Visible Men Academy

Visible Men Academy

Bradenton, Florida

Our Imagination Foundation Chapter Pilot inventors are “Suns” at the Visible Men Academy, a charter school for boys. We meet for about 40 minutes each Thursday afternoon and follow our noses to inventions and discoveries. Listening to music in one session leads to discussions about imagery in sound which lead to looking a painting by Paul Klee, who used sound to inspired his art. A discussion about sound leads to questions about sounds waves which leads us to create a gummy bear sound machine and a metal tray with dancing salt grains. In another session, students draw pictures which we then decide to bring into three dimensions and animate with circuitry.

What has been the most liberating about our sessions is our ability to free form with our learning, to allow questions to flow into discovery. To allow ourselves the liberty of not always having a plan, but always arriving with curiosity. Allowing students to shape the experience with some guidance (an inspired video, a projected image, a playlist of music) has given our pilot a delightfully organic sense of play.


This Chapter is led by:

chapters_camela

Camela Giraud

Visible Men Academy | Sarasota, FL

I have been teaching since 1995. My love of experiential learning gained context through my work with adjudicated youth in Outward Bound. Currently, I am the Director of Collaborative Learning and Educational Outreach at the Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota, Florida. My work focuses on developing the school’s blended and online classes, teaching journalism, and navigating initiatives with my school’s Global Citizens Club. In the summer of 2014, I had the great privilege of traveling with a group of activists to East Africa to tour social enterprises and educational programs funded through the creative and philanthropic efforts of what I call “an army of passionate, creative, and inspired young people.”


Fun facts:

1) I spent a summer making & selling goat cheese in central France. 2) My first job in education was teaching swimming to fishermen’s kids on a small island in Labrador.

cgiraud@oda.edu | @Camela | odaovide.blogspot.com/


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