Introducing our September 6th Workshop Presenters…

LIZA MENDEL-WILLIAMS & BEATRICE TINIO

Liza Mendel, a native New Yorker who grew up in the Bronx, has been teaching for over seven years. She has an extensive teaching background with Public and Charter schools educating children on various subjects such as literacy, math, writing, social studies, and science. Currently Liza is teaching for a charter school in the south Bronx as a science teacher. Her science program is an enriching one where students participate in hands on activities where learning through exploration is essential. Liza was a strong advocate for having a garden for the school which, with the help of students, has grown to be a charming one for all to enjoy. She is a horticulture enthusiast indeed and constantly emphasizes the importance of it in her classes. In addition to teaching at Family Life Academy Charter School (FLACS), she is also a graduate student in the Early Childhood Education program at The City College of New York in Harlem, and is a mother of an almost 4-year-old boy.

Beatrice Tinio grew up in New Jersey and has been teaching English as a Second Language to adults and children for the past four years. She currently teaches at Family Life Academy as well and will be conquering new endeavors this 2008-2009 school year as a second grade teacher. Beatrice’s ESL classes incorporate total physical response, role playing, singing, and movement. She, along with a few parents of FLACS, also helped start and build an organic vegetable and herb garden, in hopes of raising awareness to more families about nutrition. Besides teaching, Beatrice is also a graduate student in the Early Childhood Education program at The City College of New York, and is a mother of a 3 1/2-year-old boy.

What do these two know about vermicomposting? Well on top of being educators, grad students, and mothers, they are also the founders of Green Apple Kids. The two met in 2006 at FLACS, realized they had similar teaching philosophies, and wanted to initiate a project that both incorporated their lifestyles and made an environmental statement. Being strong advocates for environmental consciousness and reducing their family’s carbon footprint is what they continuously strive for.

When Beatrice moved back to New York from New Mexico, where she learned the science of outdoor composting, she was compelled to find out how to compost in an apartment. Through the Department of Sanitation and the Bronx Green-Up workshops, she quickly learned how to recycle kitchen scraps using red worms. She was so enamored by this idea she constructed a worm bin for FLACS students, which during the school year, resides in Liza’s science classroom where Liza bases some of her lessons on which children often “oooh”, “aaah”, and “eeew” about. Liza and her family have experience with outdoor composting on their property upstate, but in their Brooklyn apartment, with no outdoor space, she eagerly had to start her own indoor worm bin as well.

So folks, look forward to a fun-filled, engaging workshop with these ladies and their worms…and be prepared to get your hands dirty!

Do Worms Eat Your Garbage?

Our next workshop on composting with worms, or vermicomposting, may leave some people feeling squeamish. But the truth is these amazing red wigglers are nature's most efficient recyclers and help reduce our garbage by eating kitchen scraps. If you want to prepare yourself for our September 6th workshop or just want to know the benefits of vermicomposting read more.

For people interested in the science of vermicomposting and building your own worm bin designed for New York City apartments visit the Department of Sanitation.

August 2nd Workshop Review

The latest workshop, hosted by artist Jessica Findley, was all stop-and-go and stop-and-go, and... Well, it went on like that for awhile. But it was all part of the fun as the day's exercise was Stop-Motion Animation.

While individual kids took turns directing and positioning the cast (toys brought from home) of a group stop-motion film, others worked individually on flip books using cut-out shapes from recycled newspapers, magazines and gift bags. It was amazing to witness the creativity kids can exhibit when allowed to express themselves constructively and freely.

At the end of the class guests young and young at heart gathered around Jessica's laptop for the screening of the Green Apple Kids' masterpiece. Watch out PIXAR, young directors grow in Brooklyn.

Here are some pictures from the workshop:


(Presenter Jessica Findley Directing the Green Apple Directors)


(Making Flip-books)








(Making the Film)





Here is a short film made using the technique Jessica taught in the workshop (due to a technical glitch, Jessica's computer crashed before the original film could be saved):



To make your own stop-motion films at home, Jessica recommends iStopMotion (a trial version is available for download from Apple.com)

Introducing our August 2nd Workshop Presenter

JESSICA LING FINDLEY

Jessica Findley is a maker. The first time we met her was at an unusual event, one that in retrospect gave insight into her genius. It was a group outing to Kaiju Big Battel performance, where competitors dressed in hand-made monster costumes duke it out in a roped ring – think World Wrestling Entertainment meets the Godzilla series of films (the original sixties Japanese versions).

Jessica is also a talented conceptual artist who dreamed up the Aeolian Ride. As the website explains, the Aeolian Ride outfits fifty cyclists with wind-inflatable suits and sends them on a mapped course through cities around the world. To date the ride has been hosted in New York City; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Capetown, South Africa; Melbourne, Australia and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It is in the suits that Jessica’s craft shines. Designed from rip-stop nylon, the suits come in three basic shapes. A personal favorite is shaped like a Portuguese Man O’ War with the cyclist’s arms and legs serving as the jellyfish’s tentacles that swing below its buoyant bladder. There is also an abstract bunny, with outsized ears that rise out of the biker’s shoulders and an orb-like suit with a puffy hump.

Ask her and Jessica will most likely highlight the fun involved with the project, she’ll say that she created this mass participatory event, with its odd uniform, to exude humor and “excite those riding as well as delight those watching.” She will not be one to lament over obstacles faced or ideas that died on the cutting board.

The payoff for her hard work was evident on the day of the New York ride as a stream of ghostly figures, that would have fit nicely into any Hayao Miyazaki film, sped out of Manhattan’s Riverside Park with the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn as their destination. As we rode onlookers cheered, cars honked in approval and bicycle messengers inquired as to where they could acquire their very own versions of the Aeolian suits.

You can view Jessica's marvelous work at sonicribbon.com.

EXPERIENCE

07.00- FREELANCE DESIGNER : BROOKLYN, NY
NOW Illustration, graphic, web design, animation, and video editing.
Clients: Computer’s For Youth, American Museum, of Natural History, Large Animal Games, LEGO, New
York Philharmonic, Tylenol, Cablevision,New York Underground Film Festival, Picture Projects, RMJM
Architects.
03.02- ILLUSTRATOR / ANIMATOR : PLANETII, BROOKLYN, NY
05.03 Illustration, character design, development + Flash animation for on-line + printed tutorials for children.
Also responsible for project management, quality control and sound design.
09.99- ASSISTANT TEACHER: NYU DEPT. OF FILM + TV, NEW YORK, NY
06.00 Assisted classes with Director, Premier + PhotoShop. Taught + managed TV studio workshops.
06.99- PRODUCTION TECHNICIAN : PORTLAND CABLE ACCESS, PORTLAND, OR
08.99 Assisted producers in edit suites + studios, managed + schedules + equipment.

EDUCATION

05.01 MASTER'S DEGREE FROM THE INTERACTIVE TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM
TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, NY
06.99 BA DEGREE WITH AN EMPHASIS ON MULTIMEDIA ARTS
THE EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE, OLYMPIA, WA
SKILLS

DESIGN : PhotoShop, Illustrator, Director, Flash, Dreamweaver, GoLive.
PROGRAMMING : HTML, CSS, basic ActionScript + Lingo,
FILM + VIDEO : Final Cut Pro, Premiere, After Effects
ANIMATION : Flash, and Stop Motion 5
AUDIO: Pro Tools

July 26th Workshop Review

The first Green Apple Kids workshop was a bangin success. Presenter Manuel Oquendo (aka MegMan) led an engaging class that resulted in the construction of various sculptural instruments (all from household recycled materials). In the coming days we will post instructions on how to make your own instruments at home, but for now enjoy our photos and noisy audio.


(Presenter Manuel Oquendo and a few Green Apple parents)

Introducing our July 26th Workshop Presenter...

Manny I. Oquendo

AKA MegMan

Manny I. Oquendo is a Producer, Composer and Multi Instrumentalist. He began his music training at the age of 5 studying violin, African percussion, and storytelling at the Bloomingdale House of Music NY, NY. He also studied and performed with the Boys Choir of Harlem and more recently has studied West African Drumming with Master Drummer Laryea Addy.

Manny has had music videos featured on M.T.V and the B.B.C’s Radio 1 and has composed and performed music compositions at the Whitney Biennial, Brooklyn Museum, Dietch Projects and Exit Art gallery to name a few. Currently he is touring extensively throughout Europe with the groundbreaking Hip Hop innovators Anti-Pop-Consortium.

He is a supervisor for the Arts Conservatory Program for the Police Athletic League of NYC where he facilitates and teaches a highly enriching music and poetry program to the inner city youth of the South Bronx. He also teaches music in the New York Public School system. Recently he has collaborated with drummer/composer and founder of Fast Horse Records, Barrett Martin, to record his yet to be named debut album, which is currently in the final production phase, and is a blend of Electronica, soul grooves, and world music sounds, which reflect a slice of life in urban New York City, the place Manny calls home. Look for an early winter release worldwide, exclusively on Fast Horse Recordings. For more information and to experience his soundscapes visit him on Myspace.

The Benefits of Music for Children

"There is a growing amount of evidence to show that music enhances a childs ability to think, learn, reason and create and it is in the first five years of a child's life that all of the formative brain development and connections are being formed."

Our first upcoming workshop on creating and playing percussion instruments serves multiple purposes. Not only will it be super fun, but research shows that music for young children makes them smarter! And who wouldn't want a more intelligent, and innovative child? Interested parents read more...