NEW WEBSITE

We are transitioning over to our new website!!!!
Please start visiting the new site:

freescool.com

Particularly, check out the calendar: http://www.freescool.com/calendar/ for all our upcoming classes, events, and meet-ups.

And, the forums: http://www.freescool.com/forum/  - for discussions and to get involved in organizing!

If you would like to get involved in the website development, email us, or come out on Thursday to our Zine Making and Website Teach-in Party (location TBA, please check calendar on new website!).

with love,
free'scool

Tomorrow - Monday August 20th - work party in Trinity Bellwoods

Hi Free'scoolers,

even though we're taking Sundays off, there loads of planning and contacting that has to happen for September.
Tomorrow, for all who are free, we're meeting in Trinity Bellwoods Park around 2pm, near the Queen St. gates entrance, to do some work and hang out.

list of topics that we can potentially cover tomorrow: Website, email list-serves, space, teachers/classes, community outreach, zine, human rights framework, collaboration with Anarchist Free University

bring: paper, pens, computers, phones, food, music, good cheer :)

Article on The Free'scool by Krystalline Kraus in Rabble

An amazing woman, Krystalline, wrote a beautiful article on the Free'scool.
Activist Communique: Occupy the Activist Free'scool

Sunday August 12th

Reminder, we are spending the day tomorrow at the Zeitgeist Annual Media Festival in Kensington Market - Augusta Street across from Freshmart.

For those interested, we will meet at 11am in Bellevue Park (Kensington Market) to finish the half hour workshop we are presenting at the festival. We will walk over at noon together.

August 7th Student Union Meetings, and August Plans

Agenda:

1. This Sunday and Zeitgeist

2. Free Art'Scool 

3. Proposal for summer hiatus, last two weeks of August

4. Fall workshops and planning

In Attendance: 9 people

Facilitator: Laura

Note taker: Roxy

Decisions:

1. This Sunday Classes are Suspended, instead, we have a field trip to the Zeitgeist Media Festival (website), which is running from 12pm-8pm in Kensington Market (on Augusta street across from Freshmart). 

2. We have been invited to run a half-hour workshop at the Zeitgeist Media Festival for a half hour; the first 10 minutes will be a dramatic/artistic presentation of our framework and what it means to be a part of free'scool; then, we will run a short critical thinking exercise/discussion. All those interested in helping with this workshop/presentation, we are having the planning meeting on Friday August 10th at 3pm in Bellevue Park in Kensington Market

3. The last two Sundays of August (19th, and 26th), we will take a break from classes, to allow free'scoolers a chance to enjoy the last 2 weekends of the summer. All other free'scool activities will continue (free art'scool wednesdays, student union meetings, outreach, work meet-ups); we will resume Sunday classes in September. 

4. In September, we will host a workshop series (2 Fridays of the month) on the following topics: popular education teaching methods, facilitation and non-violent communication, cross-cultural conflict resolution, anti-oppression, and two possible workshops: bringing a human rights framework into the classroom, and taking back power. 

Discussion:

1. Zeitgeist

- we have been invited to do a workshop; at the last meeting it was suggested that we suspend classes for the day to attend the festival

- There were some concerns raised about Zeitgeist, as many of their 'solutions' to capitalism, and structure are questionable

- Perhaps we should run a critical thinking workshop with them

- We definitely have to go in with a critical mind - there are some really great things they are doing, and some things to be questioning

- It is a really great outreach/networking/educational opportunity

- Some were under the impression that we were going to run classes in Bellevue Park and float in and out of the festival

- We wanted to continue classes for continuity, and because all the courses are in the middle of their teachings

- but we can learn from zeitgeist

- we don't necessarily have the capacity to have some of our people at the festival and others in class

- it is not the best impression if we show up just for our half an hour session and nothing else

- "While i love classes, I think this opportunity for a full day of networking and learning is too good to pass up"

- see decisions - we couldn't make a decision by discussion because most saw the value of both continuing classes, and simply going to zeitgeist. We put it to a vote. 1st was asked if we wanted to do classes in Bellevue park - there were 4 'maybe' hands, no definite yeses. Next option was to go to zeitgeist all day: there were four clear yeses. 

- What are we going to do for our half an hour presentation?

- Ideas: critical thinking, something participatory to give them the 'free'scool experience', a theatre of the oppressed piece on free'scool to be developed in the Drama club on Wednesday evening

- after hemming, and hawing, and almost having to vote....we reached a collaborative compromise!

- 5-10 minute dramatic presentation; 20-25 minute critical thinking discussion/exercises. 

* note: drama class did not prepare presentation on Wednesday the 9th - open preparation is Friday, August 9th at 3pm in Bellevue Park. 

2. Free Art'Scool Updates (by Veronica):

- everything is going well

- the schedule for tomorrow (wEdnesday August 8th) is very open; especially because it is the first one. We will have visual arts and crafts starting at 5pm, drama at 7pm, and and ceremony and music at 9pm

- In a week or two, we'll start holding clear classes with instructors from a variety of diciplines

- Word of the day: Perspective for this Wednesday 

- I have one of the best thespians in Toronto wanted to hold a drama workshop

- Someone thinks they might be able to get a ballroom dance instructor

- Open to help, suggestions, and participation

- very excited to start!

3. Proposal: 2 week Sunday Hiatus August 19th and 26th. 

- everyone was ok with this...didn't take us more than 2 minutes

4. The Fall

- workshop series in decisions was discussed

   - location suggestions: OISE (need to pay), Friendship house with a 'pay-what-you-can'

   - think on this for a week and come back

   - Dates: to be decided based on availability of facilitators

- other topics/concerns mentioned but not fully addressed:

  - need to make material more accessible for those who cannot attend events/meetings - this concern was diverted to the website production, which is still under process and aims to be very clear and accessible with loads of resources

 - we need space! pretty soon winter is coming. 

    - recognition that we've been deliberating on this for a while

   - space proposal still in the works

   - we need any and all space we can get! 

   - We need a big advertising and class 'blitz' in September

   - because of space constraints and growth, we need to change up when we run classes

 - It's great to focus inwards, but I want this group to do more with what's going on in the world!

   - recognition of our limited capacity at the moment and slow growth process

closed the space by moving into Human Rights class. 

Economics Class, Alexandra Park Sunday August 5th

Texts for the economics class on August 5th are posted at
http://occupyeconomics.ca/pdf/memetics.pdf

Introducing: Wednesday Free Art'Scool

Very exciting news!!!! The Free Art'Scool starts this Wednesday (August 8th) in St. James Park. All musicians, actors, craftspeople, and artists are welcomed to the park during the evening to create art together, and teach their skills! These Wednesday evenings will be a collaborative gathering of artists for the purposes of creating and teaching!

Here is the loose schedule:
5-7pm - visual arts, and crafts
7-9pm - drama club
9pm - art share and ceremony
9:15-11pm - Music jam and skill share

We will be in St. James every Wednesday - hope to see all you artists out there...there!

Sunday August 5th Schedule

Sorry for the late schedule post - there were some proposed changes in the last student union meeting, that took some time to work out. So without further a-due.....

12:00pm - Set up Library and Opening Ceremony
12:30pm - Kung Fu (last week of Kung Fu before September)
1:15pm - Community Resilience
3:15pm - First Nations History (Last week with Brenda!!!!!!!!)
             - Real Democracy
5:15pm - Potluck and Social
6:15pm - Economics (now with Dix AND Laura)
             - Understanding Resistance
8:00pm - pack up and head out!

Saturday July 28th, and Sunday July 29th Schedules

Saturday, July 28th:
Starting at 12pm in Queen's Park, Occupy Gardens is hosting a garden party. Bring some food for the potluck (and a reusable plate, fork, and cup), some instruments to jam, and good spirit. There will be discussions and free gardening classes all day! Free'scool will be there as well - we have some things to discuss as a group, and are bringing banners and information on the mega quarry. If you can contribute some materials as well that would be great.
If anyone would like to help set up, please come at 11:15am.

12:30-1pm - Opening Ceremony
1-2pm - Plant a Summer Garden: Hands on Workshop
           - Campus Garden Tour with Dig In! UofT Campus Agriculture
2-3:30pm - Food Politics and the Occupy Movement: talk and discussion
2:30-3pm - Garden Tour of Kahonitake Kitikan: Native Students' Association Garden
3-3:30pm - Seed Saving: hands on workshop
3:30-4pm - Vermicomposting: hands on workshop

Sunday, July 29th:
12:00pm - Gather - opening free'scool ceremony
12:30pm - Kung-Fu
1:00pm - Community Resilience
3:00pm - Real Democracy, First Nations history
5:00pm - break! Potluck (please bring food!!!!!!!), relax, go for a walk
6:30pm - Natural Cordage Making, Economics Discussion
8:00pm - Understanding Resistance (this week, we're looking at arts-based resistance)
10:00pm - go home : )

Tomorrow: Banner Making for Garden Party 12pm onwards

Hi everyone,

For those not up to date, on Saturday there is a Garden Party in Queen's Park with a potluck picnic, free gardening classes and much more. The human rights class has taken particular interest in the right to water...especially locally re: the planned mega quarry for south ontario (click here for details)

We are making some banners to show city solidarity with the 'stop the mega quarry' campaign. Come out to our usual art spot near ossington station (message us if you have not been before but would like to come), starting 12pm tomorrow.

peace!

An update for Sunday, July 22nd

1. Natural Cordage class has been pushed to next week. 

6:30-8pm slot will be used for some small-group free'scool work...like we did last week. topics include: little truths parade through pedestrian sunday, media class/stories, megaquarry and saturday (july 28th) support. 

love you all, and free'scool is developing AMAZINGLY!

Sunday July 22nd Schedule

1-3pm - Community Resilience: Class will involved discussion and create space for exploring and managing alternatives in communities. We will look at preparation and adaption at the local level in light of significant changes in society due to unprecedented climate change, peak oil, future energy shortages, globalization, etc. Length: 8 weeks. Goal: bring resources to students to help them talk to and work to organize their communities such that they are strengthened and empowered communities so that they can be prepared in times of crisis. 


            - Ayurveda Health: Traditional Indian Medicine. Ayurveda is the holistic medical system of ancient India that has been in practice for over 5000 years. It explains how the 5 elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether interact in the cycles of natures and in our bodies. Illness arises from specific elements out of balance. Understanding these natural cycles allows us to bring the elements back into balance and restore health. This course will be 1 class and comprise of lecture with lots of time for questions and discussion, experiential exercises, and easy home remedies.

3-5pm – Real Democracy
            - First Nations Stories

5-6pm - potluck and party - please bring some fruit and/or other food. 

6:30pm - Economic Discussion: how to re-vamp the course/what do we want/need to know? 

6:30pm-8pm - Cordage-making (making natural rope)***** Put off until Sunday July 29th****: Brief history of natural cordage. Plants to use and how to prepare them (Plants include: dogbane, milkweed, recycled fibers- you can pretty much cord anything). Brief information on ethical and respectful harvesting. Learning how to cord! Ideas for cordage 

8pm-10pm – Understanding Resistance 

Wednesday July 18th

This Wednesday from about 4-8pm we will have our first Art Attack group meet. Basically it will be an ongoing art class where our A-team take some space and materials to work on all sorts of art projects relating to our classes or any other acts of human expression you feel you must create. You can work alone or with others, as long as you bring some creativity along with you. You can bring whatever materials/ideas that you got to share.

We will be meeting outside Ossington station at 4pm to head over to our location together. If you happen to come late and would like to join us, please email us at thefreescool@gmail.com or call/text me at 647.291.5182 (arestia)

Tuesday July 17th

This is a reminder to all Free ‘Scoolers that there will be a student union meeting tonight at 6pm on the fifth floor of OISE. It would be lovely to see you all and recap what we did this past Sunday and continue to work on our many projects and ideas. 

There will also be a Human Rights class tonight after the student union meeting at 7:30 on the fifth floor of OISE with Jo. Join in the active conversation.

Reminder for Sunday

If you would like to take part in the natural dyes class, please bring a white piece of clothing/fabric.

Sunday July 15th Schedule

12:30-1pm - Gather...anyone interested in teaching yoga or other exercise?
1:00-3pm - Human Rights with Jo                 
                - Plant Identification with Doug
3:00-5pm - Occupy Democracy with Brent
                 - First Nations History with Brenda
5:00-6pm - Social Hour and Dinner 

                 - Reminiscing about Occupy Toronto on their 9 month anniversary

                 - People interested in Fundraising will meet to discuss scavenger hunt

                 - Discuss Letter to UofT Engineering Society re: skule

                 - Discuss support for COMER's July 18th Court Case Against the Bank of Canada (Press Release) 

                 - If you play music, come entertain us :)

                 - Eat and Have Fun 

6:00-8pm - Political Intervention Theatre with Grace
                 - Natural Dyes with Doug
8:00-10pm - Understanding Resistance with Roxy 

New Name, New Website

Hi Friends,

If you haven't caught on yet...we are now The Free'scool
We have a new email: thefreescool@gmail.com
A new twitter: #freescool @thefreescool
And are in the process of getting a new website; this time, we're splurging for a real site, not a blogger.

A new domain costs $12.95 per year. Please help us raise the funds by donating $1, $5, or the whole $12.95 using the paypal button, or by bringing some money on Sunday.

we may be free, but the rest of the world hasn't yet caught on that 'free is cool'
with love,
your free'scool

2 New Course Coming Soon to Free'scool: Healing The Mind and Ayurveda Health

Healing the Mind: A Discussion Course on Self-Esteem and Self Empowerment

A 16 week course (2 hours, 1 day a week) Start time: TBA

with Chantel Tophen

This course is designed to encourage people to shine a light on the behaviors and thought patterns that may be holding them back from becoming happy, healthy, self-confident, positive, constructive, complete and empowered. It is intended to serve as a guide for each individual to work their way through their issues in order to achieve self-esteem in its truest form and thus raising the self-esteem of those around them just by being an example of how influential and inspiring a person can and will become once they have mastered control over their thought and behavior patterns. By healing thyself, you heal those around you, and I believe this to be a very important first step in creating a world where everyone feels free and welcome to be themselves and secure of themselves enough to help and encourage those around them to feel free and welcome to do the same.

Many parts of this course include sharing experiences, memories, and feelings with each other. It is not a requirement to participate in those exercises if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. It is also possible to learn from other people’s examples if that is how you prefer to participate, although I would encourage full participation if possible, when you are ready.

Passing this course does not mean receiving a passing grade. There will be no grades given. Passing is your own evaluation of your progress and whether you feel you could benefit from taking this course again, or if you feel you’ve absorbed what you needed to and are ready to move on with the skills and information you’ve retained. http://www.facebook.com/healingthemind.toronto

Please email us if you are interested in taking this course - it will start after students show interest. Email: torontofreescool@gmail.com  Subject: Healing the Mind

 Intro to Ayurveda: Traditional Indian Medicine

               1-time Workshop July 15th, 2012 1-3pm

with Lilou Moonbeat 

Ayurveda is the holistic medical system of ancient India that has been in practice for over 5000 years. It explains how the 5 elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether interact in the cycles of natures and in our bodies. Illness arises from specific elements out of balance. Understanding these natural cycles allows us to bring the elements back into balance and restore health. 
This course will be 1 class and comprise of lecture with lots of time for questions and discussion, experiential exercises, and easy home remedies.


Please email us if you are interested in taking this workshop. 
Email: torontofreescool@gmail.com  Subject: Ayurveda

July 10th Student Union Meeting Minutes

Agenda:

1. This Sunday

2. New Classes in 6-8pm and 1-3pm timeslot

3. Fundraising

4. Volunteers- update

5. NAME!!!!!!!

6. Other

Decisions: every week 3 people will sign up for potluck on Sunday; every week one to two member(s) of the student union will be the welcome committee; July 18th we will fieldtrip to COMER's court case against the bank of Canada: Court Filling, Press Release; 

OUR NEW NAME IS: THE FREE'SCOOL

This Sunday:

- Economics is on break

- Last Human Rights Class on Sundays? – Jo will get back to us

- Plant ID – need to check how many weeks that Doug can do

- Political Intervention Theatre - see if Grace can do more weeks

- For Potluck: encourage everyone to bring something, but 3 people each week sign up to make food for the next week

- For this week: George – main dish, Arestia – desert/snack, Roxy – salad

-  Welcome committee: Roxy and Arestia to split shifts

- During social hour – discussion on july 18^th

                                    - informal occupy discussion for 9 month anniversary

New Classes for the 1-3pm and 6-8pm timeslot:

- Pre-registration for classes 1-2 weeks before they start

1. First Aid Training – is coming, Ian is in contact

2. Doug and Grace will be asked about plant ID, and political theatre respectively

3. Healing the Mind- is coming

4. Ayurvedic Health – Li would like to teach sometime after 5pm.

5. Community Resilience – to start the week after next (July 22^nd)

6. Want to start an exercise class, for before classes…ask around. Maybe self-defense

Fundraising:

- Treasure Hunt

            - Sponsors to donate gift certificate to get prizes

            - On Sunday, will talk during the social – make a timeline

            - End in a picnic (and music?)

Volunteers:

- volunteertoronto.com costs $50

-LIFT will see if they can sponsor

Name:

Idea brought to student union:

- freeskule

- freesküle

- Rad School -

- Free School  -

- Free’scool

- Take Out Toronto and Take Out Occupy…Just Free’scool

Other:

July 18^th - Field Trip to Court Case against Bank of Canada

                  - Get there for 9am and have a 30min-1hr discussion about what the court case is about – then go see it…maybe do a write up for the site?

                  - On Sunday, give a 10 min talk on the case and ask people to write out a question to bring on Wednesday

- Curriculum Rules – George has begun to write out some guidelines,

            - To type it up to give everyone a week to think critically about it

Occupy Toronto: need to write a letter telling them that they need to contact us before making decisions concerning the free’scool  

- Occupy Gardens Summer Jam, garden party picnic potluck on Saturday July 28th at the People's Peas Garden in Queens Park…free skule classes/table?

            -Going to conflict with Megaquarry action.

            -Once megaquarry action is confirmed, talk to Gardens and see if they know about it/are willing to move 

A beautiful Sunday in the park: Recap of July 8th

After a few weeks of rain and then our break, yesterday, we had a great day for learning (although it got a little chilly at the end). As usual, we gathered around 12:30pm and set out the books in a circle, outlining our classroom (s). 

In Human Rights, we discussed the responsibilities of human rights (who and how to hold accountable) , taking special interest in the Megaquarry planned for southern Ontario. This class is slowly moving timeslot to Tuesday at 7:30pm, OISE. Therefore the Human Rights Class will take place Tuesday at 7pm, Sunday the 15th at 1pm, and then, starting Tuesday the 17th, Human Rights will only take place on Tuesdays.              

Homework for the week: create a drawing, poem, lyric, sentence, article, word, etc. on the right to water. 

Next, we split into 2 groups for Real Democracy and First Nations History. 

Real Democracy had a review week - discussing the 3 major oligarchies (feudalism, monarchy, and republic), next week the class will begin to explore Athenian democracy. 

First Nations History read narratives and had a discussion on residential schools, and Brenda shared a little about her thesis which uses storytelling and mapping to exhibit her experiences. 

--------------------------------------------

During social hour we had peaches, cherries, water, and pasta with vegetables, as well as our skule-wide discussion. We discussed: student accountability, workshops for teachers, and the school's name. 

Student Accountability: Our classes have fairly consistent numbers, however, it is often not the same people. A combination of being free, and happening on a summer weekend affects the consistency of all the classes' student-base. We discussed ways in which to improve regular attendance, applicable at the teacher-learners' discretion. These range from assignments, to class synopses, to certificates. The linked document presents a list of all approaches we hope to continuously develop: Raising Learner-Teacher Responsibility Skule-wide support: create a memory box and recycling bin for Sundays - an anonymous system for continuously receiving ideas and criticisms; weekly rotations of organizing group to take responsibility of passerby and general email list; statement of collective liberation visible on Sundays represented by its mascot Anti O. 

Workshops for Teachers: recognizing that most are new to the type of paradigm we operate under, and following up on requests from both students and teachers, we discussed workshops/classes for teachers to learn about popular education methods. We discussed asking popular educators to give a workshop on their experiences/popular education methods. Looking to do a workshop once every 2-3 weeks outside of our Sunday classes. Please contact Roxy (course coordinator) if you would like to get involved in the development of these workshops. 

School Name: the freeskule has recently received notice from the UofT engineering society, that 'skule' is a registered trademark, and we have until the 31st of July to cease use of the word. We discussed the legality of this cease and desist letter, as well as its immorally. We talked about solution-names: freeskule *get rid of the space*, toronto free skool *need to talk to anarchist toronto free skool*, toronto free school,  the rad school *rad as in radical*, and jokingly entertained the idea of the Alternative University of Toronto (AUofT). These suggestions + those from the facebook group will be brought to the student union meeting on Tuesday the 10th. Ultimately though, we need to talk to a lawyer before a decision can be made. 

Other: fundraising - some members of the student union are organizing a treasure hunt on the island to fundraise for freeskule. If you would like to get involved, talk to George on Sunday, or email us. Next Sunday, July 15th, from 6-8pm we have a guest-teacher-learner, Grace Thompson-Campbell, coming help develop a political intervention theatre piece in support of the fundraiser. 

space - Laura has started a gallery space with others, and will have some workshop/art space for freeskule sometime late August/early September. 

July 11th - meeting to discuss general intro to freeskule class.

July 25th, 7pm Hart House UofT - Human Rights class' Families for Education Festival organizing meeting.

July 28th - keep your ears open. 

--------------------------

After social hour, we had Economics, followed by a new 6-week course that started this week entitled Understanding Resistance (equity class transformed, 8-10pm). In this class, we completed a thought experiment which asked learner-teachers to imagine themselves as a cooperative society whose homeland had been overtaken by a competitive society and they were forced to make refuge in the competitive society. Learning from their experiences, they recognize that the only way their culture will survive they must assimilate the competitive society. In groups of 6, students created mindmaps exploring how they would assimilate the competitive society, and then shared. At the end of the class, we will re-do this exercise and examine the differences. Next week, Understanding Resistance will look at ways in which people are resisting the dominant education system, with specific focuses on Ghanaian education, and Indigenous Research Methodology. 

Homework: write down 1 way in which education is used as a tool to segregate, suppress, or hurt people. 

All in all, it was a great day. Teachers, look to the attached document for freeskule tips on how to create classroom continuity. Students, see you tomorrow (Tuesday June 10th) at 6:00pm OISE 5th floor for our student union meeting, followed by Human Rights from 7:30-9pm. (That means we have to start the student union meeting on time!)

p.s. next Sunday Doug is coming at 1pm to teach a Plant Identification Course, followed by natural dyes in the evening. Bring a white shirt if you want to learn how to dye naturally!