They've taken what I did, and interpreted it in all sorts of ways.
And, you can't overestimate how many brain cells are firing off when they are sitting, or standing, or half-sitting on my lap (try holding a pencil with all this!) and watching every line I make. You can practically see things zapping around behind their eyes.
They say that stories are a flight-simulator for the brain, that when someone hears a story the same parts of their brain light up as if they were having the actual experience. Actually I read this in "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath.
Watching someone draw I think has a similar effect. The drawing part of the brain is following that pen around, trying out the lines.
Then, kids have this great ability to go do something that fits their own abilities, which is why tracing and coloring are so great. They engage with the drawing in a way that makes sense to them. I'm not there to make them all draw a perfect monkey freehand. But they know what they are ready for. We don't need no stinkin' overbaked curriculum hoo-ha.
So, I should just shut up and draw the unicorn. Or Storm Trooper. Or whatever.
Yet again, I'm the one who's learning here.
"Could you draw me a....?" (Bunny, Elephant, Princess, Spider-Man, Robot, Horse...)
Used to be, I would try to get out of this. Not a good pattern, I thought. I'm here to help them draw and learn from drawing, not be a drawing service.
I'd even heard various art teachers say things like, "Never draw for them," "Never show them how to draw something..." so I figured this was going to short-circuit their creative little brains and turn them into un-creative non-drawing potatoes. Or something.
So I tried saying, "I'll draw you something if you'll draw me something," or, "I'm sure you can draw an aircraft carrier really well," or the classic, "Nope."
But see, I've realized something. Kids know what they need to learn something. Their curiosity tells them. Then they tell me. I should listen.
Seriously. Kids are hard-wired to learn things. It's what they do for a living. They learn how to swim by jumping off the step in the pool a hundred million times. They learn what different foods do by mixing them together. In this way, they master things like talking. This is no small thing.
So who am I to tell them that the thing they are curious about, they can't have?
And, it turns out, they have a plan. Sometimes it involves coloring whatever I've drawn. Often it's tracing the lines, then adding their own details. And they'll even take it away and then draw their own version. See? They've taken what I did, and interpreted it in all sorts of ways.
And, you can't overestimate how many brain cells are firing off when they are sitting, or standing, or half-sitting on my lap (try holding a pencil with all this!) and watching every line I make. You can practically see things zapping around behind their eyes.
They say that stories are a flight-simulator for the brain, that when someone hears a story the same parts of their brain light up as if they were having the actual experience. Actually I read this in "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath.
Watching someone draw I think has a similar effect. The drawing part of the brain is following that pen around, trying out the lines.
Then, kids have this great ability to go do something that fits their own abilities, which is why tracing and coloring are so great. They engage with the drawing in a way that makes sense to them. I'm not there to make them all draw a perfect monkey freehand. But they know what they are ready for. We don't need no stinkin' overbaked curriculum hoo-ha.
So, I should just shut up and draw the unicorn. Or Storm Trooper. Or whatever.
Yet again, I'm the one who's learning here.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Mural Sketches - Color!
Our first idea had to do with seasons, so I did some tests to see how color changes could make the same scene look like it was changing seasons. Which was cool, but then we got into the "Powers of Ten" idea, zooming out from DNA to the Solar System.
So, here's a sketch of what that might look like -- starting on the left with DNA and plant cells, and working our way across five panels until we've got Earth in the Solar System. It's more like "Powers of Eighty-Three and a Half" but that's okay. We're also including the California hills in there, which are visible behind the Science Lab. Kind of cool.
Also with five panels we can have each of grades 1 through 5 paint one of the panels, which is very cool.
We're going to use primed plywood, and hopefully re-use paint. So colors will be interesting!
Looks like we'll try and paint it in the Fall - end-of-school-year craziness is happening, but we've made some good progress thinking this through. So many things to cover before you loose a bunch of kids with brushes on the wall...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Bueller.... Bueller?
I went and talked at Career Day at a local high school this morning, and by that I do mean, "talked." As in, I did pretty much all the talking. The only time I got any glimmer of participation was when I asked the students what they get nagged about the most -- and all of their answers were exactly the same... grades, college, get a job, money, the economy is bad, and the favorite, "You need to take responsibility for yourself!!"
Now, I've worked with lots of high school students, and you sometimes just have to take it on faith that some of what you say might stick somewhere. You're just outputting. I get that. But based on what I've been reading about brains and how they learn, I couldn't help pondering some things as I biked home.
I was thinking, Career Day is an adult approach to a teen problem -- namely, giving them the chance to think about what they are going to do after high school. Sounds great, right? So we get some well-meaning adults to come in and talk about what they do. The kids file into various rooms and sit down and there they are. Now what?
I felt like a person who was trying to play a piano by stomping on the floor instead of hitting the keys. No contact with the keyboard at all.
With little kids, we talk alot about "developmentally appropriate" -- which means, you don't hit a kid with stuff that they aren't ready for yet. 5-year-olds, for the most part, are not reading chapter books. So you give them materials they can handle. This helps them be successful and get to the next thing. You also mix it in with things 5-year-olds like, like moving around often and having time outside.
I felt like my presentation there today wasn't developmentally appropriate. These students' brains were not prepared for what I had to say. Or how I said it. In so many ways. They're thinking about the other students in the room, good or bad. They're thinking about when they can eat lunch. They're thinking about sleeping. And they're thinking, here's another grownup telling me stuff I need to do and think about -- just leave me alone.
It's not that they don't need to think about college and jobs and all of that, it's just that it needs to be presented in a way that they can relate to.
I've got some work to do.
Now, I've worked with lots of high school students, and you sometimes just have to take it on faith that some of what you say might stick somewhere. You're just outputting. I get that. But based on what I've been reading about brains and how they learn, I couldn't help pondering some things as I biked home.
I was thinking, Career Day is an adult approach to a teen problem -- namely, giving them the chance to think about what they are going to do after high school. Sounds great, right? So we get some well-meaning adults to come in and talk about what they do. The kids file into various rooms and sit down and there they are. Now what?
I felt like a person who was trying to play a piano by stomping on the floor instead of hitting the keys. No contact with the keyboard at all.
With little kids, we talk alot about "developmentally appropriate" -- which means, you don't hit a kid with stuff that they aren't ready for yet. 5-year-olds, for the most part, are not reading chapter books. So you give them materials they can handle. This helps them be successful and get to the next thing. You also mix it in with things 5-year-olds like, like moving around often and having time outside.
I felt like my presentation there today wasn't developmentally appropriate. These students' brains were not prepared for what I had to say. Or how I said it. In so many ways. They're thinking about the other students in the room, good or bad. They're thinking about when they can eat lunch. They're thinking about sleeping. And they're thinking, here's another grownup telling me stuff I need to do and think about -- just leave me alone.
It's not that they don't need to think about college and jobs and all of that, it's just that it needs to be presented in a way that they can relate to.
I've got some work to do.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Art + Science, Episode 512
Okay okay, here's yet another great post by Garr Reynolds about how foolish it is to separate our thinking into subject boxes like art, math, etc. Featuring astronaut Mae Jemison, who knows whereof she speaks.
I also just finished reading Brain Rules by John Medina, all about the many different ways our brains take information and glue it together and store it places and then go find it and glue it together again. Fascinating stuff.
One of the most interesting things in Brain Rules has to do with how we learn and remember things. It turns out that the more senses and ideas you use when you learn something, the better you remember it. I've been trying this with people's names, because I am dreadful at remembering names. And you know, it works pretty well! I'm now slightly less dreadful with names. I think.
This morning I was at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, where we helped a class of 3rd graders write, edit, illustrate and publish their own story. In two hours. Let's see... they used their eyes to catch spelling errors, their inner eye to visualize what the characters looked like, their ears to listen to all the different ideas, their speech entirely too much, their hands to draw and write with, and they got all wiggly when they had ideas. Seems pretty all-inclusive to me.
One of the biggest problems with putting subjects into boxes is that it is human nature to say, "I'm good at this, so I must not be good at this other thing." If you're good at math you must not be able to draw. If you draw you must not be good at math. That sort of thing.
How many people have decided, based on this process, that they are not good at something they haven't even tried??? Did this happen to you? Argh! Argh, I say!
There, I've said it for the 512th time.
I also just finished reading Brain Rules by John Medina, all about the many different ways our brains take information and glue it together and store it places and then go find it and glue it together again. Fascinating stuff.
One of the most interesting things in Brain Rules has to do with how we learn and remember things. It turns out that the more senses and ideas you use when you learn something, the better you remember it. I've been trying this with people's names, because I am dreadful at remembering names. And you know, it works pretty well! I'm now slightly less dreadful with names. I think.
This morning I was at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, where we helped a class of 3rd graders write, edit, illustrate and publish their own story. In two hours. Let's see... they used their eyes to catch spelling errors, their inner eye to visualize what the characters looked like, their ears to listen to all the different ideas, their speech entirely too much, their hands to draw and write with, and they got all wiggly when they had ideas. Seems pretty all-inclusive to me.
One of the biggest problems with putting subjects into boxes is that it is human nature to say, "I'm good at this, so I must not be good at this other thing." If you're good at math you must not be able to draw. If you draw you must not be good at math. That sort of thing.
How many people have decided, based on this process, that they are not good at something they haven't even tried??? Did this happen to you? Argh! Argh, I say!
There, I've said it for the 512th time.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Tools Are Not Talent
This was one of my favorite quotes when I had offices and cubicles - I had a little piece of paper with this on, and I stuck it up wherever I happened to be working. I still have the paper somewhere.
Interesting realization lately, though - for all the time I've spent using computers to do neato things like communicate with people and sell stuff and make websites and distribute cartoons and email and tweet and all of it, I don't create anything good on the computer.
No, really. I used to think that I could make just the cutest, most fabulous, airbrushed, drop-shadowed, icon-ey, tasty characters on the computer. Just look at all that software! It can do anything! It can make stuff 3-D! It can animate! I mean, what's not to love?
What's not to love is any art I make on there. Bleh. My brain just doesn't work the same way with a screen as it does with paper.
When I am drawing, I should be nowhere near the mouse. There must be a pencil, or a Sharpie, or a brush. No pixels. I just don't make good work with pixels.
Oh, I've re-drawn cartoons before so they could be blown up to a big size or put in a particular format, but that's it. I must draw first, then scan stuff in. This the way things are.
Drawing tablet? Got one. Doesn't help.
So, the moral of this story is, computers don't solve everything. And if you are trying to create, even if you are writing, maybe you need to spend some time with a pad of paper, or some chalk, or something that engages your mind differently than pixels. It really is different. Just because computers can replicate things like typing, doesn't mean your brain thinks it's the same. Think about it.
Find the right tools for your talent.
Interesting realization lately, though - for all the time I've spent using computers to do neato things like communicate with people and sell stuff and make websites and distribute cartoons and email and tweet and all of it, I don't create anything good on the computer.
No, really. I used to think that I could make just the cutest, most fabulous, airbrushed, drop-shadowed, icon-ey, tasty characters on the computer. Just look at all that software! It can do anything! It can make stuff 3-D! It can animate! I mean, what's not to love?
What's not to love is any art I make on there. Bleh. My brain just doesn't work the same way with a screen as it does with paper.
When I am drawing, I should be nowhere near the mouse. There must be a pencil, or a Sharpie, or a brush. No pixels. I just don't make good work with pixels.
Oh, I've re-drawn cartoons before so they could be blown up to a big size or put in a particular format, but that's it. I must draw first, then scan stuff in. This the way things are.
Drawing tablet? Got one. Doesn't help.
So, the moral of this story is, computers don't solve everything. And if you are trying to create, even if you are writing, maybe you need to spend some time with a pad of paper, or some chalk, or something that engages your mind differently than pixels. It really is different. Just because computers can replicate things like typing, doesn't mean your brain thinks it's the same. Think about it.
Find the right tools for your talent.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Make a Deck of Creature Cards!
The other day, I took some index cards and started drawing heads on them. Then I held them up and said, "Who wants to add a body to this one?" Several hands would go up, I would hand it off and bodies would get drawn on new cards.
Pretty soon other kids started drawing heads and then offering them up - "Who wants this one?" - the other kids would go, "Me, me!!" Cards were flying across the table. Parts got added. They got combined every which way.
Now we have a deck of creature cards. Someone even gathered them up in a neat stack and put them in a box. I think next we'll either color them, or mix them around and add more. Or both. And, I just know there's a game in here somewhere.
Collaborative Art
This is a conversation in white board form. I think there were 4 or 5 girls involved here, and they were talking, and writing, and drawing - and dividing the big board into various little sections.
Many kids love to talk while they are drawing, as if the two things are part of each other. Kindergarteners will often make sound effects to go with their lines.
I also like the way they had to negotiate to figure out who was going to write where - that had to be interesting...
In school we always tell kids not to copy off each other's paper, but artists and thinkers from Picasso to Einstein point out that great creations come from great inspirations and sources. So I love when the kids are bouncing ideas off one another like this. You can just see the synapses firing off.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Quick! What's a Llama look like?
At 826 Valencia in San Francisco this morning, I had a great time making the world's fastest illustrations for a book entitled "The Crazy Llama Sisters and the Creepy Dragon," created by the first-graders at Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School.
At 826 Valencia books get written, illustrated, and published in a matter of a couple of hours. No kidding! Plus, they've got a Pirate supply store. So you can be prepared for anything.
How do you get twenty first-graders to write a story in such a short time, you ask? Well, the main tool for this is the Story Skeleton, which means you have a small set of building blocks that you use to construct your story. These are: Characters, Descriptions, Setting, Problem, Solution, and a few other such items. Once you fill in what these things are, you can get the basics of a story going. I plan to use Story Skeletons in my cartooning classes this summer as well - for example, to create a superhero you need a Superpower, Weakness, Mortal Enemy, Sidekick, and Problem (usually the Evil Plot of the Mortal Enemy). See?
I'm looking forward to the next book already! There's something really special about helping a group of kids make something that didn't exist before and that is all theirs.
At 826 Valencia books get written, illustrated, and published in a matter of a couple of hours. No kidding! Plus, they've got a Pirate supply store. So you can be prepared for anything.
How do you get twenty first-graders to write a story in such a short time, you ask? Well, the main tool for this is the Story Skeleton, which means you have a small set of building blocks that you use to construct your story. These are: Characters, Descriptions, Setting, Problem, Solution, and a few other such items. Once you fill in what these things are, you can get the basics of a story going. I plan to use Story Skeletons in my cartooning classes this summer as well - for example, to create a superhero you need a Superpower, Weakness, Mortal Enemy, Sidekick, and Problem (usually the Evil Plot of the Mortal Enemy). See?
I'm looking forward to the next book already! There's something really special about helping a group of kids make something that didn't exist before and that is all theirs.
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