The Winners of the trip to NYC!

Today is the day to announce the winners of the SCORES’ all expenses-paid trip to New York City. We narrowed our poets down from 196 students to about a dozen who were nominated by there coaches. The SCORES staff took over a week to travel from school-to-school and listen to the students perform their poems in front of us, and the most intimidating audience member, a video camera. We then discussed as a staff and decided on two.

We chose a young man from Dunlap Elementary, 5^th grader Eddie Edwards, and a young lady from Emerson Elementary, 4^th grader Milla Espinoza.

These two are going to embark on a journey to New York City for the National Poetry Slam! There will be 28 poets from all of the SCORES sites around the country. Seattle’s two participants will participate in a weekend full of teambuilding and poetry workshops, some sightseeing as well as rehearsals.

They will deliver their poetry performances in the New York Stock Exchange building in Manhattan on April 19^th.

Congratulations to both of Seattle’s big winners. They both have put in hard work to receive this honor, and there is more preparation work to be done, but they deserve a moment of recognition.

Graham looking Healthy for Next Season

SCORES board member Taylor Graham is looking healthy for this upcoming Sounders FC season. Here is an article about him, his recovery from foot injuries and his time spent with charitable organizations, like SCORES, with his time off. He represents the best characteristics of a professional athlete and demonstrates these with his behavior on and off the field. We at SCORES were excited to have him join our board and are even more excited for him to get back out on the pitch where he can play the game he loves. Congrats and good luck!

Here is a link to the article.

Monday we're Announcing our National Poet Athletes

The staff has been to every school we work with, we've watched the girls and boys spit their rhymes and now the decisions have been made. We're going to announce the winners of SCORES Seattle's chance for a boy and girl to receive an all expenses paid trip to New York City. They'll get to slam their poems at the NY Stock Exchange. There is an earlier post about this with more details.
As hard as deciding which poet-athlete had the best stage presence when slamming their poem, the best answers to questions about themselves and SCORES and the best content in their poem, it was clear who the winners were from the moment we heard their readings. It's tough to only give the prize to two students, they all really deserved it, but there's only so much room in the Big Apple for Slam Poets.

Be in the Know

Here is a roundup of some news we gathered about issues facing Seattle's schools, soccer and other articles piquing our interest.

“Bill Promotes Green School Make,” The Seattle Times, Jan. 20, 2010, by Curt Woodward (Associated Press)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010846537_greenjobs21m.html

“Seattle School Board won’t Guarantee Siblings can Attend Same School,” Jan. 21, 2010 The Seattle Times, by Linda Shaw

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010847494_schoolboard21m.html

“If your Kids are Awake, They’re Probably Online,” The New York Times, Jan. 20, 2010, by Tamar Lewin

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

“Hanauer-We’re Cautiously Optimistic about CBA,” Prost Amerika Soccer, Jan. 20, 2010

http://www.prostamerika.com/2010/01/20/hanauer-were-cautiously-optimistic-about-cba-18611/

“Obama pushes $1.35-billion Expansion of Education Plan,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 20, 2010, by Mark Silva

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-obama-education20-2010jan20,0,2002983.story

“City Completes deal to bring MLS to Portland,” Jan. 21, 2010, by Mayor Sam Adams

http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm?&c=49519&a=282513

National Poetry Slam Tryouts Today

The SCORES staff is off to Maple Elementary this afternoon to have our first round of poetry slam tryouts. We'll hear four students rhyme their own works. The poet-athletes were nominated by their coaches and our staff based on performances at the end-of-the-fall season Seattle Poetry Slam. They'll read one of their pieces for the staff. Then we're going to put them on the spot and ask them interview questions, much like they will get from the media if selected to go.

The two students selected to represent SCORES Seattle will each receive an all expense paid trip to New York city. In New York they'll preform their slams at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday April 19th. This will be a big fundraiser for our National Organization, not to mention a unique experience for two of our poet-athletes.

Be in the Know

Here are a few interesting news stories we found while perusing the news over the course of today. Some of it from sports, some of it Seattle schools and a study about the advantages enjoyed by the whole community when less students drop out of high school. These are just a few articles we thought might interest some of our readers.

“As School Exit Tests Prove Tough, States Ease Standards” by Ian Urbina, New York Times, Jan. 11, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/education/12exit.html?ref=us

“Rainier Beach will get Second Principal” by Linda Shaw, Seattle Times, Jan. 11, 2010 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010768758_principals12m.html

“What is Generation adidas?“ by Matt Gaschk, The Rave Green Blog, Jan. 11, 2010 http://www.soundersfc.com/News/Blogs/Rave-Green.aspx

“Four Teacher Tricks You Can Try at Home” by Julie Williams, Education.com, Jan. 12, 2010 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Four_Teacher_Tricks/?cid=90.710

“The Economic Benefits from Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businesses in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas” The Alliance for Education http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA

Thanks to all our Donors

The SCORES staff would like to thank everyone who made an effort to help Seattle's high-need elementary students receive some soccer and writing coaching after school. Your donations make this possible. Many of our students are first-time poets and soccer players, so the opportunities for the kids created by the donations will change their worlds. They will get a new game to play with their friends and a new way to express themselves, while simultaneously improving their vocabulary, descriptive writing and their health.
The donations will also provide a vehicle for our poet-athletes to give back to their communities this spring through service-learning projects. These opportunities will alter the students sense of what they are capable of and improve their self-image; thank you all for making this transformation possible.
We had many donations from a variety of people and organizations and we want to thank all of you. The campaign's funds will help insure SCORES is able to provide our services into 2010, and beyond.
We hope everyone has a great 2010 and continues their support of SCORES throughout the new year.