[Noisebridge-discuss] Fwd: Seeking a donated video computer?

[Aaron Muszalski]

Forwarding this from my longtime friend, former co-worker at the SF
Academy of Art, and Burning Man artist (she built the firefall,
Egeria), Kiki Pettit. Perhaps someone in the Noisebridge family might
be able to help her?

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Howdy!  I'm a former Pixarian who's taken a bit of a drastic turn of
career -- I'm studying to become a Montessori elementary teacher!  Not
only is this best for my body right now, but I also realized of all my
skills and talents, teaching would have the greatest impact in the
world: I thought about becoming a solar engineer, but alone, I could
only do the work of one, however, inspiring children with my
insatiable *hunger* for learning could create a generation of
innovators!  (College is too late.  Elementary is the turning point.)

I start my internship this fall at a new *public* Montessori school
opening in Hayward.  http://www.goldenoakmontessori.org/  I'm very
excited in particular that it's free for all.  I will be the assistant
in the Upper Elementary class, which is 4th/5th/6th grades combined
together.  We will have 25 students in our classroom.

Of course, we all know about the budget cuts, and though the school is
funded for the next two years, we don't have much money for extra
stuff.

This is where my appeal comes in.

I'm looking for someone who's upgrading their video editing computer
to donate their old one.  That's it!  (Old camcorders wouldn't hurt,
and we could also use every old digital camera.  Just don't toss it if
it works.)

In Montessori, the students research topics they are interested in and
do projects or write up reports on these topics and present them to
the class.  My goal is to teach them video journalism as one form of
outlet for these reports.  Obviously, I also want to add short film
making, music videos, and generally screwing around with video.  I
have a pile of general computer ideas too, of course, (my background
is programming) but I especially want to bring my film making
knowledge to the classroom.

My goal is to get at least one machine (with software) donated this
year, then produce videos and release a collection of these videos for
sale, as a fundraiser to buy a *new* video machine in a year or two.
We would then perpetuate having a new computer every few years at our
school (hopefully) solely through these fundraisers.  (Leads on
foundations that can help us wouldn't hurt either, but I figure a
personal appeal is faster. :) )

Let me know what you have!  And thanx for your help!

Kiki Pettit
kiki at kiki.org

PS If you have any questions in general about Montessori elementary,
I'm also happy to evangelize. :)