Can you tell me about yourself in a few sentences?

My name is Yasmine Farazian, and I am a Designer working in the Urban Design, Landscape Architecture and Master Planning field at Ken Kay Associates, while also teaching Spatial Design at the Academy of Art University in their newly developed Landscape Architecture program. I’ve had the unique opportunity to live in three extremely different environments around the world at a very young age (United States, Australia, and Iran), which have exposed me to a multitude of cultures, creatures, and critters! The nomadic nature of my childhood has been embedded into my soul in such a way that if I’m not working and teaching, you’ll find me trekking the globe trying to learn and photograph how the human race has left its mark on the vast landscapes of planet earth through design.  

When did you start teaching? What motivated you to become an instructor?

I am a “freshman” instructor, and I have been teaching at the Academy of Art University since September of 2011. My motivation to teach is anchored in the firm belief that higher education offers people from all walks of life a true opportunity to cultivate their imaginations and creative selves, while learning the principles and foundations that are necessary to succeed in their field.  

How did you prepare for the class(es) you're teaching?  Are you exploring different ways to learn in your class?

The advantage to teaching within a program that is completely new, is the ability to explore new teaching methods while keeping the traditional and foundational approaches in place. One of the newer approaches that I intend to use in my classes is the integration/collaboration of different departments/classes within the University, to help students understand the multidimensional nature of the “real” working environment outside of school, and to encourage cross-functional teamwork. 

Who are your students?  In general, what has made them come back to school or choose your courses?

The course I am teaching is an introductory course on Spatial Design with a focus on the spatial qualities of the natural and designed Landscape; therefore most of my students are freshman students, or sophomores that have decided to change their major from fields such as Interior Design and Advertising to Landscape Architecture. In addition to my freshman students, I have a Continuing Ed student that has a background in Visual Arts, and is going to soon apply to start a Masters Degree program in Landscape Architecture. Most of my students have expressed that they have chosen Landscape Architecture because they have been looking for a way to link ecology and design, and have found that this particular field offers them this opportunity. 

How do you keep your students interested?

Through trial and error, I have found that the best way to keep students interested is to promote interaction and participation in the teaching process, by encouraging them to answer their own questions via analytical thinking, research and interaction with other students. I find that once students have deeply understood the concepts that are being taught in class, they are able to implement what they have learned to their projects with great intellect, strong ideas, and confidence.

What’s the role of learning in your own life?

The most beautiful thing about the act of learning is that it isn’t exclusive the classroom. Every moment in our lives offers us pearls of wisdom if we’re aware and willing to absorb them. I truly feel that we’re never too young or too old to learn, and feel fortunate to have had exceptional role models such as my Grandfather, who even in his late eighties makes a conscious effort to continue learning and sharing his knowledge, while guiding those closest to him to do the same. I hope to follow in his footsteps and continue to nourish my appetite for knowledge.

Are there specific courses you'll be teaching next?  And will you be taking any courses in the future?

I will continue to teach the introductory Spatial Design course at the Academy of Art University in the coming semesters, as well as acting as a design advisor and mentor for a handful of students that will be selected to participate in the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show on behalf of the University. In addition to teaching, I hope to start a Masters Degree program in the near future that will help me push my career goals forward in the coming years. 

Our friends at the Kauffman Foundation came across this ad while reading the Education Week newspaper.  In case you missed it, our own Alex Scialom recently won $50K in the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition.  We've seen many web links related to the win, but this is the first one in a real newspaper!  

We have great news to share: Thecoursebook just won the two top prizes in the only business plan competition designed to use innovation to improve education!

Thecoursebook wins Milken prize...

Conducted by the Milken Family Foundation and Penn Graduate School of Education, the Milken PennGSE competition is the only education-focused business plan competition in the nation. Thecoursebook was selected from a pool of nearly 200 applicants and was reviewed by 60 independent judges before being selected as a finalist. Thecoursebook beat out eight other finalists for the top spot at a final pitch competition on June 9th at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded $25,000.

... and Startl-Hewlett prize

Thecoursebook also took the top honors (and another $25,000) in the Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources, a competition announced in November 2010 in partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that sought to award the best business plan supporting openly licensed content.

Leveling the playing fields

Many judges said they were impressed by the ease of access that Thecoursebook provides to users along with its potential for further development.

“We picked Thecoursebook because it levels the playing field of content providers and provides an interesting distribution model. At the same time it’s a model that has the potential to become a big business,” said Phoenix Wang, the founder and managing director of Startl and representative from the Open Educational Resources prize.

Thanks!

We are very grateful to have two great organizations join the Kauffman foundation, who has been helping our development since last February, and support our mission to engage lifelong-learners with great online and offline learning resources. We would also like to thank all the people who have brought us their support or encouragement since we started a few months ago.

We will have a lot more to announce in the coming weeks... so keep posted!

For the first blog post on this blog, we wanted to put one of Thecoursebook's very early users forward. Please meet Eunice, a lifelong-learner that will inspire many! Eunice is currently learning French in San Francisco and it seems she found one of the best French class in town.

Can you tell me about yourself in a few sentences?

My name is Eunice Moyle and I'm the co-owner of Hello!Lucky, a stationery studio that I founded with my sister Sabrina.  I'm a graphic designer and spend most of my days designing fabulous (tootin' my own horn, indeed! ;) wedding invitations and brainstorming hilarious new ideas for our stationery line with our super talented team.  I live in San Francisco with my 13 month old son, named Jude, who is my in house comedian and muse, my husband Daniel, who is also an entrepreneur (he founded Three Rings, an awesome company that makes online games) so he understands my somewhat insane lifestyle, and our two dogs, Indy & Simon.

When did you start learning French? What motivated you?

I've  been learning French off and on since I was about 5 (at the Alliance Française in Malaysia!), but didn't start to study it seriously until about 2 years ago when I started taking classes at the Alliance Française in San Francisco.  I love France, French culture and the language, and as my husband is British and we go back to London at least once a year, I try to go to France whenever we get over there. That being said, I was really driven to take it seriously when I became pregnant with Jude.  I really want him to be raised bilingually - I think it's such a benefit to have a developed ear for language - and would love for him to go to an international school, as I did when I was young - so ideally, the Lycée La Pérouse or something along those lines.  Plus, it's really fun to have something to teach him that is also a challenge for me (and it's so much easier to speak French to a baby haha, it really helps build your confidence!)

How do you learn and practice French? What do you like about these different ways to learn?

I have a "cross-training"/"cramming it in the crevices" technique.  I take classes - 3 hours at Alliance Française in their Avancé classe with Stephan (heart him! I really credit him with my huge improvement in the last year) and 1 hour with Yvette in the Parents and Toddler class where I get to learn useful phrases like "pot de colle" (pot of glue - for a little kid who's being clingy!  Hilarious).  I also take Jude to a Parent et Bébe class at Jardin Enchanté, a immersion preschool.  On top of that, Jude has a French nanny 3 days a week, and we speak only in French (for the most part!) and I basically speak French to Jude almost exclusively  (I also have a lot of French children's books which I get from the European Bookstore on Larkin and Amazon.fr or pick up whenever I'm in France - my husband loves to roll his eyes at me as I attempt to stuff 20 lbs of Calvin and Hobbes in French into my suitcase!).  I've also meet some really great Francophone mums through a French speaking mum's group I found through Golden Gate Mother's group and we have a lot of play dates and dinners (I find my French is infinitely better when accompanied by wine!).  Other than that, I'm always reading, writing, watching French films, listening to French radio, doing crossword puzzles and playing iPhone apps and using websites such as About.com French and Yabla to get a little lesson in here and there.

Basically, I'm really busy and don't actually have a ton of time to spare, so my tactic is to weave learning French into my everyday activities as much as possible...I even try to think in French if I'm really short on time... (!)

What’s the role of learning in your adult life?

I'm a big learning junkie.  I love mastering new skills - everything from knitting, to French, surfing (terrible at it, but love it anyway!) to a new design trick, I love it all.  I am not the kind of person who does well with nothing to do, so I find it very fulfilling to be constantly learning and doing. I got this tendency from my parents and hope I'll be able to pass this enthusiasm for learning to my son.  I really believe that constantly learning is key to maintaining a certain joie de vivre ;)

What other topics do you like to learn about? Are there specific courses you're thinking about taking next?

I'd like to get back to guitar - I was learning to play the guitar at Blue Bear School of Music until about 6 months ago when it became impossible to play the guitar without tiny grabbing fingers getting in the way.  So, someday, I'd love to get back into that.  That, and I'd love to get a piano - I played the piano for about 10 years growing up, and it's something I'd like to get back to.