Poetry - In Reverse? Part 1

In 2007, Jonathon Reed created a poem called "Lost Generation" for the AARP @50 Video Contest. The poem, when first read, is very negative and violent. It talks about how one will behave in the next thirty years: celebrating divorces, work before family, and increasing the risk of global warming. But read to the end -- it will inspire.

Below is the poem, followed by another one, written in a similar fashion. I feel that this is a very unique way of poetry. It can be negative but still be positive when reversed.




Source: YouTube

Kids Helping Haiti

All of us here at Hillwood Academic Day School have been doing bake sales all week to raise money for local dog shelters and Haiti relief.

Charlie, a 7-year-old in West London, rode five miles to raise money for the Unicef childrens' appeal to give food, water, and shelter for the people in Haiti. He was aiming to raise £500 ($1,000) but raised £110,00 ($220,000). He got sponsors from all over the world. To get all of these sponsors, he posted a blog on the Internet. (Charlie is shown in this picture from the BBC.)

Charlie isn't the only person who is trying to help Haiti, many kids around the world are and you can help, too.

Helping Africa with Water

Residents in Africa need water. They are drinking contaminated rain water. Mother's and their daughter's would carry gallons of water from wells back to their family's.

Thanks to Playpumps National (shown in this video on National Geographic Kids), they are giving the Africans Playpumps. The Playpumps are fun for children in Africa because they sit on it and it spins like a merry go round. As they play, it pumps water.

For Christmas, my brother bought me a doll, which a girl in Africa made. The girl's name is Buhlebenkosi, and she is 14 years old and an orphan.

The dolls that she makes get to America by a man who brings all the dolls the orphans made. They use the money to buy food and drinks. The man also gives the girl your address so she can send you letters. Above is a picture of me and the doll.

An Email Message from "Words," aka Zara A.

The following is a note from Zara A., our contact in India for the Design for Giving Contest.

My name is Zara A., I just turned 18 and i am totally loving it! I am 100% indian though i have almost no command over any indian languages, i prefer to think of myself as linguistically challenged. I joined the "Design for Giving Contest" Team because my mom and Mrs Kiran Sethi, Principal of Riverside school, were college roommates and know each other well. I actually moved from Chennai, a city in the south of India, to Ahmedabad, which is in the west, to work on the competition. I just finished highschool and am currently doing a gap year to primarily introspect because I, like most teenagers, am not entirely sure what i want to do with my future.


The original team that worked on the contest was aged about 18 to 21 (me being the youngest technically) and we all served different purposes. I was in charge of letter writing, press releases, website content etc. so they nicknamed me 'Words'. It was an amazing experience to see how people who had just met each other formed a team that worked very well with one another and managed to actually produce something as large as the Design for Giving Contest. All together on of the most memorable things ii have ever done and i am so glad that you guys want to be apart of it =D


Looking forward to speaking to the kids! if you need any more answers please feel free to email me! oh and warn them that i do have an indian accent so they might have to speak slowly for me to understand and vice versa.

Words

Photo credits: Images of Ahmedabad from Wikipedia

Design for Giving Contest

Student Assignment: Everyone
Turning garbage into art. Helping families understand the importance of keeping the environment clean. Raising money for an orphanage. Improving the living conditions of construction workers. Putting a smile on the faces of the elderly.

The Design for Giving Contest is motivating schools across India to reimagine the act of giving. Taking place from August 15th to Oct 15th, the contest involves more than 30,000 schools across India. School children will design and implement solutions to help people in need. The goal of this movement is to help children realize that they can "be the change" they want to see in the world.

Read this note from Zara, aka Words, our contact in India.

Watch the above video and then answer the following two sets of questions:

1. What bothers you in San Francisco?
2. What are you going to do about it?
   
   
3. What bothers you in the United States?
   
4. What are you going to do about it? (Watch this video for inspiration.)
   

Remember, give helpful and instructive ideas for solving the problem.

This is the first part of our package about the "Design for Giving Contest." Students will interview someone from the program (a recent high school graduate), and the organization would like to post our video on their website. So, let's do a great job!

We will also do several other "related stories," including a news story, a Wordle, a photo essay, a look into what could The Herald do? How can we make things better?