The school play needs a soundtrack, and if you choose to accept the mission, we’d be writing and recording all the tracks in the course of the week.
This is an excellent opportunity for people who consider themselves to be (or are interested in honing skills towards) any of the following:
You’ll need to be comfortable on your instrument, and ready to work hard!
In this intensive, we’ll explore the world from ancient Egypt to the modern day, watching movies, visiting spice shops, and sampling food from around the world. Get an insight into the major moments in history by tasting food before and after certain spices were common, see the influence of a conquered country’s cuisine, and bring a new appetite to the table!
I have virtually no experience creating stop motion animation. I do, however, have a couple of friends who are professional animators, and I have a lot of experience making video in general.
This is the kind of intensive that might sound good when you first think about it, but many people could find themselves burning out on it after only a day or two. If you choose to spend five straight days making animations, expect to be doing a lot of fairly boring, detail-oriented drudge work. Don’t sign up for this unless you’re fairly confident that you can stick with it.
There will be a cost for this intensive, as we’ll likely purchase some software to make the job easier.
Short-ish nature walks – every day! This class will have two parts, indoors and outdoors. During the first half of every day, we’ll stroll through some of the beautiful parks and natural areas around Seattle, looking at leaves, in logs, and under rocks to find plants, bugs, and slugs! After generally enjoying the outdoors and checking for clues about the habitat we’re visiting, we’ll eat a leisurely sack lunch or head to a local eatery before returning to PSCS.
The second part of the day will be devoted to looking at samples (or photographs) we’ve collected, maybe using a magnifying glass or a microscope, and use books and the internet to learn about the organisms and locations we just visited. We’ll get a chance to discuss what we’ve found, and talk about conservation of land and resources in the areas we visit.
Course costs include the discounted price of admission to each exhibit (up to $35), bus fare, and a photo journal.
Like reading? Me, too! Let’s get together to create a cozy room with tea or hot chocolate and comfy pillows, and read our own favorite books. We’ll check in with each other in a reader’s circle twice a day, and talk about what we like (or don’t like) about our books. Once each person has finished their book, we’ll create a small sign near the library so others know about it, too. If you’re a writer, come by for a quiet place to work and a group of readers to bounce ideas around. We’ll plan reading breaks to keep ourselves refreshed, which might include walks or making lunch together. I’m also open to heading out for lunch excursions that are a little farther away, like fried chicken or Vietnamese sandwiches.
Taking a walk is great. Watching a movie is great. Walking all day? not so great, at least not every day for five days. Watching movies all day? not so great, at least not every day for five days. But taking a walk every morning and watching a movie every afternoon? It’s almost too perfect to be true!! But it IS true, and we can do it for intensives week. Imagine a nice walk each morning to get some air and exercise, and a great movie in the afternoon. Movies will include a few of my favorites, and I’ll take suggestions but can’t make promises that your must-see will make the list. It’s also possible that we’ll walk TO a movie theater for one or more of our movies.
Treasure hunts! Exploring new places! Gadgets! Geocaching involves all three of these things. We’ll tromp about town and the region, solving puzzles to find hidden troves, with the aid of global positioning system devices. No experience necessary! No GPS necessary!
This intensive will involve a lot of being out and about in the world: walking, taking public transit, and looking around. If it rains, we’ll get wet. Your body will be sore by the end of the week. Don’t sign up for this intensive if you’re a couch potato.
Because of who I am, we might just choose caches to find that are around/near various cheap quality places to eat (taco trucks, bakeries, etc) around the region.
If we really geek out on this, we might even make and hide some caches of our own!
I know some great “tabletop” (i.e., board and card) games, and would like to know more. What a great way to spend a drizzly week in February — playing the games you love and learning some new ones along the way. With a whole week, we should be able to get multiple chances to play several different games.
I’m particularly interested in playing games that most of us have not played a ton of, or don’t often get to play. I’m *not* interested in games that take a lot of money to get into if you decide you want to play it more. Things we probably won’t play: Magic, Warhammer, things involving a regular deck of cards. Things we might play: Go, Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Race for the Galaxy, Diplomacy, chess, Fluxx, Dominion, etc.
Here’s the deal: corrugated cardboard is an amazing building material, we can get it for free, and it’s time to do amazing things with it. I’ll teach you techniques for cutting , gluing , bending, and shaping, and you make awesome stuff!
Why aren’t we doing this already?? Serioulsy, why are you still reading this and not making something out of CARDBOARD?
Are you a king? a beauty? a rogue? a sleuth? a thinker? crazy? Put on the right hat and you can be any of these things. There’s magic in the power of a hat to transform you. Let’s make awesome hats! We’ll learn from masters and make up our own techniques too! Sewing, crochet, assemblage, duct tape, papier maiche, paper sculpture, felting all welcome. We’ll make quick hats and more serious projects as the week goes on.
We’ll set up a workshop with lots of sewing tools and multiple sewing machines, and a good collection of fabrics and materials.
I’m still not entirely sure if this would work, but since I think there might be demand for it, I’m pitching it:
You’ve got some schooly stuff you really want to work on or get better at. Might be learning a bunch of math, might be becoming a better essay writer, might be teaching yourself Latin. You need three things: (1) lots of time in a quietish place to focus on your individual work; (2) a jack-of-all-trades teacher who can answer your occasional questions, help you when you get stuck, motivate you, and teach you the occasional lesson, and (3) long leisurely lunches at tasty local restaurants.
The school can provide #1, I can provide #2, and we’ll all do #3 together.
To qualify to take this intensive, you must explain to me in advance what project(s) you plan to undertake during the week — I’m not looking to facilitate folks without a plan.
Imagine a week jammed with intensive learning about aerodynamics, aircraft, aviation history, piloting, aicraft design, and the air traffic system. Some participants might even get a free demonstration flight lesson (though I can’t promise this right now)
This intensive will bring a new adventure every day! Think of it as a week-long Kickin’ it with Liana class. There will be adventures, there will be apples to apples, there will be movies, there will be exercise, there will be smiles!
You’ll need an Orca Card, and approval from your bill-payers to spend up to $60 for your fun.
Here are some potential activities:
Ice Skating
Bowling
Climbing
See a movie (Cinerama/Imax)
Adventures in the woods (capture the flag, day hike, etc.)
This intensive will be one part music history class and one part rock-your-face-off.
Choosing from my personal list of Classic Bands You Should Know,* each day we’ll study up on a band and learn at least one of their tunes! The study-up part will be a fun mix of research, listening to music, watching documentaries, etc. The rock-your-face-off part… well, it’s just like what it sounds like.
This intensive is conceived of as a somewhat beginning band, Sundry-like experience, but is open to anyone, any instrument.
*Here is an excerpt from the Classic Bands You Should Know list:
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Rolling Stones
Grateful Dead
Pink Floyd
The Doors
The Who
Yep, it’s just what it sounds like. We’ll play Weezer tunes all week.
For this intensive to be successful, each participant should be fairly comfortable on their instrument. Talk to me if you have questions!
Arranging. Composing. Playing. Geeking out. (+ ice cream)
Imagine an entire week to practice arranging, hone your engraving skills, write original music, have your original music played (& recorded?), play other people’s original music, perhaps play some hard music, plus maybe eat some ice cream!
This intensive will be project based: everyone will be working on individual projects, getting individualized coaching/feedback, and get to experience the luxury of time to get some good work done!
To be successful in this intensive, you should be in – or have previously taken – a guts of music class (rookies are ok!). You will also need a computer with Sibelius (expensive!) or MuseScore (free!) installed (limited school resources may be available).
This intensive will involve long stretches of work time, with plenty of (fun!) breaks.
Be the lunch lady for a week! Participants in this intensive will collaborate to prepare five lunches during the week for other students and staff on campus. We’ll spend the mornings cooking and the afternoons planning and shopping. The cost will be minimal, as the ingredients will be funded by the eaters. Limited to six participants.
I like digging in the dirt, and the first week of February is not too early to do it! We’ll find places to spend the week doing agricultural work, including the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, Oxbow Farm, Danny Woo, and perhaps even your own front yard.
No experience necessary. Raingear required.
In my life outside of school I work as a freelance web developer, partnering with graphic designers to build websites. Almost all of my work uses WordPress (the popular blogging tool) as a content management system; the part I do is a “skin” for the WordPress tool.
Wanna build web sites? I’ll start you with the basics (how HTML works) and layer on the intermediate (how CSS works) and some more advanced stuff (interacting with the WordPress database using PHP).
Note that this intensive will involve a lot of sitting in a chair and working in front of a computer screen — perhaps not too different from your daily experience, but exhausting nonetheless. Be prepared to practice good self-care so as to keep up your energy for the week.
No prior experience necessary. You must have your own laptop to use for the week.
