Communiblog

CommuniTeach Through the Ages

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:12:23 -0500

In celebration of the launch of our slick new CommuniTeach 2.0 website, we decided it was time to do a retrospective of The Webpages of CommuniTeach Past.

Round 1: Beta

This little gem dug up from the archives documents CommuniTeach’s very first breath on the interwebs.

As you examine this relic, please note the ironic tension between the high-art realism of the gilded frames and the janky-chic portraiture of the stick figures within them. Implied in this juxtaposition is an egalitarian appeal to all our pedestrian, imperfect, and apparently woefully undernourished stick-folk to unite in celebration of our Average Joe-ness. With ordinary people helping ordinary people, who needs the machine? However, the ornate golden frames promise that our service will make you so skilled that you will be enshrined in the very Academy itself. We make you that awesome.

Pretty tricky, CommuniGraphic. Tricky, or schizophrenic.

Or, CommuniGenius.

But the CommuniTeach ethic still shines through: “Together we know everything!”

The Teenage Years

Now this is the version of the CommuniTeach website that we all know and love. Easy skill sharing, pretty graphics, the works.

But what you might not have known are the sensational rumors surrounding the image on the right.

Many have speculated that these two friendly learners may secretly really be avatars of our famed co-founders, Ben and Sarah. Sources on the inside (namely, the co-founders themselves) have denied such claims, but we will let the people decide for themselves:

CommuniTeach 2.0! Finally!!

We are so proud to present to you our baby, all grown up!

In addition to the sophisticated new look, we have added a new networks feature which helps you teach and learn from your existing social groups.

We’ve also made it easier to get to know the people you haven’t already met. You can make your profile public and tell the world what rocks about you and your skills.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check it out!

Cheers!

-The CommuniLifeCycle Investigation Team

Maximize your Impact: Volunteer your Skills

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:43:53 -0400

Sharing your skills benefits you and helps those with whom you share, but what if there was something more?

What if sharing your skills meant that you made a significant social impact affecting tens or hundreds of people and helping empower them to reach their own goals, or the goals of their community?

Rest assured, there is a way: volunteering. Often people think of volunteering as simply giving time, but many volunteer opportunities encourage you to share your skills as well. As long as you are there, why not? It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are doubling your productivity by giving both time AND skills.

Many great volunteer organizations like Taproot Foundation and Cross Cultural Solutions match skilled professionals with people in need of skills and training to cultivate sustainable solutions for disadvantaged communities.

Through Taproot Foundation, business professionals act as pro bono consultants to nonprofit organizations. This enables small organizations with even smaller budgets access to the business expertise and experience they need to succeed and make a positive social impact. Taproot expands the idea of ‘pro bono’ work beyond the field of law to include marketing, IT, management consulting, etc. and applies the skills to strengthen organizations that help entire communities. The website lists a slew of benefits for you as the volunteer as well. Your work is tax deductible, makes an unique and impressive addition to a professional portfolio or resume, and serves as a valuable networking opportunity.

Cross Cultural Solutions uses skill sharing to improve communities abroad. Students and professionals take their expertise to countries such as Ghana, India, South Africa, Russia and many others to provide skills-based training to individuals and organizations working to improve the infrastructure of their communities. Cross Cultural Solutions’ volunteer opportunities last anywhere from a week to several months, offering a great way to make a social impact with a short vacation or to create a meaningful, long-term cultural immersion experience. Your work with Cross Cultural Solutions also stands out on a resume and is a great way to meet like-minded professionals, as well as travel to parts of the world you may never have had the opportunity to visit otherwise.

Volunteering your skills, either close to home or in a completely new cultural environment, improves communities by giving individuals and organizations the skills to help themselves.

What are some skill sharing volunteer organizations in your community? What are the resources that you can offer others? Share your thoughts in comments, twitter, and facebook!

Sharing for Grown-Ups: 5 Ways Skill Sharing Helps You

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:29:52 -0400

to share: (v.) to use, participate in, enjoy, receive, etc., jointly

We have (hopefully) been taught to share since legos, play-doh, and our toes – in that order- were the most desirable things to put in our mouths. Now that we are more or less grown-ups with more sophisticated tastes (omelets, asparagus, someone else’s toes), where does this childhood concept of sharing fit into our adult economies of Time=Money and Keeping up with the Joneses? Who has the time/money/goodwill to share something they have with someone else?

5 ways sharing your skills helps you:

1) Sharing makes friends. Your mom was right. As an act of cultivating community, sharing builds relationships between individuals and thus necessarily raises the relationship capital of both parties - you make friends. Now you can bond with Mr. Jones over learning his recipe for Killer Kick-Off Chili, even if his kid does go to a more expensive preschool than yours does.

2) Everyone wins. Especially with skill sharing, you raise the ability of those with whom you have formed a relationship. Your community has become better and more able. When you share your gardening tips with Mrs. Jones and her friends, the whole neighborhood becomes a more beautiful place.

3) You are the expert. When you teach a class or share a skill, your peers recognize you as an authority on the topic. This respect may even result in leads or referrals for your business. Are you an accountant? Share some great tax tips, your neighbors will think of you next time they – or people they know- are looking for professional financial guidance.

4) Favors come back around. No harm in throwing some good will out into the universe. For the time that you spend teaching Mrs. Jones how to change her tire so she doesn’t get stranded in rural Wisconsin again, she will likely spend equal time in the future teaching you how to organize your inbox (yes, 976 unopened emails is too many.)

5) You have nothing to lose. A skill is not lessened when shared. In fact, the proverbial two minds instead of one will likely increase the teacher’s ability as well. You never had a golfing buddy until you taught Mr. Jones the secrets to your signature swing. Now he is almost as good as you, and the competition is making you better every day.

So the next time you are practicing your skills all by yourself, or are all alone and wishing you were practicing your skills with someone, think about ways you can maximize what you have by sharing it. Make friends, get smarter, and it doesn’t cost a dime. Just ask the Joneses.

Have you ever swapped skills with someone? Tell us about it! Join our discussion in the comments, on twitter, and on facebook.

Find great people to share skills with in your area at www.CommuniTeach.com!

CommuniSmackdown: Which city will prevail?

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:56:00 -0400

At a recent meeting, the members of the CommuniTeam challenged each other to a weekend CommuniSmackdown to see who could recruit more new members for CommuniTeach in their city.

Rules:
1) Members must sign up between 12:00am Friday–12:00am Sunday, CST
2) No hair pulling

Prizes:
1) Eternal Glory
2) The losers each send the winner a book of their choice

A mere 48 hours after the competition was concocted, the Ambassadors for each city were off to the races! Here’s how it all went down:

City: Pittsburgh
Competitor: Ben – Fearless Co-Founder
Secret weapon: Chocolate covered matzah

After a busy morning running his first 5K race and becoming a one-man brass band, Ben parked himself at a beautifully hand-decorated table in University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt Towers.

Note: clever pen-as-paper-anchor technique (top right) and garbage can poster-propper-upper (behind poster, not shown.) Yes, Ben is available for MacGyver-ing LearnIts.

A scientist by trade, Ben took advantage of the large sample size of passersby to do some field research on effective CommuniPickup Lines. These are the results of his experiment

Results show: CommuniTeach > free chocolate.

In the process, he met some interesting folks who are sure to liven up the Pittsburgh branch of CommuniTeach:

Admit it, you know you want to learn throat singing too.

After several hours of diligent recruiting, Ben hurried home, anxious to find out how he stacked up to the other competitors. Of course, in order to do this he had to create a scoreboard for the occasion:

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the CommuniChi team got a little distracted…

City: Chicago
Competitor 1: Sarah – Fearless Co-Founder
Competitor 2: Jordan – Professional CommuniBlogger (aka, myself)
Secret weapon: Time Out Chicago Magazine

…but can you blame us? Chicago proved an exceptional poster child for free learning this weekend, and you can bet Sarah and I took full advantage of it!

First stop was Open Streets on State Street, a giant street festival in downtown Chicago that shut down 7 blocks of car traffic to make way for dozens of demonstrations and workshops to teach Chicagoans about healthy lifestyles and alternative, active transportation.

So instead of finding new members, I made friends with the awesome breakdancing group The Brickheadz Crew (breakdancing LearnIt, anyone?)

Then I took a break to read Time Out to find out all the things going on in Chi this week

Afterwards, I met some of the amazing folks at West Town Bikes, a great community resource which offers free bike maintenance classes and educational youth programs in Chicago.

The festival also featured free yoga, aerobics, skateboarding, Capoeira and countless other workshops, but I had to rush off to meet Sarah at the Chess Rules and Strategies LearnIt. Teacher Billy Joe Mills floored all of us with his infinite chess wisdom and I am pretty sure he made all of us much smarter too.

With most of the Learners from the Chess LearnIt in tow, Sarah and I then made our way to Chipotle’s free festival Cultivate. The festival was designed to teach people about sustainable farming, naturally raised meat, and many of the issues the farming industry faces, all while eating scrumptious food and listen to groovy bands. As a result, Sarah and I learned SO much.

First thing we learned – How not to raise a pig: (For “Jordan” read “cramped pig”)

Then we learned about the connection between sustainable food, sustainable clothing and sustainable community learning!

Our tactics may not have been as, er, directed as Ben’s, but we sure embodied the spirit of CommuniTeach by devoting an entire day to all of the great free learning opportunities in Chicago and talking to lots of fascinating people, spreading the word.

Results:

6 CommuniCities brought their best.
6 Ambassadors fought for the title.
Only 1 could win.

3rd Place: Emily, our Boston Ambassador, added 10 new members!

2nd place: Sarah and Jordan teamed up to take over Chicago, adding 24 new members (12 per Ambassador)!!

1ST PLACE: Ben in Pittsburgh with 54 new members!!

With all the participating cities combined, we added over 100 new members to our growing CommuniTeach family. This means more skills, more knowledge, more friends for all!

Have suggestions for how we can spread the word? Chat with us on Twitter (@CommuniTeach) or leave them in the comments!

What is a National LearnIt? And what does it have to do with comics?

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:49:52 -0400

Here at CommuniTeach we aren’t just interested in getting a group of people in a room together to learn interesting things from their neighbors for free. Oh no. Our aims are much higher than that.

To appropriate a visual from the inside of Fearless CommuniFounder Ben’s head:

Imagine a warm, cozy coffee house where people are gathered to learn and share skills. Zoom out. Imagine many cozy coffee shops all over the country bursting with inquiring minds. Zoom out again. Imagine the entire world overflowing with knowledge and community and good cheer.

This is our goal. We hope to build a culture of learning that connects communities from all over by uniting them with a common learning experience.

We took our first steps towards this moon walk last Wednesday, at our first ever National LearnIt where two cities, Chicago and Pittsburgh, simultaneously learned how to draw comics from a slew of talented CommuniTeachers.

In Pittsburgh, over a dozen learners settled into the temporary farmland of the Digital Salad installation at Assemble, a unique art gallery venue, and turned their attention to teachers Ryan Yee, Lizzee Solomon, Shawn Atkins, and Jason Lanza, who began the evening with individual overviews of their own work and influences. (Check out their stuff, it is amazing!)

Jason then led the group through a workshop on how to draw the human figure. With individual help from the other teachers, even the most novice learners were able to produce respectable male and female human figures ready for comic action. (Next step: learning to draw clothes too!)

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, the talented Nina Pagano offered a complementary lesson in creating comics. Surrounded by colorful paintings, photographs and sculptures in the Park Schreck Gallery, the Chicago learners built a short storyline by each offering an action or a line of dialogue. The resulting story involved a lack of milk, a mutant mechanical cow, and a mysterious orange man. (You can’t make this stuff up, folks…)

Each person drew their own version of how the story should look and everyone’s comics turned out quite different- some humorous, some scary, some both. Nina used this variance to demonstrate the different styles of storyboarding that can be used in drawing a comic about the same essential story.

Basically, if the two LearnIts had a baby, we would have the best-drawn, best-planned CommuniComic in all of history.

Thanks to everyone who came out for helping us host our very successful First Ever National LearnIt! Can you feel the community growing already?

Finally, here are some other great events related to this LearnIt:

24 Hour Comics Day, a 24-hour, worldwide, comic drawing-palooza, in a comic store near you Sat. Oct. 1st
Park Schreck Gallery’s opening reception for their new exhibit Blur, Saturday, Oct. 1^st
Assemble’s pop-up farmers market, Friday Sept. 30^th

Don’t forget to check CommuniTeach.com for all the great upcoming LearnIts in your city!

CommuniQuiz - Meet the founders!

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:56:39 -0400

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!

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:45:55 -0400

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!

Mon, 02 May 2011 18:45:00 -0400

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

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0400

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?

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:22:00 -0500

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

Upcoming free social innovation workshops

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:45:00 -0500

Are you looking to make a difference in your community and the world? Are you interested in developing the skills necessary to do so? Citizen Circles is a movement of friends, classmates, and colleagues who set out to improve the world by designing classes to improve their own knowledge, confidence, skills, and competencies for change-making and meeting in person to discuss these pressing issues and use their collective knowledge to do positive work in their communities.

Citizen circles, with participants signing up from all around the world, are starting January 26th as part of the new P2PU School of Social Innovation. CommuniTeach, a website that connects people for free local learning workshops, is partnering with Citizen Circles to organize local citizen circles in Chicago and Pittsburgh so that our community can find other local folks to take these workshops. You can view the full list of classes here: http://p2pu.org/sosi .

I have just created a workshop on CommuniTeach for the Women as Social Innovators Citizen Circle that I plan to participate in. Please RSVP now if you’d like to join that class! If you are interested in participating in one of the other classes like Education Politics in America and live in Chicago or Pittsburgh please feel free to email me at sarah@communiteach.com and I can help you get the word out to others in the community about the workshop. If you live somewhere without an active CommuniTeach community, you can email me anyway and I’ll connect you with Citizen Circle folks in your city.

In addition to P2PU, we will be organizing many more free CommuniTeach workshops over the next few months, so feel free to reach out if you have an idea for something else specific you want to teach or learn!

Pittsburgh Coffee-Tasting and Short-Story Writing LearnIts

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:45:00 -0400

Last night, about 15-20 Pittsburghers came in from the chilly fall weather to partake in nice, warm, free coffee at Cannon Coffee in Brookline. Cannon Coffee owners Nathan Mallory and Ben Haake spent the evening demonstrating all the ins and outs of creating a precisely brewed cup of java (and other coffee-based drinks).

CommuniTeachers Nathan and Ben stressed the importance of putting in just the right amount of coffee grounds. The teachers conducted an experiment where learners tried 3 sips of coffee, in which a different amount of coffee grounds had been used to make the coffee with all other variables being equal and asked us to identify each kind of brew, which he lovingly referred to as Mom’s cup of coffee (typically a weak, watery cup), Dad’s cup of coffee (typically your strong, bitter cup), and a perfectly brewed cup. In the end, Nathan and Ben let us in on the secret, but shared that it really is a matter of preference— some people will like the strong, bitter flavor of the Dad’s cup, some people will like a nice even flavor of the perfectly brewed cup, and some people will prefer the less intense Mom’s cup.

CommuniTeachers also learned some trade secrets too. Did you know that many times, in order to mask the taste of coffee beans gone bad, roasters will add flavoring to the coffee beans? Old coffee beans, burnt roasts and the like get ground down and flavored with fancy flavors like French Vanilla or Hazelnut so that bad beans can still be sold. Ben and Nathan suggested buyers beware and buy a quality roasted coffee bean and flavor it after it is brewed with flavored syrups instead.

The class finished on a high note, as Nate and Ben brewed up some quality coffee grounds for us using 3 different brewing methods for learners to try: drip brew, french press, and espresso styles. Finally, Ben impressed us with his latte art, using steamed milk to create leaf designs as it mixed with the espresso in the cup below.

Following the Coffee-Tasting LearnIt, learners (and even coffee-tasting teacher, Ben Haake) stayed after for another LearnIt called Writing Short Stories. CommuniTeacher Christine D’Auria went over some of the most important elements in writing, such as character description, meaningful dialogue, establishment of a setting, and an attention-grabbing opening paragraph. She shared excerpts from some of her favorite spooky short stories (in the Halloween spirit) to illustrate these points. We took turns reading from stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Iriving, “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman.

Christine emphasized that a writer needs to engage the readers senses consistently, at least once per paragraph, throughout the story.

Then we revved up our creative juices as Christine led the class through a character-creation and dialogue-writing exercise. The results? A 40-year-old woman named Ariel, a hypochondriac, who is over-protective of her young son, Jeffrey, who come to find out, is not where Ariel thinks he is… and may not be coming home…

Both classes were great successes due to great teachers from within the Pittsburgh community and the wonderfully engaged people who came to learn. It was an experiment to combine the LearnIts and I think the result was positive. I mean, what goes better than drinking coffee and reading short stories? Our thanks go out to the teachers and to Cannon Coffee for hosting these classes.

Want to find out about more upcoming free classes in Pittsburgh or Chicago? Browse through the CommuniTeach website, click on “Learn It!”, and we’ll see you there.

Salsa and Margarita Making LearnIt

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:45:00 -0400

Last Thursday, CommuniTeach members came together at the StartUptown Building in Pittsburgh to learn several killer recipes for salsa and margaritas. Four local CommuniTeachers shared their expertise with about 15-20 eager learners. Two teachers demonstrated their personal style for making salsa while two more teachers showed how to shake up a batch of freshly mixed margaritas.

One batch of salsa made by CommuniTeacher Shreejoy Tripathy packed some serious bite. His salsa was on the fresh end of the salsa spectrum, tasting not unlike a spicy pico de gallo.

Meanwhile, the other salsa teacher, Melissa Butler, showed the class how to cook down some tomatoes in a South African salsa recipe that had people gravitating back to the dish again and again for more. The salsas contrasted with each other nicely, giving students a chance to try both fresh and cooked salsa.

Across the room, Margaritaistas Emily Schmidlapp and Nicole Gallagher impressed students with their mixing and measuring skills. Emily showed students how to dress up a well drink with some freshly squeezed limes, salt, and a good ratio of liquor. The end result was a deliciously tangy margarita that you could mix at a party and not break the bank.

Nicole mixed up a classy margarita with topshelf liquors. CommuniTeachers got to try a high-end margarita with a first-class bartender for none of the cost! Like the salsas, the margaritas were made in two distinct varieties to satisfy everybody, from classy connesiuer to saavy partier. The Salsa and Margarita Making LearnIt proved to be a great way to learn some new tricks for making old favorites. Keep checking back on The CommuniTeach website to see what other free classes your neighbors are offering!

My Quest to win Ideablob

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:45:00 -0400

As some of you know, CommuniTeach is currently a finalist for the Ideablob competition. Whoever has the most votes by tonight at 12:59 CST will receive $10,000 to fund their idea. We are currently in third place, and every vote counts. Please spend thirty seconds voting for us at http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/6091-CommuniTeach-learning-platform

Below is our journey so far…it’s full of hope and woe. Want to make sure it has a happy ending? Vote for us on Ideablob RIGHT NOW.

Day 1-3! The third sprint begins, and CommuniTeach is off! I tell 20 of my friends to vote and they all do! More friends told to vote. More votes. 99% percentile! We rule!

Day 4: Soft Maps is actually pretty cool. I want to vote for them NO WAIT. Gah!

Day 7: At precisely midnight we see that CommuniTeach is in the Ideablob finals! I’m amazing! Wait err I mean the CommuniTeach idea is amazing NO WAIT IT’S TOTALLY ME! Yeah ok, no, CommuniTeach. Gotcha.

Day 8: In the finals! All hail us! All hail us! Oh dear, we spent all of Day 8 hailing us, and not telling people to vote. We have only 50 votes, and Boycott Marriage Act has 200. Neat idea actually, but not CommuniTeach! We’re in 6th place. Grrrrr.

Day 9: I stumble across a post written my new friend and change.org rockstar Nathaniel Whittemore. Saweet! I talked to him on the phone about Ideablob two days ago! He must be telling people to vote for CommuniTeach!

Day 9, (10 minutes later). I read his post…it’s telling people to vote for Boycott Marriage Act. Blast.

Day 9, later that day: Who cares about the blogs. CommuniFounder Ben and I come up with perfect strategy to win Ideablob — make hilarious viral youtube videos that millions watch! At the bar, a random patron teaches us how to swing dance so we can film it for the video. This is what CommuniTeach is all about! I love CommuniTeach!

Day 10: First video is up! Second one too! Millions of voters, here we come!

Day 10 (later that night): 200 viewers is not the same as 200 million. blast. Still, up to 4th place. Reaching the limit of how many times I can IM my friends telling them to vote before they hate me. Oops, just passed the limit. Oh dear.

Day 11-12 Emailing out all your friends, family, relevant blogs, and everyone else in the world while also juggling a 65+ hour a week job can’t be as tricky as it sounds. I can easily work 8am to 10pm chugging away at my job.Then go 10pm to 4am doing CommuniPromotion. Simple right?

Day 13 Spend the day storming UIC dorms. Freshman love us! We’re king and queen of the world (while maintaining a platonic CommuniRelationship). All of them will vote! RAs promise to email out other RAs. We move up to 3rd place. I develop weird hacking cough thing, as well as involuntary shivering. I need sleep.

Day 14: We spend the day at the Bucktown Arts Festival meeting strangers and telling them about CommuniTeach. Get more votes, but still behind the leaders. I consider getting married to spite Boycott of Marriage, but then decide against it. And what on earth is a Kitabu? Oh, it’s a cool sustainable development model. Shoot. Still, CommuniTeach!

Day 15: It’s 4am, and I’m still at the Pumping Station One hackerspace, developing voter strategies during their hackaton. I <3 hackers. They’re so intense and passionate about creating things. Much like me, except with real practical skills. I join their space. They let me email zillions of hackerspaces.

Day 16 (today): Last day of the competition. My dad emails entire office. Ben emails all hackerspaces. I write this blog post at 4am, and then curl under blankets…I am so sick. Balancing 65+ hours of work with CommuniPromotion is exactly as difficult as it sounds.

CommuniTeach, even though thou art killing me, I love thee so. And giving up just isn’t very socially entrepreneurial. We are obviously going to win. But even if we don’t, we’ll keep on building CommuniTeach so that people everywhere can start learning great skills from all the amazing people in their communities for free. CommuniTeach! Rah!

Three great community-building sites

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:45:00 -0400

Here at CommuniTeach, we are all about finding new ways for people to connect with their neighbors. Our favorite way to do so is by creating opportunities for people to teach and learn from each other for free, but we wanted to take a moment to recognize a few other great websites with similar goals.

1) A Space Apart - This cool Chicago based startup enables people to communicate with both the local business they are frequenting and their fellow patrons. You can ask questions to others, post your thoughts, or request a coffee refill. Once you realize how friendly and helpful everyone is in your space, you’re just a teeny tiny step away from real in-person interaction with the java drinker next to you.

2) Neighborgoods - CommuniFounder Ben and I have been a fan of this site for a while. It’s kind of like a CommuniTeach for stuff. You post what you have to share and what you need and can search within your zip code to find your perfect product soulmate. They offer both free sharing (yay best thing ever) and renting (slightly less then the best thing ever but still pretty good). The site started in LA but just launched nationally a few months ago, which is neat.

3) Freecycle - If you have something you don’t need anymore, you can give it away for free to someone who needs it using Freecycle. No money, no glory, just good old fashioned environmentally friendly kindness. It doesn’t seem as community focused as the other two sites, and all postings go through message boards and listserv emails. But what it lacks in social network bells and whistles it makes up for in being useful and huge, with over 7 million users worldwide.

Got another favorite community site that helps people connect with neighbors in real life? Post it in the comments. We’d love to learn about more of our community building website brethren.

Learn to knit, crochet, and cook...for free

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Hi Pittsburgh CommuniTeachers!We have some great Social LearnIts in the works! Click to RSVP for these free classes from your neighbors:

Knitting & Crocheting for Beginners on Sunday, August 8, 3-5pm, at South Hills Village Mall Food Court (South Hills), taught by Kim
Cooking basics 101 on Sunday, August 15, 3-6pm, at St. Pius X Church (South Hills), taught by Alyssa —- with free food!

And we have a bunch more coming up as well. RSVP and you’ll be notified when dates and locations are finalized:

Transplanting Perennials from Terry
Keep your bike rolling perhaps at Schenley Park, teachers needed!
How to be a good dater / talker to romantic interests from Darcy and Kat
How to dance at a party or club from Brendan
Learn Spanish While Strolling Down Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill, from Inga
Home Canning! from Erica, Rachel, and Jacob

Questions? Feel free to hit reply.

Thanks!

Ben

CommuniTeach

One year of CommuniTeach

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:45:00 -0400

In the past 12 months, CommuniTeach…

…was awarded a Sprout Fund grant to help improve the lives of young people in Pittsburgh

…teamed up with a fantastic group of Chicagoans to organize Learnapalooza, an amazing festival with 77 free community classes and over 350 participants

…was featured on TV! Jared Hoffa extolled CommuniTeach’s virtues and demonstrated how to use our website on MomTech, part of WCIU’s You & Me in the Morning. WCIU is a Chicago-based television station.

…had a fantastic writeup in the Pittsburgh City Paper

…organized Social LearnIts in vegetarian Indian cooking, swing dancing, guitar, yoga, knitting, pool playing, beer brewing and more

…received $1000, free office space, and amazing mentors through our selection as a Scalewell grantee

…and much more!

All and all, it was a great year. But the best is yet to come. Ben and I are excited to keep the momentum going as we expand CommuniTeach and work towards a world where vibrant free learning communities exist everywhere.

So stay tuned…should be fun.

Want to help plan a Chicago Learnapalooza? First planning session this Sunday at 12:30pm!

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:45:00 -0400

Last week, I had a great conversation with Rosalyn Lemieux, social entrepreneur extraordinaire, about her work founding and running LearnapaloozaDC. A Learnapalooza is, as you can perhaps guess, is an all day learning event where community members attend to a variety of community taught classes, learn cool stuff, and have a great time while doing so. Rosalyn and her volunteer team organized two DC Learnapalooza events, one in 2007 and one in 2008. Thousands of DC members were able to teach and learn classes like How to Knit to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Giant Pandas. Neat, right?

Community building…teaching and learning…free and awesome…Learnapalooza sounds right up CommuniTeach’s alley, yes? We agree, and that’s why we’ve decided to explore the possibility of planning a Learnapalooza in Chicago *cue streamers and squeals of happiness and joy*.

The first planning session is going to be this Sunday at 12:30pm, at the Map Room in Wicker Park/Bucktown, at 1949 N Hoyne Street . It will be a pretty casual and open discussion for everyone who has any interest in sharing their thoughts on what should be an incredibly fun and rewarding event. Everything’s on the table, from the date (do we push for winter or wait until spring?) to what mini committees there should be (teacher recruitment? PR? Sponsorship?), to snack policies for future meetings.

RSVP by writing a message in the comments section of this post, and email me at sarah@communiteach.com if you have any questions or thoughts. I look forward to hearing your advice on ways to make Learnapalooza Chicago the greatest Palooza of our time. Get excited!

Good Capital: A little return, a lot of good

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:45:00 -0400

Life as a social venture start-up like CommuniTeach can be tricky, particularly when you’re contemplating your need for capital while in a non-profit/L3C/for-profit identity crisis. On the non-profit side, traditional grants and foundations don’t exactly jive with your social entrepreneurship sensibilities and desire for unique models of revenue generation and financial sustainability. But the idea of going to a venture capital fund, or anyone really, and easily articulate that yes, you see their point about high returns, but no you don’t think maximizing your profits is the most important thing compared to the social return on investment is…rather painful to contemplate as well. Perhaps you will get incredibly lucky and snag and Echoing Green or Ashoka fellowship and use that support and prestige as a launching pad for your organization…but until then, you sometimes feel rather stuck.

Luckily, a few innovative venture capital style vehicles are trying to step up and fill that space of providing capital to social ventures that provide a substantial social return on investment while at least considering the financial return or revenue generation aspect as well. One such organization that I recently came across is Good Capital. According to their website, “Good Capital is an investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty. Using a high engagement model, we invest in the most promising social enterprises and give them the tools and guidance they need to succeed.”

Sounds good, yes? What’s even more interesting is that Good Capital is apparently open to funding both non- and for-profit entities. For non-profits, it appears they offer some sort of low interest venture debt and additional non-financial support, while in the case of for-profit entities offer venture capital with the expectation of less then market rate returns but extremely high social impact. They also charge a management fee, which at least partly supports the additional advisors and consulting support Good Capital provides to the ventures they fund.

Good Capital, and other funds like it, will play a critical role as the social enterprise space continues to mature. By providing social enterprises with access to the critical capital and support structures they need to scale up their initatives without compromising their social mission, these new funds are ensuring that social entrepreneurship will continue to flourish and grow in the coming years.

Cocktail-Mixing Group LearnIt this Saturday at 9:00pm in Pittsburgh!

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:45:00 -0400

Ever wanted to learn how to mix a killer cocktail?

This Saturday, July 18, at 9:00pm, is your chance, at the first ever Pittsburgh CommuniTeach event! It will be a Group LearnIt on how to mix alcoholic beverages, with instruction from a real live retired bartender, Aarthi!

You can also learn some rock piano from Ben Paul. It will be a rocking time.

$5 donation is suggested to cover alcohol expenses.

It will be at a private house in Shadyside, so I will email you the location once you RSVP.

Please RSVP by writing a message in the comments section letting me know if you’re interested in teaching or learning. I will follow up with you to give you more details.

Excited to see all of you this Saturdayat 9:00pm! It is sure to be a fun night.