NewsBites for Kidz Oct
6-12 2003
This is what kids all over the world did last week
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Bringing poetry to life - and into the lives of children
Kids start today with walk to school
Kids discovering the arts at museum
TECHNOLOGY: Little orange man helping children in hospital to beat pain
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http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/content_objectid=13495094_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Bringing-poetry-to-life---and-into-the-lives-of-children-name_page.html
Bringing poetry to life - and into the lives of children
Jenny Rees, The Western Mail
Oct 9-Today thousands of children around
Some will even be turning to their CD players for inspiration, or turning up the radio to find the poetic value that can often go unnoticed in music.
Whether it is Bob Dylan, Eminem or the Beatles, popular songs can also be read as great poems.
"I'm all for encouraging students to be more aware of the different uses of language," says head of English at Cardiff High, Jude Brigley.
"And though the urban rap styles might have things that, as a middle-aged woman, I would disagree with, I can't disagree with the integrity, cleverness and wit.
"I don't think it's my job as an English teacher to challenge or trash it, it's my job to show how language can be used for many different purposes.
"The important thing is to own it and have power over it, and use it as your own tool so that pupils become confident using language."
Her pupils will look at a range of role models, with Welsh, female and black poets as well as the traditional.
"I think it's quite important that people can see that writing comes out of their own environment," said Mrs Brigley.
"Poets come from all different walks of life. We look at Levi Tafari (a Rastafarian poet), Grace Nichols and Maya Angelou (both female, black poets) and it is very much the mix that is important."
Bob Dylan and Beatles lyrics feature in GCSE work, and students can really delve into an exploration of language by studying music by Alanis Morissette, Stereophonics and Coldplay, says Mrs Brigley.
The "basics" of poetry are taught first, including metaphors, pathetic fallacy or personification - techniques that can open the subject up to boys in particular who have traditionally fallen behind girls in terms of achievement in English, right across the country.
"Boys very much like the idea of shaping something - they might not like writing about feelings, but they look at poems like a puzzle," says Mrs Brigley.
And many of her male pupils will thoroughly enjoy coming up with their own imagery and appreciate that poetry can be "about anything".
"Boys in particular produce very good observational writing, capturing a moment or time and place, like a snapshot of what is happening."
She explained that they are also very good at emulating the style of a particular poet and can follow the structures of a sonnet as it has elements of formulae which typically boys feel comfortable with.
And it is this exploration and development of language that Mrs Brigley hopes is being fostered in her pupils.
"Poetry can make you a better writer in other areas. If you're practising observation and capturing descriptive phrases, it can feed into your prose and make you better at capturing the moment.
"I would hope these young people are then also able to do that in life generally, because we don't want to teach it just for the exams. It should be something that they turn to in their lives."
The students have also developed a love of performance poetry, which gives them an opportunity to fully understand the meaning and rhythm by reading it or acting it out.
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http://www.lsj.com/news/schools/031008walk__4b.html
Kids start today with walk to school
CHRIS HOLMES/Lansing State Journal
Michigan, U.S.A. 10/8/2003-Students from fifteen mid-Michigan schools will put shoe leather to the sidewalks as part of the international "Walk to School Day" observance today.
www.michiganfitness.org/walktoschool2.html
By Sally Trout Lansing State JournalRockin' to school: Cornell Elementary kindergartners Benjy Liu (left) and Napoleon Outlaw practice the "Walk to School" song Tuesday in Laurie Harkema's music class in Okemos. The school is encouraging kids to walk to school today.
"There are so many benefits to walking to school," said Marge
Clay, principal of
To drum up more enthusiasm, Cornell youngsters will sing their version of a "Walk to School" song with hand gestures to the tune of the "Rock Around the Clock."
Adding to the fun will be walkers from the
Of Cornell's 385 students, 300 live within walking distance to the school, but Clay estimates only 150 actually walk.
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http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=1475336&nav=0s3dIQza
Kid Filmmakers
The Austin Film Festival is underway. Writers, directors, filmmakers from all over the world are coming to town for the party.
Out On the Porch, Jim Swift tells us two of the festival winners didn't have far to travel at all.
(The following is a transcript of Out On the Porch.)
The registration room at the Austin Film Festival was abuzz with excitement as film types jostled for their packets. So what are these guys doing here?
Woman asks: "Here to register?"
Boys say: "Yes."
Woman says: "All right, if you'll go ahead and fill these out for me."
They're here, not just to register, but to pick up their producers' passes. Those are the cool ones: admission not just to all the films, but to parties, barbecues, buffets, not to mention, happy hours.
Bird chirping.
The boys made their way into the festival with their movie called "Spring Cleaning."
Filmmaker Rowland Ellis says: "It just didn't seem like that great of an idea."
Hills says: "We always try to accept constructive criticism from each other."
Father says: "You have got to get in the spirit of spring cleaning!"
Rowland Ellis here is a student at St. Stephen's Episcopal School here
in
It was actually Hill's idea to make a movie about a kid who teleports from one spot to another, but Ellis thought the film needed more.
Ellis says: "When we started actually making the film, it was right around springtime and Rowland's dad was cleaning up the house."
So the film morphed into a story of a kid doing spring cleaning, who teleports from one spot to another.
Hills says: "It started out being more of a serious thing. But as it progressed, we can't make serious movies and eventually it just became comedy."
And guess what, "Spring Cleaning" won the middle school division of the young filmmakers competition at the festival. And that's why the boys get a producers' pass.
"Spring Cleaning" will be screened, along with some other
young filmmaker's entries, beginning at
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http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2003/October/08/LNlist1.htm
Kids discovering the arts at museum
By JEAN TARBETT - The Herald-Dispatch
Through the On Line: Through a Kaleidoscope program at the Huntington
Museum of Art, fourth-graders from throughout Cabell County Schools have been
learning various ways to express themselves with art, be it music, dance or
visual arts. Students watch a performance of musicians of the Huntington
Symphony Orchestra and dancers from
Tuesday, students from Guyandotte Elementary participated in the event.
"I thought it was good. I think the dancers were good and the music was good," said Kimberly Scarberry, a fourth-grader at Guyandotte who has been taking piano lessons since she was very young. Seeing the artwork might help her with her own, she added.
Because of the time period they live in, most children "will never
hear classical music on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon," said Bromley,
who was inducted into the City of
It’s easy to sit children in front of a television, said Matt Carter, education coordinator at the museum. But teaching them how to create is teaching them something that can fuel them for life.
"There are so many things you can do -- music and the visual arts -- and to create something of your own is satisfying," Carter said. "There’s something really fun about being able to create things."
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http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5019906.html
TECHNOLOGY
Little orange man helping children in hospital to beat pain
MICHELLE GALLACHER, Glasgow Evening Times,
A revolutionary method to help children in pain help themselves was
unveiled today at a
HELPER: the 'wee orange man' will help Ifrah Raza. Picture: Stuart Nimmo
Children over five will be given control of their pain medication thanks to a squeezable toy called the 'wee orange man'.
The toy, which resembles the children's favourite Plasticine man Morph, is introduced to youngsters in the hospital as their little friend.
They are told that when his tummy is squeezed, he will give them pain relief by administering drugs on a conventional drip into their system.
Various amounts of drugs can be released, depending on how hard a child squeezes.
But staff insist it is all tightly controlled and monitored.
Ifrah Raza,
from
"We are launching a set of 'tools' that will allow us to ask the children how comfortable they are, as well as give staff guidance on how to monitor pain in children of all ages.
"The 'wee orange man' is a very child friendly way of allowing children to have more control over their pain medication, which is carefully calculated by senior staff.
"This will help many children, who may be unable to use the conventional button to administer their medication due to an injury or their underlying condition."
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