Posts
Would you like a poem with that? Buy a pizza, get some poetry at New Orleans restaurants
April 6, 2016
“The young poet’s subject matters range from lighthearted, such as annoying brothers and food, to more serious subjects, such as family issues and discrimination.”
The Times-Picayune wrote an article about the Pizza Poetry Project and the “magical pairing” of the two things everyone loves: youth writing and pizza. Poetry is playful, fun, and free in structure, allowing it to be a highly accessible form of writing for young people. Also, kids loves pizza. Read the full article here.
Volunteer of the Month: April 2016
Congrats to our April Volunteer of the Month, Maria Delgado! Read our interview with Maria here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I went to a Big Class Poetry reading at Maple Street Books last year and really enjoyed myself. Then I found myself looking for a way to get to work with New Orleans youth outside of a school setting and talked to Ashley Teamer about volunteering.
What keeps you coming back?
Since my first day volunteering I haven’t gone much more than a day without thinking about the Big Class kids. They’re brilliant, funny, and wonderful
company.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Not everyone can speak to kids without patronizing them and I’m grateful that the Big Class environment values and encourages realness and sincerity with the Big Classmates. I really enjoy relating to the kids.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
The biggest challenge is hearing from the kids about the challenges that schools in New Orleans face because of limited resources and the national emphasis on standardized testing. It’s apparent the stress that teachers and administrators face and it’s very apparent how it affects the kids’ daily school experience (and in turn, their home lives).
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
I have gotten to illustrate two young authors’ stories at Akili Academy and I spend Monday Afternoons at Open Studio. Raven and Mwende have really made Mondays special. Because the kids seem to have myriad of emotions on Mondays Mwende started calling it “Moody Monday” and giving the kids’ writing prompts focused on their feelings at that moment. It’s been really cool getting to witness the kids express their inner emotional lives as well as their amazing imaginations. We also started doing group stretching before snack and writing time which has been really useful in all of us getting and staying present.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
When I’m not at Big Class I’m a cook at Pagoda Cafe, read, shop at thrift stores, and play in 2 bands, TV-MA and Special Interest.
Volunteer of the Month: March 2016
Congrats to our March Volunteer of the Month, Grace Hunter! Read our interview with Grace here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I heard about Big Class from people at 826 Valencia in San Francisco
What keeps you coming back?
The stories keep me coming back! I look forward to hearing or reading all about what happened in someone’s beautiful brain that day. The students’ process their worlds in such phenomenally creative ways.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Listening intently has served me well at Big Class, being a solid sounding board for any and all ideas seems to be the most useful skill I have to offer.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
The biggest challenge that I have had to deal with while volunteering for Big Class has been my own time management! Sometimes I get so excited as kids talk through their days it detracts from the time that needs to be spent putting those words down onto the page.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
Some of my favorite projects have come out of the Big Class workshops. I was particularly a fan of Monster Lab. One of the students from Akili showed up. Sometimes shifting the social setting of a classroom can lend to more engagement with the assignment. At the workshop, I was blown away by how many details Jacob crammed into his story. Everything from a glowing red eye to a harrowing backstory that made me sympathize with his spooky monster. The project produced pages of scary and fascinating monster tales and I was so happy to be a part of it.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
Big Class is the best part of my week–who knew Tuesdays and Thursdays were something to look forward to! On the days in between, I am fixing my house, reading comics, and kayaking around the murky water.
Volunteer of the Month: February 2016
Congrats to our February Volunteer of the Month, Erin Ruane! Read our interview with Erin here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
Pizza Poetry! A colleague asked her students to write for the Pizza Poetry day and I was intrigued about who organized this idea. A year later, my students were writing stories about zombies in their neighborhoods with Big Class.
What keeps you coming back?
The endless possibilities to collaborate with young writers. I have fun sharing my passions (like food and photography!) while learning about new ideas through the writing form. Big Class encourages me to think outside the box when dreaming up ideas for a workshop or class.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
It’s fun to think of the different ways we can develop ideas, from group brainstorming to independent art gallery walks, I’m always reminded of the creative ways to approach writing.
My skills as a former teacher also helped me develop a kid friendly curriculum for Unfathomable Cities, a New Orleans Atlas–one of my favorite Big Class projects, and one of my favorite books!
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
Having a full time job makes it tough to find time for all the excellent programs I want to participate in. It was especially difficult to learn I wouldn’t be able work with former students anymore due to scheduling differences. The good news, I have met dynamic, new ones!
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
So many projects to share! My students gave escape plans if a Zombie Apocalypse happened in their neighborhood and shared their selling prowess through Haunted Real Estate Ads. That same year, my students participated in fun workshops like New Orleans food poetry, and directing videos to go along with their original poems.
I wrote a student friendly curriculum for Unfathomable Cities, A New Orleans Atlas so teachers could present real inspiration around New Orleans subjects. I covered the chapter, “Oil and Water,” a section grappling with the oil industry in the Gulf and how it affects greater New Orleans. At the book release party, I saw how the curriculum came to life and even got to meet one of the authors, Rebecca Snedeker!
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
I work at a French Quarter think tank, GumboLive as a creative and social media strategist. In my spare time, I freelance interior design and work my small business “Baby Jesus”- an essential oil blend consisting of frankincense and myrrh.
Volunteer of the Month: January 2016
Congrats to our January Volunteer of the Month, Rick Montgomery! Read our interview with Rick:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I had just moved back to Louisiana after graduate school and I wanted to get involved with the book scene here in New Orleans. I popped into Maple Street Bookshop where the proprietor kindly guided me to the coolest classroom I’ve ever stepped foot in.
What keeps you coming back?
Well, the kids of course! And that means all of the staff and volunteers too. Inspiration and creativity are contagious. The Big Class community thrives on spreading a childlike approach to telling stories. You’ve got a story and you should tell it.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Science! Being a scientist has so many perks. I get to answer questions about space and time and rocket ships and aliens and sea creatures and DNA and teleportation and computers of the future and artificial intelligence and what it means to be human! Because science touches every aspect of the world, I have an ocean of ideas to help spark the creative flint of youngins. And I can help them with their math homework.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
When J.M. Barrie said that because fairies are so small, they have room for only one feeling at a time, I’m pretty sure he was also talking about kids! Creative work can be frustrating. Frustration can be all consuming. Finding the best way to guide a child through their frustration is very challenging and can require a lot of patience.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
I led the the kids through the dark alleys of their minds while we cataloged and sketched the things that go bump in New Orleans! Monster Lab is a space for us to preempt Halloween with stories of encountering the monsters that haunt our streets and our dreams. I had nightmares for weeks!
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
I split my time between reading Latin American literature, learning to play the Cajun accordion, and working as a real life scientist at a startup business from Tulane called Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies.
NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 features Big Class’s A Dark and Stormy Night
December 29, 2015/NOLA.com
Big Class’s annual gala, A Dark and Stormy Night, was on NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 list! A Dark and Stormy Night featured a silent auction, a reading of ghost stories, and, of course, all things haunted. View the full list: http://www.nola.com/society/index.ssf/2015/12/best_11_new_orleans_parties_of.html#3
Volunteer of the Month: December 2015
Congrats to our December Volunteer of the Month, Will Livingston Smith! Read our interview with Will:
What first brought you to Big Class?
Well initially, the need to graduate brought me to Big Class. Getting college credit for an internship allowed me to graduate in the fall.
What keeps you coming back?
I can honestly say I love what I’m doing with the group. I genuinely feel I’m making a positive impact on students’ lives by helping them express themselves more fully.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
I’m a writer with a pretty big personality. Above that, I understand the struggles of being a student. I understand where the students are at and how to approach them.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
Working with aftercare, there’s some students who don’t take to writing readily. With the help of the Big Class team, we’ve developed ways to work with them by incorporating other forms of art.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
The first Big Class project I worked on was “A New Planet in Space.” It was a book published by Big Class with writing from the 3rd and 4th graders at Akili Academy.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
When I’m not at Big Class, I’m managing a pharmacy and neglecting a book I’ve been working on for two years.
Student Writing: “Love Planet” by Kaiya Piper
My planet has 1,000 people. They love to hug and kiss. The grown ups are 21 and older. The kids are 8 and younger. You go straight from being 8 to being 21. The Queen of Love has powers to save the lovers. They eat chicken and pizza and fried chicken and pork chops.
When the cloud strikes, they have Mad Day. When they get struck by lightening, the lovers’ faces change to the darkest red ever. When Mad Day comes everything is dull and everybody fights with each other. The cry until the end of Sad Day. They get sad and happy and mad and the lovers say sorry after mad day and the lovers cry and cry.
They cry that they will never stop until Sad Day is over and when Happy Day comes they all hug and kiss. The lovers forgive each other. The lovers forget the mad and sad thing, and they stay happy. The queen said I’m happy and she kissed all of the lovers. Mad Day never came again. They have been happy for 9,000 years.
— Kaiya Piper, 3rd grade, published in A New Planet in Space
Student Writing: “Revenge” by Midley Toyo
My name is Lord Cobra. One day, I was robbing a bank. Then, I when I went outside, I got struck by lightning. It felt good because I was a little evil, and I kind of liked it. And because I was robbing when the lightning struck, the robbing and the electricity combined into a superpower. Then I kept getting superpowers. That’s when I noticed what my real power was: It was taking other people’s powers. They would still have their powers, but I would have it too. I chose to be a villain. My villain name would be something with robber in it. “I got it! Mad Robber,” I said, “It is a perfect evil name.” It was just a perfect name for an evil, heartless villain like me.
— Midley Toyo, 3rd grade, published in Will you be my Sidekick?
Student Writing: “That’s Will Smith and some zombie…” by Simone Cannon
That’s Will Smith and some zombie and no face in the back. I guess he is eating brains. Will Smith is a hallucination.
— Simone Cannon, published in Picasso Party
Would you like a poem with that? Buy a pizza, get some poetry at New Orleans restaurants
April 6, 2016
“The young poet’s subject matters range from lighthearted, such as annoying brothers and food, to more serious subjects, such as family issues and discrimination.”
The Times-Picayune wrote an article about the Pizza Poetry Project and the “magical pairing” of the two things everyone loves: youth writing and pizza. Poetry is playful, fun, and free in structure, allowing it to be a highly accessible form of writing for young people. Also, kids loves pizza. Read the full article here.
Volunteer of the Month: April 2016
Congrats to our April Volunteer of the Month, Maria Delgado! Read our interview with Maria here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I went to a Big Class Poetry reading at Maple Street Books last year and really enjoyed myself. Then I found myself looking for a way to get to work with New Orleans youth outside of a school setting and talked to Ashley Teamer about volunteering.
What keeps you coming back?
Since my first day volunteering I haven’t gone much more than a day without thinking about the Big Class kids. They’re brilliant, funny, and wonderful
company.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Not everyone can speak to kids without patronizing them and I’m grateful that the Big Class environment values and encourages realness and sincerity with the Big Classmates. I really enjoy relating to the kids.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
The biggest challenge is hearing from the kids about the challenges that schools in New Orleans face because of limited resources and the national emphasis on standardized testing. It’s apparent the stress that teachers and administrators face and it’s very apparent how it affects the kids’ daily school experience (and in turn, their home lives).
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
I have gotten to illustrate two young authors’ stories at Akili Academy and I spend Monday Afternoons at Open Studio. Raven and Mwende have really made Mondays special. Because the kids seem to have myriad of emotions on Mondays Mwende started calling it “Moody Monday” and giving the kids’ writing prompts focused on their feelings at that moment. It’s been really cool getting to witness the kids express their inner emotional lives as well as their amazing imaginations. We also started doing group stretching before snack and writing time which has been really useful in all of us getting and staying present.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
When I’m not at Big Class I’m a cook at Pagoda Cafe, read, shop at thrift stores, and play in 2 bands, TV-MA and Special Interest.
Volunteer of the Month: March 2016
Congrats to our March Volunteer of the Month, Grace Hunter! Read our interview with Grace here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I heard about Big Class from people at 826 Valencia in San Francisco
What keeps you coming back?
The stories keep me coming back! I look forward to hearing or reading all about what happened in someone’s beautiful brain that day. The students’ process their worlds in such phenomenally creative ways.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Listening intently has served me well at Big Class, being a solid sounding board for any and all ideas seems to be the most useful skill I have to offer.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
The biggest challenge that I have had to deal with while volunteering for Big Class has been my own time management! Sometimes I get so excited as kids talk through their days it detracts from the time that needs to be spent putting those words down onto the page.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
Some of my favorite projects have come out of the Big Class workshops. I was particularly a fan of Monster Lab. One of the students from Akili showed up. Sometimes shifting the social setting of a classroom can lend to more engagement with the assignment. At the workshop, I was blown away by how many details Jacob crammed into his story. Everything from a glowing red eye to a harrowing backstory that made me sympathize with his spooky monster. The project produced pages of scary and fascinating monster tales and I was so happy to be a part of it.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
Big Class is the best part of my week–who knew Tuesdays and Thursdays were something to look forward to! On the days in between, I am fixing my house, reading comics, and kayaking around the murky water.
Volunteer of the Month: February 2016
Congrats to our February Volunteer of the Month, Erin Ruane! Read our interview with Erin here:
What first brought you to Big Class?
Pizza Poetry! A colleague asked her students to write for the Pizza Poetry day and I was intrigued about who organized this idea. A year later, my students were writing stories about zombies in their neighborhoods with Big Class.
What keeps you coming back?
The endless possibilities to collaborate with young writers. I have fun sharing my passions (like food and photography!) while learning about new ideas through the writing form. Big Class encourages me to think outside the box when dreaming up ideas for a workshop or class.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
It’s fun to think of the different ways we can develop ideas, from group brainstorming to independent art gallery walks, I’m always reminded of the creative ways to approach writing.
My skills as a former teacher also helped me develop a kid friendly curriculum for Unfathomable Cities, a New Orleans Atlas–one of my favorite Big Class projects, and one of my favorite books!
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
Having a full time job makes it tough to find time for all the excellent programs I want to participate in. It was especially difficult to learn I wouldn’t be able work with former students anymore due to scheduling differences. The good news, I have met dynamic, new ones!
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
So many projects to share! My students gave escape plans if a Zombie Apocalypse happened in their neighborhood and shared their selling prowess through Haunted Real Estate Ads. That same year, my students participated in fun workshops like New Orleans food poetry, and directing videos to go along with their original poems.
I wrote a student friendly curriculum for Unfathomable Cities, A New Orleans Atlas so teachers could present real inspiration around New Orleans subjects. I covered the chapter, “Oil and Water,” a section grappling with the oil industry in the Gulf and how it affects greater New Orleans. At the book release party, I saw how the curriculum came to life and even got to meet one of the authors, Rebecca Snedeker!
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
I work at a French Quarter think tank, GumboLive as a creative and social media strategist. In my spare time, I freelance interior design and work my small business “Baby Jesus”- an essential oil blend consisting of frankincense and myrrh.
Volunteer of the Month: January 2016
Congrats to our January Volunteer of the Month, Rick Montgomery! Read our interview with Rick:
What first brought you to Big Class?
I had just moved back to Louisiana after graduate school and I wanted to get involved with the book scene here in New Orleans. I popped into Maple Street Bookshop where the proprietor kindly guided me to the coolest classroom I’ve ever stepped foot in.
What keeps you coming back?
Well, the kids of course! And that means all of the staff and volunteers too. Inspiration and creativity are contagious. The Big Class community thrives on spreading a childlike approach to telling stories. You’ve got a story and you should tell it.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
Science! Being a scientist has so many perks. I get to answer questions about space and time and rocket ships and aliens and sea creatures and DNA and teleportation and computers of the future and artificial intelligence and what it means to be human! Because science touches every aspect of the world, I have an ocean of ideas to help spark the creative flint of youngins. And I can help them with their math homework.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
When J.M. Barrie said that because fairies are so small, they have room for only one feeling at a time, I’m pretty sure he was also talking about kids! Creative work can be frustrating. Frustration can be all consuming. Finding the best way to guide a child through their frustration is very challenging and can require a lot of patience.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
I led the the kids through the dark alleys of their minds while we cataloged and sketched the things that go bump in New Orleans! Monster Lab is a space for us to preempt Halloween with stories of encountering the monsters that haunt our streets and our dreams. I had nightmares for weeks!
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
I split my time between reading Latin American literature, learning to play the Cajun accordion, and working as a real life scientist at a startup business from Tulane called Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies.
NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 features Big Class’s A Dark and Stormy Night
December 29, 2015/NOLA.com
Big Class’s annual gala, A Dark and Stormy Night, was on NOLA.com’s Best 11 Parties of 2015 list! A Dark and Stormy Night featured a silent auction, a reading of ghost stories, and, of course, all things haunted. View the full list: http://www.nola.com/society/index.ssf/2015/12/best_11_new_orleans_parties_of.html#3
Volunteer of the Month: December 2015
Congrats to our December Volunteer of the Month, Will Livingston Smith! Read our interview with Will:
What first brought you to Big Class?
Well initially, the need to graduate brought me to Big Class. Getting college credit for an internship allowed me to graduate in the fall.
What keeps you coming back?
I can honestly say I love what I’m doing with the group. I genuinely feel I’m making a positive impact on students’ lives by helping them express themselves more fully.
What are some skills you have that help you out at Big Class?
I’m a writer with a pretty big personality. Above that, I understand the struggles of being a student. I understand where the students are at and how to approach them.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced at Big Class?
Working with aftercare, there’s some students who don’t take to writing readily. With the help of the Big Class team, we’ve developed ways to work with them by incorporating other forms of art.
What are some great projects you’ve helped with? Tell us the story behind them if you can.
The first Big Class project I worked on was “A New Planet in Space.” It was a book published by Big Class with writing from the 3rd and 4th graders at Akili Academy.
What are you up to when you’re not volunteering with us?
When I’m not at Big Class, I’m managing a pharmacy and neglecting a book I’ve been working on for two years.
Student Writing: “Love Planet” by Kaiya Piper
My planet has 1,000 people. They love to hug and kiss. The grown ups are 21 and older. The kids are 8 and younger. You go straight from being 8 to being 21. The Queen of Love has powers to save the lovers. They eat chicken and pizza and fried chicken and pork chops.
When the cloud strikes, they have Mad Day. When they get struck by lightening, the lovers’ faces change to the darkest red ever. When Mad Day comes everything is dull and everybody fights with each other. The cry until the end of Sad Day. They get sad and happy and mad and the lovers say sorry after mad day and the lovers cry and cry.
They cry that they will never stop until Sad Day is over and when Happy Day comes they all hug and kiss. The lovers forgive each other. The lovers forget the mad and sad thing, and they stay happy. The queen said I’m happy and she kissed all of the lovers. Mad Day never came again. They have been happy for 9,000 years.
— Kaiya Piper, 3rd grade, published in A New Planet in Space
Student Writing: “Revenge” by Midley Toyo
My name is Lord Cobra. One day, I was robbing a bank. Then, I when I went outside, I got struck by lightning. It felt good because I was a little evil, and I kind of liked it. And because I was robbing when the lightning struck, the robbing and the electricity combined into a superpower. Then I kept getting superpowers. That’s when I noticed what my real power was: It was taking other people’s powers. They would still have their powers, but I would have it too. I chose to be a villain. My villain name would be something with robber in it. “I got it! Mad Robber,” I said, “It is a perfect evil name.” It was just a perfect name for an evil, heartless villain like me.
— Midley Toyo, 3rd grade, published in Will you be my Sidekick?
Student Writing: “That’s Will Smith and some zombie…” by Simone Cannon
That’s Will Smith and some zombie and no face in the back. I guess he is eating brains. Will Smith is a hallucination.
— Simone Cannon, published in Picasso Party
