Tales from “Our Community, Ourselves” Diversity Conference
Spring is here and we’ve been all over the place. I’m one of those terribly homey people. I LOVE home. But I also LOVE to travel. India, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, New York, Philadelphia, South Carolina, Vallejo, Alameda County… The world fascinates me with its beauty and variation, from the far away and vastly different to the close to home and still different! In San Francisco, we live in what I jokingly refer to as an “adjacent reality,” similar to the rest of the country, but noticeably unique. Ahhh, San Francisco, she’s an island unto herself in some ways. So even when we only travel a county or two away, I feel like we’re on an adventure…away from our familiar little village of the Castro and Mission Districts, away from the public trains and rolling fog, our local markets and favorite strolls.
This last Friday, April 23rd, we were up before the sun and off to the Newark Hilton for the Diversity Conference sponsored by Child, Family and Community Services, Inc. of Alameda County. I love doing these things with Matthew. He drives and I navigate. Usually I’ve been alone, so I drive and I have no idea who’s navigating. We got there nice and early and set up our table. It was the first public event for Claiming Face, the Educator’s Guide, and Continue reading »
So Much More than Art
We attended Our Focus: The Child and Creciendo Juntos: Educadores, Niños y Familias Conference this past weekend sponsored by Las Positas College and Chabot College. 
I often present at conferences like these but it was our first time as vendors. We didn’t know what to expect and were just fabulously impressed with the great turn out, around 500 attendees. We were also impressed with the intent and breadth of the conference format. There were presentations in English, Spanish and Cantonese. And during lunch great dragons and flying skirts dancing and drumming!
During the keynote given by First 5’s Deputy Director Gloria Corral, we were nodding our heads and dreaming about sharing our Claiming Face curriculum as a tool to build cultural capacity in classrooms! We also connected with many great educators and students.
My presentation was filled to the maximum with Continue reading »
Filed under Conferences, Power of Reflection | Tags: CLAIMING FACE, conference, educators, presentations, reflection | Comment (0)Take Our Educator Survey
Perhaps you have read about our Claiming Face curriculum and educator packets on our main website? We’ve been working hard over these last few months to assemble it into a valuable resource for teachers who are interested in using creativity as a tool for empowerment in their classrooms.
As we develop these packets, we want to look to educators to ask what is helpful to you around creativity in the classroom. Do you value it? Do you feel confident bringing it into your classroom? Do you have the resources to support you? What would be the most supportive? We’ve assembled a short educator survey of 9 questions to find out. To thank you for your participation, you will be entered to win a 11×17 archival art print of your choice from our available art illustrations. We’ll choose random winners on January 1, 2010 so feel free to pass the survey link around to other educators. The more responses the more winners.
Help us develop our curriculum: take our educator survey>>>
About the Curriculum: Our Claiming Face curriculum uses reflection and creativity as a tool for self knowledge and empowerment. It is created by the artist, Maya Christina Gonzalez, through her years of working in numerous classrooms across the country. The goal is to instill an internal perspective first. We know ourselves most deeply from the inside. While reflection in our environment is vital to a sense of belonging and is part of a developmental process, the aim of our curriculum is to provide children with the form and skill to know themselves especially when those external reflections do not exist. Our curriculum is unique in that it is both artist-based and kid-tested. The exercises and perspectives have literally been used with hundreds and hundreds of children and adults throughout the years. Read more on our site.
Filed under General | Tags: creativity, educators, empowerment, reflection, survey | Comment (0)
