First Person Narratives: Tamalpais High School's Conservatory Theater Ensemble
SPARK visits students in the Conservatory Theatre Ensemble at Mt. Tamalpais High School and follows their production from first interview to finished performance, as they document the history of protest in the Mill Valley community. This Educator Guide explores the history of documentary theatre.
Exam Skills
The aim of this lesson is to help students acquire skills that help them prepare for examinations in a focused and organized way. Students devise strategies for reviewing material and developing a revision timeline, and learn to identify the areas of study on which they should concentrate to prepare for tests. They review helpful tips and learn to use past examinations as a guide for future ones. It is the seventh lesson in the study skills series and is intended to support adult learners who ar
Elevating the Everyday: Richard Shaw
SPARK visits ceramicist Richard Shaw in his Fairfax studio as he scrambles to finish work for an upcoming one-person gallery show. This Educator Guide traces the history of the trompe l'oeil technique in art up through the Bay Area movement of realism in ceramics.
Elevating the Everyday: Laurel True
SPARK checks in on mosaic artist Laurel True's latest mural, which decorates a building across the street from her Oakland studio. This Educator Guide addresses the history and traditions of mosaic art and mosaic murals.
Elevating the Everyday: Garry Knox Bennett
Spark visits vanguard furniture maker Garry Knox Bennett at work as he produces the last in a series of fifty chairs for an upcoming exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California. This Educator Guide addresses the history of art furniture.
Dance Masters: Margaret Jenkins
SPARK follows Artistic Director Margaret Jenkins as she rehearses her company dancers in preparation for "Danger Orange," an outdoor site-specific performance in downtown San Francisco. This Educator Guide is about the history of modern dance and the contributions of some its most innovative choreographers, including Jenkins.
By Hand: Gary Stevens
SPARK follows sculptor Gary Stevens through his creative process, from harvesting unusual pieces of wood from ancient redwood forests through the painstaking work that produces his uniquely beautiful wood vessels. This Educator Guide is about the history and tradition of wood carving.
Artist in Search of a Medium: Jonathon Keats
SPARK trails writer, critic, and Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats as he works on his project, Divine Taxonomy, which attempts to find God's place on the phylogenetic tree. This Educator Guide explores the history of Conceptual art and the role of science in contemporary art.
Artist as Inventor: Paul Dresher
SPARK explores the electro-acoustic world of Paul Dresher - musician, composer and inventor - as he prepares for a performance of a new work at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This Educator Guide traces the legacy of new instrument development and experimentation and its impact on music.
Art Meets Pop Culture: Keith Knight
SPARK follows cartoon artist and rap musician Keith Knight as he peddles his strip the K Chronicles at a massive comic convention. This Educator Guide explores the history and form of the cartoon.
American Music: David Grisman
Musician David Grisman combines bluegrass with elements of swing, jazz and gypsy music as he prepares for a performance at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage. This Educator Guide is about the history of bluegrass music.
All Natural: Jim Denevan and Chris Drury
SPARK tails artists Jim Denevan and Cris Drury as they create large earth works. This Educator Guide is about the history and tradition of artists making work in and about the natural environment.
All in the Family: Gypsy Snider
Veteran circus artist Gypsy Snider launches a circus of her own, Les Sept Doigts de la Main, and brings her two-year-old daughter along with her. This Educator Guide traces the history of the circus and acrobatic performance.
Great Depression: Dust Bowl Migration
includes photos, a teachers guide, and other resources for learning about the largest migration in American history. This migration occurred in the 1930s when poor soil conservation practices and extreme weather in the Great Plains exacerbated the existing misery of the Great Depression.
American Women: A Reference Guide
This is a first stop for using Library of Congress resources to do research in the field of American women's history. It presents some digital items; however, it serves primarily as a comprehensive guide to the entirety of the Library's holdings on women's history. It includes exhibits that feature women and how to find women within exhibits where they're not featured. Essays examine women as a symbol 1590-1800, the women's suffrage parade of 1913, and the equal rights amendment.
African-American Sheet Arts, 1850-1920
This collection consists of 1,305 pieces of African-American sheet music dating from 1850 through 1920. The collection includes many songs from the heyday of antebellum black face minstrelsy in the 1850s and from the abolitionist movement of the same period. Numerous titles are associated with the novel and the play Uncle Tom's Cabin. Civil War period music includes songs about African-American soldiers and the plight of the newly emancipated slave. Post-Civil War music reflects the problems of
British History from the Romans to the Normans
A learning module about early British history, orientated towards primary school. The module is intended for use in conjunction with a suitable children's book on the subject. When using this module, it is recommended to make books available to the child for reference while working with the module. It may be helpful to work with your child and help them find the answers in the book(s) at first. The module includes questions from the departure of the Romans and the first arrival of the Angles and
Lunch Poems: Myung Mi Kim
Born in Seoul, Korea, Myung Mi Kim travels to the root of language, connecting speech and culture in a rich web of immaculate phrases. Kim strips words to the bone, using fragments and white space to enhance her themes of dislocation and first language loss. She is the author of four books of poetry, including Under Flag, winner of the 1991 Multicultural Publishers Book Award, and Commons (2002).
Jung Chang Jon Halliday - Mao: The Unknown Story
In their new book "Mao: The Unknown Story" Jung Chang and Jon Halliday make an impassioned case for a reevaluation of Mao - as a tyrant worse than Stalin or Hitler. Based on a decade of research into previously untapped sources worldwide and on unprecedented interviews with Mao's inner circle and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him, this book raises new questions about Mao's role in the rise and success of the Chinese Communist movement.
Jung Chang is the
Global Competition: How We Can Win
6th Annual Berkeley in Silicon Valley Symposium
In his recent best selling book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman writes that the lowering of trade and political barriers and profound technological advances in global connectivity have enabled a "flat world" where it is possible to do business or almost anything else instantaneously and with billions of people. According to Dean Richard Newton, it is perhaps ironic that
