Meeting the FUSE students was a great experience. They showed me that some people actually care for their neighborhood & schools. In this particular case, the neighborhood was Wilkinsburg. FUSE had a lot of things to bring to the table that I would of never guessed. The individual students are your everyday teens. They speak up for what they feel is right and Hear Me admires that about them. Wilkinsburg High School and neighborhood is really not the best area for most people, but FUSE will not tolerate the feeling of being swept under the rug. They're proud of where they live, and it's not always about moving away from the problem; there's always an alternitive to that. In the eyes of FUSE, they want to stay in Wilkinsburg & work hard to improve their current situation. FUSE shows us that you can always try and make a difference where you live. School budget cuts really wasn't helping the situation of Wilkinsburg High School. The students need something to look forward to, such as extra-curricular activities & field trips. We at Hear Me have always been a stepping stool for voices to be heard, and we have recorded strong stories from the these students. FUSE has been at this for 6 months and already making a major point. The Hear Me crew supports FUSE and everyone in it.
In response to the students from Wilkinsburg who came to Carnegie Mellon last spring, Hear Me hosted a holiday decoration ceremony in Wilkinsburg on December 1st. About 25 middle and high school students from the Wilkinsburg School district decorated the Wilkinsburg Municipal Building and tree at the historic Wilkinsburg train station. Each of the students contributed to a 6-foot-wide “Wilkinsburg Wishes” banner that included their hopes for positive change in their community. The banner is hanging in front of the Municipal Building for the holiday season. The event is part of an ongoing community service project through Hear Me, the Wilkinsburg Borough Council and the Wilkinsburg School District.
We’ve partnered up with the Consortium for Public Education, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh Filmmakers and The Western Pennsylvania Writing Project to launch the pilot program of Hear Me 101!
Through the program, we work directly with students through a series of hands-on workshops that teach writing, technical, communication and media skills to youth. The kids voice their thoughts and opinions on current social issues centered on community and education. Workshops focus on:
-Topic selection – researching and understanding an issue
-Video style – digital documentary
-Media literacy – analyzing and understanding media
-Writing- effectively communicating your message
-Video production – from directing to editing to final cut
-Campaign building – strategies for promoting your message
-Project showcase – sharing your finished work with an audience
Student groups will produce video pieces to voice their messages publicly to help promote and inspire social change.
The Hear Me 101 team has already met with schools in Clairton, Mckeesport, Steel Valley and Woodland Hills. The students are enthralled by the idea of creating positive change in their communities!
Below are a couple pictures from Clairton!
HearMe 101 is a sponsored program of The Heinz Endowments.
Youth are seldom considered or involved in areas and issues directly affecting their lives, schools and communities. They are considered young, inexperienced, and unqualified to have a voice on issues affecting society. We believe considering the thoughts, opinions and ideas of our youth today are essential to improving our society.
We are preparing to launch Hear Me 101, which is exciting for us, our partners and participating schools.
On Monday, we met with Children's hospital to talk about a potential partnership. Jess and Ryan toured the hospital. It was a wonderful facility filled with art and activities for kids and adults. We talked about displays, recording and Can Pals in the hospital. We hope to hear back from them within the month.
We are currently finishing our display for Big Dog Coffee in the south side. It will feature 4 CanEx boxes along with large Can Pals artwork. We will encourage participants to give us feedback with response cards. The owners of Big Dog fully support the project and we anticipate a great partnership!
In the social media realm, Hear Me is giving away free T-Shirts on Facebook. Please "like" our page and register to win a free T-Shirt ( they're actually really nice!)
We had a great time at Seven Springs’ Story Walk last weekend!
The weather was fantastic, the turnout was high and everyone we met was excited about the project.
We gave away about 15 personalized CanPals cans to kids.We recorded their stories, transferred them to audio chips and put them in cans within minutes.The kids made their own labels for the cans and we gave them free Hear Me T-shirts for participating.We even had one group of siblings make a Hear Me video!
We worked in collaboration with David Pribish from PAEYC, who generously directed spectators towards the Hear Me tent.
We also the enjoyed the other groups and activities at Story Walk.
Children's books like "Where the Wild Things Are," and "Who's Shoes?" were read out loud at different stations around event. There were giant cutouts of characters from the books as well as activities for kids.
Afterwards, we all got to experience Seven Springs’ alpine slide, which was a terrifying ride up for some but a fun ride down for everyone!
One of our favorite organizations in Pittsburgh, the Marilyn G. Rabb Foundation, is preparing for the Peace Rally! This is the culminating event for their Summer Dreamer's Academy students. Make sure to stop by Market Square on Tuesday, August 9th to see the amazing performances by these students!!
Have you been driving around the ever-congested streets of Pittsburgh and noticed something new? Hear Me billboards are up!
Our billboard campaign consists of 50 billboards, spread through a 6 county region in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Over half of these billboards showcase the voices of kids from all over the region, speaking up about issues that are important to them. In addition to excerpts from their stories, you can find the web address to hear the complete story and find out where other billboards are located.
The kids represented on these billboards have participated in a Hear Me event during the pilot year (June 2010 to June 2011). Their testimonias are incredibly powerful. Hopefully, seeing these stories will give you something to look out when you're stuck in the summer construction and something to think about all day long!
It's been a while since we've posted on this blog, so we wanted to update you on some of the exciting things that have been happening at Hear Me. We are working on improving our Tell-Port so stay tuned for exciting new features! We will be giving our site a new look, in addition to adding new functions. So make sure to keep checking www.tell-port.net to see what's new! The Students Engaged in Leadership's Art Exhibit and Year End Celebration was a big success. Students shared their favorite memories of working together and talked about their accomplishments. Their artwork is no longer in the Carlyle Building, but it is making its way around town. It recently relocated to the Pittsburgh Public Schools school board offices and will continue to move throughout the summer.
The previous art exhibit, The Month of the Young Child Art Exhibition, has also moved. It is currently in two locations at Century III Mall. These pieces have also been to a conference at the Penn Stater on early childhood education, the Opal Awards at the New Hazlett Theater and Art All Night. Below is a picture of the display at Century III Mall.
We had our last field trip of the year to the CREATE Lab. 27 elementary students from Wilkinsburg School District came on May 24 to participate in Can Pals and other Hear Me activities. These kids talked about changes they want to see in their community and many of them commented on the amount of garbage and violence in their neighborhoods. One student, when asked how he thinks the violence can be stopped in his neighborhood, spoke about the gun shop located on the main street and how removing this store might decease the violence. These stories are coming soon to Tell-Port; another reason to keep checking our site!
Remember, this blog is for all our Hear Me friends. Please feel free to blog about your Hear Me events or other Hear Me issues. We love hearing from all of you!
The Carlyle Building gallery is open for one-night only on Monday, May 23 to celebrate the work of MGR's Students Engaged in Leadership. These high school students have come together to work for change in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Come down on Monday from 6:00pm to 8:00pm to see their self-portraits, murals and hear their voices as they speak out about their experiences as students in PPS. All ages are invited to this free event.
In a small Washington County rural school district, with one red light, it is very unusual for anyone to leave the country. Our Bentworth Elementary Center was excited to find out Mrs. Karen Martin, our special education teacher, would volunteer to teach in Haiti for one week.
Brian Barca meeting with our teachers to introduce HEAR ME project
Mrs. Martin announced her trip the same morning our elementary center met with Brian Barca from, The Consortium for Public Education, to explore and discuss a theme for the HEAR ME project. Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab launched HEAR ME to engage students in documenting, collecting, sharing and showcasing thoughts and experiences that will be heard in the Pittsburgh region.
Our principal, Susanne Macik, focused the conversation on how we as a building always comes together to aid and assist our students, families and community when problems arise. Mrs. Macik with first grade students enjoying children's pictures from Haiti.
"It's amazing that how kids come together and make a big difference". Savannah Fourth Grade
We decided as a group that being a close knit community is unique to our building. Together we decided to examine Karen’s experience and make it a “unique” one for our students. The only problem was Karen would be leaving in a few short weeks. Because of the language barrier, we decided to use Art as the universal language to share with the Haitian children. Our plan was to involve and educate all of our K-4 students on the crisis and culture of Haiti. The theme for the students would be, “What is so unique and special about you or your family." Karen would then take our drawings and share them with the Haitian children. In thinking we were sharing our artwork with the Haitians we thought we would provide them the opportunity to draw about their lives as well. As an elementary school we decided to have an art supply drive to collect colored pencils and paper to send to Haiti. Mrs. Macik had a larger global awareness vision for our students and constructed a letter to send home about the Hear Me project and the art supply drive. The building focused on the Haitian culture for the next two weeks.
Mark a first grader, making his donation of art supplies.
Mrs. Martin and Bentworth students excited about the donations.
Mrs. Martin's students working with the iPad.
Nicolette's portrait she created in the CrazyBooth app
Due to the various learning styles Mrs. Gazi and Mrs. Martin had to differentiate the instruction to help all of her students have a pride in the final product. We used the Apple iPad to differentiate the instruction. Using the Crazy Booth app the students who had fine motor limitations had the opportunity to transform their portraits into the contemporary style that had been studied in the art room.
The students came to Mrs. Gazi's art room to complete drawings to be sent to Haiti during their recess and lunch.
Mrs. Detts-Dranzo a classroom reduction grant teacher, who teaches first grade, used this experience for her classroom in writing. The first graders were excited to bring their stories and illustrations. Much to the surprise to all of us the focus was on the writing and we had to change it to the visual representation. Art being the universal language we had to redirect we had the first graders transform their stories to a pictorial fashion.
Olivia, a first grade student using the iPad to translate.
Kaylie and Jenna using the iTranslator on the iPad.
We then discovered three Apps (iTranslate, myLanguage, Free Translator) for the kids to use to translate from English to Creole within their artwork. Using the apps the kids found it was difficult to get a direct translation between English and Creole and found IGoogle on the internet to receive the exact phrases.
Mrs. Bell and Mrs. Pauley using the school's only color printer.
The school counselor and nurse also assisted with printing and making copies. They were a great help because the main copier was out of service at the time and there was only one color printer at the time. The also organized and monitored the art supply donations in the office. The PTA was also an incredible help with laminating the drawings and making copies.
Michele Griffith, a PTA member laminating 350 of the drawings our students created.
Mrs. Vasko showing Haiti earthquake damage on GoogleEarth.
During this time Mrs. Vasko, a fourth grade teacher used google earth to visually show the students the before and after affects of the earthquake damage in Haiti. The students were able to see Haiti's terrain and culture via satellite imagery and maps.
Fourth grade students watching the Haiti earthquake on GoogleEarth.
Mrs. Martin’s students showed a passion and excitement for the kids in Haiti and the Haitian culture, and it was shown through their daily journals. Since they received the first hand experience from being in Mrs. Martin’s classroom they were able to shine like" stars" in the inclusion setting with the knowledge and stories. We noticed at this point in time, that the conversation about Haiti spread like wildfire and the community came together and art supplies came in, and there was an excitement about the artwork. Our students finally understand the American spirit of helping the world.
A second grade student's journal about his experience with the iPad.
The students’ drawings did not reflect the American media driven culture that is exposed to them everyday, but the drawings did reflect the simple things that families do together.
As Mrs. Martin was packing to go, and getting last minute things together she was also teaching in the classroom. Mrs. Macik’s global awareness for our students suggested that we use a video camera to record our students and their various classroom settings to share with the Haitian children. In the midst of instruction, eight hours before departure, Mrs. Martin used her Flip Video camera to record greetings from the students to the Haitian children. The students used a simple English/Haitian message to share with Haiti, because of the iGoogle translator.
View video here:
The Heart of Haiti-Mrs. Martin's Reflection-
"While landing in Port au Prince, Haiti, I looked out my small airplane window from my seat and immediately became moved by the small huts, millions of blue tents, dirt roads, the dry hot terrain and the filth rising into the air. Knowing that I had an 85 mile drive ahead of me, a rush of panic overcame me because I saw the dryness and dusty air and thirst overwhelmed me. I rushed to the flight attendant and got a bottle of water, which would be so rare to a person living in Haiti. Driving the 85 miles to the La Croix school I saw a culture just wanting to survive the day. Women were walking along the road with large baskets of rice on their heads, kids were sitting along the street looking into the unknown and people were scrambling through the streets through the dusty, rocky roads. Though there were a lot of people walking, as I was driving by the many villages and huts there were also a lot of people just sitting outside their homes.
As I drove through miles of tent cities, I was overwhelmed with not only with sadness, but with the smells as well. There are over 1 million people still living in the tent cities from last years earthquake.
After arrival at the school, I settled and got to know the teachers and the students. The school has about 1000 students and each student is financially supported to go to school, school is not free in Haiti, it is a privilege. All of the students wore the same uniform and were very excited to be at school. Though there were no text books, few pencils, few notebooks and no paper in the classrooms, the kids and teachers where content and learning occurred through the chalkboards, singing and lecturing. The brick walls were bare, but the students were all filled with an inner joy and took great interest in what the teachers were teaching. When I passed out the laminated drawings from the Bentworth students, the expressions on the Haitian children's faces were in awe. The Haitian's were amazed by the texture of the lamination and all of the colors. They were so thankful for the pictures.
When I passed out colored pencils and blank white paper and asked the kids to draw a picture about them, they were very hesitant at first. After talking with them and encouraging them to draw, many of them had never even seen a picture of themselves or new how to draw a simple self portrait, but they did it, and the drawings really portrayed their lifestyles and culture. I was able to use my FlipVideo Camera to capture many of the classrooms and students in session along with the cafeteria.
The Haitian children thanking Bentworth for the pictures:
The Haitian children singing:
Every student is fed rice and beans everyday in the school cafeteria, usually their only meal for the day. I was able to use Pierre's (head of the school) internet to upload and send videos to Bentworth while in Haiti. Throughout the week I had the opportunity to go into the villages after school and hang out with the kids and their families. While in the villages many of the kids were playing and holding onto the laminated pictures that were given to them from Bentworth. One boy had a string tied to his picture and he was dragging it around. It was amazing to see such a simple gift mean so much.
Though the Haitian families and kids didn't have TV's, places to go, couches to lounge on or computers to sit at, they were overall quite happy. It was eye-opening to see people interacting with one another in simple ways, like sitting outside their huts talking, singing and kids playing soccer with an empty soda bottles. When I asked some of the older students what they wanted to do after school, many of them hadn't thought about it, or they really didn't know. They said getting into a university is nearly impossible and they really don't look too much into the future, but live for each day. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go to Haiti and to share the experience with Bentworth Elementary! Mrs. Gazi and Mrs. Macik along with all the teachers were a tremendous help in exciting and engaging our student body in this whole experience."
Mrs. Robynne Moessner, a third grade teacher, explained to her students throughout the experience that they were fortunate and privileged to live in the United States and to being going to school. She also discussed with her classes that as Americans we have to be thankful for what we have and the opportunities that we have in our country. Her church will be the next in our area to volunteer their time and hopefully enable our school to continue to communicate with the Haitian people.
Third grade classes have read the story, "Beatrice's Goat," by Page McBrier, which tells of a little girl from Uganda who is able unable to attend school beause she cannot afford the tuitotin. Milk from a goat that her family receives from Heifer Project International, helps to feed them and also provides the tuition needed for her to finally go to school. Using the Haiti experience, this story, students' interest and excitement as a basis, we decided to take this a step further for the students. We are looking to have a school-wide penny drive to raise funds to purchase a goat or a flock of chicks through the organization Heifer Project International, in hope that we can provide an animal that would help sustain a family in Haiti.
Mrs. Moessner and Mrs. Vasko, teachers working on the penny drive.
Mrs. Martin emailed the videos to Mrs. Macik and she paniced at first because the videos wouldn't open, but with some technical help the videos finally opened. One could tell that she truly wanted to share this with all of the students. Mrs. Macik emailed the videos to the teachers and teachers with Promethean Boards invited other classrooms without Promethean Boards to view the videos.
The music, art, library, and physical education teachers who have a common planning time decided to come together and use the video clips for a presentation. Mrs. O'Grady the music teacher suggested to use SchoolTube and YouTube to find related videos to supplement Mrs. Martin’s first hand experiences so the children could understand more about the earthquake crisis in Haiti. Mrs. O'Grady,Mrs. Gazi, Miss Wilhere and Mr. Scorza prepared six presentations for the building. The video presentations were grade level appropriate. The students were inspired by the "We are the World," music video and were also moved by the video that showed the Haitian wanting to help Japan.
"We are the World" music video that really moved Bentworth students and teachers:
The one video clip showed art work hanging along the demolished streets in Port au Prince Haiti. The students at Bentworth Elementary were captured by the forty-five minute presentation. Many of the students and teachers began asking and wanting to know how else they could help the country.
In closing our students are presently analyzing the Haitian art work that Mrs. Martin brought back and concluding about their thoughts and experiences with the Hear Me Haiti project. Hopefully this experience provided a glimpse of what it is like to live in Haiti, will provide a longing memory for the students and they will remember that they are blessed to be living in a great country, but will remember that as Americans and humans, we can change the world by helping, giving and loving.
