THE
PUBLIC
SCHOOL
PHILADELPHIA

This meeting could begin as a roundtable discussion, followed by a review of action list items, and class proposal follow-up and date setting.  The hour long session will be followed by a planning session for the "Creating a Community Museum" course,  http://philly.thepublicschool.org/class/2309.

4/21 Public School, Philadelphia Notes

Proposals in the works:

Disabilities and Etiquette TBD
Starting a Community Museum, planning course will schedule for May 5th
Information Graphics, planning course on  Saturday May 8th, 11 am EST 
Tabletop Puppetry
Design Studio
Experimental Music/Improvisation, taught by Joel Chartkoff, June

Solidifying and launching classes/building a summer schedule:
Summer school? Public Camp
    A series of Ursinus Discrete One Night Courses/Workshops
        i.e. Walking Experiment
Series of classes @ Basekamp in conjunction?
Cross-pollination with other TPS branches?

Departmental emphasis -- are there people interested in stewarding groups of classes? Proposals in:

Group Making and Play
Skill-Shares
Design Studio Model
Session Planning Course Department
    template
    syllabus
Ursinus One Night Courses
P.A.W.

Outreach

#TPSPHILLY -- hash tag/backchannel when tweeting
Flier making and drop-off
Business Cards
Meetup
Facebook
Postcards
talk specifically about dates/scheduling
'departments'

Action List
Planning meetings/schedule on TPS website
Greg generating synopsis for Summer Public Camp
Facebook Group headed by Nicole Restaino

Below are notes from the last Shape of the Philly School Meeting.  This week we can talk specifically about:

solidifying and launching classes/building a summer schedule

departmenal emphasis -- are there people interested in stewarding groups of classes?

outreach

Please feel free to bring up questions and comments, and things you would like to explore in this upcoming meeting by leaving a comment on this page. 

Thanks

April 7th 2010

Class Logistics
       Need for D.A.N. representation during classes?

Outreach
#TPSPHILLY -- hash tag/backchannel when tweeting
Kris follow-ups
Liberty resources-- Disabilities and etiquette
       --talk to Leigh
Greater Philadelphia Puppetry Guild-- Table-top Puppetry

Experimental Music Improv in June (Joel + Ish)
       --Outreach
               get people to express interest
       --Ish’s availability?
       --Goal oriented process
       --Working toward performance

Proposals in the Works
               Design Studio/Charette/Design Slam Workshop for. . .  (Meg)
                       a).  presentation
                       b).  rapid ‘sketching’
                       c).  what works and what is throw-away
                       d).  goes through multiple iteration
                       --ligretto prep
                                       talk about characters and sets
                                       open up to interested groups
                                       field test
               Drupaltorial
                                       Duran-- (tech support at Uarts) availability?
                                       Neil-- expressed interest
                                       Remote course work

--Class Organizing
               What classes are in queue?
               Who wants to teach them?
               Who wants handle scheduling (D.A.N.)
               Recap on Espanol
                       what works so far
                       improvements
                       outreach
                       scheduling

--Roles
               Who wants to teach Information Graphics? co-teach?

--Special interest support:
       Forming small groups around needed support
               a). website
               b). outreach
                       i.d. cards-- print out as Teadent Card
--Course interests, and 'departments'
       skill-share
       experimental studio classes
       alternative cultural histories
       design studio/Charette/Design Slam (on-going imagined/realworld
problem solving
--Discussion lists in addition to bi-weekly meetings

This meeting will emphasize the shape of the school, continued conversation on structural and philososphical approach to forming branch.  The first ten or fifteen minutes  will begin with date setting and course implementation, while the majority of the evening could be dedicated to brainstorming desired goals, forming a mission statement along with rountable discussion.

Things worth discussion:

--Special interest support:  Forming small groups around needed support, such as website and outreach

--Course interests, and 'departments'

--Discussion lists in addition to bi-weekly meetings

Meeting will take place at 6:30 PM, April 7th, 2010 at Basekamp, 723 Chestnut St., Philadelphia

The Public School, Organizational Meeting – 3/24/10, Notes by Henken Bean

What is the role of the facilitators?
•Facilitators as PR agents: let’s get the word out.
•No overarching rule for the group, but just a group to act as an agent for making things happen with the school and building a base.

An idea for a class:
•Experimental performance and music: vocalizing, percussion, movement. Can’t run it till June.
•An example of someone using the Public School as a tool for organizing ideas that already.

Questions about the website:
•Can there be a max number of people? Yes, just describe in the content region or the comments region.
•The website is overwhelming with so many posts and no activity.
•It should be clear on the site: who can teach what when.

Ideas for classes:
•Spanish
•Nahuatl
•Information Graphics
•Drupal

PR to tell people about site and school:
•Facebook
•Twitter
•Use the tools that are already out there.

Should the classes be free?
•Suggested donation or donation.
•It is ultimately up to the teacher.
•But to start we can offer a slew of free classes.
•It can be a goal to offer free classes.

There is the desire to define a mission about for the public school:
•Talk about starting with a foundation rather than jumping into classes.
•There is still a need to start up different classes to get the ball rolling.

Next Steps:
•Let’s have a follow-up meeting that is more focused on brainstorming about the fundamentals of the Public School: What is it? What does it mean for community? What is the role of the Facilitators? What makes the tool + school unique? Other ideas.

Let’s have 2 meetings: one for getting classes off the ground and one for defining a mission and organizing.

Classes initiated:
•Spanish Class, bi-weekly.
•Ben will teach through the summer.
•Shorter class for conversation.
•Longer weekend class intensive.
•All at basekamp for now.

-henken (D.A.N.)

--

*Class proposal generated with the help of Barbara Joseph

Past, Present and Future; The Shape of the Philly Public School

This will act as a planning session for the building of the Public School, Philadelphia.

Past, present and future of the Public School:  A look at notable courses taken place at  the various locations, present organization and infrastructure of school branches, future shape and approach of the Philly Public School.  It would also be good to be in conversation with a few facilitators from different locations.

Wednesday March 24th 6:30-8:30 pm is the current set date.  Open to the public.  Meeting will take place at Basekamp, 723 Chestnut 19106

From start to finish a group will  create a feature length documentary for no more than $1000.  Budget is generated through pooled contributions by participants.  Subject matter of documentary is determined by participants.

Exploration of life and times of Philadelphia based spiritual leader and church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Divine

Vagabondism
Transience as a viable and sustainable creative action, historical models and resources

Two groups, one in Los Angeles and one in Philadelphia each composed of approximately six participants will meet weekly or biweekly for six sessions exploring notions of vagabonding and transience.. The class will take the form of conversations through conference calls between the two groups using Talkshoe.

There are two main goals set out for Vagabodism. One is to form a notable historical framework wherewe highlight a few examples of vagabonding and/or transience during the last one hundred years. A few examples of transience we will study include looking at modern peripatetic peoples, transient teens during the Great Depression, or the open-land experiment known as Morningstar during the 1960's. The second goal is to highlight online resources and fellows peers' personal travel accounts to aid in the organization of a travel experiement with fellow participants.

Reading List
RVs & Campers: 1900-2000 by Donald Wood
Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
Home Free Home:A History of Two Open-Door California Communes: by Ramon Sender Barayon, Gwen Leeds, Near Morningstar, Bill Wheeler
A Call to Farms: Continental Drift through the Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor

Course Structure
Two groups, one in Los Angeles and one in Philadelphia each composed of approximately six participants will meet weekly on Tuesday evenings beginning May 26th . The class will take the form of conversations through conference calls between the two groups using Skype. Each gathering may include the following:

1. Discussion of proposed reading/presentations for the week
2. Guest conversation
3. Examination of available resources (online)
4. Project building

1. Specific excerpts from the books on the reading list will serve as a jumping off point for discussion when we meet. We hope to have all reading material online for downloading at the beginning of the course.
2. Guest conversation: It is in my interest to find individuals with personal long term travel/alternative living experience and to invite them to share.
3. Examination of available resources online: Part of the course will explore travel resources and relevant online tutorials. For example we will look at social networking travel websites such as couchsurfing.com, hospitalityclub.org, and globalfreeloaders.com.
4. Applied Experiments for Creative Mobile Living: At the end of each meeting we will review and talk about proposals for projects that deal with or pertain to vagabonding/transience. Toward the end of the series of meetings, a whole session will be dedicated to brainstorming and reviewing proposals. Such project proposals could include an experiment in long-term travel, building a mobile structure or organizing a circuit of informal residencies. It could include a caravan tour and/or connecting with other projects currently being realized. Proposals sheets will be available at beginning of the course, May 26thand will be distributed amongst participants.

Classes (Subject to change)

May 26th
Introduction, Course Outline, etc.
Riding the rails text excerpt from reader
Riding The Rails documentary

June 2nd
Vagatecture: Mobile architecture , and architecture and mobility
Guest Ben Neiditz
Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary
The Long, Long Trailer film (optional)

June 9th
Reading, Continental Drift through the Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor
Guest Mike Wolf
Vagabond film

June 16th
The animal and movement: earth's machinations and peripatetic peoples,
reading TBA
Winged Migration documentary

June 23rd
Home Free Home: A History of Two Open-Door California Communes excerpt
Re-Visiting Father and The Source Family documentary

June 30th
Experiments for Creative Mobile Living Proposals
10 MPH documentary?
Resources and follow up