{"id":570,"date":"2012-05-18T16:13:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T23:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/?p=570"},"modified":"2012-05-18T16:13:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T23:13:43","slug":"guest-blogger-marty-mannion-poet-athlete-finds-his-voice-through-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/2012\/05\/18\/guest-blogger-marty-mannion-poet-athlete-finds-his-voice-through-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger: Marty Mannion, Poet-Athlete Finds His Voice Through Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Written By: Marty Mannion, Education Director-America SCORES Bay Area<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong>Anthony Spears barely spoke to anyone other than his parents during 1st<\/sup> and 2nd grade at ER Taylor Elementary School.\u00a0 Looking back he explained \u201cIt was hard to talk to strangers the most because you don\u2019t know them.\u00a0 How are you supposed to talk to people you don\u2019t know?\u201d\u00a0 Anthony\u2019s anxiety highlights the fundamental challenge facing teachers at the beginning of the school year.\u00a0 They must transform a room full of \u201cstrangers\u201d into a team of students that support each other in writing, sharing and learning together. \u00a0This is especially challenging with students who are new to the country or dealing with poverty.<\/p>\n

Anthony and hundreds of other students each year who struggle in the traditional classroom setting find the answer in America SCORES Bay Area\u2019s magic mix of soccer, writing and community service.\u00a0 After school students practice soccer and write poetry with their team and on Saturdays they compete against other schools, where they also share poems before each game.<\/p>\n

You might wonder, “A soccer and\u00a0writing program?\u00a0 Why and how?\u201d\u00a0 America SCORES helps students discover that writing is a social action and writing is for everybody.\u00a0 It is a dialogue between a speaker and the world, which must include a responsive, safe audience.\u00a0 What better audience and writing community is there than a team that is already working together towards a common goal?<\/p>\n

When poet-athletes on America SCORES teams want to be heard by their teammates, opponents, coaches or communities, they have no choice but to become the author of their own story.\u00a0 Most of all, poetry and soccer make a great team because they both know how to have fun!\u00a0 The America SCORES Bay Area program is a year-long festival and celebration of all that children have to say, and all the soccer they can play.<\/p>\n

For students like Anthony, joining the America SCORES team transforms the school experience from a building full of strangers to a team full of friends who value each other’s writing. \u00a0Only after every student experiences this transformation can we expect them to stay engaged and meet their full potential in the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written By: Marty Mannion, Education Director-America SCORES Bay Area Anthony Spears barely spoke to anyone other than his parents during 1st and 2nd grade at ER Taylor Elementary School.\u00a0 Looking back he explained \u201cIt was hard to talk to strangers the most because you don\u2019t know them.\u00a0 How are you supposed to talk to people … Continue reading Guest Blogger: Marty Mannion, Poet-Athlete Finds His Voice Through Soccer<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,6],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kqed_research_local_ag","category-kqed_research_ag","category-kqed_youthmedia_ag"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}