Friday Poem of the Week!

Happy Friday! Today's Friday Poem of the Week is titled "Today My Name Is" by Mahlia E. of Maple Elementary! Nice job Mahlia!

Today My Name Is
by: Mahlia E. of Maple Elementary

Today my name is Depressed.
I feel lonely and sad.
I pretend to act emo.

Yesterday my name was Invisible.
I heard a dog biting my hand.
I found a dead bird on the street.

Tomorrow my name will be Joyful.
I will forget about all my depressed moments.
I will still remember about having to brush my teeth.

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 their 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.

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.

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.

Pictures from Poetry Slam!!

They're here!! Pictures from poetry slam. These were taken by SCORES' very own Heather Christianson, a professional photographer before joining America SCORES Seattle.

The Dunlap boys used a saxophone and a clarinet to help emphasize their poetry.




The Maple girls were rhyming their way through this poem:

Brain
By Maya B, Grade 4

My brain is stuffed with knowledge
That’s why I hope to go to college
My brain controls everything
It helps me see spring
It’s a good thing there is stuff to protect my brain
Or else I would be INSANE
My brain some times gets in pain
My brain is so great It will often procrastinate.
My brain is so smart
If it wasn’t I would fall apart

The Gatzert girls working together to really shout out their team poem!

There are more photos of the evening on our Facebook profile.

Poetry Slam Was a Blast

The SCORES staff wants to thank everyone involved with making Friday night special! The evening was filled with young poet-athletes slamming their season's work, the nearly 500-person auditorium was almost filled to capacity with students and their families and community members watching the poets perform. It was great to see so many people supporting the poet-athletes.

We all want to thank our judges: Mike Hickey, Taylor Graham, Karen Finneyfrock, Steve Kelley and all the other judges who made the evening happen. Also, a big thanks to the A/V volunteer Derek Sheen for his expertise.

CONGRATULATIONS to our poet-athletes on a job well done! All the staff is proud to have helped put this together. Thank you all for putting your heart and your thoughts into the poetry and performance.

We all can't wait to see you in the spring.

Poetry Slam Today!!

I hope everyone out there is ready to see the poets strut their stuff tonight at Cleveland High School!! All the poets have been practicing their poems in front of fellow students and now they are ready to show off to their families and community.

The night will begin with a slide show of fall season's highlights and move into a heart warming welcome by our Executive Director. Our MC for the evening will take over and lead the SCORES cheer! Then the real action begins. We will have Maple, Emerson and Dunlap boys and girls lead off in turn. After this we have the great honor of 2009 Poet Populist Mike Hickey performing a poem on stage. As he finishes, we'll move onto the Gatzert, Highland Park and Roxhill Elementary.

The night will continue with our guest judges critiquing our poet-athletes' performances. Our lengthy list of judges include the Sounders FC's own Taylor Graham, who has been supporting SCORES all season. The previously mentioned Poet Populist Mike Hickey, and Seattle Times sports columnist Steve Kelley. In addition we'll have the Writer in Residence at The Hugo House, Karen Finneyfrock and two principals have volunteered too.

To add a little more excitement to tonight, we're going to have a prize drawing for an autographed Fredy Montero soccer ball. The tickets will be $1 and all the proceeds will go to America SCORES Seattle.

It will be a great evening with the poet-athletes and the community. Please make it over to Cleveland High School and help make this evening a great success.

Poetry Slam is One Day Away!!

Everyone here at the office is getting excited for tomorrow night's Poetry Slam! It should be an evening of words, wisdom and poetry. All six of our schools will be at Cleveland High School in Seattle reading their poems. All the schools have already done dressed rehearsals. Some schools have put together music to go along with their readings and others have group performances acting out their poems. It will be great!


The 2009 Seattle Poet Populist, Mike Hickey, will be a reading a poem and critiquing one school's performance. We will also have Sounders FC player Taylor Graham and Seattle Time's sports columnist Steve Kelley as judges too.

The event will also feature a prize drawing as guests enter the auditorium. We will be drawing for an autographed Sounders soccer ball. All proceeds will go to America SCORES Seattle.

Cleveland High School Auditorium

5511 15th Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98108

The event beigns at 5 p.m.

Last Game Day of the Fall Season

The SCORES staff wants to make sure everyone knows that this Friday's game day is the last of the fall session. There will be some great poetry slamming and soccer for everyone to watch. Make it out to the game sites if you can. At the previous Game Day there was strong support from parents, grandparents and community members, let's see it again.

The schedule for Friday goes as follows:

Dunlap is at Roxhill

Bailey Gatzert is at Highland Park

Maple is at Emerson

After the game day the poet-athletes will be practicing their poems for the big Poetry Slam! on Nov. 13 at Cleveland High School. From what the staff has seen so far, everyone in the audience is going to have an inspiring evening with a season wrap-up picture show, poet-athletes showing off what they've learned this season and a special appearance by Seattle's 2009 Poet Populist Mike Hickey. He'll also read a poem.

Roxhill Students Using Soccer in the Classroom

Our SCORES school, Roxhill Elementary, is using the world's game in the classroom for its' 2010 CARES Cup program. This program breaks students into 28 teams and each group adopts one of the 28 World Cup qualifying countries. The students and a staff team leader will follow the soccer team's progress in the tournament while also learning more about the countries' culture and environmental issues there. All the hard work culminates in an end of the year all-school celebration showing what the students have learned. Great use of soccer inside the classroom! Here's a link to the copy of the School Beat from Seattle Public Schools.

Game Day 2 Pictures

Here are some pictures of Friday's Game Day 2. There were lots of poems slammed at all the schools. Here is one of the poems a young Emerson Elementary poet-athlete read:

Mass in the Grass
by Abdimajid of Emerson Elementary

I saw a mass in the grass, so...
I ran so fast. I'm never last.
I jumped over some broken glass.
I even ran past my class.
I grasped my old mask
And I saw someone with a rash.
I scared them it was a blast!

Highland Park Elementary girls slamming before their game

Game Day Round 2

Today is Game Day 2 and the excitement is here. Many of the staff went to SCORES schools yesterday and the kids were choosing their poems to slam before the games. The poems ranged from personal poems about their own struggles in life to more silly fun poems about the trials of trying to eat a door like spaghetti. You heard that right, eating a door like spaghetti. It's fun to hear their imaginations run wild at SCORES every afternoon. The kids will slam before the games and then it's soccer time. So if there is some extra time today make sure and stop by a SCORES school for the games.

The schedule is as follows:

Maple is at Dunlap

Roxhill is at Gatzert

Emerson is at Highland Park

Game Day was Great Day in the Rain

The game days were a blast on Friday. The weather didn’t hold any of the kid’s spirits or smiles back. The games kept all the players warm, and I even heard one say they were sweating. Before the games we heard great poems about soccer, food and friends. Afterwards a few players received Gold Cards for their exemplary displays of leadership, sportsmanship and teamwork. Go Gold Card winners! When all was said and done, I think the kids were just as happy to be playing soccer as to getting their snacks afterwards. Thanks team coordinators.

Also, we caught this photo of a girl wearing her new scarf. Thanks Sounders!

Game Day #1 Today!

Today is the first Game Day for the poet-athletes. The players will be busing around to different schools today playing their fellow SCORES athletes. All the games are beginning at 4 p.m. with a warm-up Poetry Slam! to get everything started. Festivities will be over around 5 p.m.

The schedule is as follows:

Dunlap is at Emerson Elementary
Highland Park is at Roxhill Elementary
Maple is at Bailey-Gatzert Elementary

Come and support the poet-athletes at schools around the Seattle area. See you there!

Staff Site Visit Last Friday

The SCORES Staff went to Bailey-Gatzert on Friday to see the soccer scrimages and the kids at their home fields. It was a jumble of kids running, passing and scoring with cheers and screams to highlight every move. There was so much energy on Friday.

We also got a picture of the poetry the students are putting together. The poet-athletes put together an adjective list to increase their descriptive vocabulary.

So many adjectives, so little space to write. Everyone is excited for the poetry-slam in November.

Thanks for the Help

Everyone on the SCORES team wants to thank all of the parents, teachers, volunteers, Starfire Sports Complex staff for getting out to our Fall Frenzy 2009 celebration. All the games and festivities went smoothly and the sunny weather couldn't have been better.

It was great to see the parents on the sidelines cheering for their athletes, the volunteers teaching and running the playing fields with the kids, and the coaches keeping everyone motivated and in the game. If the SCORES team didn't have the participation of the community, the event wouldn't have been possible.

We want to give a special thanks to the Seattle Sounders for their generous gift of the Barcelona/Sounders scarves each of the poet-athletes received. Also to Taylor Graham for hanging out with the kids and his continuous support of the program.

We took a lot of pictures throughout the afternoon so please check them out at our Facebook fan page by clicking on the link to the right.

FALL FRENZY 2009

Remember to clear your calendars and pencil-in FALL FRENZY 2009 for this Friday. FALL FRENZY! is our annual soccer celebration kicking off the fall season. The games begin at 4 and end at 6:30 p.m. We are holding the event at the Starfire Sports Complex.

Fall Frenzy Is Nearly Upon Us

Fall Frenzy! is approaching quickily and this celebration of our poet-athletes needs a little help to run smoothly. In other words, we need volunteers. We need help refereeing games and team assistants to make this event work. The Frenzy will be held on September 25 at the Starfire Sports Complex. Volunteers should plan on arriving at 2:30 to help set up and to stay until 6:30 to clean up.

Referees don't need to know all the ins-and-outs of soccer to participate, rather, with our adapted version of soccer, they just need to help everyone have fun and teach some of the basics.

Team assistants will be needed to help get the kids to the right field at the right time, ensure there is enough water for everyone and keep all the kids up and running.

If you would like to volunteer for with either position or in the future please contact Program Assistant Heather Christianson at hchristianson@americascores.org, or by phone at 206-988-1000.