22 May, 2013
by Jake
12 Comments

Tremendous Learning (Seabird 2012/2013)

I could not be any more delighted with the results that my classes have produced this year.  No, it is not in the form of higher test scores.  In fact, I have not given them a test once this year!  It has come in the form of real, actual learning.  Not learning for a test.  Not memorizing factoids to spit them out and then forget them.  Nope, as we near the end of the year and have moved into final projects, I am literally stunned by the engagement and learning that is happening.

I realized this the other day as I stood at the back of my computer lab and marveled at what was happening.  For the final, I have asked students to combine the numerous elements and tools we learned this year into one final mega project of their choosing.  Then I stepped back to watch.  As I stood there at the back of the room and observed my students in action, it really hit me how effective my new school approach has been.  In one corner, a couple of kids are writing code to build a race car game.  In the other corner, kids are designing websites and logos. In the middle of the room, kids are creating a dub step album to sell on iTunes.  Another student, interested in finding a summer job, is working on building a presume with prezi (and it is looking darn good!).

There are no behavioural issues.  No one is bored.  Everyone is working hard because it is work that matters to them.  Indeed, that is what I have pushed all year long.  Do work that matters to you.  Do work that is relevant for your life right now and that will make a difference, get noticed and be valued.  I could have given them multiple choice tests; I could have gone old school and forced everyone to follow my pace while I lectured (yawn) at the front of the class with the projector.  I could have criticised their work, staunchly handed out grades and marked on the curve.  I have done none of these things and my class has soared to heights that would be unobtainable with those methods.

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13 May, 2013
by Jake
0 comments

Aah, the theatre..(said in a thick Brit accent)

This is where I performed Saturday night (Cowichan theatre in Duncan).  There are few things I love more than performing in a gorgeous theatre.

I love everything about it.  The professional crew who are making me look amazing.  The tech guys who are making me sound amazing.  The other performers who are so much fun to be with backstage and in the green room.  The buzz of the audience before the show begins.  The butterflies in my guts as I hide behind the curtain, listening to my intro.  The first steps on stage – staring into the black, blinded by the lights, immediately trying to establish a connection with the crowd.  Yep, I love it all.

My 25 min and 45 min stage show are rock solid tight.  Of course, there are always a million things to polish, clean and make better.  There always will be.  But, the fact remains that I have one great show that shakes the house.  It is really funny.  I mean it.  Everyone from age 2 – 105 is laughing and cheering.  It has wicked skills and seamless transitions.  I have arrived.

Put me on your stage.  You will never regret it.  I love it so much.  I will never stop doing it.  Never.  I sincerely appreciate your consideration to perform on your gorgeous stage.  Thank you.

2013-05-11 21.23.59

29 Apr, 2013
by Jake
2 Comments

How to use linkedin – connect face to face…

Like most professionals, you have probably gathered hundreds of connections through linkedin. What are you doing to leverage those connections?

Perhaps you add value to your network through the various group feeds supplying timely, accurate info to colleagues and other professionals (if you are not doing this, get busy – it takes time and practice to develop super content). When was the last time you met one of your hundreds of linkedin connections that you have never reached out to before? Not just an email, but a face to face meeting in the physical world?

I have reached out to many of my prostar linkedin connections and when I ask for an in person meeting, the initial response has been incredulity. One connection asked me if I was for real – no one had ever asked him to meet for a coffee from his linkedin network. To me, isn’t that the whole point of having a network full of prostar connections?

Even amidst the digital age, face to face is still the way.  There are gut feelings and intuitions that cannot be understood through bits and bytes. Yes, it is a time consuming process. But look again at the hundreds of connections that you have procured.  What do they mean to you?  Who are they?  How can you add value to each other’s lives?  I would much rather have a few rock solid connections who care than hundreds (or thousands) who don’t.  That is one of the problems with social media.  We equate numbers with quality.  It simply isn’t true.

Enter stage right - Mike Cavers.  Mike is an awesome, talented bloke who has been rocking the Vancouver corporate entertainment scene for 17 years as an actor/comedian.  I connected with him on linkedin and we batted a few emails back and forth.  Fortuitously for me, Mike was preparing to launch his own business, The Character Guys, and was looking for specialty acts.  Enter stage left – Jake West (me).

We set up a meeting and I immediately liked Mike from the moment I saw him walk in off the street.  Connection made.  We are now helping each other make things go right.  If we are successful (we will be!), then we have both added incredible value to each other’s lives.  All from one connection.  And like I said before, I would rather have this one, real connection with Mike, making things happen, than a thousand connections idling, producing nothing.

11 Apr, 2013
by Jake
3 Comments

The Teacher Entrepreneur, or the Entrepreneur Teacher

According to a recent Gallup poll in the U.S., a full 43% of students want to become entrepreneurs.  Wow.  That is quite the big number and it seems to be growing amidst economic woes and soaring youth unemployment.  Indeed, from many angles, being an entrepreneur, or at the very least, entrepreneuring, is much safer than having one job in such tough market conditions.

This trend is not going to stop any time soon.  What does this mean for school?  Well, we know for a fact that the model of education we are currently using was designed for a job, mostly in a factory, with a boss who told you what to do.  I think we can all agree we have evolved from that.  The kids sure know it.  At least they sure feel it.  Many of them honestly just want to get some experience, get their hands dirty and learn things that the classroom cannot teach.  But when youth unemployment is sky high (60% in Spain!), what are the youth to do?

They have to take matters into their own hands.

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18 Mar, 2013
by Jake
1 Comment

Creativity is a Habit.

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  Agreed.

Same with creativity.  It takes practice.  Again and again.  Over and over.

For the most part, the old school does not provide this type of practice.  This is a failure of an outdated system and it must be corrected.

My education experiments take place in an exceptionally interesting lab.  I teach K – 12, that’s right, all the way from kindergarten on up to grade 12s in a First Nation school.  I teach digital media.  Right from the get go, I have come at them with the practice of striving for creative excellence in all that we do.

The results have been fascinating.  They have developed the habit of creativity.  Yes, it can be learned!  Come to my lab and you can see it in action.

Recently, students have developed prezi’s, animations with flip boom, stories with scribble press and photo manipulations via gimp.  All class, every class, I give them the creative license to focus on their passions within a framework of a specific software and then I push them to make professional level work.  This has taken quite some time to get used to.  Like months.  Creative freedom is a paradox  - especially when most of school has been the exact opposite.  But now, it is just humming along.  It has become a habit.

I want to focus on one particular example because it is just so utterly fascinating: the elementary school blog.  All students, from grade 3 – 6 have their own personal blog, but most choose to post to the overall big blog that connects all the grades.  What is so interesting as a First Nations school, is that so many students are related.  Everyone knows everyone.  It has produced such a cool dynamic that I never would have thought of at the start.  It is their digital territory.  I have shown them certain skills like how to add links, photos and videos.  I have given them topics to write about like, “what do you think about the animation you spent the last month making?”  That is pretty much it.  Otherwise it is theirs.

The blog is the one thing that has tied the entire digital media experience together.  Come to my lab and you will see pride in one’s work.  It makes me so happy that they have taken full ownership.  This one student this morning was just beaming as he looked over the posts on his blog.

Today, I asked them to write about spring vacation and they just banged away at the keys.  Creating.  Producing.  Their way. Their content.  Practising habits of creativity and excellence.

 

 

14 Mar, 2013
by Jake
2 Comments

5 min juggling routine…

I have been trying to diversify my “product” into as many streams as possible.  Earning money as an artist is tough.  It requires outside of the box thinking, innovation and imagination to be able to fit into a wide range of revenue earning gigs.

I can pretty much hit anything now: 40 min show, 20 min show, roving, pure comedy routines, street shows, etc…

This is my latest creation: a 5min, super punchy, highly entertaining mixture of new and old school juggling with a good measure of physical comedy to keep audiences smiling.

Number includes: One ball contact juggling, 3 clubs, 3 ball, one diabolo.  A lot of variety, change ups and laughs to keep anyone from 2 – 105 engaged and asking for more.

10 Mar, 2013
by Jake
2 Comments

Take big risks…

Ironically, taking big risks is the only safe place to be now (So says Seth Godin, and I agree!).

There has never been a worse time to play it safe.  Amidst all of the epic changes taking place in the world, following the path of keeping your head down and doing what your told is ending badly for people.  Countless students are leaving school deeply indebted – all told to play it safe, get the degree, get the good job, and so on…

That path is finished.  The time has come to anticipate.  Innovate.  Create and be totally flexible.  Darwin said, “It is the not the strongest who survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change.”

We are in a Darwinian moment.  University students know this.  Especially university education grads.  Extremely challenging conditions exist to secure full time employment in teaching right now.  So what are you going to do?  Are you going to listen to the fear and the resistance?  Listen to the tired refrain from yesteryear?  Or, are you going to change?  Take big risks?  Not follow the status quo and not give in – no matter what?

A quick illustration:

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18 Feb, 2013
by Jake
4 Comments

Want to get savvy?

Do you want to get entrepreneurial savvy fast?

Warning: we are leaving mainstream financial thinking behind…

This thinking is not for you if you cannot handle risk. My humble recommendation to you is – learn to handle risk. It is all risky. Nothing is safe. That’s right, nothing. Think that bond is safe? Have you checked interest rates recently? Do you know what the real rate of inflation is?

Money is dynamic, not static. It flows. Flow with it.

You are going to have to make some big time decisions with lots of money on the line. Can your guts handle it? If not, learn. It is very difficult to leave the rat race by playing it safe. And again, safe is not safe.

If you are still with me, here is my humble reading list to get you savvy.

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17 Feb, 2013
by Jake
1 Comment

10 years of show creation

10,000 hours of practice is what they say it takes to become an expert at something.  That is roughly 10 years of solid, dedicated, hard core practice.

It all starts with a spark.

Bam, at 26, I was hit with the realization that I was meant to perform professionally while visiting a childhood friend who was in Cirque du Soleil.

Coming from a background of extreme sports, I was immediately taken with the physicality of circus and the stage.

But where to begin?

No sooner than I had learned a few tricks, I was out on the streets of downtown Calgary performing.  Somehow, I instantly hooked up with other performers who started to give me work.  I can see myself floundering around on stage that first year, trying to make it happen on pure adrenaline alone.

Luckily, I had decided to return to university at 26 too.  What timing!  Instead of partying like a 19 year old, I worked my ass off like a 26 – 30 year old investing countless hours of practice in university dance studios.  Indeed, I figured, while I’m at, I might as well minor in dance.  Which is what I did.

I worked everything I possibly could.  I studied rhythm and gigged with numerous musicians in numerous venues.  I worked the local street pitch.  I took every single gig offered to me and performed with gusto every time.

And I suffered.  How can it not be so with making art?  At some point, you must suffer.  Thinking thoughts like, “What the hell am I doing spending all this time on art when I could be doing something that let’s say, is more economically prosperous?” For me, money was never the motivation.  It was always for love.

But love does cost.  I failed,  And failed.  And failed some more.  But I also learned. And learned, and learned more and more.  Selling art  - it is a tough sell – especially when you have minimal experience and it is obvious that your show still requires years of polishing.  Somehow, I pushed through…

But not without serious reservations.  At one point, as I entered the big leagues on the coast, I got disheartened, discouraged and gave up.  Or so I thought.  My soul couldn’t take it and brought me back quickly.

I began again in earnest to train even harder.  And harder.  As I near reaching my 10,000 hours, I can tell you, my practices are art in themselves now.  They are delicious.  The suffering is slowly starting to turn into a delicacy.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a constant struggle and the hours of training must not let up for a moment.  But I have come to the point, after 10 years, after I have laid it all out there, I have finally arrived at a great show.  Everywhere I have been, people enjoy it.  I know you will too.  Please do not hesitate to call me.  I am honoured to perform at your next event.