Notes from May 25th Art Jam On May 25th from 12:25-2:25 The Denman Island Community School

put school work aside to hold an Art Jam. The Artjammers let imagination take hold and got creative. Using whatever medium(s) called to them, Artjammers created something. Choices of medium included but were not limited to - collage, painting, construction, poetry, music, dance, rapping, dressing up, preparing foodwhatever brought forth creativity. The adult helpers were conscious of not editing, censoring, or inhibiting the kids creativity. At this Art Jam session we asked each of the participants to use art to answer the question What does your Dream School look like? During Creation Time the kids got pretty wild and creative and had tons of fun. The school was loud and (at times) kind of crazy and all sorts of wonderful spontaneous creativity burst forth. Amazing ideas flowed, dream schools were born, and art was created. At around 1:30pm, an impromptu parade made its way through the school, then out through the parking lot to the hill where a group photo was taken. The parade of kids then found its way to the gym where all gathered in a circle and shared more of their thoughts about their Dream School. We finished the Art Jam by sharing fruit salad, then the kids went home and the School halls were quiet again.

Notes taken by scribes during Art Jam - Creation Time Bigger library More P E More drama and music Lots of stations and moving around Free sketch (art) Older kids said they like to do things with their own grade Outside outdoor classes Photography Creative activities Swimming pool and hot tub and waterslide Hot lunches every month Cooking classes Have 45 min in the morning quietly to do whatever subject you want Learning about riding magical creatures Visiting different places around the world like Africa or outer space. More soccer playing Unison with Hornby and Denman Schools or more time with Hornby kids Jam session schools out for summer now that would be a good dream school

Free time, more computer time time with lap tops Art collage was shared it is a collage made up of Denman and Hornby Islands divided by a wall that is to be blown up so the two schools can be together and do more stuff together. More mixed media art More cooking, music and fun stuff Ghosts I want everything here, climbing wall More schools to join together so we could have larger school with more kids Kittens, cats and kitten training Drama, acting and costumes Centres like today more often School energy generated by windmill power poles A free school where no money is needed Water room/aquarium Museum Quiet library study room Zip line from a giant tree Winding slide into pool More money invested into musical instruments Cream soda in the fountain (or Dr. Pepper) Chocolate Cook lunch every day at school. Its annoying bringing food every day. Growing our own food at the school in the garden Using compost and working more on it Do fundraisers (like for Japan) baking cookies etc for a hot lunch program Unicorns on the walls at the school Punk music classes My school is a lot big Generate own power Build a ship/boat/space ship A big gym Would like school to look like a castle Would like school to look like a giant turd Get to know the outside world A place where people are taken care of A water room with water animals in it Song and Dance More PE and more work A room for animals, but not in cages Lots of animals Fancy dress for school uniform We have to be random crazy people Gotta get funky in school I fly a unicorn to school Mystery machine to school

I will run to school Wild animals want lots of space at school My dream school has weapons - AK47s etc Many fluffy animals, jaguars, tigers, leopards, kitties Id learn how to juggle knives Id be a teacher as well as a student Pixie dust Detention/punishment is having to go to the Denman school Much flying Pixies make Denman school fun Pool, sauna, hot tub Teleporters to the future and the past Co-operation, working together Making things green Team work is important Saving animals Costumes are part of dream school Trip to Paris with $500 to spend Does not want things to change Learns best when she reads something and then writes it down Wants animals to look after and a garden to learn how to grow more

From Writing Station (written in kids own words) Although its raining, we can go outside; we can play in the rain. Bring a raincoat, bring some boots. Look on the bright side will you please. Itll water the garden, itll fill the streams for animals to drink and look here comes the sun. My dream school is to have lots of animals at the school and you could play with them when ever you wanted to. Even during math and reading maybe even social studies if you wanted to and you could train them as much as you wanted then I would LOVE! School. And I would never want to leave and we could also have music class a whole lot and maybe lots of sea animals.

Notes taken during Sharing Circle in gym Cream soda in the water fountain (ice cold) Swimming pool $1 billion to each kid Funky hats All dress up like aliens More dress ups

High school on Denman Denman and Hornby do more together or merge School on the winter Hornby ferry in the lounge Denman and Hornby kids do homework together on the ferry 6&7 graders help littler kids Chocolate school - chocolate fountain w strawberries and raspberries and candies on Fridays No more Bill Nye videos I really like Bill Nye, hes cool Cats at school Private jets instead of bus 3 recesses Bring your pets to school 1 time a month hot lunch Longer library time/bigger library Bigger garden that we make food from Make more school lunches Raise chickens 10 people make lunch each day for everyone from things we grow in the garden Chocolate pool, hot tub and sauna Trampoline under the grass Dennis Lavale comes back Bring pets Aquarium Museum No sitting at desks Policeman comes to grade four class Covering floors Fun Art & music Swirly tube slide Outdoor classes Lap top for each kid Only kids that are born on leap year attend School has kids from 3 months old to grade 7, then high school kids go to different school on Denman Zipline instead of bus Denman & Hornby join or more activities together School like Howls Moving Castle where the school moves around Gyms with spikey walls Bring pets to school Once a month hot lunch Bigger library

Adult Helper comments and observations We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospectionWhen I don't write, I feel my world shrinking. I feel I am in a prison. I feel I lose my fire and my color. Anais Nin Whatever you do or dream you can begin it! Boldness has genius and power and magic in it Goethe If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer? Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away. Thoreau There is nothing like a dream to create the future. Victor Hugo Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them. Unknown The library (writing station) was empty for the first hour or so of the Art Jam. After a while kids started to arrive. In all 7 kids visited the library. The kids who spent time at the writing station in the library did so in part because they were seeking a quiet place to be. They found the rest of the school too loud and chaotic, after a time and needed a break. Several of the kids stated they learned best by looking things up in books and then writing them down in a report or their notebook. The kids really enjoyed the playful aspect of the Art Jam. They enjoyed having the run of the school to use in their chosen ways. I found them to be respectful of the space, while being very playful. I was amazed at their great ideas. Some of them might be more difficult for us to implement, and we may even decide they are not in the kids best interest. Other ideas strike me as being exactly what our children, the school parents and our community needs. What an amazing group of kids we have. My wish list for Dream School would be more outdoor education (regardless of weather, these are Denman kidsthey can handle a little weather!), classes outdoors, growing more food in the garden, more Art Jams, a different theme each week. Perhaps every Wednesday is a different dress up theme with morning, or afternoon devoted to Art Jamming that theme (Alien day, punk rock day, even math day!). And I would definitely like to see more parades. By taking the kids on parade each week, adults in the community will look forward to and perhaps even plan downtown trips to see. It also serves to keep the kids on peoples community radar, if they become a weekly fixture downtown (please remember that most island residents have no kids and little connection to the island kids). I wondered how the students had been prepared for the event. I thought a visualization would have really worked as a foundation - get the kids relaxed and moving through the dream school - then reflect their vision through any media they wished. The kids loved dressing up - is there dress up stuff at the school? If a tickle trunk were created where could it live?

It would be good to consider doing more theatre games with dress up, karaoke, several kids seemed into this. The theme of animals whether farm type, pet type or wild was a popular theme. Kids want to interact with all kinds of critters, and want that as a part of school. The TELEPORTER chamber was also a popular theme both in the theatre crew and the 3-D sculptors. I can imagine the kids creating a teleporter chamber from a fridge box, outfitting it with whatever they feel it needs and then using it to change their space, make a shift, go somewhere else, get into their imaginations, and come back to the classroom refreshed. Perhaps this could be used to look at historical events. Perhaps the teleporter could be used to project future events (and seeing how we can influence those events in the present. Ie studying cause and effect). Perhaps they could do something like write, talk, record, draw, and collage about their experience or journey, after they come back.

Getting creative At first glance the ideas that came from the kids can be easily sorted into several groups - Possible, unlikely, and impossible. As adults we sometimes get caught up in/stuck in assessing the practicalities of ideas and dismissing those that may at first seem impractical. The KCC would like to respectfully suggest that any adult reading this consider approaching the kids ideas with our own immensely creative minds and imaginations. Perhaps the desire to have individual soda fountains could be translated into making soda pop from scratch - which could be used to teach math, chemistry, cooking, and science (as the kids experiment to perfect their recipe). Riane has a great and easy recipe for homemade ginger ale that she would be happy to share with the school community. Perhaps the wish for a teleporter could be met by installations made by the children to do just as one of our adult helpers suggested in the observations section above. Some of the ideas that came from the kids are just a matter of the adults summoning the will and arranging the logistics - how to get Denman and Hornby kids together more often, more art and music, more time spent outdoors. Other ideas that came from the kids offer the adults the wonderful opportunity to engage in their own creativity on how to achieve the seemingly impossible. We see above that it is possible to use the teleporter idea to provide teaching platforms and to benefit the entire school community. By tackling the seemingly impossible we model creativity, determination and so many other qualities we value in our children and our community. In what ways would you creatively manifest the vision of a trampoline under the grass? How about a zip line instead of the school bus?