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Archives for April 2013

See iconic Denver locations in new concept video for TEDxMileHigh

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A few months ago, the team at TEDxMileHigh sat down with Chris Anthony of Chuck Fryberger Films about making a teaser video for the June 15 event. We initially wanted to create something that had the spirt of TED and the pulse of Denver, but left this in Chris’ court to decide just how that would look.  As a professional videographer and filmaker, we trusted that Chris and the team would create something special, and they did. The first live viewing of the video was at TEDxYouth@MileHigh, where it was received with rousing applause by over 1,700 students from around metro Denver.

This is what Chris has to say about the concept, and the creation, of the piece:

“My vision was to draw a connection between TEDxMileHigh and the search for answers through quest and discovery. The TEDxMileHigh origin of that connection is the background tapestry, cast with iconic Denver locations. I wanted to fill scenes with the thick lifeblood of a classic Denver experience. We follow the main character on a linear and realistic journey from Mile High Stadium, through downtown and finally arriving at Civic Center Park. His quest is to unravel the mystery of an unknown object that essentially manifests itself in the end as the spirit of TEDx. In the finale, we observe that there are other people that have discovered the same objects and supposedly arrived at the end of their own journeys. Those characters were designed to represent my impression of some archetypical Denver folks who would be identifiable to the TEDxMileHigh community. On the technical end we designed the production carefully to be able to incorporate heavy 2D visual effects. I set my sights very high in terms of the visual look I wanted to achieve. I am very proud of this piece and hope that it inspires the mind’s eye of the TEDxMileHigh community.”

Watch the video below:

TEDxYouth@MileHigh: A guest blogger’s take

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On any given Friday afternoon, crowds of eager kids are counting the seconds to being released into a wide stretch of weekend, but in downtown Denver on April 12, there was a frantic enthusiasm reserved for an event at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. TEDxYouth@MileHigh opened its doors to a flood of pristine uniforms who buzzed about on this particular Friday afternoon. So what did TEDxYouth@MileHigh offer up to thirsty minds that often default to boredom? Questions. The lobby was a patchwork of booths asking what they would wish for, what type of business they would start, what they wouldn’t settle for. A very bright-eyed 18 year old had a table with her duct tape craft wallets. She had been working with Young American’s Bank and YouthBiz to start her own business in her spare time. ReWork, a regular partner of TEDxMileHigh, was engaging kids about career choices and not settling for second best (ed. note: ReWork will be hosting The Schoolyard Scrimmage on May 4. Taking place at Galvanize, the Scrimmage is an innovative day-long event that will harness the talents and power of the community to help accelerate local schools, companies, and nonprofits working in the education space).

And that was just the first floor. In the learning labs upstairs (called Action Labs), kids interacted by writing poetry, building 3D collages, learning how to compose a dub-step beat, dance a haiku, and get a glimpse of exploration gear from Antarctica. All labs were very fun and perfect for younger students, but the juniors and seniors seemed a bit glazed as they had limited ground to tread, and for that I hope that TEDxYouth@MileHigh develops more dynamic engagement for these well-developed youthquakes.

In the auditorium, we heard from a broad swath of speakers and performers: Emma Hutchinson, a teenager and environmental activist who spent $7 on a letter-writing campaign to ban single use bags in Boulder, which resulted in a ban and a top-notch recycling program in her school; Swathi Kompella, a 12 year-old who is designing a neurological stimulator for stem cells to combat Parkinson’s Disease; Easton LaChappelle, a 17 year-old who has built and designed animatronic, low-cost prosthetic limbs from a 3D printer; DJ CaveM, a hip hop performer who raps about being an organic vegan farmer as a revolution; Jonathon Stalls, a man who lives life at 3MPH who walked across the country to raise money for KIVA loans;  Eric Larson, a polar explorer who engaged kids in environmental awareness and personal preparation; 25 year-old Ryan Ford, a movement artist and practitioner of parkour who said, “There are no obstacles, only opportunities” as he told the story of a mom and her two kids coming together to learn to play in order to overcome their disabilities and difficulties; Amelia Earhart, the emcee of the event, who is a pilot and news broadcaster starting a non-profit to teach young women to fly; and Ballet Nouveau Colorado and Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, who did a mash-up of dance and poetry.

The theme for the event was Values + Instincts. You don’t need to teach a kid to be interested (that is the unlearning of adulthood where there has to be results and reasons for work); kids are simply more effectively curious. But you do need to engage with them about the Values and Instincts that create our concepts, ideas, and cultures. The startlingly coherent young minds that presented solutions to real-world problems were jaw dropping, and the messages held by the curious explorers and movers who told of building a team, developing trust, living in your body, taking a walk, and being persistent were equally so. Those are the values, and developed instincts, that kids need and from that, they can do and design anything. This year, TEDxYouth@MileHigh continued to develop a rich tapestry to grow the minds that will design a complete overhaul of society from it’s industrial dust. As said by a reader from Lighthouse Writers: “Maybe we are just mirrors for miracles.”

This is a guest post by blogger and Denver-native, Crystal Clear, a host, producer, and media curator. Her project, myculturalrehab.com is a continuing examination of the ails and cures to the calamity of self-realization in our cultural soup.

Re-imagining arts education

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This is a guest post by Sari Levy who consults with education reform organizations, including Democrats for Education Reform, A+ Denver and the Colorado Legacy Foundation. Follow Sari on Twitter at @saril78.

Last year I wrote a report for the advocacy group, A+ Denver, on “arts education” even though my own experience from kindergarten to senior year had left me rolling my eyes. Mentions of “art education” produced flashbacks of my 5th grade water-color originals that looked like some kind of Rorschach test designed by our schnauzer, Boris. Arts-in-school was a random assortment of classes offered to entertain, distract, and apparently to introduce us to the most beautiful of all instruments: the recorder. In other words, arts education was a bunch of unrelated filler classes.

Leading up to last November’s election that would raise $11 million for the arts, rumor had it that the state of arts education in Denver Public Schools was very mixed, depending on the school. In some places, it was even worse than my pinch-pot filled experience. In some schools, teachers who’d been hired with tax dollars earmarked specifically for “arts” were actually being used to hire PE teachers who had some certificate to teach dance (but weren’t). Or a teacher with a certificate to teach arts education was replacing a history teacher so he or she could be paid from the “arts” pot. In other words, there was a lot of talk that the arts (in at least some schools) were taking a backseat to almost everything else.

By the time A+ Denver published the report, it was evident that some of the rumors above were true, and there were a lot of schools offering fairly low-quality arts programs. The bad news was that overall, low-income kids didn’t have the same opportunities in the arts as middle and upper class kids—which is mostly a function of having less access to private lessons and camps, and lacking consistent access to strong programs in school.

Low-income students in Denver are under-prepared to compete for coveted spots at top arts schools like Denver School of the Arts. For example, in 2011 twenty-six students completed the 6th grade orchestra audition, but just two were from DPS schools and neither was qualified. DSA has not consistently admitted DPS students from a single school west of I-25 for at least three years.

Part of the reason for the inconsistency, and lack of rigor, across school art programs is that the district has typically played a support role instead of a prescriptive one.

The good news is that the “wild west” approach to arts education (as one art teacher put it) had yielded some very unique, innovative, and powerful arts programs in pockets around the city. Some examples include: a mariachi club at Bryant-Webster elementary, theater program at East HS, a new school devoted to the arts in SW Denver, and a visual arts program at Brown. Talented entrepreneurs have begun moving into the space.

My favorite example of innovation in arts education is El Sistema [1]. El Sistema Colorado launched in Jan 2012 at Garden Place Elementary, a school where 98% of kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. An orchestra and choir program for 200 students (pre-school through 4th grade), it is free for all students. It is, however, quite rigorous, requiring more than 10 hours each week after school and on Saturdays.

El Sistema is modeled after the famous Venezuelan program now teaching ensemble music to 350,000 of the country’s poorest children, and is making a mark in other countries around the world. It was founded by (TED speaker) Jose Antonio Abreu (see TED talk below).  Less than two years from its inception, El Sistema Colorado will expand to almost 500 students at three Denver Public Schools:  Garden Place Elementary, Swansea Elementary, and Bruce Randolph Middle High School, all in a severely low-income region of Denver where 35,000 children live in poverty, or are at-risk.

I had an opportunity to hear (another TED speaker) Sal Khan talk about Khan Academy during trip to Palo Alto this winter. He said something that made me a bit teary (and hopeful), which I think is relevant to this blog.  Bill Gates said that Gates’ kids had used many Khan Academy videos to learn math concepts. “We know we’ve accomplished something remarkable when the poorest kids in the world aren’t getting a watered down version of the education Bill Gates’ kids are getting,” he said. “They are getting the same education.”

El Sistema is one example of a handful of exceptional programs around the country where kids aren’t just getting a watered down version of an arts education—they are getting the same one.

DPS just raised $11 million from taxpayers to invest in its arts (and PE) programs. We have an opportunity to reimagine the way schools teach the arts — or the opportunities we create after school. But DPS will need more entrepreneurs willing to reimagine what we mean by arts education, so that students graduate from high school having been through a spectrum of what’s available, and possible.

The theme song for this blog was composed and performed by my 5th grade cousin Ruben, who reminds me that kids can do remarkable things—if we can provide them a way to do it.

 

Featured image ©Piton Foundation/Brigid McAuliffe

[1]  Since this film was made, March of 2012, Sistema Colorado at Garden Place has grown to include 32 four year olds during school and 70 first, third and fourth graders after school. Fall of 2013, Sistema Colorado’s program at Garden Place will be at capacity, adding close to 50 students, serving all grade levels, pre-school through 5th grade. A total of 220 students.

TEDxYouth@MileHigh livestream + lineup

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Through maverick thinkers and doers, big-time athletes, entrepreneurs and innovators, humanitarians, and creative performers giving the ‘talk of their life’ around the power of ideas, TEDxMileHigh showcases innovation and leadership in Colorado. To offer a similar platform for area youth, TEDxMileHigh will be holding its second annual TEDxYouth@MileHigh this Friday, April 12, 2013 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in downtown Denver.

We will be livestreaming the event on TEDxMileHigh.com/livestream tomorrow from 1:45-5:30pm MDT.  TEDxYouth@MileHigh is at capacity and not open to the general public (only youth and youth-serving organizations), so tune into tomorrow on your computer, tablet, or smartphone to catch the action live!

This free event will challenge students between grades 6-12 to think critically about their lives, their communities, and their own big ideas and leadership potential.  With approximately 1,800 students from around the Mile High region (including Vail, Salida, and Bennet), this is the largest TEDxYouth event in the United States and it will feature an amazing lineup of presenters and performers.  TEDxYouth@MileHigh will be focused on innovation, leadership, and technology—an ideal supplement to 21st-century learning in the classroom.

Without further ado, here’s the lineup for TEDxYouth@MileHigh!

Jonathon Stalls
Swathi Kompella
Ryan Ford
Easton LaChappelle
Ietef Hotep Vita
Loren Cobb
Amelia Earhart
Emma Hutchinson

Be brave. Embrace the change. An appeal for standards-based learning.

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My first year of teaching was a spectacular failure and the only thing that saved my second year was that I stuck around.  I kept changing my plans until something clicked. My students saw that my failure did not send me running and they started to trust me—and that trust led to learning.

After two years of teaching, I was angry. Angry about institutional racism, the achievement gap, abject poverty, and the fact that most of my students would not graduate from high school ready to choose a four year college.  Angry that those who jumped for joy at their acceptance letters would spend the first few years of their college experience struggling through remedial courses because their high school diploma did not guarantee success.

Ten years later I am the Chief Curriculum Officer of STRIVE Preparatory Schools and am leading a curriculum redesign, driven by the Common Core Standards.  I am still angry, but am finding hope in the bar set by these standards.

“These Standards are not intended to be new names for old ways of doing business. They are a call to take the next step… It is time to recognize that standards are not just promises to our children, but promises we intend to keep” ( http://www.corestandards.org/Math).

Reading those words made me stop and pay attention. Too often in education we shy away from change because it is too hard. We are too proud of the work we’ve already done. We are scared to stretch beyond what is known and comfortable.  We are scared of failure.

I think that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) create a common language that clearly defines college and career readiness. In English Language Arts Standards, students are asked to make purposeful text-based conclusions and draw connections between texts—with an equal balance of fiction and non-fiction reading. In the Math Standards, students are asked to develop procedural and conceptual understanding of math skills. In both sets of Standards, depth, not breadth, is the name of the game.

These Standards have the potential to help dispel the myth that students can’t think critically until they have mastered “basic skills.”

We owe it to our students to take a chance on these Standards. We need to take the time to work together and figure out how to thoughtfully assess students in a way that tests their thorough understanding of a topic, not their ability to take a standardized test. We need to help foster the next generation of critical thinkers who are ready to choose college when they get there. We need to take risks. We need to fail and then pick ourselves up and try again because it is only in struggling through failure that we create something new.

These Standards are not a magic solution, but they are not a bad place to start. Be brave. Embrace the change. Work hard. Let hope supplant the anger waiting in the wings.

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