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.
Poets Prepare for a Battle of Ice and Fire in Game of Poems
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, Alpha Public Schools
We’re mid-way through National Poetry Month, and the students at the ACE Learning Center schools are learning about poetry and writing poems.
The raven sent me messages that a massive battle is taking place in the ACE Poetry Contests. Is winter coming? Or is that just Karl the Fog, the Bay Area’s usual cool Maester who sometimes becomes The Wall as he creeps his way from the coastline inland. Or is that Athastokhdevishizar, or nonsense, which the raven says literally means ‘fog talking.’
Poets that are Wildings (those Free Folk that bow to no one) are actually bowing to their Maester-teachers who are teaching about the many different types of poetry. Thor, over at Oxford Day Academy, is pushing epic poetry because he likes to go on and on for at least eight seasons, but there is good, powerful stuff in epic poetry.
Hei Hei, on the other hand, goes short. Mascot at San Francisco International High School, he likes haiku. Three lines. The first and last lines have five syllables, the middle one has seven. Short. Sweet. But intense. Wildings should take a look at haiku as it can be powerful quickly.
I like doggerel poetry and the ravens tell me so do dragons. Drogon, the dragon that Daenerys Targaryen rides, likes it the best, as does Daenerys. Again, I’m getting my info from the ravens, but I recognize why. Who understands dragons better than dogs? We’re fierce. We’re powerful. We can’t always be controlled (our Wilding side) but we hang with the Direwolves and write killer doggerel poetry.
But perhaps the Iron Throne of Poetry goes to Samosa, who perhaps is a Warg. One of those who enters the minds of humans (or is that animals?) and controls them. Samosa, Mascot for Oakland International High School, loves rhyming poetry. She loves control. Producing rhymes is very hard. But she has the swords (claws) and sorcery (her cat stare) to make anyone write a rhyme.
So, the Game of Poems is on. The ACE Poetry Contest is a Battle of Ice and Fire. But everyone’s a winner if they write poems.
You hear that Jon Snow? Don’t want to write poetry? You know nothing.
Poets are Everywhere, Including the Radio Poets on KALW
By Riley, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, Alpha Public Schools
Waiting for some “curiosity sprinkles” treats. Arf!
In this month of April, poets are everywhere. Teachers at the ACE Learning Center schools are teaching different types of poetry and students are rhyming and rapping poetic words and phrases.
But if you’re not a student at one of the schools participating in the ACE Poetry Contest, there is one great place to enjoy poetry written by Bay Area students. It’s KALW, home of the Audio Academy, which is another ACE Learning Center.
Every National Poetry Month, KALW partners with the San Francisco Unified School District and America SCORES Bay Area to create Radio Poets. These students get to read their poem, some music is added and then it is played on the radio. Arf! How cool is that?
Production and editing help for the Radio Poets is from Kevin Vance. Kevin is an announcer at KALW, but he really likes words in all forms – music (I hear folk music is his favorite), books, even computer words. I guess poetry comes in all forms – even ones and zeros.
Check out the KALW Radio Poets and discover how “riding on tigers seeing the beautiful view” can cause “crazy antics.” But “add curiosity sprinkles” and all is good.
Don’t forget, April 18 is Poem in Your Pocket Day.
As I say, every day you should treat yourself to a poem. But today, add curiosity sprinkles. Wow. Curiosity sprinkles treats for me. You hear that John Glover? Bet my friend Lucy would want me to have treats. Arf!
Thor, Oxford Day Academy’s ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, Hammer-Wields Poetry with Puppy-Love
By Thor, ACE Poetry Contest Mascot, Oxford Day Academy
It’s me, Thor, teaching a student the Poetry Walk.
I love poetry. That’s why I’m an ACE Poetry Contest Mascot. I love the thunder of poems, the strength of their message or story, how they can hammer home a strong emotion and make it strike like lightening.
I also love my Mascot cohorts – Riley, Hei Hei and Samosa. As a team, we are the Superheros of poetry. Poetry is our Superpower. From doggerel (Riley’s favorite) to Haiku (Hei Hei’s favorite) to. . . well. . . Samosa won’t tell her favorite because she’s a cat and they don’t have to tell anything, but she is a good rhymer. And my favorite is epic, cause I’m an epic character. And I tend to go on and on…
So, let’s continue with this month of poetry.
Students – your job is to learn about poetry and write a poem to submit to your school’s or ACE Learning Center’s contest.
Mascots – your job is to encourage the love of poetry and show off by writing some. Here’s mine.
LO, praise the prowess of poet-kings
of spear-armed students, in class long sped,
we soon will hear what honor the poets won!*
And don’t forget, April 18 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Riley likes poems in pockets, along with treats. Guess all the Mascots do.
*Okay, it’s a takeoff from Beowulf, but what an epic poem.