And then the kids started talking. Chris asked what went into a story, and then solicited character suggestions, and when the class settled on a protagonist named Jack the Great Cabbage I knew I'd be okay; artist I may not be, but as an Eastern European I felt a great kinship with Jack. I didn't have time to worry about the quality of my drawings because the story being typed up on the screen was moving so fast, flowing on to the second page, and I knew I had to keep up, doing one illustration for every page of text. I found myself drawing old-fashioned telephones, a volcano, and Jack sitting in his easy chair poring over a history book.
By the book's cliffhanger ending, which each of the kids finished themselves, Jack was standing at the edge of a volcano, trying to stop it from erupting and destroying his cabbage-y parents, battling an evil scientist. The scene was far more pressing than my own predicament, and I just wanted to know what would happen. With the other volunteers, I circulated among the tables, watching 25 fourth-graders writing and drawing, reaching over each other for crayons or pencils or just from excitement. I asked a few how their stories ended, brought a few others over to Chris to get their books bound, watched them jump and shout when Mrs. Mildew got on the loudspeaker to announce that she had reluctantly approved the books.
Just as they were leaving, one kid asked me if I had done the pictures. "They're really good!" he said. I wanted to hang his smile on my refrigerator.
My artistic abilities may not have improved hugely since then, but my confidence definitely has, culminating in the construction of a police robot for the Wednesday evening stop-motion animation workshop. And while it's true that I made him a really cool hat out of foam and hot glue, what I'm most excited to see is the film the kids make with him. Helping them make up stories helps me play, pretend, stop worrying. That robot has lots of adventures coming his way.
]]>“Hmm, I don’t know what we are supposed to do with this assignment. What are you guys learning in class right now?”
“I don’t know. I’m only seven.”
“Well, you did go to class right? What are you guys studying in math?”
“I dunno.”
So I tried to teach a seven-year-old division:
“See so if we are trying to find out how many apples Ms. Granny has, we can see that she has five trees and each tree has the same amount of apples and we know that in all there are 20 apples. So how many apples can we imagine each tree has?”
“17.”
“Why 17?”
A shrug. “I dunno, I’m seven.”
He was right; I couldn’t put myself in his shoes. I saw the easy answer. My mind could do this in a nano-second, but his hadn’t reached that progression we take for granted, that speed we as adults expect everyone to have. Sometimes we forget what it’s like to be seven. I sat there and took a deep breath, the coffee wasn’t working and I was exhausted, tired of random guesses and “I don’t knows”, but he was right, it was my responsibility to find the solution to how to teach him this. He just didn’t know. He was seven.
So I sat and thought if multiplication and division were no longer options how could I teach this. And then it hit me.
We needed to draw it with dots. We needed to be able to see how many there were, and then to count them. And so we did:
“So now how many apples does each tree have?”
“7?”
“You don’t have to guess, see we can just count them by breaking them into five different groups.”
“Oh, 4 apples!”
I don’t know who felt better, him or I. We celebrated with a high-five and then did spelling.
“I got this one,” he said.
]]>Eventually I get the hang of it and with the help of numerous adults correcting my sometimes lacking spelling skills the second graders complete an intricate tale of a Dolphin named Chris who is on a quest to find a humongous whale to feed his friends. The special part about this experience was seeing these kids get sucked into a creative vortex, lead by Chris, and emerge with an original tale of their creation. This class was great because the kids got so into the task at hand, which admittedly might be a feature of their age, but it is still awesome to see nonetheless. For example when Mrs. Mildew came on the loudspeaker threatening Chris's job (and the only way to save it was to write a fantastic story, obvi) the kids became concerned and motivated to write an amazing story.
Although I have always enjoyed working with kids, I have never had the opportunity to interact with kids of any age is a field trip or 'classroom' setting. I have done tutoring, which offers a different and awesome experience with the kids, but that is a different story. These fieldtrips are the most special thing, in my opinion, about being an intern at 826NYC because being able to see and be a part of the creative learning process is exciting and enlightening. This is a great place offering unique opportunities for kids that they won't find many other places, I am so happy that I can help with it.
So far, I have helped out with two field trips: one was writing a "Choose Your Own Adventure Story," and the other was script writing for a television show. One of my favorite things about the field trips is hearing students' different ideas. All of them get very creative, and I am often surprised at how witty most of them are! I appreciate that the students always have a good sense of humor, and are not shy to voice their opinions. My favorite story idea heard so far was by a student in the "Choose Your Own Adventure Story" workshop, who’s idea was "About a boy named Jack who was a musician and who always listened to Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. and played guitar. One day when he was playing guitar blood came out of it, and he passed out. When he woke up, he woke up during the birth of rock music." As a student of creative writing, I feel it most inspiring for my own work to see the students write, and be a part of the process.
I highly recommend volunteering here. 826 NYC does wonderful stuff for the kids, and gives them opportunities to participate in things I wish I could have done when I was their age!
I can't wait to go to the BAM film screening and see all of the student films, music videos, and stop animation movies. I'll be the only person in the theater, however, who has read the script to all three movies. That's right: I can recite the lines in my sleep. I know how they begin. I know how they end. I know which characters: like poetry, have an affinity for glasses, and resist brainwashing. So I might not be entirely surprised come August 20th, but I won't be shocked when....]]>
Deep in the dark sycamore forests of Figeria, the land that once belonged to the infamous Shadow Tiger, the palace is in ruins -- broken numchucks litter the dirty floor, and all of the ice cream in the freezer is frosted over. No one has tread these paths for years. On a lacquered table in one corner sits a battered journal. Its pages are torn and tattered, covered with drips of sweat, inkblots, and what would appear to be traces of caramel nougat. The entries, in a frantically scrawled hand, end on the fateful day of the Shadow Tiger's defeat by Iron Monkey and his child followers. What follows? The final thoughts of a henchman on the wrong side of kung-fu justice, that's what...]]>
August 1. The young pupils of the dastardly Iron Monkey have arrived in our midst, eager to have a new master, and I am convinced it is a bad omen. While I was brushing my teeth this morning, the floss fell into the sink into the shape of a skull. I took it to show Shadow Tiger, and he laughed at me for fifteen minutes straight. I had to leave before he ceased, to do my morning stretches. Gosh, Shadow Tiger can be so mean sometimes. I know he’s supposed to be the evil master and all, but I have feelings too!
Later today
We mixed truth serum into the cranberry juice cocktail we gave the children. What sort of children drink that stuff? Iron Monkey's children, apparently. The truth serum seems to be working well. We should actually call it Mind Control Juice. That would be an example of name-follows-function. But does anyone listen to me? No!!!!!
I made grilled cheese for all of the other henchmen for lunch. Everyone seemed to like it, except Todd. He said that I was too liberal with the paprika. How dare he! He is just impossible to please. I just had to leave the room when he said that, even though I had to leave anyway to set traps for Iron Monkey and the one student he has left. All of the brainwashed students follow me around like a bunch of zombies, but when I tell them to stop being creepy they all smile. Which makes things worse.
We set pretty standard traps--the trip-line, bamboo stakes, the net, and the throwing stars that shoot out of trees. I started to feel bad about setting traps for a little kid, but then the brainwashed ones really started to get on my nerves. It was like they'd never set bamboo stakes on pressure-sensitive springs before, let alone hidden a motion sensor behind tree bark. Amateurs. Plus I had to tell them exactly what to do, every second of the day. Ugh. I have better things to do with my time, like make pancakes. And eat them.
When we got back, Shadow Tiger told me I had to watch the traps when Iron Monkey's pupil returned. I don’t understand why I have to wait for the traps when I could just fight this pupil myself. Shadow Tiger said it was more fun that way. Whatever.
TRAP RESULTS LOG
Objective: to successfully trap pupil (juvenile) of Iron Monkey, archenemy. Keep detailed record of net effectiveness. Avoid being caught by test subject.
14:00 Test subject is a small girl in a red kimono. Vaguely innocuous. She approaches the path from the north, making the first trap in her path the Self-Lifting Net.
14:01 NET RESULTS: The net has failed. Subject executed an impressive front-flip before net could catch her. I told Eugene we should have set it up to deploy more quickly!
14:02 Subject is running north-northwest towards the trip line/bamboo stake combination.
14:02 STAKE RESULTS: Subject has reflexes akin to the native wildcats of Songolia. The stakes missed her by inches. I tried to tell those kids to make them longer and sharper. Amateurs.
14:03 Subject in the midst of the throwing-star-loaded trees. They should shoot out at any moment…
14:03 STAR RESULTS: The stars from Tree 7 and Tree 6 both missed subject and lodged in trunk of Tree 20. Subject caught star from Tree 5 in one hand and the Tree 4 star in...her teeth. Subject appears to not even be sweating.
14:04 Have decided not to fight subject one on one. Clearly too dangerous.
Summary: All three traps failed thanks to subpar construction and/or the dexterity of test subject. It is suggested that trap designers listen to me next time.
Later Later Today
Must write quickly. Truth Serum (actually Mind Control Juice) has worn off and the pupils are on the loose. I think I’ll just stay in this cabinet for a little while longer.
Later Still
I fear this is the end. The good master has triumphed over the evil one, which is unfortunate for me. I'm taking my emergency bag, the one packed with six months worth of Figeria Fashion Forward magazine and the good granola bars with cashews in them, and I'm leaving Figeria forever. I never really liked that Shadow Tiger anyway. I mean, he should have known things were going wrong when I showed him that floss skull.
And the moral of this story? First, floss daily. It prevents gum disease. And don't leave your journal out in the open when abandoning an ill-fated palace, because then someone will read it. And post it all over the internet.
In this workshop we learned how to do Stop-Motion animation, which is a technique where the animator takes pictures, moving his or her subject slightly and taking lots of frames (it takes 30 pictures to make up a second of video!). The workshop was a ton of fun, as I have never done film-making or animation before. I worked with Wes Price (the workshop leader) on an animation using Chinese Checkers. It ended up looking really great (we had lots of patterns, including one where all the pieces moved across the board), but it was really hard moving the pieces around--we chased an especially slippery blue piece two or three times across the room. I also worked with Christine, the other instructor, who was making an animation with play-doh, which formed a face that morphed into a ton of different expressions and hair styles. Okay, to be honest, the students and Christine made a face, I tried to, but ended up playing with play-doh. It was my first experience with animation of any sort, and I definitely want to do it again!]]>
Check out the Wikipedia page for parrotfish. It will tell you that the parrotfish gets its name from its "parrot-like" beak. It will also tell you that the parrotfish changes its gender during its lifetime. It will not, however, tell you about the wonderful world of parrotfish poop. Wikipedia isn't exactly known for being the world's best resource on, well, anything, but poop is the most interesting thing the parrotfish has going for it. A more thorough Googling will tell you that a large portion of the world's sand is, in fact, parrotfish poop. Seriously. That castle you just made? Poop. Those buckets of sand you just poured over your friend? Poop. That thing you just swallowed underwater that's making you gag a little? Sand? No, poop. ]]>
Diana came to drop-in tutoring the other day with a fun fact that her teacher had shared. This was then relayed to everyone else over lunch. We were told that parrotfish grind up pieces of coral skeleton, poop it out, and this becomes sand. And not just a little bit of sand. The majority of the sand in the Caribbean is poop. "That is so totally not true," we said. "Everyone would know if sand was poop. That is just too much poop." Well, we were wrong. Sand is most definitely poop. Reefnews.com lists the "cool facts" about the parrotfish as it being a "colorful, common fish" and having a "powerful beak for algae." Wrong. Those are not cool facts. A parrotfish can produce up to one ton of poop/sand a year. That is a cool fact. I have spent the past week asking everyone I know if they are aware that they are walking through poop every time they go to the beach. No one knew. Well, the secret's out. Sand is poop. Tell everyone.]]>
However, the experience was rewarding, and soon, a magazine will be published called First Magazine, which will contain two accounts of instances of my fighting crime with skill and efficiency.
I'm now a full-fledged superhero with a license to fight crime daily. It's awesome.
Translation: My name is Stephen Piccarella. I came to 826 a couple of months ago to work on a literary magazine and thought it was a really cool place. Now I volunteer here. It's a lot of fun. I hang out in the basement, tutor kids, put up flyers, handle office work, and enjoy the literary atmosphere. And also fight crime. For real. Sometimes.
I encourage anyone reading this to follow in my footsteps and traverse the path to superheroism. We even have a "Become A Superhero" class coming up. I just put up flyers for it. Try it out.
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I am Dante, taking the summer filmmakers workshop. This guy is Ben, who plays Jordan, one of the main characters. In this shot he just found a cave in prehistoric times and he took a giant millipede egg, which he thinks is a dinosaur egg. Actually, it's neither: It's an avocado! If you want to know why he's in prehistoric times, it's because he and his sister went into their grandfather's laboratory and accidentally turned on a time machine and went to the past!!
Being in the film workshop is crazy. We're standing on ladders with the cameras, the light is so hot you can cook on it, and the avocado is making me hungry!
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You know what I think we should have? I think we should have fake wrestling tournaments. We'll call it KWE (Kids' Wrestling Entertainment). It's about all these kids who love to watch wrestling. They could come up with wrestling names, and then become fake wrestlers.
The reason why I came up with this idea is because I love wrestling. I have loved wrestling since I was a little baby, even if I didn't understand some of the words. Wrestling might be a little inappropriate, but sometimes it can be fun to watch. So I think kids could do it, but not actually punch anybody's face or break any noses.
]]> Well, I've been thinking about this in my mind. Kids can become like their favorite wrestling superstars, but they'd have to add a "Jr." Because, say I wanted to be Rey Misterio. But I couldn't be Rey Misterio, because they already came up with that name. But I wanted to have the same name. Then, I could still have the same name if I added "Jr." at the end of the name.I think that 826NYC should have a fake wrestling tournament. And if you want to be a wrestler, you have to write your name, your character's name, where he came from, what school does he go to... You have to write everything that involves you. You have to draw a picture, and draw a costume. Maybe you could donate your own clothes and they could change them into wrestling clothes. LIke you could donate old jacket, old shirt, and maybe they could change it into your costume. It's possible!
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Long ago in a 40-gallon tank, fish swam blissfully through clear water and plastic plants. They lazed in their ceramic castle and burrowed in white pebbles. "This is the life," they said. "This is the life."
Soon after, the tank grew opaque and the fish began to die. What was turning the tank green? Bacteria? Photosynthesis? Nobody knows.
Two interns were sent on a mission to the pet store in order to save the six fish left. "It's the pH level!" The pet-store workers exclaimed. The interns returned to 826, emptied and filled ten gallons from the tank, and waited.
]]> Four days later, the tank grew even darker, bleaker. Hope was drained. They decided to take the final and most dangerous route: empty the entire fish tank.After carefully draining the tank (which smelled of sushi) and placing the remaining fish in bowls, the interns refilled it with cool and clear water. In the evening, they placed the fish back in the tank, and watched them slowly float on their side, softly hitting the pebbled floor.
Their heads drooped. "It was bound to happen soon." They turned out the lights with little hope.
Upon returning in the morning, they stared at the tank in shock. All six fish were happily swimming about in their newly cleaned home. How could they possibly be alive?! Nobody knows.
All that's known is that these fish are Super-Fish.
Over and out.
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For the first time since we opened our doors, the 826NYC staff has business cards. We have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand it's rather convenient to be able to hand someone our information when they ask without having to explain that our name comes from a street address in San Francisco. On the other hand there's something beautiful about being card-free—it means that we get to know people on a community level rather than a business one, that we know them primarily by their first names and from face-to-face interactions. I know it seems absurd to complain about the organization growing. We just hired our sixth (!) staffer and that means we're able to serve many more people beyond our community. It's just that when I asked Alex, age 8, to fill in the details of my card yesterday, it's funny that "Buisnnes Man" was the first thing that came to his mind. I always thought of us more as "Comunnitee Membrs".]]>