Communiblog

CommuniQuiz - Meet the founders!

After months of research in the CommuniTeach brain lab, we have developed a highly scientific quiz designed to let you get to know the people here at CommuniTeach.

Consider this a formal introduction and feel free to comment on blog posts, chat with us at LearnIts, follow us on Twitter, etc. Don’t be shy! We want to meet you too!

Below are the CommuniQuiz profiles of our Fearless Co-Founders Sarah and Ben:

Name: Sarah the Press (@spressto)
Alias: Spressto Chango
Position: Strategic Co-Founder
City: Chicago
Favorite thing to teach: How to do good in Chicago
Something you want to learn: How to make cool short animation videos like this one
Most “useless” skill you have that has proved most useful: My ability to analyze and criticize every little thing, which I have recently channeled into becoming a project management fiend.
Favorite job you’ve held: Communi Co-Founder, rah!
Most memorable learning experience: Making gnocchi in my kitchen with 8 CommuniStrangers that became CommuniFriends- it was fun and delicious.
Favorite thing to do for free in your city: Jelly Chicago! Amazing free coworking space on Wednesday afternoons (a close 2nd is Summerdance- free dance classes in Millennium Park, what’s not to love?)
Something you wish everyone in the world knew about: The show The Sing Off- it’s so adorably heartwarming.
Where you can be found on a Saturday night: Watching a movie at my apartment and fully intending to leave after to go out but then falling asleep instead.
3 nifty facts about you: 
(1) All my friends from middle school gleefully love to bring up how I used to be a nerdy girl with messy hair and big plastic glasses- I actually still am all those things, but somehow trends have changed and that’s now cool.
(2) I can fall asleep literally anywhere- couches, buses, crowded Mexican Restaurants, etc. 
(3) Playing Blister in the Sun or Tootsie Roll will cause me to immediately break out into a crazy dance fit.

Name: Ben Paul (@benspaul)
Alias: My Grandfather Dated Steven Spielberg’s Mother….not sure if that can be a nickname, but I’d like to try it out.
Position: Technical Co-Founder
City: Pittsburgh, PA
Favorite thing to teach: Piano improvisation
Something you want to learn: Ruby on Rails
Most “useless” skill you have that has proved most useful: How to say “I am a pencil” in Hebrew. You’d be surprised how many times it comes in handy! (Namely, every time I meet an Israeli and want to embarrass myself.)
Favorite job you’ve held: Co-Founder of CommuniTeach!
Most memorable learning experience: A kindergarten teacher showed me how to appreciate little things, like the shape of a button at a certain angle or spots on the ground. Her curiosity was inspiring and as a result I try to look at objects in my environment more curiously.
Favorite thing to do for free in your city: Go to Lili Coffee*Shop in Polish Hill and teach myself to play ukulele using their chart on the wall
Something you wish everyone in the world knew about: When someone tells you something distressing, our natural tendency is to ask clarifying questions and to give advice about how to resolve it. In fact, it’s more helpful to do the opposite- listen intently and try to summarize what they are saying.
Where you can be found on a Saturday night: Let’s be honest, usually I’ll be at home working on CommuniTeach.
3 nifty facts about you: 
(1) I once made a fake backstage pass for This American Life so I could meet my hero, Ira Glass.
(2) I once tried on the God Helmet, but sadly all I saw was some blobbity light blobs.
(3) A complete summary of who I am can be found here.

Check back to meet more CommuniTeam members!

First National LearnIt - Come meet us!

Hi friends,

Now that we have been blogging for about two years, you may be wondering, ‘Who is this elusive CommuniTeam? How do we know they are who they say they are? Are they even human??’ Yes, the internet can be a scary and dangerous place. We don’t blame you for your suspicions. In fact, we have even decided that we have reached the point in our relationship with you that we should reveal our names, share photos, and even –dare we say it! – meet in person.

And what better opportunity to meet everyone than at the World’s First National LearnIt! Awesome and talented teachers will be teaching Comic Drawing in Chicago, Pittsburgh AND Boston, all at the same time and all connected via video on Wednesday, September 21^st. Come out and meet us, meet your neighbors, meet our neighbors and be a part of this historic, first ever national LearnIt!

Starting this week we will also be introducing you to the members of the CommuniTeach Team here on our blog using our Handy-Dandy CommuniQuiz - stay tuned!

See you in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Boston!

Learnapalooza - Call for Teachers!

Are you passionate about free learning?  Do you want to share your book binding or composting skills with your community?  Do you want to show off your expertise in SEO and boost your resume by teaching a community workshop?  Then sign up to be a teacher at Learnapalooza — Chicago’s free learning festival happening in Wicker Park on June 25th and organized by CommuniTeach and a team of great volunteers in Chicago.

Learnapalooza invites amateur and professional teachers to host free workshops on a topic of their choosing.  Last year, over 400 community members attended 70 free classes ranging from salsa dancing to beer tasting to community organizing.  Anyone who has something to share – and basically we all do – can offer a class.  We take care of all of the class logistics.  All we ask from our teachers is to plan and teach a fun, free class.

If you’re interested in teaching a class,  click here to fill out the teacher form. Can’t wait until June 25th?  Sign up for CommuniTeach and post your free class today.

One Amazing CommuniWeek

Just wanted to let my fellow Chicagoans know that in the next week there are five (yes FIVE) awesome free LearnIts to your city. How cool is that? This cool *spreads hands very very wide indeed*. If were to plan one full week of awesomessness for you, this is what I’d recommend:

Tomorrow, you should head to Wicker Park at 5pm to learn how to play pool at the Flat Iron from Alex.

Then, come Sunday, perhaps you’d like to spend the afternoon in River North at i.c.stars (an amazing organization that trains low income adults in technology and leadership and staffs them on tech projects in case you’re curious) learning SEO with 12 others from a different Alex

After a hard day of work on Monday, there is no better way to unwind then Hang Out and Knit with a whole gaggle of rockstars atPumping Station One, a super cool hackerspace in Avondale.

Maybe Tuesday will be easier than Monday, maybe it won’t? Either way, I’m sure you’d enjoy heading over to Happy Village in Wicker Park to learn ping pong from Sean and friends (and if you work at Starbucks, you should also check out his startup HaveMyShift, cuz it’s neat)

On Wednesday, come learn photography from Elizabeth and get the photo skills you need to take pictures at all future learnits.

And on Thursday and Friday…I’m not sure yet. You tell me. What do you want to learn? What do you want to teach? Email me at sarah@communiteach.com and we’ll make it happen. Share this email with your friends so that they can start sharing skills too. Let’s make Chicago the most rockin community of free learning the world has ever seen. Rah!

3 upcoming Pittsburgh LearnIts: Metal Guitar, Metal Art, and Recycling T-Shirts…Into Metal?

Hey Pittsburghers!

Three excellent LearnIts are coming up, and we want you to know about them! RSVP with the links below.

Teach an instrument, learn an instrument…and then we all play Metallica Saturday, February 19, 2-4pm Lili Coffee*Shop, Polish Hill, 3138 Dobson St. Pittsburgh, PA Musicians, come learn a new instrument and learn “Enter Sandman” by Metallica in the process! A big thanks to Project 53 for providing a bunch of instruments free of cost. Brave non-musicians, dancers, voyeurs welcome, too.

Recycling T-Shirts Into Accessories Saturday, March 19, 2-4pm Society for Contemporary Craft, Strip District, 2100 Smallman St. Pittsburgh, PA Come learn to turn old t-shirts into fashionable scarves, headbands, bracelets, and necklaces! If you can figure out how to recycle t-shirts into metal, you are welcome to do that as well.

The Most METAL Art Ever Saturday, April 9, 2-3pm Venue TBD Pittsburgh, PA Make hardcore metal crafts using wire, pliers, and something else that rhymes with “-ier.” Additional teachers encouraged to sign up, too.

Can’t make it? Check out communiteach.com for more classes continually organized in Pittsburgh. Or click the nice blue button on your homepage to start your own LearnIt! From social media to salsa, together, we know it all. -Team CommuniTeam