ACE Spectrum
ACE Spectrum
Ace Spectrum is about you — the ACE Learning Centers.
It’s a quick sharing of ideas, inspiration, opinions and best practices among our continuing education organizations.
Please join the conversation.
2020 Wisdom from Alpha: Cornerstone Academy Winning ACE Poetry Contest Poems
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot
I’m very excited because here are the first winners of the ACE Poetry Contest. They’re from one of my Alpha Public Schools too, which is cool. These poems have it all too – thoughts about journeys, dreams, stars, hope and this crazy virus who is the tagger in a game.
Arf, arf, arf. Here they are – the winning poems from Alpha: Cornerstone Academy.
First Place Prize
Journey With Dreams
By Christine Le, 6th Grade
The light blue breeze,
Touch the sky
With cotton candy,
That’s up high…
After,
The raindrops began to fall
Like never less,
Nature loves them all
The storm’s passing
Came with a breeze
With people’s wonder,
Finally at ease
To see the colors,
Of beauty’s past
We wonder…
How long, can a rainbow last?
(…)
No need to worry
I use to hear
The love will never, disappear
As soon as the glowing ends…
Your journey, has just began
Second Place Winner
In 2020
By Jadon Nguyen, 5th Grade
The virus has started,
Then Technology has been used more,
People now departed,
Away from each other,
Ending up staying with their family,
Including with their mother,
They now go to amazon,
And add items to the shopping cart.
Buy video games, including Mario Cart.
Watching youtubers, like maryushart.
Also the virus, spreading the infection
People hate the germs, they wear the masks
Is this gonna be our generation?
It’s all a game
The game is freeze tag,
The virus is the tagger,
We all freeze, staying in one place
That one place, is Home.
Everything is pain,
Ever since it was here,
People die of it,
Instead of population gain,
iPads,iPhones,iTunes,iBooks,
It’s advancing
There’s social distancing
It’s like an apocalypse
It feels like the end of the world
But there’s light
There’s hope
There’s a rope,
Climb it, it could be over
Then we’re all free
Run around
Also go on playgrounds,
Go to shops,
And also buy a plushie.
It’s not the end,
Before was pain
Now you can meet your friends,
Now the world will be unfurled.
Third Place Winner
Little Star
By Vivian Nguyen, 3rd Grade
Little Star Little Star Glowing in the air.
When You see me i am just a little dot,
but in reality i am as big as a car, Little
Star Little Star you see me when you
sleep, But when you wake up you see me
Disappear! Little Star Little Star Please
come Back!
Congratulations Christine, Jadon and Vivian. You did a great job, as did all the other Alpha: Cornerstone Academy poets.
Let’s continue to treat ourselves to a poem. More winner and their poems to come.
KALW’s Audio Academy Keeps on Reporting News While Parenting and Cooking During the Coronavirus Crisis
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW, Audience Supported Public Media, and Joshua Sirotiak, Audio Academy ’20 Fellow
Keep on keepin’ on. It’s what we’re all doing these days. And during this time, KALW‘s Audio Academy has continued providing vital information for the Bay Area. Here’s what they chose to work on and produce during their daily shifts in the past week:
UCSF Scientists Identify Drugs That May Slow COVID-19 — Julia Llinas Goodman
San Francisco Supervisors Blast Mayor For Blowing Off Homeless Housing Plan — Sarah Lai Stirland
UC Student Class Action Lawsuit For Campus Fee Refunds — Imran Ali Malik
2020 Folsom Street Fair Moves Online — Precious Green
Stanford Health Care To Cut Employee Wages By 20 Percent — Christopher Egusa
SFUSD Alters Grading Policy In Response To Coronavirus — Joshua Sirotiak
For six weeks now, KALW has also been producing an extraordinary product sharing the day-to-day of many Bay Area residents — ride-share drivers, students, funeral directors, and others — as they make their way. It’s called The Quarantine Diaries. Joshua Sirotiak has been a regular in the series, talking about his day job as a supermarket shift manager. He’s been part of our nine-month training program while juggling that work, his family, and more. It’s inspiring.
I asked him to share some thoughts about how he’s getting through, and trying to thrive, in this time:
Joshua Sirotiak is learning to be a journalist in the midst of a global pandemic.
Ooofff. Learning to be a journalist in the midst of a global pandemic… How have things changed? Like much of the world, my home is now officially my office. At first the change was welcome. My family’s all together. I’m spending more time with them, and I’m spending less money on everything from gas to restaurants to entertainment. But I’m finally starting to get the cabin fever that I’m guessing plenty of folks have already been dealing with. I miss the old normal.
I’ve been tearing it up in the kitchen, cooking in bulk to last through several shifts at the grocery store where I work. I’m attempting to recreate some of the dishes that I crave after years (decades really) spent eating in restaurants almost daily. So far our culinary adventures have taken us to China and Ethiopia, and tonight I fired up the grill for the first time this year. I cook breakfast now.
Of course there are downsides. Try getting any bit of work done, while at the same time homeschooling a restless five-year-old, and see how long it takes to say “yes” to her watching TV for the entire afternoon. Specific to Audio Academy, there’s the challenge of creating sound-rich stories without being able to conduct face-to-face interviews (I haven’t really even tackled this one yet). And of course there’s the challenge of staying focused and motivated while the world outside of the house seems like one big question mark.
All in all I’d say I’m coping. I’m choosing to view this time as a kind of baptism by fire. If I can produce quality audio storytelling through this pandemic, then I feel like I’ll be pretty well prepared to make a career with the skills I’ve gained.
So that’s where I’m at.
There are Lots of Types of Pockets for Poem in Your Pocket Day
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, assisted by Martha Sessums, ACE President, who laughed when Riley licked her keyboard to clean it. What else could she do?
Lucy’s got the pockets and I, Riley, have the poems.
Riley and Lucy here. She’s got the pockets and I have the poems. Welcome to Poem in Your Pocket Day.
There are lots of types of pockets that carry poems. Not just the little ones on Lucy’s black and white pants, but ones on the pants and skirts worn by the wide diversity of cultures that grace the schools that the ACE Learning Centers support. You students are from around the world and the poems in your pockets should be from around the world too.
Okay, I’m a dog and I know best about doggerel poems. But like you, I’ve read a lot of different poets this National Poetry Month and found quite a few great ones.
Martha first, since she was so kind to let me share her keyboard. Here’s a blend of math and poetry.
Problems
Piet Hein, Danish mathematician and poet
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.
Here’s one of Lucy’s favorite poems. She’s into Girl Power, and this says it nicely.
A Poem in Jest
Deng Bang, Chinese poet during the Ming dynasty
In this world the rich and powerful are hooligans,
Everywhere locking up good flowers behind red doors.
But women’s dreams are difficult to control.
They can travel at will to the edge of the sky.
Here’s my poem that Lucy carries in her pocket. I like it because I can relate to hair problems. I’m cool with shaggy.
Hair
By Elizabeth Acevedo, Dominican-American National Poetry Slam Champion
My mother tells me to fix my hair. And by “fix” she means straighten. She means whiten . . . My mother tells me to fix my hair, and so many words remain unspoken. Because all I can reply is, you can’t fix what was never broken.
Earcat, Yowlercat and Fatcat here. We love to catbomb Riley.
Catbomb time. Hi, the Poetry Cats are here – Earcat, Yowlercat and Fatcat. We decided it’s necessary to join Riley and Lucy for Poem in Your Pocket Day because cats are the deciders. Here’s one we all relate to. We’re always trying to switch the story when we’ve knocked that vase from the window sill onto the floor and it’s now in lots of pieces. It’s actually a long poem, but we love this part.
Heritage Emissary
By Threa Almontaser, Yemeni American poet, winner of 2020 Walt Whitman Award, Academy of American Poets
Turn, She daydreams during
lessons, into, Qaluu, I pay attention to detail. Turn
She’s suspended for fighting into I’m such a good student
they gave me a day off. Each rephrasing lengthens my nose.
I’m out of breath from so much code-switching, crunching
the sand it leaves between my teeth.
Riley back. We had to include a traditional Haiku. This one is about how we look at our homes now. Or how we should look at our homes. We’re there all the time, except maybe for short walks, but we cats and dogs realize that the people that love us are in our homes (and homes can be anywhere – not just where we live) and that is everything.
Haiku Poem
By Sodo
In my house this spring,
true, there is nothing,
that is,
there is everything!
Okay, we’re out of pockets and poems, but stay tuned for poems from the winners of the ACE Poetry Contest from each of the ACE Learning Center schools.
Arf, Arf. Meow too. Thanks for joining us for National Poetry Month. And remember, keep washing your hands and treat yourself to a poem.