As today is the first day of October, I just wanted to remind everyone that the deadline for the TED Challenge on Dave Eggers’ wish is October 31.  Learn more below and on Once Upon a School.

The challenge

Design and implement a new and innovative project for local public school students. Collaborate with a dynamic teacher or school to determine the best use of your skills and passion. There are no limitations to what is possible.

Participate by telling your project story

Tell us the general idea of your project, how you shared and employed your particular expertise and creativity. Discuss how you planned and executed your project. Describe the results, how your efforts made a teacher’s life easier. Please include photos or video!

TED project evaluation

The TED community will review your project story and evaluate on the basis of:

Innovation:
Did you use a new model? Is your approach creative? Did you provide students access to something new?

Collaboration:
How well were you able work with the teacher and/or school? Did you address a challenge facing the students?

Impact:
What changed in the life of the students, teacher, school, community? Did your work inspire other private citizens?

On September 17th, the TED Prize co-hosted an event with 826LA at their Venice location.  Guests explored the writing center and shopped for select items from 826LA’s Time Travel mart.  Dave Eggers was there and he recounted the history of 826 and the inspiration behind the whimsical storefronts, from the original Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco to LA’s new Time Travel Mart.  (You can purchase select items from the Time Travel mart online at www.826la.org/store.)   A student read some of her poetry and TED’s Chris Anderson touched upon some of the amazing collaborations that have emerged from Dave’s wish to create 1,000 stories of engagement between individuals and their local public schools.   A highlight of the evening was director Spike Jonze showing a clip from the skateboard video workshops he’s been conducting at 826LA.  His work is a compelling example of someone using their unique skills and talents to collaborate with a public school.

There was so much enthusiasm and passion around Once Upon A School – we can’t wait to hear more of the stories coming out of LA.

Thank you to Robin Goldberg at Blurb for providing Once Upon A School workbooks, Katy Klassman from Vosges Haute Chocolat for providing sweets and Steven Addis of Addis Creson for providing beautiful bags to put them in.

Lesson Plans: Learning to Teach in a Complicated World is a New York Times blog that brings together a group of teachers to chronicle their experiences during the first weeks of the school, offering first hand accounts of today’s classroom challenges from diverse perspectives.

Matthew Kay, a third year English and Drama teacher at the Science Leadership Academy, a progressive magnet school in Center City Philadelphia, wrote a post today about the teaching of students beyond the school walls.

A new village is needed to educate this generation. Educators must build it by forming alliances with our friends in the outside world. We must put our fists down, acknowledging that loving our students and teaching them subject matter isn’t always enough to bring success. We need help. My fervent prayer is that, when approached, prospective mentors always remember the time that someone else showed them what they could be.

This call resonates deeply with the goal of Dave Eggers wish and Once Upon a School.  Each of us can be a part of the fabric of a student’s life, if we take the time and make the effort.  Go to OUAS to pledge to engage in your local public school and become a part of this “new village”.

GOOD Magazine is hosting a its GOOD Conversations Series debut tomorrow night in New York City.   Titled “Mavericks of Education”, the event will feature Ninive Calegari, the co-founder & CEO of 826 National, Wendy Kopp, the founder & CEO of Teach for America, and John Wood, the founder & CEO of Room to Read.

Here are the details:

Moderated by:

Zach Frechette, editor in chief, GOOD Magazine

September 23, 2008
6:30pm -9:30pm
HOUSING WORKS
126 Crosby Street
New York, NY 10012
This event is for subscribers only and RSVP is required.

To RSVP, email conversations@goodinc.com with your name, email address, city and state. If you’re not yet a subscriber, Please subscribe at the $20 level at www.good.is before you RSVP. You’ll get 6 issues of GOOD magazine plus 100% of your subscription fee will go to the nonprofit partner you select. (How cool is that?)

GOOD Conversations are a bimonthly salon series in Los Angeles and New York, bringing together thought leaders and luminaries across disciplines for dynamic conversations on current topics and themes. Part panel, part presentation, and always participatory, GOOD Conversations are led by the editors of GOOD magazine and are designed to challenge convention, stimulate discussion and ignite action.

GOOD has also featured Dave Eggers TED Prize wish as Project #12 in their most recent issue.  Titled Brainstorm, GOOD asks its readers to think outside the box on what type of projects private citizens might participate in at their local public schools.  Check out the project and some of the resulting ideas – here, here, and here.

Badge for the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique
Source: The Science Creative Quarterly

When it comes to school, most people believe they are either left-brain or right-brain, logical or creative, scientist or artist.  But in order to be completely educated, we must engage in both parts of ourselves and our brains.  Mastery of each is not essential, but understanding is.

For many, science is the more difficult hurdle to cross.  It can be technical and jargony and all together intimidating for the non-expert.  However, it need not be that way.

Geneticist David Ng of the University of BC is bringing creativity and the hard sciences together in an amazing series of projects.  Through the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL), a facility  to provide life science learning experiences for both general public and scientific communities, Ng has created an online science magazine called The Science Creative Quarterly (SCQ), runs The Science Creative Literacy Symposium, co-teaches a cross-disciplinary seminar with the Arts Department, and established Terry, website associated with the course which highlights the set of related projects and events that connect undergraduates in the sciences and the humanities – the two largest faculties at UBC – in order to promote discussions of global issues and social responsibility.  All of these projects focus on Ng’s “central concept of ‘talking science’ though usually in unexpected ways.”

Ng’s work with young students was inspired by a visit to 826 Valencia.

“I thought — wouldn’t it be great if something creative could be done with a science angle,” Ng recalls. He had been interested in trying to reach out to elementary schools, primarily to expand beyond the lab’s high-school program. But there were concerns that AMBL’s fully functioning genetics lab was simply too technical for children under 12. Maybe writing was the angle that could draw younger children in, Ng thought.

Here at TED we love innovation.  826 was developed through Dave Egger’s innovative rethinking of how tutoring centers can work.   But many people wonder, where is the innovation in America’s public school system?

Cory Booker (the mayor of Newark, N.J),  John Doerr (a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and Ted Mitchell (chief executive of NewSchools Venture Fund and president of the California Board of Education) recently wrote an editorial exhorting the next president, whoever he may be, to support “educational innovation and ‘scale up’ proven experiments and novel ideas that work.”

The evidence for making a national commitment to innovation in education is compelling. Today, many of the most promising solutions are emerging from entrepreneurial organizations that embrace freedom and accountability…They have started nimble, typically nonprofit organizations that work in partnership with creative mayors and school superintendents.

[...] To call these solutions a drop in the bucket, as some critics do, is to miss the point…historically, the federal government has constrained its investment in education entrepreneurship to comparatively small, isolated programs, limited efforts in a bureaucracy that resists change. To fix this, there are key steps the next president should take.

The first is to expand innovation incentives and free them from the earmarks and conditions that have blunted past initiatives…Beyond new funding, the federal government must use its influence over state and local policy to sweep away regulations that hamper innovative thinking, such as caps on the number of public charter schools allowed and excessive restrictions on how teachers are trained and credentialed.

[...] Finally, two efforts already underway must get a strong push from the next administration. One is the move toward a common set of standards for what students should be expected to know and be able to do: Every American child deserves to be educated to the same high standard, and innovators everywhere require a common target. Then, to make shared standards work, a national data infrastructure must be built to assess educational progress.

The authors steer away from taring down the current system.  Rather they emphasize that problems can not get solved simply by continuing to do the same thing.  Just like in business, they want to see energy placed behind ideas that have promise to see if they can become a broader part of the solution to America’s education woes.  The American spirit is tied up with entrepreneurship; American education can be as well.

As Dave Eggers mentioned in his TED Prize talk, every 826 has a store in the front.  Each store has a special theme — pirate supply store, superhero store, time travel store, and more.  The design and creativity of each store is imaginative and fun; the proceeds go directly to the tutoring center.

If you don’t live in a city with an 826, here is a chance to get a sneak peek of these awesome stores.  Last year, The Windy Citizen posted a photo tour of The Boring Store, part of 826Chicago (via On the Road to Renaissance).  A few pictures are posted below but more are available here.

Nothing else in Wicker Park looks quite like The Boring Store (google map location), however upon first glance, it’s not clear exactly what this store sells. I’m not sure who designed the banner, though the line work does resemble that of Oak Park, Illinois’ resident comic book phenom Chris Ware, whose work graces 826 Valencia.

Photo credit: Brad Flora

As the lazy days of summer begin to fade into memory, students, parents, teachers, and communities everywhere are preparing for the first days of a new school year.  It is an exciting time of year and a great opportunity to begin anew.

Now is the perfect time to be inspired by Dave Eggers’ TED Prize wish and become actively engaged in your local school. The great collection of stories on the Once Upon a School site currently will seed ideas for your own project.  A series of guidelines will help you in the process of implementation.  And your skills, talents, and enthusiasm will make the project a success.

People who implement a project and submit their story to the Once Upon a School by October 31, 2008 have an opportunity to win a complimentary pass to TED2009 in Long Beach, CA.  Read more about the challenge here.

If you find yourself in LA on September 10 looking for laughs with a side of philanthropy, check out 826LA‘s Yuk-Fest.

Here are the basics:

Insightful Comedy and Dogs on Tightropes

Featuring:
Tim & Eric, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Burr,
Al Madrigal, and Bob Moore’s Amazing Mongrels, plus special surprise celebrity guests!

The Avalon Hollywood
Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 9:00 PM (Doors open at 8:00 PM)
1735 Vine Street (between Hollywood and Yucca Streets), Los Angeles, CA

Tickets: $25 – 35
VIP tickets: $75, includes gift bag
Premium, table tickets: $250-$5000
Tickets available through Wantickets: www.wantickets.com
Adults only (18 and over)
All proceeds go toward 826LA’s free student programming.

Los Angeles, CA, August 8, 2008—826LA is proud to announce Fall-Time Yuk-Fest, featuring Tim & Eric, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Burr, Al Madrigal, and Bob Moore.

Now in its third year, 826LA’s fundraising events have established a reputation for being completely unique nights, filled with impressive lineups and side-splitting laughs. Fans of comedy, children, philanthropy and literature alike are encouraged to attend and witness one of the year’s funniest charitable events. On this special evening, laughing at lowbrow (and highbrow) humor benefits the greater good, as the show’s proceeds directly fund student writing and tutoring programs at 826LA.

Table tickets, which cost $250 per seat include a gift bag; for table sales, contact Christina Galante at christina@826la.org. VIP seats are the front two rows of the house, cost $75, and include a limited-edition poster. All other seats range from $25 to $35.

About the Performers:

Tim and Eric are the comedic duo behind timanderic.com and Adult Swim’s Tom Goes to the Mayor. They have since created another Adult Swim program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job! and have released a CD with music from Awesome Show.

Patton Oswalt has had notable roles in films and television shows including Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, Pixar’s Ratatouille, and as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. Other television appearances include Home Movies, Seinfeld, Human Giant, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I Love the ’80s, and Reno 911!. Patton has also released comedy albums Feelin’ Kinda Patton and Werewolves and Lollipops.

Jimmy Pardo has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as several appearances on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Currently, Pardo hosts the podcast Never Not Funny with the producer Matt Belknap. He is also the host of the Match Game Live, a live version of the Match Game television game show, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.

Bill Burr performs over three hundred shows annually. In 2004, he began working on Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show. In September 2005, Burr’s HBO One Night Stand special aired. Along with many other projects, he has also been a guest comedian on the Bob and Tom Show as well as the Opie and Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio.

Al Madrigal has appeared on The Late Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and was the Jury Award winner for Best Stand-Up Comedian at the 2004 HBO Aspen Comedy Festival.  His ability to mix improv into his stand-up sets landed him the lead role on the series The Ortegas and Welcome to the Captain. He is the founder of 826 Valencia’s Comedy Night and can currently be seen on CBS’s Gary Unmarried.

Bob Moore and his Amazing Mongrels have been performing for over 30 years. He’s been on The Smother Brother’s Comedy Hour and America’s Got Talent. He’s even opened up for the Beastie Boys. All of Bob’s dogs are rescues from a shelter and trained to jump through hoops, jump rope act and even do math.

In case you missed it, the New York Times Sunday Magazine cover article was on the education system in post-Katrina New Orleans.  For those interested in both education theory and practice, it is well worth reading,