Sunday, August 23, 2009
Brainstorming innovation ideas for the classroom 8-21-09 PD
Innovation Notes
Brainstorming session led by Joyce 8-21-09
o Order books from SF public library online (students)
o Computer-aide music program – GarageBand
o Using blogs or the idea of text messaging in terms of communication
o Using library catalog ---move from cards(history/past) to electronic(now/present)
o Science – experiment --- follow directions -- innovate
o Look around --- observe --- think what you see -- create….
o Have kids create their own way to measure wind or rain
o Identify strength & area of need. Students help each other create toolbox rather than reinvent the wheel.
o Research that leads to prevention/cure of AIDS
o Innovative places/ways to write
o Recruitment for MathCounts- Dailies, posters, visit classrooms, rewards, integrate into curriculum
o Create your own game; make your own equipment for the game
o Student needs collaboration between services for success
o Show ‘n Tell: At least 3 times during the year, create something at home & tell how you made it & what it’s for
o New extensions on topics
o Deepen understanding
o Use types of cooking or different foods to design clay bowls appropriate to the food.
o Creative reuse of familiar object. Eg.- Galileo used opera glasses technology to make telescope
o Design paper, cardboard or wooden airplanes through looking at existing test planes
o Expressing creatively through self portraits
o Reading comics –encourages writing – reading – overcoming fear of self expression
o What can you do to create a process/organizer/check sheet for an essay or edit a paper that works for you
o Using innovative strategies in working with middle school girls…
o Early communities and collaboration
o Earth Day. Give a simple item for child to create something new
o Redesigning challenges
o Back to School Night during the day
o Local history ---- architecture---Academy of Sciences, GG Bridge, City Hall --- EQ retrofit --- seismology
o Ending with your product
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Innovation Song/Video
Friday, August 14, 2009
Innovation Song/Video
Success! I have to remember to copy 'the embed' code from the youtube site and then just paste it into my blog post. The blogger help videos are actually quite helpful!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Spirit of Saint Louis
We are trav'ling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before
But we'll all be reunited (but if we stand reunited)
On a new and sunlit shore (then a new world is in store)
O when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the moon turns red with blood
When the moon turns red with blood
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
On that hallelujah day
On that hallelujah day
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
O when the trumpet sounds the call
O when the trumpet sounds the call
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I'm waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed
When the revelation (revolution) comes
When the revelation (revolution) comes
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the rich go out and work
When the rich go out and work
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When the air is pure and clean
When the air is pure and clean
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When we all have food to eat
When we all have food to eat
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
When our leaders learn to cry
When our leaders learn to cry
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
OPENING ACTIVITY — MACHINE IMPROV
Mary Ann got the ball rolling with an idea...
we could do groups creating human rube goldberg machines.. then set them in motion to a rhythm someone in the group beats out and then have someone in the group film it or snap it. whichever groups want to get up and share can. then post/display them for all to enjoy!
ties in rube,tech,innovation, music,creative movement, improv,collaboration, creativity and fun!
in improv/theatre games it is called,"make an offer, take an offer", or the "yes, and..." game, where you take a suggestion and , add to it, tweak it, modify it..etc. so this is a starting place.. let's see where it will evolve into something fun for our starter!
A few more ideas get tossed in...
Maybe with the sound that you can incorporate your name in some interesting way to go with your movement? Maybe try adding the red ball in somehow too? And then of course you be sure to add the big invisible steering wheel or button adjust for the machines sound volume and speed.
Improv Warm-Ups: Machines -- powered by eHow.com
The Warm Up activity goals are:
- Make sure everyone introduces themselves.
- Make sure that everyone can feel comfortable enough to say something, but keep it moving so you don't get anyone stopping the activity from picking up momentum.
- Make sure that you encourage people to work in a variety of social interactions: together in a big groups, in small groups (or partnering) and individually (quiet journaling + out there crazy collaborative games).
- Make sure that there is built in success for everyone.
- Make sure that it's fun, fun, fun.
- After everyone has fun, fun, fun, be sure to deconstruct the lesson in an engaging way. (so everyone understands the step — break it down — so they can duplicate the activity with their kids in the classroom)
- Allow for comments/reflection/journaling.
- Give everyone a take away sheet that outlines the activity so they have a way to remember. And put that info online for downloading too.
Monday, August 10, 2009
What to do with Your Leftover Post-It Notes...
Music by Röyksopp (http://royksopp.com)
Sound design by Ian Vargo, Shaun Burdick
Actor: Chun-yao Huang
Calling for the Innovation Station... All aboard!
http://web.me.com/rooftopart/ArtIsInnovation/Welcome.html
I was inspired by the innovative pairings that have taken shape.
I added Rube Goldberg and IDEO in... They are a nice local pairing with the same playful spirit.
And there was a need to consider the representation of the school community, and the muralists were a natural and on Lilli’s list.
There is an inherent study structure to look at how artists play with ideas through time with art and learn from those who came before them.
Let me know what you think. If anyone has specific content that they want included in the website, I can easily copy and paste in from an e-mail.
WALT DISNEY >>> PIXAR
(FILM & ANIMATION & beyond, if you consider Steven Jobs role & Walt’s vision of EPCOT)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG >>> MARCUS SHELBY
(MUSIC LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE)
RUTH ASAWA @ Black Mountain College >>> MAYA LIN’s “What Is Missing” @ CAS
(EXPLORATION OF MATERIALS & FORM IN VISUAL ART)
MAURICE SENDAK On SENDAK @ CJM >>> LEMONY SNICKET
(LITERARY ARTS LEADING TO WORK IN OTHER ART FORMS)
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA >>> THE ADLER FELLOWS
(PERFORMING ARTS - COLLABORATIVE)
LOS TRES GRANDES: SIQUEIROS, OROZCO, RIVERA >>> JOSEF NORRIS
(COMMUNITY-BASED ART)
RUBE GOLDBERG >>> IDEO
(FLIGHTS OF FANCY LEADING TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN & SOCIAL INNOVATION)
By studying these artistic pairings at different points in the timeline, we can see how ideas get passed on and played with across the long-line of time.
Through these pairings, we are once again looking at the Past, Present & Future (the kids).
But while the focus of last year’s “Art Is... Memory” study was about remembering the past through the lens of the present,
the focus this year’s “Art Is... Innovation” study is about imagining the future through the lens of today.
We’ve determined that the artist really never knows if he or she is truly innovating while doing.
The artist gives shape to the idea, does the work, and steps back and let others judge.
With art, humanity has a way to look back. Experiments and ideas are given shape, and change can be recorded.
Art gives humanity a way to record growth, Art is evidence of innovation.
THE STUDY OF MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY, ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN IS ALSO WRAPPED WITHIN ALL OF THESE IDEAS... AND TIME is a huge concept of the study.
On the resources section of the website, I’ve put up your brainstormed list of innovators in an Excel file on Innovators that can be downloaded in pdf form. This could be done with website links, books, etc.
Anyone want to take on the task to start an Excel file of books, emails, etc. with a sorting code that references the different works. Or everyone can agree on the format, and we can provide a template that you can add to and merge the date. Maybe Tamra & Rittenell could help too.
The file could start out small and be updated add as people contribute their ideas. Same with the innovator sheet.
If we could ID the downloadable lesson plans, and nail who will be responsible, it can be done pretty quickly.
****************
It is interesting to look at the family history of the some of artists that have been selected.
As children, their families endured great hardship, and their courses were set with extreme events.
Slavery and Jim Crow laws, WWI, poverty, bankruptcy, WWII, Internment camps, the Holocaust, the Mexican Revolution and the Cultural Revolution.
AND Because I’m totally obsessed with the parallels between now and then...
Here are some of facts that I discovered about 1923, prepare to be amazed!
On March 20, 1923, the Parent-Teachers Association was organized at Twin Peaks School.
On July 30, the San Francisco Board of Education voted that a kindergarten would be opened at Twin Peaks School.
AND
Warren G. Harding, the President of the United States dies in San Francisco, in the Palace Hotel.
Houdini escapes before 30,000 people, hanging upside down 100 feet up from the side of the Hearst Building at 3rd & Market.
San Francisco Opera has its first performance, La Bohème at the Civic Center.
The Steinhardt Aquarium opens its doors, and thousands come "viewing with evident awe the strange collection of water life gathered from all corners of the world."
Lombard Street is opened, designed so cars could manage the 27 degree hill slope.
The Crystal Palace, a San Francisco supermarket is opened.
The Whitney brothers, the founders of Playland, create a fast-photo finishing process that allow people to take their pictures once rather than having to wait for days.
The State Legislature passes the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Act of California into law, and Hetch Hetchy is built.
Walt & Roy Disney found The Disney Brothers Studios.
The Equal Rights Amendment is introduced in Congress.
The property of Black Mountain College is developed as a summer camp and inn in North Carolina.
Louis Armstrong is recorded in Chicago for the first time.
The concept of Planned Obsolescence is hatched.
Siqueiros helped found the Syndicate of Revolutionary Mexican Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, publishing a paper on the necessity of a “collective” art.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy is appointed to the Bauhaus and introduces the ideas leading to the importance of typography in corporate identity in graphic design.
Hitler is arrested and charged with treason.
King Tut’s Burial Chamber is opened.
I whisper to you all, eyes wide in my best Sixth Sense voice... “I see connections...”
Monday, August 3, 2009
For #4-How is the ability to empathize and use multiple...

Since I can't seem to edit in green on JT's actual blog entry, I will put my suggestion in this post.
The budget straits the state of California is facing are forcing our leaders to make a series of pernicious choices with legacy implications. One such choice is whether to fund music programming or refocus our funding priorities to the "core academics" (which happen to be those subjects tested in the statewide testing system).
I propose that we really don't have a choice. We must fund music.
From the rhythm of our breathing as infants...
This is a good question to pose to our children as well. They are constantly bombarded with preparing for the "test", and the underlying premise that the "core" academic subjects are the ones to value. How does this focus help our students think outside the box?
http://tinyurl.com/m86kja
Saturday, August 1, 2009
7 guiding questions RD of activities - add to it!
Started a rough draft activity list. Feel free to add in green. If you're viewing this blog, then:
- Log on
- click on the e icon at the left top of the blog
- go to the 'Innovation' blog', 'edit post'
- select this one (7 guiding questions...)
- add your changes
- publish post
If THE BIG IDEA is: INNOVATION is a creative and collaborative response to a problem worth solving.
THEN: The study should allow for exploration of “worth” - this idea of value.
“ART IS INNOVATION” LINE OF INQUIRY:
How do artists explore diverse perspectives and processes to work on problems worth solving?
Guiding Question #1:
How do artists observe and identify problems worth solving?
What were the problems Pixar artists identifying in Wall-E?.
Guiding Question #2:
How do both play and hard work foster innovative thinking?
- Explore improvisation with exercises that involve theater improv, call & response, scatting, visual mindmapping, mirror dancing & drawing.
Guiding Question #3:
How can we grow by challenging ourselves and working through failure?
- -look at examples of struggle and success on the blog
- watch the video about Nick Vujucic
Keep on Keeping On! Thoughts on the Benefit of Failure
- look at / read about Disney's 1st clips, how his idea was stolen, but he went on to create another cartoon icon and other innovations.
Guiding Question #4:
How is the ability to empathize and use multiple perspectives important to effective problem solving?
- What perspectives is Maya Lin using in her latest memorial? What is she empathizing with?
- 6 blind men and the elephant story. Blind feel. Group participants in 4s. Give each member a different piece of an object in a bag to feel only. They have to describe their piece to other members and try to figure out the object.
- 3 blind mice and the elephant story. (different version of the 6 blind men.)
- A perspective story (video). Uses seasons as the different parts 4 sons see.
Guiding Question #5:
How do artists use materials and experiment with artistic forms?
- Disney clips
- Maya Lin study
- Ruth Asawa study
- Marcus Shelby study
- Joseph Norris study
Guiding Question #6:
How can we foster an atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation?
Guiding Question #7:
How have artists used their creativity and art to help others?
- Fundred Bill
- Burma project
- Playing for Change
- Creativity Explored
- Study of our artists in residence or from past studies (Ruth, Shannon, Marcus, Josef,
- The Concert for Bangledesh
- SF Mime Troup and politics
- Marcus Shelby and Port Chicago work, the civil rights movement on the west coast
- Bono & other stars and their charitable work
or
How does creative thinking push us to imagine new possibilities in solving problems?
AC 7-22-09 notes 7 Guiding ?s
If THE BIG IDEA is: INNOVATION is a creative and collaborative response to a problem worth solving.
THEN: The study should allow for exploration of “worth” - this idea of value.
“ART IS INNOVATION” LINE OF INQUIRY:
How do artists explore diverse perspectives and processes to work on problems worth solving?
Guiding Question #1:
How do artists observe and identify problems worth solving?
Guiding Question #2:
How do both play and hard work foster innovative thinking?
Guiding Question #3:
How can we grow by challenging ourselves and working through failure?
Guiding Question #4:
How is the ability to empathize and use multiple perspectives important to effective problem solving?
Guiding Question #5:
How do artists use materials and experiment with artistic forms?
Guiding Question #6:
How can we foster an atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovation?
Guiding Question #7:
How have artists used their creativity and art to help others?
or
How does creative thinking push us to imagine new possibilities in solving problems?
Harness that Incredible, Generative, Capacity
Here is an article that shows how we have plenty of company on board with our theme of Innovation and creative habits of thinking. Obama sees the importance of recapturing the
"spirit of innovation" to build a stronger foundation for our country's future.
And the future is our children-right!
Obama: 'Spirit of innovation' key to the future August 01, 2009 9:33 AM EDT WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, citing fresh evidence the recession is winding down, says the country's future economic prosperity depends on building a new, stronger foundation and recapturing the "spirit of innovation." "Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. The president cited Friday's Commerce Department report showing that in the last few months the economy overall has done "measurably better than expected." He credited his $787 billion economic stimulus program for much of that progress. "This and the other difficult but important steps that we have taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes on this recession," Obama said. He mentioned his administration's efforts to limit home foreclosures and unlock frozen credit markets to encourage lending to people and businesses, along with the mixture of tax cuts and spending included in the stimulus program. Obama reminded the nation that full recovery will not happen overnight, but rather will take many more months. "Even as we rescue this economy, we must work to rebuild it stronger than before," he said. "We've got to build a new foundation strong enough to withstand future economic storms and support lasting prosperity." That means having the best-educated, highest-skilled workers in the world, a health care system that fosters innovation by holding the line on costs, building a clean energy economy and investing in research and development, Obama said. "It is only by building a new foundation that we will once again harness that incredible generative capacity of the American people," the president said. "All it takes are the policies to tap that potential - to ignite that spark of creativity and ingenuity - which has always been at the heart of who we are and how we succeed." Obama said he will discuss the foundation he wants when he makes a second visit to Elkhart, Ind., on Wednesday. Layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry account for much of the job loss in northern Indiana, which is struggling with an unemployment rate near 17 percent. "For communities like Elkhart to thrive, we need to recapture that spirit of innovation that has always moved America forward," he said. Senior administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, are likely to discuss those issues during meetings Saturday to assess administration progress at the six-month mark and plot a course ahead. Obama was headed to Camp David for the weekend, and was not expected to participate in the sessions.