Playing to Learn

Hey, hey, wassuppp?!? I'm Cristina and a new ZeumMaster at the Z house. Lol. I'm just chillaxin at Zeum writing my first blog of all times!!! SUPER COOL HUH!!!! I'm soOOooOo intrigued that I recieved this job. When I was in the process of applying to Zeum I wasn't sure of what Zeum had in store for me. I expected wonderful things but I didn't know that it would be this good. First of all I have a long background of "supervising children" but really I just ABSOLUTELy love KiDZZzz. I swear they brighten up my whole life with one smile. I liteweight wish that I could be SUPERWOMAN and save all children from deviance. LOL, but that's beside tha point..

Not only does the Zeum embody the 3 C's ( Collabration, Communication, and Creativity) it makes the children strive to use their imagination to create wonder and beauty. That's what makes this job AWESOME! Like there are some kids that come to the Zeum with low self-esteem yet, when they leave here they are touched with a light that they can create ANYTHING!!! If I ever can "touch" a child's life and make them feel that at least a lil better than before it's worth it, and at Zeum this is what we do.

Today, specifically we had a training to strengthen our knowledge in how we approach children and help them learn. We are broadening our targeted ages to 3-12 and we need to make changes on how we make things more fun for the younger audience. So anyways today, in the morning we had a training like we do most mornings.

One of our staff led a training this morning to teach zeummasters how children develop and how to interlock this knowlegde into what we do at ZEUM. Well we learned alot, that connected me back to my psychology class. We got to see how kids learn through play. After playing a vicious game of blocks, : p, we quickly saw how children play and where we fall in that process. We were confronted with the issue of playing well and playing to win. We at Zeum don't want to encourage playing to win as much as playing well. Children need to know that collaboration and solving simple problems with creativity is the same as winning. Every object a child makes is in turn them succeeding, it reflects their hard and complete work. At Zeum every one is a champion, because they are challenging themselves to trumpth. WELLL i gotsZ to get back to my JOB!!!

LOVE ALWAYS,

CRiSTiNA

P.S. i LOVE MY JOB!!!

Almost Summertime at Zeum

Hello Folks !! Summer is about to kick in and I am uber excited. I am looking forward to a lot of fun and interesting things; going to summer camp at Hidden Villa with full scholarship, working at Zeum, assisting with Zeum's summer camp, Little Voices and taking a Health Education class.

I am really excited to help Perry with his camp, Little Voices because I really enjoy working and educating young kids. I always wanted to work with kids (which I already do as a ZeumMaster) but for camp we see the same kids for one full week and that way I get to know them more than I already do as a ZeumMaster. My goal for this camp is to make every child an artist and an amazing performer on stage. And if they're shy then I'll try my best to bring them out of their shell within a week. How, you may ask? I will use my creativity that Joy taught me, my way of inspiring people when they seem to look like they are day dreaming, by offering them unique things to do or telling jokes that Perry taught me, and self motivation that Bob taught me.

For example, last week there was a visitor who really wanted to make an animation but without clay! He wanted to use his toy car that he had bought from Walgreens. He was screaming and yelling at his mom because his mom was like you can only use clay, how many families do you see using cars? I obviously eavesdropped and I stepped in and explained to the mom while his son was take a potty break that anything the boy wanted to do in his animation was ok. When he was done he gave me a big hug and that made my day. I really didn't expect that I could do something like this but I guessed wrong.

It has been ONE year since I first became a ZeumMaster. Zeum is a terrific job. Working with different kids is an opportunity and I feel privileged. Seeing kids smile when they're done with their animation, music video, paper mask, what more can you ask for? It felt like I had an impact, not only in customer satisfaction but my daily live. Zeum has been contributing a lot to my daily life. Before working at Zeum, I was really shy performing on stage (and I still am) but working on it, nervous when talking to a huge group of anxious visitors and just shy in general. Now, I am not shy to talk to huge crowd of anxious visitors, I talk to them about Zeum to personal life. (; I am however still a little bit nervous on stage but I am determined to sing my lungs out when summer is over. (:

My Going Away Final Blog Post

Working at Zeum and being a zeummaster has meant a lot to me. Having this job has a big affect on me. I could talk to any of the adults at Zeum and youth. I’m blogging about these things because I’m going back to my hometown, Los Angeles, where I was kidnapped from to go to San Francisco, just kidding. However, I am going to miss my job and being with the people at Zeum because they are like a second family to me. Being with the people at Zeum, they have taught me that its o.k for a young man to get sensitive sometimes and no one would make fun of me or think I’m soft (a punk), which is what associates call it in the streets. Now, I can listen to women music, talk a lot and brush my hair which has become really wavy.

I don’t think I’ll ever meet bosses like Christian and Ari. They are the coolest bosses you could ever meet because it’s like they never get mad and they are always smiling which brightens my day and also makes me smile. I want to have the same mood as them when I get older like them because the people in my family, most of the time are always grumpy for no reason. I think it doesn’t take much to just put a smile on your face. Show them teeth, no one cares if you didn’t brush them, just kidding, but wait I think that’s the answer…People don’t smile a lot because they don’t brush their teeth as much as Christian and Ari do everyday. See, if people don’t start smiling then that’s what people should think, so you better smile and show them teeth. A teeth smile is what I mean, not a lips’ smile.

To get back to the point, I hope I could come back to Zeum in the future and see the same people because they are all like family.

To conclude, my most memorable moment at Zeum was when all of the zeummasters went down to the slide at that park by Zeum. It was funny because when we went over there the little kids thought we were taking over their territory but teens can play too. So, we went over there and all the kids all stoped what they are doing, looked at us like we didn't belong. Then on top of that you had the cutters, which was unfair.

I really really enjoyed being apart of Zeum, I learned a lot. I thank everyone and now I’m off to college in L.A. Peace Out you guys and girls, and I hope your lunch breaks become longer than half an hour.

Why Zeum?

Finally, I, Lilian Fernando, am creating a blog post. It's taken me the whole summer to actually settle on what I should blog about. I've finally decided on TALKING ABOUT THE BENEFITS we ZeumMasters, the teens working the floors of Zeum, get from participating in the internship program. It's NOT YOUR TYPICAL TEENAGE JOB. It's not just a thing to do for the money. It's unpredictable, fun, and nurturing.

Imagine a hands-on MUSEUM FOR VISITORS OF ANY AGE, OF ANY GENERATION. A museum that can change a kid's childhood by opening the door to endless possiblities in the areas of visual and media arts; a place that can help a family bond while creating clay figures, and where parents or kids can discover that THEY CAN STEP OUT OF THEIR BOX and perform on our production stages. It sounds FAR FROM ORTHODOX OR TYPICAL, right? Those are just some of the things that are happening at Zeum every day.

Now imagine being able to EXPERIENCE A FAMILY BONDING at a set, creating a clay animation movie that you taught them how to do. Imagine recording a little five year-old singing, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', standing at center-stage all by herself. And WOULDN'T YOU LOVE TO BE THERE when a couple, celebrating their 50th anniversary, become experts at using Photoshop. As a ZeumMaster, those are just some of the things I've been lucky enough to be a part of; BET YOU'RE JEALOUS NOW.

But of course this place is not facilitated by teens alone; in almost every room, you might find the older-looking staff member. That staff member is the 'Educator'. Our EDUCATORS help make sure that rooms are running smoothly. Beyond that, they HELP OUR VOICES BE HEARD. They encourage individuality, they encourage us to develop our interests and talents, and THEY ENCOURAGE US to show ourselves off. This summer, we have been given the opportunity to work on projects, with the aid of an Educator, that will be in a show, that our parents are invited to, at the end of the summer. Each ZeumMaster is creating a project within the realms of visual and media arts. A majority of us are working with Video Production and Clay Animation, so NEVER THINK THAT WE ARE INCAPABLE of answering questions in the Clay Animation Studio, or on the Production Stages.

So, if you become a ZeumMaster, you get to work with people of all ages, you get to see kids overcome their 'safe-zone', and you are encouraged, by the people you work with, to create projects that express you using visual and media arts.

COOL.

First Job: Under Pressure and Lovin' it!

Time flies! It's my first blog-so be easy on me. Before working at Zeum I was volunteering at the store with Bob, who manages the store. That was a customer service job mostly. But part of volunteering at the store is that you have to "walk around Zeum." I didn't feel comfortable walking around Zeum at the time because I was agoraphobic. :)

I'm a ZeumMaster now....and becoming less agoraphobic!

Being a ZeumMaster is more than just customer service because there are times where you have to sit down and work with kids. The very first day when I started working at Zeum I was really too scared to greet customers because they would come in as a big group lunging at me and asking questions rapidly and I just wasn't prepared.

Zeum is my very first paying job I ever had. I had to get used to a lot of different things such as talking to strangers, having a set schedule, having to soak up so much information at once, and going to meetings. It was sooper hard for me to adjust to real work life.

But with the support of senior ZeumMasters and educators I've been becoming more and more comfortable greeting customers and assisting all kinds of people with different exhibits, and it made me come out of my shell that I was hiding in!

Okay!!! Now one of my favorite movie that I've watched twice is Ratatouille. It's totally incredible. In the movie Remie was helping the janitor to cook by pulling his hair and the Janitor was really scared that his boss would figure out that he had a rat cooking for him. That was a ton of pressure on him. At the end of the movie Mr. Janitor comes out of his shell by telling everyone about Remie, the rat in his hat.

This totally relates Zeum: almost everyday there's a lot of visitors coming in and out and that can be stressful. Like the pressure of working in a restaurant's kitchen with a rat in your hat. But when I actually stood up and told one of the educators how I was feeling about greeting customers and how I was scared of big groups and that I needed help and more support. Now that I've gotten the support I needed I am now lovin' the job!

Working for the Summertime Zoo

I've been a ZeumMaster for two years now, and I have truly enjoyed every day I have worked. The part of my job that I love the most is working with kids, helping them and teaching them how to make clay animation and how to perform.

There is one part of being a ZeumMaster that I don't like - I don't get to see the same kids everyday. A lot of the time, after helping a visitor with the clay animation process, I often feel like I'm a part of their experience, and I begin to miss some of the kids after they leave Zeum.

Throughout my two years as a ZeumMaster, I thought of learning to do other things at Zeum, such as learning how to work the store, but I never thought of working as an assistant at a Zeum Summer Camp. About a month ago, Christian, Raquel and I were talking about summer and Christian suggested that I work at the Zeum Camp. I was really excited because I remembered when I was at camp and how much I loved my counselors.

I really had no idea what to expect. All I knew about the camp was that I had to start earlier (which I hated at first), and get a longer break (which I loved of course).

Then I realized: Now I would be a counselor and kids would look up to me and love me, and I would get close to them and get to know them more than any typical visitor at Zeum.

On the first day of camp, I met all the kids and attempted to learn their names as quickly as I could, and on that first day I ALREADY grew attached to them.

Throughout the two weeks of camp, I used my ZeumMaster skills while also being a Camp Counselor, so I did what I always wanted to do with my job-work with the same kids everyday. I helped the campers with their animation, just like I do on the floor, helping them make their character and assisting them while they made their movie. But by the end of the two weeks, I felt like I was also a mentor to the campers, who at times would come to me with their problems, sometimes in tears. I felt like I had an impact, not only in their camp experience but in their daily lives.

Being a counselor for these two weeks has made me want to work at my summer camp that I went to when I was younger.

On the last day of camp, the campers put on a show for all their parents and friends, showing them their clay animation movies and sets.

I was so proud of my campers, and they were proud of their work too. All the pics in this post are of their creations in the session I helped with "Zeum Zoo".

To all Zeum Masters: I recommend working in at least one summer camp session at Zeum. It is a great experience.

Old Places New Faces

It feels like its been so long since I was gone. Here I am, blogging again! I love blogging because its one of the many ways we express our feelings here at Zeum. we should take better advantage of this site since it was made just for us. ZEUMMASTERS ;]

Before, I worked at Zeum through a program called MYEEP and since that program ended, I stopped working at Zeum. I decided to reapply. and now I am here again ;] I had to go through training again and this reminded me of when I first got training 8 months ago. A few days ago I met the new Zeummasters and went through training with them. this is my second time being trained. I remember the first time I was trained, I had totally different people with me and we were trained somewhat differently. It was then when i realized how far I had come. these eight months had sure past by way too fast.

While I was gone, I missed zeum alot, the people and the place itself. I felt like I couldn't say I worked at Zeum anymore and that made me sad. but I got really excited when Raquel called and offered the Zeummaster position to me. I thought, everything will be the same again.

When I actually arrived at Zeum, some of the old people were gone and new people came it. I think its not typical for a teenager to work at a place for so long and I am glad I have the opportunity to do so. even though I was so sad that the old workers left because they graduated, I was glad to meet the new people. I know that every year, people would come and leave. and some of the new Zeummasters will be leaving when summer ends, so i should better spend more times with them. ;]

Getting Down to Business with the new zms

Yesterday Debo, Derrek, Angee, and I led the New ZeumMaster Orientation. It was a lot of fun. Angee and I came up with the idea to help with training the new ZeumMasters and after several weeks of hard work and planning, it finally happened. We wanted to show the new folks what it is to be a ZeumMaster from the perspective of someone actually in that position. So who better to show them that than us? :)

We love our job here and we want them to love it too. So we started off by having each person STAND UP and introduce themselves and tell us 3 things about themselves. We introduced ourselves to them as well. Then, to break the ice and bring them out of their shells, we went outside and played a couple games the way we do it at Zeum. First we started out by playing a name game just so everyone could get to know each other. It ended up getting hilarious at certain points. The point of the game was to get everyone to let go and just CHILL around each other and to be less hesitant and more outgoing, an important trait of every ZeumMaster. We NEED to be loud and crazy to do our jobs right.

Then, we played a concentration game where they were given a category and they had to think of something that fell into that category and the first person to mess up or repeat a thing was eliminated. We had categories that got harder as more people were eliminated, such as: Colors, Things Found in Parks, Ice Cream Flavors, and Bart Lines. We got crazy answers like "Vomit" and "Birthday Cake Remix". It got crazy but we had a lot of fun and everyone got to know each other and have a good time.

After the fun was over it was time to get down to business. Our job was to give them a little taste of Zeum from a technical point of view, but at the same time in a relaxed and understanding atmosphere so that when it actually comes time to learning all the little details, it won't all be so new and overwhelming.

It was nice to see my peers actually listening to me and taking notes on what I was telling them. We were professional and informative while at the same time keeping the friendly atmosphere. I tried talking to them the way I would've liked to have been talked to when I was trained. It was fun getting to know the new ZeumMasters and I think they enjoyed it as much as, if not more than, we did. I just hope that everything we told them will be useful to them during their Zeum Career.



On another note, Mission in the Mix (a hip hop dance show) opens this weekend!! This workshop group I'm performing in it. It's gonna be an AWESOME show, so everyone should come. It's recommended that you buy tickets in advance because they WILL sell out. They'll only have a FEW at the door. *Tickets are $15 and sold at Dance Mission Theater across from 24th Street Bart Station.

End of Junior year. Beginning of Zeum Summer.

My junior year has come to a close. I made it through finals. This past year was stressful and very busy, and working at Zeum only added to my crazy schedule. Although my Saturdays were always occupied from the hours of of 10am to 5:30, I'm glad I had Zeum this year.

It's hard to believe that I've been at Zeum for an entire year. The time has gone by so fast partly because working at Zeum is so much fun. The kids are great, the staff is even more amazing but I cant lie though, it is hard work. Overwhelming crowds made me question how much I wanted to work with kids. Some days were crazy, running from room to room, trying your best to please every visitor, pay attention to every creation, always an impossible task when the numbers reach the 500 mark.

The only way I was able to survive and have such a good experience was because of the other staff, seriously. We made the hard days go by faster by laughing.

Saturday mornings at Zeum are always fun. We'd spend the first few minutes before morning meetings trying to catch up and explain what had happened during the past week. Eventually Christian would summon us to "Animators" for our morning meeting. That never stopped us, we would still be telling our stories from across the table. We have our own inside jokes, our favorite songs, and Angee is the founder of the ZeumMaster hand sign. (see me demonstrating in photos)

Like most Zeum Masters, this is my first real job, and working on a team is not new to me, but not something that I've had a ton of experience with. A big part of life at Zeum is teamwork. We work together with the common goal: to try to make the best overall experience for the visitors, most of the time that includes making a fool of ourselves. We perform all the time. High School musical is a favorite - we'll act as silly as possible to embarrass ourselves and try to encourage shy kids to perform.

People constantly ask me "What do you do at Zeum?" That question often stumps me. I have to think about it for a while, but eventually say "We help kids perform and create art." and they just give me that puzzled look and I know they're thinking "thats all." But the truth is it's so much more than just helping kids with art.We ZeumMasters facilitate and practically run the museum with the help of the educators. The ZeumMaster team helps with not just the art and the performance, we help make the overall experience an amazing one, a hard but possible task.

I now look forward to another busy summer at Zeum. This summer I can call myself a senior staff member and have the pleasure to help the newest Zeum Masters. The summers at Zeum are always with swimming with camps of kids and visiting families. The most exciting experience is meeting all the new Zeum Masters.

I met so many new people this past year and at times we had just as much fun as the visitors. Summers at Zeum bring out the kid in all of us.

Parting Thoughts of a ZeumMaster

Being that this is my last day at Zeum, I wanted to share a couple memories at this place known as an "arts and technology museum for kids of all ages."

In my last post I wrote about the expectations of the media on young Latina girls - what the media expects of me vs. what I want to be. With this experience and new knowledge, Zeum has led to being a step closer in being what I want to be and not what was expected of me by the media.

My typical day at Zeum usually began with my late arrival (5 minutes after 10am). I would rush in, put on my shirt fast, put on my badge and storm into the Animators studio, where I'd find everyone in a meeting sitting quietly. I would try to sneak in, but then Christian always noticed and gave me the "You're late again?" look.

As they continued with the meeting, everyone would be listening attentively while I'd be trying to get my heart beat to slow back down. Then we'd check in and everyone would say how they felt and some random thing, ("I feel hungry and I like hippos"... random). My favorite mornings were when we would all cut clay and talk about movies (perry would always know all the showtunes and sing them for us). By about 10:50 we'd be ready to open the museum and we'd spread out to different rooms. (Usually animators, everyone feels that they've been in the animators room too many times).

As we walked up the 4 flights of stairs (Exaggeration according to Ari) we took our time and sometimes had detours. Once we were in our assigned destinations, we turned everything on, got all the materials ready and waited as the kids arrived.

When I'd get to my station/exhibit, I was suddenly the director, producer and technician. I was in charge (They must have really trusted me to put me in charge.... Just Kidding). As the day went on I'd dance, laugh, sing, animate and all of a sudden it would be 5pm. We'd turn everything off and march our way singing and laughing into the animators studio once again to reflect on the day.

As I leave Zeum and reflect on these typical days (although some days were not this typical!) I realize that I learned how to, make a music video, make a production, make an animation. Things I never even knew I was capable of doing. Thank You. But I also learned more to the technology part of Zeum, I learned the art of being a co-worker, filling out a time sheet, (filling out leave requests), but most of all the art of making new friendships.

Once again, Thanks Guys/Girls.

Zaijian Zeum

Zaijian (JI-Jee-en) is "Goodbye" in Chinese.

W.O.W. I can't even believe tomorrow is my last day at Zeum. Almost every single weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, I've been working here since October. Both days all day.

It's going to be weird for me waking up next weekend, knowing that I don't need to rush to work. Working at Zeum has been fun. There are always people who need help, and with my staff shirt on, they would come up to me and ask for help. It felt so good to help them. It was very cool when I taught the kids how to make animations, or a mask, or how to use photoshop, which had been new to me last october. Their creations always surprise me.

I've had to say no to my friends when they asked me out on weekends. or sometimes, after a tiring week of school, I've had to come to work instead of staying home and resting. I'm a busy girl. I usually felt tired when I'd think about coming to zeum at the beginning of the day, but always, after an hour or so, I'd realize I was enjoying myself. How many people can say that about work.

I never thought I'd have the communication skills, photoshop skills, and lots of art skills that I learned here. I've always been a girl who's not into drawing or art. but Zeum had inspired me. i learned that there are other ways to express myself besides drawing. Singing, making clay, photoshop.

Zeum has prepared me for the real world. Like how a working life is going to be. From 10:00am in the morning working all the way till 5:30pm toward the evening. I am glad that I have tried this. I have no regrets. I mean, I did lose lots of time during weekend from resting or hanging with my friends to working...

Everyday working here, there've been surprises and new things to learn about. It's been cool. and honestly, it's worth it.

This place, i will remember it forever.

Zaijian. 再见

Or hopefully, just "see you later".

Why Zeum's Different

When I tell my friends that I work, of course, their first reaction is: where do you work? And then i tell them: Zeum! most of them ask: what is Zeum? where is that? and then I go through this whole process of: you know, that place right next to the bowling and ice skating. it is an art and technology museum.

Then my friends ask: oh. okay. what do you do there? Then I answer: umm.. we do something different everyday, we are in charge of a station, there are machines to control. Help people record their stuff. Or just greet them. Sometimes even sit and work with them. At the end, my friends will get pretty confused and stop asking questions. And I will feel relieved.

Zeum is a complicated place to explain. you've got to work here or come in to visit in order to understand the whole process of zeum. words are not enough, action is key.

Here's a complicated question: How is learning at Zeum different from learning at school? The answer is: very different! At Zeum, we are learning with a much smaller group of people. There isn't the same pressure or competition. Unlike at school, you don't compete with other zeummasters to see who'll get better grades. and there is no point to competing. It's different, but still a job.

But it's a job where we learn, which is different than most jobs for teenagers. We get paid, yes, this is a job. but also very different than a regular job. Other friends i have work at the Gap, customer service, at foot locker.

I mean, everywhere you go you learn something new, but at zeum.... learning is interesting. it doesn't make me feel like "ohh great! another work day!" but more like "hmm, I wonder what's new at zeum today. I wonder where I am going to work. I wonder if it is going to be busy or not. " working at zeum has made me have all these questions.

Compared to school. one day there is 6 to 7 classes, plus clubs and after-school activities. at home, i will have homework, tests and quizes to worry about. one class will have at least 30 people, everyone is competing with everyone. I try hard to get good grades, either beat my peers' record or beat my own. sometime, I get so tired that i want to give up. however, I know I shouldn't. I know everything I am doing right now at school is going to be in my record for the rest of my life. it is going to follow me.

But zeum, yes! You can say this is a fun job. You can say this is a easy job. But i will say that this is a job which will help.