Joe:

Before we get into the Q&A, every educator’s real question is:

Will this save me time? Will it make me look like a genius? Yes. And absolutely yes. You'll be a rock star.

All right, everyone—let me have it. We’ve got time for a few questions.

• Isn’t animation too complicated for kids—especially younger grades?

Not at all. Kids are chomping at the bit. This is their infrastructure. They’re not intimidated one bit.

We’ve organized Animating Kids to be scaffolded like a Lego set. From bouncing balls in Kindergarten to satirical storytelling in middle school, the platform adapts. The Animation Chefs demonstrate every secret recipe, so anyone—yes, anyone—can follow along.

We’ve seen it used successfully from Kindergarten through college. Whether you're doing an original animation or animating fractions, physics, or Shakespeare, there’s a way to plug into whatever you’re doing. Think of our 150+ lessons as a painter’s palette. Pick what fits your students, your space, and your sanity.

• How do I fit this into my chaotic, ever-changing, on-fire schedule?

Ah, the time question. The fun part is that you can wedge this beautifully around testing, fire drills, holidays, and full moon energy.

Our default project is a one-minute animated story. That’s what our system is geared to do.

If we started right now, locked the doors to the teachers’ lounge, lived off vending machine snacks and stale coffee, and didn’t stop until the film was done?

2–3 hours: Storyboarding and audience-tested original plot
2–3 hours: Discovery lessons and learning to animate
2–3 hours: Building sets and characters
4–5 hours: Production and animating
1 hour: Voiceover
1–2 hours: Editing, polishing, and tweaking

That’s about 12–16 hours for a one-minute original animated feature. I'd add in 6 hours for student crowd control, setting up and taking down, and life-skills deficits, and you're looking at a 16–18 hour commitment.

The good news? We’ve seen this broken out in all kinds of flexible ways:

Run 1 hour per week across a semester
Host a single “Animation Festival Day” (3–6 hours of creative mayhem) and do a shorter film—30 seconds works
Sprinkle it in during calendar lulls
Stretch it across multiple semesters

We’ve also seen it used as a carrot—a reward on the other side of testing, homework, or dreaded tasks. It's a wonderful motivator.

• What about older students? Isn’t this just a little kids’ thing?

Not a chance. By 6th–8th grade, they’re ready for:

Satire and non-verbal storytelling
Complex editing and sound design
Full-on director debates (“Your idea or mine?”)

Middle schoolers crave control and self-expression. This gives them both—and channels the chaos into creativity.

• We’re trying to reduce screen time. Isn’t this just more screen time?

This is purposeful screen time. Active screen time.

They’re composing shots, editing emotion, framing ideas. They’re not scrolling—they’re architecting.

• Are there standards or benchmarking frameworks for this kind of thing?

Yes—but it’s early days. A few organizations are defining the space for media skills education. We align with:

ISTE – International Society for Technology in Education
AASL – American Association of School Librarians
P21 – Partnership for 21st Century Learning

I could go on about this for hours. Want a rant? I’ve got one.

• What does it cost?

Site licenses cover up to 500 students per building. Add more schools within a district and the price scales down—up to 50% off per site.

It breaks down to pennies per student. Cheaper than a snack pack.

• What kind of track record do you have?

Animating Kids has been around since 2016, but I've been doing this with organizations before apps were a thing, since 2003. We've worked in 20+ countries—from homeless shelters to embassies, after-school programs to Boys & Girls Clubs, and of course, good old-fashioned classrooms.

Adult facilitators with zero film experience are running hundreds of projects as we speak.

• Have your students ever won awards or been in festivals?

The Animation Chefs walked the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008 to see their own animations. That kicked off a domino effect that led to Animating Kids.

Some student films made the finals at the Chicago Kids Film Festival. But honestly?

That’s not the point anymore.

Today, publishing a story on YouTube or TikTok is the award. These kids don’t care about official outlets. They want to make content for their friends. And they want it now.

• What’s the most exciting—or disturbing—part of teaching kids how to make movies?

Inoculation.

The first time a student draws a character, cuts it out, and animates it, their mind is blown.

"It’s alive!" they shout.

But it’s not alive. It’s an optical illusion—15 still pictures per second. A digital flip book.

At some point, I pull them aside and say:

“Your movie isn’t actually moving. It’s still pictures, flashing quickly. And every screen you’ve ever watched in your life—TV, YouTube, Instagram—it’s all still images. Manufactured motion. And someone built it. For you. To entertain, inform, or persuade you.”

Then I ask:

“Why should I trust your movie? I don’t know your motive. I don’t know what you want from me. If I watch, it will be manufactured by my brain into sound and motion that I might not like.”

And that’s when we get real.

We talk about media as architecture—built to influence. All media makers need is your attention. Once they get your attention, their message is reassembled in your brain. It competes with your thoughts. It can change how you feel. What you believe. Even what you buy.

When kids realize this, and then realize they can do it too, something profound happens.

They don’t just become media creators—they become critical consumers.

To demonstrate this viscerally, here’s a quick test I do with students:

“Finish this phrase: They’re magically ____!”

A few shout: “Delicious!”

That phrase lives in their heads forever because an animated leprechaun put it there. At 24 frames per second. To sell patented marshmallows for breakfast.

And it worked.

When you point this out, a light bulb goes on. It’s like a vaccine. A mental immune system kicks in.

They begin to realize the true power of storytelling—and how to wield it responsibly. We've had wonderful discussions about what media they begin to avoid.

Unfotunately, it takes making a movie to really grasp this. So..."

Be careful what you let in. Teach kids how to build it, so they don’t just fall for it.

When this click for the kids, you become a rockstar.

Gotta go. Thanks for your time.

Bon Animate!