Day 186 (of 2023/24) Comic Con

Day 186 (of 2023/24) Comic Con

What a day! 

It was a win before the doors even opened when I found out that (at least) four students were making their first appearance at any school based event. One dad even sharing that this was the first time he felt confident leaving his boy (teen) alone in our esports space because of how comfortable he was in that environment… another mom asked if she could do a quick errand because of how their child was also engaged… And even when one had to leave early, by giving them an 8-bit sunglasses ‘prize’, had him laughing and sharing how great of a time it was!

But it was a long day for many… rigor remains an ‘area of growth’ for many of our our home-based/PIE supported learners – the reason our school is Partners In Education – a home/school partnership where in-person opportunities are things they get to do, rather than have to do. But having some choose to wake up at 4am to catch the early ferry to cross the Salish Sea… that is a great amount of trust from parents who I haven’t met yet (only been in the Oceanview campus for four months) and staff (who let me ‘steal their last day’ of in-person learning). 

And the interest in comics and graphic novels… very rich. Yesterday I commented on school goals and how often we tend to focus on working on skills and strategies with subjects like reading. Deeper dive is how often I have used programs like Jerry Johns Reading Recovery to work to enhance reading skills that were missed or not picked up earlier in their primary grade lives. But… I have also encouraged as a librarian and classroom teacher that there is a particularly good benefit when kids are motivated to read… and comics definitely help with that. They help model how words can create pictures in our heads. They introduce more unique words than any ‘levelled reader’ and let’s be honest, there are many stores selling second hand and collectable comics… not many are looking for Prentice & Hall black & whites for nostalgic reasons.

And the day was meant to still be a bit of a stretch for some Nero-elasticity.  I had a ‘schedule’ for the Main Stage and Break Out rooms that were more edcamp based – flow in and out and explore (though our school floor plan is not as conducive for ‘flowing around’ as others). Next time I will structure themes around different rooms and push community partners to ‘help out’ – with more notice, I could totally see our local library running a room with a D&D campaign, a book share – even coordinating a visiting author to be live-in-person! BUT… as my schedules tend to be, whether in classroom or broader… *card subject to change – and we did need to do some adjustments to the second half… which all rolled with really well, even though their teachers & parents were suddenly nervous when the eraser came out to the whiteboard!

Here is the Main Stage itinerary with some commentary:

8:00 Saturday Morning Cartoons just in case early arrivers needed a distraction – the ferry from the big island comes earlier than our school start time.

9:00 Minecraft Coast Salish big thanks to James Gill – fabulous Microsoft mentor and guide to the Coast Salish Minecraft realm!

9:30 Opening Remarks/Structure of a structureless day

10:00 Toby Price I cannot thank Toby enough – amazing share of the origination and future of Tytus the Monkey and engaging with our audience. Was already a big fan, but now if people start wondering who could/should be in an education conference, as one of my teens commented at the end of the day: ‘we need more of him in education’.  Toby was fabulous!!

10:45 PRPL not only promoting some summer programs, but also highlighting some of the cool things you can sign out – like a ‘ready to go’ box for a D&D campaign! Got some ideas for next year “in-person opportunities’ – while I loved playing D&D late into the night/morning… imagine running a 6 hour campaign from 9-3?!?

11:00 Why Comics? This was me ranting about the importance of comics in a literacy mindset which blended with the 11:30 topic of how to go from comics to an English Major and the various types of reads there are – a long time ago the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers changed their colour comics on Saturday/Sunday to magazine pull-outs, and my dad encourage me to collect them. Got a great chance to review some of the different comics in those formats – easy to remember Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, but sometimes forget ‘more serious’ comics like Prince Valiant and Mary Worth… 

11:30 Comics to Classics

11:45 Digital Film School Movie Premiere: Joroguma & a Worksafe Ad… got some ideas for some digital storytelling next year now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmHucuAg_GU  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1SrkeQ9SDas

12:00 Comic Collecting Video Mix/Lunch just a distraction while people ate their orders from the Food Truck that came to our site (nice to have a range of parents with neat jobs!) as while I’m not a fan of always watching something while eating… I’d be lying if that wasn’t normal for me – and the only way I could share some YouTubers who do a great job of comic promotion:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZP7-UnfQVAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPf-0G1KIVM

1:00  become 12:30 to accommodate an afternoon time crunch“An Hour of… series: Comics” I have done a “Hour of: Code, Video, Puzzles” in an ongoing series and today I shared the concept for an Hour of Comics – emphasizing that too often educators think comics are easy to do projects when really they are very complex – even the ‘simple’ sketches of Gary Larson are very hard to replicate and the ongoing story telling for 3-9 panels is not an easy format to communicate

1:30  become 12:45 for our Mario Kart Finals I am promoting esports wherever I can and was struggling with how to format a Mario Kart Tournament – no time like no time, we managed to get practices done in our eSports zone (see below) and then have the competition take place live. Audience was riveted, much as older generations would watch school basketball and other games – sports is sports – the competition is real!

2:00 TaskMasterEDU I am really excited about running a TaskMasterEDU club in-the-building on Fridays during our in-person weeks; and likewise looking forward to sharing with our homeschool partners so they can also have students working on creative & critical thinking and communication and more! Today’s task: Make the most delicious sundae! But they had to find where two teachers had set up a sundae bar to close out the day…!

2:15 Thank Yous not needed as everyone was thanking me… a fun day where I was able to release teachers to keep doing their final checks on families and getting their leaning summaries done. Fun for all!

Breakout Areas (Edcamp style)

Reading areas: Exploring ‘comics without covers’’ PRPL Reading Zone

eSports Zone: Mario Maker2; Tetris; MarioKart practice

Drawing area: Drawing on paper techniques; Drawing on screens techniques; Sketch Prompts

Debate/Exploration areas: Garfield best newspaper comic?; Archie is/isnt a great comic; Best anime series?

Reaching out to the community was more than just food – our “Vendors Area” was a highlight with our local ‘pop culture’ store Oceanside Entertainment setting up some tables; Golden Age Collectables helped me source some new and back-issued comics so our kids had access to current issues; and one student even set up a Pokemon Card store to sell and trade!

Feel free to use these ideas to design your own Comic Con at school! Here’s how the keynote kinda flowed: https://youtu.be/yur7Qr9_oRk