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.
KALW Audio Academy Steps Up as Strong News Source Covering Covid–19 Crisis (“Arf, News Reporting is Poetry Too,” says Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot.)
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW, Audience Supported Public Media, and Christopher Egusa, Audio Academy Fellow
I want to give a big shout out to the Audio Academy fellows for stepping up their production. It’s been great to have at least one story from each of them every day they’re in. It’s enabled KALW to be a stronger current news source for the Bay Area in a time of great need, over the airwaves as well as online.
Check out six of the short pieces they produced, just in the last week:
Empty Streets Invite More Brazen Break-Ins – Victor Tence
SF to Lease 7,000 Hotel Rooms for Emergency Shelter – Julia Llinas Goodman
SF Supervisors Pass Emergency Legislation – Joshua Sirotiak
BART, SFMTA Cut Service as Bay Area Shelters In Place – Sarah Lai Stirland
California’s Judicial Council Issues New Emergency Eviction and Bail Rules– Precious J. Green
COVID-19 Patents Begin to Arrive At Santa Clara Convention Center – Christopher Egusa
Additionally, props this week to Joshua and Sarah, who not only made their spots, but also had full-length features leading the Monday and Tuesday shows this week. Listen here:
What One Soup Kitchen is Doing During the Coronavirus Shutdown – Joshua Sirotiak
Seniors Combat Loneliness While Sheltering In Place In the Bay Area – Sarah Lai Stirland
Plus, they were big parts of this week’s Quarantine Diaries, which is so raw, emotional, human, and beautifully produced, it has really become a must listen every Thursday:
What a time! But what a team to meet the moment. (Borrowed that phrase from Governor Gavin Newsom, whom I’ve been listening to every day at noon on KALW.)
I asked Christopher to share a bit about his experiences — both covering the coronavirus crisis when it was just starting to hit the Bay Area, and before that as he was starting to gain traction as a radio reporter. Here’s what he has to say:
Christopher Egusa finds that feeling like a “weirdo” when doing his job as a radio reporter is okay because what he does is important.
Now in my seventh month as an Audio Academy Fellow, I can technically say that I’m a professional journalist. That’s because… drum roll… I got paid! Twice! Here’s the story.
One of the great benefits of the Audio Academy is how it normalizes awkwardness. Hear me out. There’s an attitude that’s exemplified by KALW staff and reporters which is: “This is just what we do. This is our job.” It’s our job to walk up to strangers on the street and ask them questions. It’s our job to call people up who don’t always want to hear from us. It’s also our job to continue calling those people until we get an answer or a refusal to answer. It’s our job to get into people’s business. Ultimately, it’s our job to feel like weirdos.
There is, of course, a good way to do this (respectful, friendly, yet persistent), and a bad way (tabloid, paparazzi, etc.). But I think letting this attitude sink into me has allowed me to push past my own discomfort — both in actual reporting and outside of it.
This first story relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how journalism is ramping up in response. KALW is no exception, and as Audio Academy fellows, we have found ourselves right in the midst of it.
In early March, when a last minute request came in from NPR to gather “on-the-street” interviews about the coronavirus’ impact on people’s lives, I decided to go for it. But after being unable to reach the contact person, my newfound discomfort-tolerance kicked in. I called up the senior producer for All Things Considered to try and find out if they still needed this audio. To my surprise, he answered! The answer was yes, and he had specifics for me. So, the next thing I knew I was in downtown Oakland at night hanging out next to a popular taqueria asking strangers about their plans and concerns over what is now a global pandemic.
A day later I heard the tape I’d gathered air on NPR’s All Things Considered. A few days after that, at KALW we used different sections of the same tape to air a montage of local residents’ concerns and preparations. As I listened to both of these, I realized that without that persistence, neither would have been possible. I’m learning that it’s okay to feel like a weirdo when what I’m doing is important. In fact, it’s my job now.
The second story involves selling one of my pieces to KQED. In February, I put out my first story — a four minute piece in which I answered a listener’s question about why there are no billboards on I-280 (our series “Hey Area” is all based on listener questions). I felt like I’d done my best on the piece, but it’s hard to know if something’s actually any good until it airs and people start listening to it. When it aired, I felt like I was walking on stage, even though I was listening from the couch in my home. I felt both exposed and excited.
After it aired I got some positive feedback, and I felt pretty good about it. About a week later, someone from KQED reached out to me about buying the story. It turns out they have a podcast similar to Hey Area called Bay Curious, which also sources questions from listeners to investigate. In this case, the question asker in my piece asked the same question of KQED’s show. When their researcher sat down to look into the issue, my story popped up — answering the exact same question from the same person. They decided to purchase the rights to air it from me instead of creating an entirely new piece. In the process, I ended up going to KQED to re-record some of my lines, which was a great experience itself in that I got a glimpse of how another organization operates.
I’m the first to acknowledge that the circumstances of my story getting picked up were fortuitous. At the same time, it felt validating that my piece met a bar of quality — not as a trainee’s piece, but as a reporter’s. Learning a craft like audio storytelling can sometimes be an emotional roller coaster, and so this was a much-needed injection of confidence. Audio Academy is full of amazing support, but we do spend a lot of time learning, failing, and going back to the drawing board. That’s what it is to endeavor in a creative act. I’m learning how important it is to just keep moving forward, and trust that there will be highs as well as lows.
Catbombing the ACE Poetry Contest Is Fun As We Cats Play With Poetry
By Poetry Cats Sammie and Sheba, assisted by Paul Krivonos, ACE Board Member
Yawn. Sammie here. I was busy writing an epic poem but fell asleep.
We are glad that Joycat and Mobilecat have jumped in to add their thoughts to the Association for Continuing Education’s ACE Poetry Contest blog about National Poetry Month. If you are wondering why there haven’t been more cat posts in relation to all of the dog posts we have seen in the past, just remember the old cat ? proverb (from our very most favorite book, Francesco Marciuliano’s fabulous tome, I Could Pee on This, And Other Poems by Cats):
They say there are
Twenty-four hours in a day
But I’m only up for three of them
And two I consider overtime
We did want to write a poem ourselves, but we fell asleep half way through, so we each borrowed a couple of our favorites from Francesco, one from each of us and one from both of us:
Sheba’s choice is called, BUSY, BUSY
It’s 8A.M. and time to rest
It’s 10A.M. and time to relax
It’s 3P.M. and time for repose
It’s 6P.M. and time for siesta
It’s 9P.M. and time for slumber
It’s midnight and time to snooze
It’s 4A.M. and time to hang upside down
From your bedroom ceiling, screaming
Sammie’s choice is called, CLOSED DOOR
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME IN LET ME IN
LET ME IN LET ME I-
Oh, uh, hello
I did not expect an answer
I did not expect an entrance
I did not expect this room to be so unbelievably dull
So, uh, goodbye
Here’s the one poem that we both could decide is worth blogging about:
Hey, I’m Sheba, hanging out here. On my chair.
THIS IS MY CHAIR
This is my chair
This is my couch
This is my bed
This is my bench
This is my chaise
This is my settee
Those are my footstools
Those are my rugs
Everywhere is my place to sleep
Perhaps you should just get a hotel room
That’s enough from us for now. It’s you humans turn to come up with some great poetry like cats do.
And we’re raising a paw to Riley and Lucy. ?
This is Poetry – ACE was an Original Distance Learning Provider and Now It’s What All Students are Doing
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, assisted by Martha Sessums, ACE President, because Riley won’t wash his paws as often as he should and tries to use her keyboard
Here’s me and Lucy. I’m getting pets for poetry.
I’ve been talking to Martha and she says that distance learning is what ACE did originally when they started 50-plus years ago. Classes from Bay Area schools and universities were delivered using closed circuit TV (like a show just for subscribers) at special locations. These locations were at a workplace so adult students could continue their education by watching classes on a TV and not having to physically be in a classroom.
Surprising, isn’t it? Kinda like what we are all doing today for learning. But now we use digital devices for learning anywhere. My friend John says that’s a cool evolution as Alpha was one of the first schools using technology to assist learning. I like to say that’s sorta like chasing my tail in a circle – what goes around comes around.
Distance learning is kinda poetic too because the definition of poetic is to make readers feel something. While a poem is different than prose (you know, regular writing like this blog) because the normal rules of writing don’t apply, something can be poetic if it makes you feel something. The fact that distance learning moved online all over the world means that learning in front of a screen works – but sometimes in ways we didn’t think it would.
For example, Renée White-Francis, a teacher at Oxford Day Academy, was anxious about how an online class would go. She discovered there was a new dynamic to her classes.
“Students seemed to be listening and more readily . . . share their ideas,” she said. “There were more voices and some great questions and dialogue happening.”
Plus, search engines like Google helped students provide answers. Search works in distance learning situations to aid participation, and White-Francis is now looking for ways to embed research as a daily practice in her class. (For me, search means looking for my pal Lucy cause I know I’ll get pets from her.) All this new learning and teaching style can drive feelings.
“Research would help (students) develop their research skills as well as accumulate more knowledge they can then use to evaluate and analyze course content, and then better engage with the course content,” she said. “I’m pretty excited that online learning is already making me think about my classroom practices as I’m already thinking about how to make next school year better.”
The ACE Learning Center schools are working hard to meet the new challenges. Oakland International High School, through its Emergency Fund for Newcomer Families, is raising funds for students, including access to internet services. San Francisco International High School is not only a Free Grab and Go Meal site for the community but is working to get internet access to its students using hotspots. Oxford Day Center has provided great curriculum for their students that was created to meet the challenge of online learning that was new to everyone. Alpha Public Schools offers a Free Grab and Go Meal site at José Hernández Middle School in San Jose along with free Xfinity Wi-Fi for everyone, or a hotspot if needed.
In this tough time, we’re all connected to help each other get through this. I didn’t even mind being catbombed the other day. I like cats, although they don’t follow directions very well. (Hmmm. I don’t either sometimes.)
But I did mind being poembombed by the Poetry Cats so I’m catching up. Here’s my first poem for National Poetry Month.
The New Connected
By Riley
New connected is more than a hotpot
that lets you logon to online classes.
It’s schools reaching out to teachers
to give them the tools to teach.
It’s teachers reaching out to students
and students reaching back.
It’s lessons that reflect the new
virtual norm of screens
It’s staying focused on the screen
‘cause that’s the now way we learn.
It’s students reaching out to fellow students
and their school to stay in touch.
‘Cause staying in touch is the only way
we’ll get through this new norm.
Everyone – continue to reach out and help each other. And treat yourself to a poem.