Poem of the Week

My Family 

By: Andrew, Grade 4

Cesar Chavez Learning Center

My family is like you’ve never seen.

My family is like a teacher at home.

My family is like a waiter that asks us what we want.

My family is like a map that leads me from wrong to right.

My family is like a doctor that helps me when I am sick.

My family is what creates love in our home.

Like I said,”My family is like you’ve never SEEN”!

Poet-Athletes Record Original Song with ASCAP Artist Dondria aka Phatfffat

Every year, The America Society of Composers, Authors, and Publisher’s (ASCAP) songwriter residency program partners with America SCORES to place an artist with participating SCORES affiliate sites.  These artists help a select group of students from one of the schools transform their words into an original song to perform and record in a professional studio.  This year, America SCORES Dallas had the honor of working with So So Def artist, Dondria aka Phatfffat.  A Dallas local, Dondria was first discovered as a YouTube channel sensation and now has 3.6 million profile views and over 100,000 subscribers.  Her recent album, Dondria V Phatfffat, was released just this last August. Last week, Dondria spent 3 days with all 32 Poet-Athletes from Steven’s Park Elementary School and helped them write, memorize, and sing an original song, “Let’s Party.”   

Day 1 “The Classroom: Part 1”
Dondria introduced the main lyrics of “Let’s Party” to the Poet-Athletes at Steven’s Park Elementary School. After learning the lyrics, it was then the students’ task to finish the song with two additional verses. Dondria encouraged the students to brainstorm ideas for the lyrics by thinking of words and concepts that connected to the theme of the song: getting together with friends and having a good time.

Day 2 “The Classroom: Part 2”

After school, the Poet-Athletes were jumping out of their seats and peering out of classroom 201 waiting in anticipation for Dondria’s arrival so they could continue working on their song collaboration.  At exactly 4:15, a boy yelled to his class, “She’s here!”  Immediately, all the kids rushed to their seats with their eyes fixed on the doorway awaiting Dondria’s entrance.  Dondria arrived in a whirl of positive energy carrying a stack of their printed lyrics with the credits at the bottom pronouncing, “Written and Performed by Dondria aka Phatfffat and Steven’s Park Poet-Athletes.”  Then it was down to business.  The students rehearsed the song and practiced singing with rhythm.  Once she felt the students were ready, Dondria had them practice singing the song with the instrumental track.  Dondria was kind and patient with the students during the entire process and encouraged them to express their experiences through words and song.

Day 3 “The Studio”
On Wednesday, the students filed onto a school bus that whisked them away to nearby Crystal Clear Studios.  As the bus approached the studio, the excitement intensified and the kids tumbled out of the bus ready to start their recording session.  In the studio, Dondria greeted the students and immediately ushered them into place around the four microphones.  Together, Dondria and the students huddled in a circle around the microphones and listened to the instrumental track and the control room operator’s instructions on their over-sized studio headphones.  In alternating intervals they sang, clapped and laughed, filling the recording studio with their voices.  Dondria encouraged every student to sing and have fun, while also inspiring them by lending her own skilled vocals to the track.  By the end of the night, the students were exhausted, but grateful for the chance to meet and sing with Dondria in a professional recording studio.  They left the studio that night with an aura of pride, joy and accomplishment.

America SCORES Dallas and the students at Steven’s Park sincerely appreciate this opportunity made possible by ASCAP and the incredibly talented, Dondria aka Phatfffat.  The album of songs produced through the partnership between ASCAP and America SCORES, including “Let’s Party,” will be released in Spring 2011.

Poem of the Week

My Class 

By: Fernando, Grade 5

Cesar Chavez Learning Center

My class is like a zoo

when they scream a lot

My class looks like a snake

when they get out of line

My class is like crazy monkeys

 when they talk a lot

My class looks like traffic

 when they are in line

My class is like a circus

when they run around too much

On the playground or at recess

My class are like tigers

when they run so much or when they are really fast

Poem of the Week

What did they do to my Beautiful Earth?

By: Hector, Grade 5

Cesar Chavez Learning Center

I’m up in the sky looking at people

Throwing trash to the floor 

I say, “No, No you better pick that up”

I was so angry for what they did to my earth

People cutting trees

The Earth was so sad

She felt so brown

There was no oxygen

People look what they did to our Earth

The Garbages were so full

No more trash could fit

There were a lot of factories

The air was not clear

It turned into something awful that no person could smell it

It surrounded the whole world

The next day I was so mad

I just wanted to make the greatest thunderstorm

And I did

I splashed everything

Not even a crumb of trash

Everyone was happy

No more factories that spread out the smoke

I am always watching 

For those days I have not forgotten in the sky

I am a cloud

And I will never forget what they did to my Beautiful Earth 

Stay In Stride With America SCORES Dallas

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Upcoming Goal Posts:  

• 7th Annual SoccerBall Auction Raises over $180,000
• Poet-Athletes at Steven's Park elementary record song with ASCAP artist Dondria aka Phatfffat. 

Game Day: Cesar Chavez v Anson Jones!

Last Friday, it was sunny, breezy and buzzing with excitement at Cesar Chavez’s playground. The boys and girls decked out in the bright orange jersey of Cesar Chavez  huddled at one end of the field, and the other boys and girls in the dark navy jersey of Anson Jones ran warm-up drills at the other end. Parents lined the freshly painted lines of the soccer field, setting up chairs under the shade of a big oak tree. Game Day had finally arrived. Maureen, our Program Coordinator, snapped pictures like the paparazzi capturing the excited and nervous faces of our poet-athletes. A little girl ran over to her, "Can I see the pictures?! Am I in one?" 

Then Jarrod, our Americorps VISTA, blew the whistle, the coaches yelled instructions and soon the starting players were out on the field and the girls' game had begun! The ball bounced back and forth between the two goals and the girls ran and kicked their hearts out. A mom paced behind one of the goals shouting encouraging words at her daughter and a little brother ran up and down the side lines enthralled with the action. When the final whistle blew, all the girls and the coaches lined up to congratulate each other on a game well played.

The boys' game started with a flurry of excited yells and a stampede of boys running after the flying ball. One of the older boys from Anson Jones wove through Cesar Chavez's defense and sunk the ball into the back of the net, the crowd going wild. Victorious, he ran back to the center line, bent down on one knee and pointed to the sky like a true pro player in training. Cesar Chavez, unfazed, kicked-off again and continued to have fun playing their long awaited game of soccer. 

Exhausted, the kids slowly left the huddle of their teammates to join their proud parents and go home, already anticipating the next Game Day.

The Goal Post

America SCORES Dallas is proud to welcome you to its very first blog entry here at the Goal Post. America SCORES Dallas has been serving students ages 8-12 in the Dallas/Fort-Worth area for the past seven years by providing a safe and enriching after school program comprised of soccer, poetry, and service learning. Weekly, students spend ninety minutes every day after school, led by their respective coaches, either improving their teamwork and physical fitness through soccer, or improving their creativity and reading skills through poetry. 

America SCORES Dallas is an affiliate of the America SCORES program, a national 501(c)3 non-profit which is made up of over 15 different  affiliates from around the country and serves over 6,000 under-resourced youth annually. 

Currently, America SCORES Dallas poet-athletes are working tirelessly writing their new poems for SLAM!, a poetry slam held in Dallas on December 10th.  Students will compete for not only bragging rights, but some will be competing for the chance to travel to New York City to compete in America SCORES National Slam!

One of our schools, Cesar Chavez, has been kind enough to share one of their excellent works:

MY COMMUNITY by AMERICA SCORES CHAVEZ GIRLS

My community has a lot of things                                                                        

It has my family and friends and my neighbor that sings                                    

It has schools, doctors, and stores                                                                        

It has my family and It has Dallas Scores                                                             

My community has plants and that is what I smell                                             

My community has sounds like when children yell                                              

Some of it is dirty and some people are mean                                     

That is why we work together to make it clean                                                   

We make it cleaner for a better tomorrow                                                          

Well at least my community is cooler than Mr. Mauro                       

Soccer, Soccer that’s Why I’m Here                                                                      

Soccer, Soccer I could play it all year                                                                     

Cesar Chavez was a leader in our community                                      

That is the way I want to be                                                                                 

We painted our school to make it beautiful                                                                         

We taught others how to be more kindful                                                           

Dallas Scores taught us to write                                                                           

It taught us how to be nice                                                                                   

They say that this program will keep us on track                                 

I say that I just feel good about giving back                                                         

Sometimes we see homeless people in the street                                              

We give a hand and help them get back on their feet                         

It brings sad things to my heart and mind                                                            

We wanted to do something kind                                                                         

We collected cans to donate                                                                                 

Community means that you love, not hate                                                           

In scores we learned a lot about poetry                                                               

We also learned a lot about our community                                                        

And now it is over and we want to say Thank YOU!                                            

To our parents, our teachers, our coaches and You,                                             

Dallas Scores, the board and the donors                                                               

Without you we would not have had had this honor                                            

You have made our dreams possible and that is a fact                       

To make others dreams possible, we will always remember to give back.        

THANK YOU    

Please check back regularly for updates, articles, and upcoming event details!