Leila teaches cartooning and animation. She has taught at Glen Echo Park, Paint Branch High School, Winston Churchill High School, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Parkland Middle School and the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. Her students’ animated videos have been honored with four national CINE Golden Eagle Awards. They have also been featured on Maryland Public Television’s “Independent Eye” and screened at the Ottawa, Annecy and Hiroshima international animation festivals and the Museum of Television and Radio’s International Children’s Television Festival in New York and Los Angeles. They are regularly broadcast on Montgomery Community Television’s Cable Channel 21 and on Montgomery County Public Schools Instructional Television. For more information, read the articles below:

iCOM Magazine:"Animated Video Captures Paint Branch High School's Third Consecutive CINE Golden Eagle Award," January 2005.
The Washington Jewish Week:“School Project Morphs into Award-Winning Film,” April 15, 2004.
The Burtonsville Gazette:“Paint Branch High Students Take a Short ‘Walk’ to the Top,” January 28, 2004.
iCOM Magazine:“Paint Branch High School and Winston Churchill High School Win CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Animated Public Service Announcements,” January 2004.

Class Descriptions
Classes can be customized to your school’s needs and time frame. Leila furnishes her specialized animation equipment for her classes; the school provides a TV-VCR and art supplies. For an animation workshop or residency at your school, contact Leila or the Maryland State Arts Council.


by Jessica Robinson    
Age 13    
ANIMATION
See your drawings come to life as you apply the principles and techniques of animation to your own creations. In this hands-on class you will make animated strips for the zoetrope (a 19th-century optical toy), create a film by drawing and scratching directly on 16-millimeter film stock, draw flip-books, collaborate on a class project, and videotape your work. For instruction and inspiration, we will view several films by accomplished animators. Each student will receive a VHS tape of the entire class’s animations.

by Kevin Opsahl
Age 13
CARTOONING
Create your own original characters, caricatures, one-panel gag cartoons and comic strips. Experiment with pen-and-ink techniques, draw flip-books and play around with all the elements of a cartoon: figure and background drawing, perspective, lighting, lettering, composition and dialogue.