The Empathic Civilization: RSA Animate Video

Here is an excellent animated lecture by author Jeremy Rifkin and RSA Animate about the need for empathic and social/emotional learning that resonates with our programmatic goals at Creative Action.

Empowering Community Film Resources

Here are some great resources about community engagement through film:

Community Cinema:

This is a fantastic community program offering free monthly film screenings at the Austin Public Library Windsor Park Branch. You can also find clips from films exploring a range of social issues on their website. Check it out! http://communitycinema.org/

“Community Cinema is a national civic engagement initiative featuring free monthly screenings of films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. Every month in 100+ cities, community members come together to learn, discuss, and get involved in key social issues of our time.

“Now screening >  From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, Wonder Women! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.”

Community Classroom is a resource offered by ITVS (Independent Television Service) just for educators! This website has an amazing array of free resources to explore social issues with your students:

“Community Classroom is an innovative and free resource for educators, offering short-form film modules adapted from ITVS’s award-winning documentaries and standards-based lesson plans for high school and community colleges, NGOs, and youth organizations.”

http://itvs.org/educators/collections

Women and Girls Lead:

“Women and Girls Lead is an innovative public media campaign designed to celebrate, educate, and activate women, girls, and their allies across the globe to address the challenges of the 21st century.”

Check out their website for wonderful videos and other media related to women and girls worldwide taking an active stance in their communities and empowering others.

This month you can also access 10 free online films all about women leaders through the SheDocs Online Film Festival in honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day! Hurry, it’s only available until the 31st!

http://itvs.org/women-and-girls-lead

Thanks to Corinna for sharing!

March Supply of the Month: Make a Kite!

Making Amazing Kites with Recycled Paper!

If you were at the Zilker Kite Festival this past Sunday, you won’t be surprised that March is kite month! To celebrate our Supply of the Month for March is a donation we received of colorful paper and cardstock from marketing materials that were going to be recycled or thrown out, but can be transformed into beautiful paper kites. Check out these resources for making paper kites with your students, and pick up some recycled paper from the Supply of the Month bin for your class projects!

Here is a really simple paper kite craft with easy to follow instructions!

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Paper-Kite-for-Kids/

Here is another example of a beautiful paper kite craft from Creative Jewish Mom:

 

http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2012/06/butterfly-kite-kids-craft-with-straws.html

http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/howto/ideas/paper_kites.html

Here are some really funky kites made from paper sacks!

 

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/paper-kites.htm

Check out these gorgeous examples of kites made from grocery sacks from the quarterly magazine Rhythm of the Home:

 

http://rhythmofthehome.com/2010/07/homemade-kite/

Thanks to Corinna for sharing!