When Enough Sign-Up
Programming & Design
Enrollment is now active. Feel free to email / tweet / +1 / blog or repost this url so we can get some more signups.
No location has been set but we have options. Before class is officially nailed down to dates I would like to have a meet up with all interested students where we can talk about locations and ideas about what people are looking for in this class.
This is an experimental course designed to cover all aspects of web design and development in one program. The goal is to be project orientated and quickly move from basics into advanced topics like programming and interface design.
The goal is to have classes every other Saturday (dates not finalized) for three hours. Then two to three hours of "take home" work. This course should be about six hours a week.
It is important to have students that understand how to use a computer (how to get pictures off their camera, how to “google” things, how to check their bank statements online, how to install software) but you do not need to have any formal training to take this class. We will be starting at the bottom.
Traditional Artisans: Preserving the Folk School Education
Apprenticeship once offered an individual the opportunity to learn a craft from masters of that craft. Nowadays, apprenticeship is difficult to come by, which is precisely why this workshop/class/school/folk festival is being created. The purpose of this workshop/class/school/folk festival is to bring together the skills of old to pass them on to others in an effort to preserve the beauty of not only the craft but the culture of the craft. If you are interested in traditional skills/crafts, we welcome you to join this workshop. When enough interest is generated, we will begin offering opportunities to learn the following skills and begin planning our own Folk Festival - complete with an evening barn dance!?!:
Spoon/Knife Carving
A Spoonful of Creativity: Learn to Carve a Wooden Spoon and/or Cheese Knife
October 30, 2011; 12-5ish (material fee ~$30, beginners and experienced carvers are welcome)
Class size will be ~10 apprentices/professional instructor with additional craftspeople available to assist. Bring a high quality, sharp knife (Mora Knifes are great!)
Many folk traditions include the carving of beautiful spoons for use at home and as treasured gifts. The purpose of this class is to pass on that tradition by sharing the joy of learning traditional knife strokes and carving techniques to carve your own beautiful, durable and useable wooden spoon and/or butter/cheese knife! This class will begin with a brief presentation on spoons from across the world while you prepare to carve a useable spoon and/or knife. While you carve, the instructor will share mesmerizing folk tales and discuss woodcarving topics such as sharpening, decorating, finishing and design techniques. Feel free to bring your new and old wooden spoons to share. We will have some tools for student use and additional spoon blanks for sale.
Making Headlines, Making Change: Media Work for Social Justice Activists
Tired of grossly inaccurate coverage, or no coverage at all, of your social justice organization in the mainstream media? Then this course is for you.
This interactive educational experience will guide you through the steps of creating an engaging media strategy that maximizes the chance of accurate press coverage for your organization or action. Our first class session will focus on the question- "What is the media and how does it work?," revealing the hidden workings of the corporate media machine. From there, we will look at case studies of coverage of social justice activism, discuss the role of media work to support your organization's mission, and identify your own goals for media coverage. We will then discuss how to tell your organization's story in a compelling way and construct a detailed media strategy to help you get coverage. The final sessions of the class will be dedicated to the nuts and bolts of executing an effective media strategy: developing a press list, writing press releases, pitching your story, staging a media event, and maintaining relationships with reporters. You will leave this course with a thorough theoretical and practical understanding of how to get the press coverage your organization needs to fulfill its mission.
Course Schedule
Day 1
What is the media? How does it work? aka "Why won't reporters cover our action?"
Why do we want press coverage? What are our goals?
How to Tell Your Story so that the Media Listens
Day 2
Nuts and Bolts: Developing a Press List
Nuts and Bolts: Writing Press Releases
Day 3
Nuts and Bolts: The Pitch
Nuts and Bolts: The Media Event
After-Action Follow-up
Reflection on Course
Location
Navigating American Sign Language Access in Your Activism
This will be a 6 week course with field trips (possibly not on class dates) and guest facilitators. This class will teach the basics of what you would need to know to make your organizations or actions more accessible to the Deaf & Hard-of-hearing (D/HH) on a personal level and an organizational level.
The class will include beginners' ASL (American Sign Language), as well as the Foundations of Deaf Culture.
Upon completing this class you should:
-Have the ability to carry on a conversation in ASL at a beginners' level.
-Have a basic grasp of Deaf Culture and the history of innovation and oppression of
Deaf & Hard-of-hearing folks.
-Have an understanding of current movements to create access for folks with
dis/abilities in the Twin Cities.
-Have the ability to provide interpreting services through an agency or independent
consultant for folk who would request accommodations at/in your
organizations/events.
-Have more ideas to bring to your everyday activism that would create more access
for more folk with intersecting and complex identities/bodies.
-Have the ability to use some Deaf technological devices.
You may video phone or Skype into these sessions, but it is preferred that if you are able that you would come to the classroom.
Please request accommodations as soon as possible. Every effort will be made to ensure your requests.
amandaleegenaro@gmail.com or 612-226-4474 text/voicemail or amandaleegenaro AIM
Some accommodations are already built in in the group agreements for a "Safer Environment". If you would like a copy of this statement before the first meeting please email me.
Things may change based upon facilitator or class decision. If the time listed on the website is not something that will work with your schedule or you can't make all of the dates, please email me and we will work something out.
Location
Building an Earth Oven
I would like to organize a class to build an earth oven. I have done this before but never here in Minneapolis.
We will start with a classroom session talking about the science behind earth plaster construction and thermal mass cooking. Then we will build the oven over a series of approximately 8 sessions.
This class is early in formation. In order to make it work and do it cheaply, we will need to find:
1) somebody who has a whole lot of clay soil that we can remove from their yard
One Possible way to do this is by building a raingarden for someone. In building the rain garden we can extract lots of clay soil.
2) Find someone who owns some land nearby who would like an earth oven. Anyone?
3) Find someone with a truck who can haul clay and sand for us.
Until we find these things we will not set a date for this class. However, if you are excited about this please feel free to contact me. Lets work together to find the resources we need to make this happen. It is possible if it takes a long time figuring these logistics out we will do this class spring semester. In the meantime, lets work together to track down what we need, and maybe build that rain garden.
There is also a possibility that this class will be done in collaboration with the Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota (EJAM). They are starting a grassroots natural building campaign with North Minneapolis residents
Business and Communication Skills
In this class you will get the basics of running your own business - in whatever area you wish. We cover accounting skills, rules and regulations, marketing and values clarification. Because the class is small, there will be time for individual coaching and discussion
Location
Kiswahili Discussion Circle
this discussion group would be ideal for people who are either trying to brush up on speaking Swahili or who haven't yet had much exposure to Swahili but are serious about learning (e.g., you have plans to travel to East Africa). for beginners, we can offer some basic materials; however, the learning curve will be sharp.
people who have taken Swahili through St. Paul community education along with a local person who has briefly lived in Tanzania have committed themselves to help form the core of the discussion group... so this IS happening.
Location
Beginning Meditation and Mindfulness for Activists
"We can never obtain peace in the world if we neglect the inner world and don't make peace with ourselves. World peace must develop out of inner peace."
Mindfulness can simply be defined as being fully in the present moment and fully accepting anything that happens, just simply observing everything as it occurs. Within the larger concept of 'mindfulness' there are methods such as meditation, yoga, qigong, tai chi and others that help focus an individual more fully on the present moment.
My goal in this course is to help you to be happier and more peaceful by facilitating your own learning of these methods and you will be able to practice these methods quite easily on your own after even coming to one of these classes.
Meditation has been getting a lot of press in recent years thanks to recent advancements in brain imaging that has shown scientifically that meditation, yoga, qigong and other ancient practices have concrete, positive results for a person's health. Various benefits include greater calmness, lowered blood pressure, lowered stress levels, increased ability to concentrate and others (If you Google Scholar 'meditation' and 'Jon Kabat-Zinn' or 'Richard Davidson' you can get a whole list of research articles). The best way to learn about these benefits, though, is through first-hand experience.
Meditation and other practices are very effective ways to self-heal and find inner peace. Mindfulness is compatible with any belief or non-belief system, so whatever your belief or non-beliefs are, these practices can help you in relieving stress, having greater calmness, etc...which is pretty cool :)
There is a lot of activist work to be done in the world today with so much happening and taking care of ourselves is something we might be tempted to neglect. Yet the more at peace we are with ourselves and what is going on inside of us, the more effective and greater attention we can give toward improving the world outside ourselves.
Astrology 101: Wish Upon a Star
I have for many years fostered an interest in the study and practice of the oldest science, astrology. For millennia people watched the heavens to determine the best time to accomplish tasks, from mundane everyday things, to planning weddings, and waging wars. Over the centuries, astrology has been celebrated, refined, condemned, and celebrated again. It has been called an art, a science, and a superstitious pseudoscience. It is my goal to share the facets of it that emphasize all three. It is my hope that even if you do not subscribe to the beliefs of astrological pinciple that you will at least garner some information that can be used, at the very least, as a nice icebreaker in any social situation. In this class I will share my knowledge on the following aspects of a very important piece of human history:
*Natal astrology, or birth signs, using the traditional method and the supposed effects on personality
*Synastry, or astrological compatibility
*Using natal astrology to learn more about what the stars say about your natural tendencies, hopefully to gain insight into your psyche (whether it be through belief or disbelief is up to you)
*Mythology behind the constellations used and the different guises that each sign has gone through
*A history of the use and misuse of astrology across the globe
*Astrology from other cultures (briefly) Including Chinese "astrology", Vedic Astrology, and Mesoamerican astrology
*Whatever else we get around to!
Advanced Drupal Workshop: CSS, Photoshop, and Drupal development on the EXCO web site
Do you have intermediate or advanced Drupal, CSS, or Photoshop skills? Want to help redesign and build the next generation of the EXCO web site? We will meet in person once or twice a month on an ongoing basis to make this happen, with remote contribution encouraged. A time and location will be set when we gain a critical membership for this workshop.
Location
Instead of Marriage: Write Your Own Relationship Contract
INSTEAD OF MARRIAGE:
WRITE YOUR OWN RELATIONSHIP CONTRACT
Are you in an on-going interpersonal relationship?
Would your relationship benefit from clarification
of the basic implicit priniples by which it has been operating?
This EXCO seminar will be an opportunity for committed couples, triples, etc.
to discuss 28 open-ended Questions
that should be asked and answered in any on-going relationship.
These 28 basic Questions are embedded in the Internet outline
of the book we will use for this seminar:
Designer Marriage: Write Your Own Relationship Contract:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/RC.html
This link also allows you to read
the beginning of the default Answer to each Question.
If you allow society to answer the Questions for you,
you will have a conventional marriage.
But if you make up your own Answers,
you might create a relationship so different from conventional marriage
that you might decide not to get officially married.
Here is the comprehensive course description:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-RC.html
This outlines the basic areas of discussion for this seminar.
Details about the book are also available,
including a buy-back option for EXCO participants.
Frenchy Friday Revival!
Are you, like me, an occasional speaker of French? Etes-vous vraiment fluent et peuvez-vous me rendre tranquille avec votres... uh.... comment dit-on "unemcumbered genius in wielding grammar and vocabulary"? Or are you simply interested in learning more French than yer high school class had to offer?
Come one, come all francophiles as we resurrect the spirit of last year's Frenchy Friday group in a fantastic soiree full of frenchiness... Bring music, food, wine, flamboyant hats, anything that speaks of your love for the language of love, and we will do our best to converse in French all night long.... When we run out of words, i have dictionnaires :o)
Location
SUSTAINable ACTIVITIES for Individuals and Groups
The commonplace Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse paradigm needs help. Limiting harm is not very motivating.
- There are POSITIVE sustainable ACTIVITIES.
- Humans can actually help the 'Growth' of Diversity, Productivity and Stability! (as understood in Ecology)
- We will compile a list of individual ACTIONS and larger COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES. Please brainstorm for the list even now.
- Meeting Details: Beginning as soon as Feb. 10th, but now more likely the week of the 15th.
- We will meet in the evening, 6pm or later for about 2 hours, once per week for 4 weeks, or more if people want.
- Location: TBD, Centrally located to participants in Mpls or St. Paul; please email the location you will be coming from.
- Day of Week: not Tu, because I am taking an exco class: Voices of Rondo - Saint Paul's Historic Black Community
- Please email or call me with: days of the week that work for you, your location and if you would like to start at 6, 7, or 8pm
Dramatic Long-Form Improv
Are you tired of dumb gags and silly guessing games? Sick of fart jokes and stereotypical characters? Do you think Improv theater can be something more?
The purpose of this class is to explore the potential for drama and realism Improv theater. We will progress rapidly from standard scene and character games into long-form games.
Some experience in Improv and/or theater is preferred, and a willingness to explore new improvisational ideas is a requirement.
PLEASE NOTE that the schedule listed below is rather arbitrary, we will decide as a class when and how often to meet!!!
I want to make a schedule that everyone can adhere to because I want to form a sort of troupe where we grow together and can trust each other as performers. I will wait until we have enough people to begin the class. If you have ANY questions or ideas, or want to talk about Improv, please contact me. Thanks!
Writing Self through Gender
We plan, in this class, to take that strange animal, the memoir, and turn it on its head. Memoir is best thought not merely as "who am I," but more centrally as "where do I belong." Part of belonging is seeing yourself and being seen, being naked to yourself and the world at large. This nakedness tends to expose our fears, fears which can be addressed through understanding, self-exploration, and self-revelation. We plan to address one aspect of that fear, the fear of being seen as a gendered person, through memoir, understood here broadly as any text (written, audio, visual, performative) that engages in real self-exploration. We will be employing various media to facilitate self-exploration, including personal essays, audio, video, performance, etc. Each week students will be expected to read short personal essays and listen to/watch relevant audio and visual pieces. Students should come to class prepared to discuss how gender participates in the formation of identity, and how this understanding can aid with the development of memoir. Students will also be expected to keep a journal, from which they will ultimately draw their final project, to be presented to the class. This course calls for self-revelation, both through the final project and throughout the semester. Therefore it will require courage. But fear not: we're all in this together.
The class will meet for two hours each week for twelve weeks. People of all backgrounds and levels of experience are encouraged to attend.
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, and Death: Our Existential Predicament
LONELINESS, DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND DEATH:
OUR EXISTENTIAL PREDICAMENT
Have you noticed a loneliness that cannot be solved by love?
Are you sometimes aware of a depression not caused by circumstances?
Do you have free-floating existential anxiety?
Is your 'fear of death' out of proportion to the actual threat?
These 4 and 7 other similar phenomena will be explored in this electronic group.
Our method of exploration is looking deeply into ourselves.
This cyber-seminar will take place by means of an already-established Yahoo Group
called The Existential Freedom Group.
Each month, beginning as soon as 10 people have the book and are ready to discuss it,
we will read and discuss one chapter from a book called:
Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, and Death.
Over 50 pages from this book can be read on the Internet.
Just click the title above.
Students and faculty at the University of Minnesota
will find this book in Wilson Library.
And the publisher—Existential Books—offers to donate this book
to any public or academic library that will agree to put it on the shelves.
(Here are the details about this offer of free books for libraries.)
Readers who would prefer to own a copy
should buy it directly from the publisher.
A comprehensive course description will appear if you click those words.
Locations
Living Will Workshop: Creating Your Own Advance Directive for Medical Care
LIVING WILL WORKSHOP:
CREATING YOUR OWN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE FOR MEDICAL CARE
Facilitator:
James Park, existential philosopher
E-mail:
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone:
612-871-7275
Course description:
In preparing for our own deaths, we should to ask 24 basic Questions,
discuss them with our loved ones, put our decisions into writing, and appoint proxies.
This workshop will be an opportunity to meet with others who are asking the same Questions,
deciding their own medical ethics, and how they want to be treated at the end life.
"http:www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/Q-L-WILL.html"
Here are the 24 basic Questions on the Internet.
Each week we will discuss about 4 Questions.
The printed resource for this workshop is:"http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/AD-OUT-NET.html"
Your Last Year: Creating Your Own Advance Directive for Medical Care
About 100 pages of this 250-page book are offered free of charge on the Internet.
This book will be available in class for $35.
But you can return it for $30 at the end of class." http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/LWW-EXCO.html">
See your options for owning or re-selling the book.
See a" http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-LWW.html"
comprehensive course description.
At the end of this workshop, participants will have written, signed, and witnessed
Advance Directives for Medical Care.
You are encouraged to attend with your proxy
Location
Are You a Person of Spirit? Six Capacities of Our Human Spirits
ARE YOU A PERSON OF SPIRIT?
SIX CAPACITIES OF OUR HUMAN SPIRITS
Name of facilitator:
James Park
E-mail:
PARKx032@UMN.EDU
(612) 871-7275
course description:
Shorter and longer course descriptions will be found here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-SPIRIT.html
Being together with other persons of spirit can help us to tune-in to our higher capacities.
In the first meeting we will attempt to define and distinguish these four dimensions of our selves:
(1) our physical dimension
(given by our genes);
(2) our emotional-psychological dimension
(learned since birth);
(3) our intellectual dimension
(characterized by words, verbal learning);
(4) our spiritual dimension
(beyond body, heart, and mind; manifest in the following 6 capacities).
Our human spirits show themselves in these six phenomena:
(1) self-transcendence, self-criticism, and altruism;
(2) freedom—our ability to shape our own lives;
(3) creativity—our ability to bring something new into being;
(4) love—which opens us to encountering others as Thou;
(5) anxiety—which puts us in touch with our underlying Malaise;
(6) joy and fulfillment—opening to living beyond angst and despair.
Because the life of our spirits is so fragile, it is very easy to ignore the budding of our spirits,
so that our spiritual life dries up and disappears.
If we want our spirits to grow, we must prize and nurture whatever inkling of spirit we have
rather than dismissing and forgetting these capacities because they lack immediate practical value.
Location
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology
IMPRINTED SEXUAL FANTASIES:
A NEW KEY FOR SEXOLOGY
Facilitator:
James Park, existential philosopher
E-mail:
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone:
612-871-7275
Course description:
We will read and discuss a book of the same name:
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology.
ISF offers a new explanation of human sexuality:
Each person is imprinted with specific sex-scripts
or sexual fantasies during our first 20 years of life.
Our first sexual responses are created not by nature,
not by nurture, but by mental imprinting.
If this hypothesis proves substantially correct,
it could revolutionize modern sexology.
Is this seminar for you?
Ten teasers from the text might help you decide.
Eleven chapters will be discussed in 5 sessions:
Session 1:
I. INTRODUCING THE SEX-SCRIPT HYPOTHESIS
This chapter is available free of charge on the Internet:
See the table of contents.
Participants in this class should read these 16 pages
before the first session.
After we introduce the class and the participants,
we will discuss this first chapter.
Copies of the printed book will be available in class
for the wholesale price: $25.
Session 2:
II. THE EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND OF HUMAN SEX-SCRIPTS
III. SEXUAL IMPRINTING AT CRITICAL PERIODS IN PSYCHO-SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
Session 3:
IV. THREE LEVELS OF SEX-SCRIPTS
V. VARIETIES OF SEX-SCRIPTS
Session 4:
Location
Voluntary Poverty: How to Simplify Your Life
Name of facilitator:
James Park
E-mail:
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone:
612-871-7275
Course description:
VOLUNTARY POVERTY:
HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE
Would you like to meet other people who live simply?
This seminar has become a gathering place
for people already committed to voluntary simplicity.
What ideas do you have for saving money?
This seminar will be an opportunity to share our experiences
of living on much less than most people think is essential.
Can we be happy earning and spending less than $10,000 per year?
How do you obtain the small amount of money you need to survive?
How do you manage to spend so much less than other people?
Can any of your techniques be used by others?
Here is the comprehensive course description for this class:
Voluntary Poverty: How to Simplify Your Life,
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-VP.html
Here you will find more details about the life-style of the facilitator,
who lives at 75% of the federal poverty level.
You will also learn more about our Facebook Page,
which is called "Simple Living in the Twin Cities".
(There is also more about our Facebook Page
at the bottom of this course description.)
This workshop will be just one meeting of two hours.
This should be enough to share ideas for living cheaply.
If you would like to know how I save money on electricity, for example
(paying only $21 per month), go to:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-ELEC.html
If you would like to read some books on simplifying your life,
go to the Simplicity Bibliography:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Eparkx032/B-SIMP.html
TIME:
The February 2010 meeting of this seminar
was attended by about 12 people.
We are likely to have another gathering soon.
Location
New Ways of Loving: How Authenticity Transforms Relationships
NEW WAYS OF LOVING:
HOW AUTHENTICITY TRANSFORMS RELATIONSHIPS
Name of facilitator: James Park
E-mail: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone: 612-871-7275
Course description:
Explore new perspectives for creating
more open, free, and growing relationships.
In five sessions we will explore 8 themes:
Session 1:
Meeting the other men and women of the group.
Introducing all the themes and distributing books.
Session 2:
(Ch. 1) recovering from romantic illusions;
(Ch. 2) becoming more Authentic;
Session 3:
(Ch. 3) maintaining freedom in love;
(Ch. 4) transcending pre-existing needs;
Session 4:
(Ch. 5) preventing jealousy by becoming unique;
(Ch. 6) opening to loving more than one person;
Session 5:
(Ch. 7) reinventing sex;
(Ch. 8) outgrowing masculinity and femininity.
Our resource for this seminar is: New Ways of Loving:
How Authenticity Transforms Relationships by James Park.
Click here for more information about the text.
Over 60 pages are available on the Internet.
These 8 chapters will be available in class for $20
Or you can buy the complete book in the sixth edition, 2007, for $35.
See options for buying these chapters.
James Park is an existential philosopher and the leader of this seminar.
A comprehensive course description appears here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-NWL.html.
The Facebook Page for the Experimental College
has pictures of both of the EXCO classes on love held so far,
spring and fall 2009.
As you will see in these pictures,
this EXCO class draws more women than men.
Class Time: each session is two hours.
Class Dates: to be arranged.
Location
Becoming More Authentic: The Positive Side of Existentialism
E-mail: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone: 612-871-7275
BECOMING MORE AUTHENTIC:
THE POSITIVE SIDE OF EXISTENTIALISM
Do you want to make your life more:
autonomous, focused, organized, and meaningful?
Using a small book of the same name,
we will first define Authenticity, take an Authenticity Test,
consider several possible Authentic projects-of-being,
and finally explore Authenticity as described by
Camus, Sartre, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Maslow.
If you would like to read a three-page presentation
of the basic concept of Authenticity, go to:
Becoming More Authentic:
The Positive Side of Existentialism.
Another way to describe Authenticity
is to ask where we are on any of
23 growth scales.
If you click the link above,
you will see a phrase describing where we all begin
and a contrasting phrase describing
the destination toward which we move
if we are becoming more Authentic.
For example, here is the fourth growth scale:
In original existence,
we 'pursue' culturally-provided meanings and goals.
Whereas as we become more Authentic,
we create our own meanings and goals.
Existentialism affirms our personal freedom
to re-create our selves:
What is the new purpose of my life?
The instructor is James Park,
existential philosopher and author of the text,
which will be available in class for $15.
(But see cheaper options for buying the book.)
A comprehensive course description appears here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/D-AU.html.
Class Time:
four meetings, two hours each,
to be arranged to suit the largest number of interested persons.
Class Dates:
Location
