March 2, 2010March 1-5 is NIE week!

   This week, March 1-5, is Newspaper In Education Week, commemorating the partnership between newspapers, teachers and parents to connect young readers to their community and enrich learning using the newspaper.
Please promote this year’s new teacher guide, “Critical Thinking Through Core Curriculum: Using Print and Digital Newspapers,” to your teachers. The guide offers elementary and secondary activities on financial literacy, nutrition, environment, character education and information technology. Activities are correlated to Missouri’s learning standards.
 
The Missouri adaption of this guide from the Newspaper Association of America Foundation can be accessed by newspapers and teachers at www.mo-nie.com using the download code: niewk10. You are free to promote this access information or to post this guide on your Web site.
 
This week is a great opportunity to share what you are doing in your community to reach out to young readers – write an editorial, publish a story, take some pictures. Missouri Press has a few political cartoons and guest editorials available at www.mo-nie.com using download codes: mocartoon and nieops.
 
Happy Newspaper In Education Week!
Dawn
 
Dawn Kitchell
Educational Services Director
Missouri Press Association & Foundation
Phone & Fax: (636)932-4301
kitchell@yhti.net

February 22, 2010March Book Buzz is life-changing!

Heroes in Other Lands

It’s common to feel like we’ve got problems. But our troubles are minimal compared to the situations the characters in my March books are up against. A boy from Haiti, a girl from Afghanistan and a young man from India have to reach deep and believe in themselves as they face adversity with grace.

Newsbee is amazed at their courage and thinks you will bee too! Hope you enjoy these enlightening titles about “Heroes in Other Lands.”

Every country has its customs — in Haiti, when a child is born a tree is planted. That’s exactly what young Facile wants to do in “Circles of Hope,” a heart-rending book by Karen Lynn Williams.

   

Imagine being a girl and not being able to get an education. That was the case in Afghanistan when the Taliban reigned from 1996-2001.

“Nasreen’s Secret School” by Jeanette Winter is the fictional story of a girl from the city of Herat whose grandmother was determined that she would learn — at any cost.

Based on a true story, Nasreen’s quest for knowledge is revealed in sparse text and in brilliantly detailed illustrations framed on each page.

 

Drought forces a family from their village in India to the overcrowded city of Mumbai. There a boy is separated from his family, and enslaved to produce trinkets that will be sold in the Western world.

That’s the premise of a moving new novel, “Boys Without Names,” by Kashmira Sheth. Eleven-year-old Gopal is distraught when his father tells him they will be moving. But there will be work in the city, and a place for the family to live.

Gopal feels an obligation to put food on the table. He falls for the lies of a boy who says he can get him a job in a factory. But Gopal is tricked—drugged, kidnapped and forced to work in a boarded-up building for hours on end alongside other boys who have been taken by force.

Though “Boys Without Names” is a work of fiction, its author includes notes in the back of the novel detailing statistics of child labor in India.

Reprinted with permission, Missourian Publishing Company. Copyright 2010.

 

December 28, 2009January Book Buzz is inspirational!

Characters With Courage

 Have a yen for adventure in 2010? Try taking a risk — get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself to the limit like the “Characters With Courage” in my January Picks.

You’ll learn a lot about being brave from a king with plenty of pluck, a gal who won’t take “No” for an answer and a girl who makes it her mission to visit sick children and entertain them with a story.

In the New Year, live Newsbee’s motto, keep “Paging On!”

Great discoveries are made by people who question — like the royal star of “The King of Quizzical Island,” by Gordon Snell. The king makes up his mind to prove that the world is round not flat — so he builds a boat and sets sail, much to the dismay of his friends who worry for his safety.

 

An imp of a girl with a big dream — that’s Imogene, the main character in “Imogene’s Last Stand,” by Candace Fleming. The child enjoys learning about famous folks and their contributions, and she wants to make a mark on history too. She gets her opportunity when she discovers the Liddleville Historical Society, an ages-old building “stuffed with dusty antiques.”

Don’t be fooled by the cover of “The Giant-Slayer,” by Iain Lawrence. The novel is much more than a fantasy — it’s the tale of a girl in the 1950s that has a friend with polio. To entertain him, and the other children in the ward, Laurie tells them a story she makes up about a boy on a quest.

Reprinted with permission, Missourian Publishing Company. Copyright 2010.

 

December 17, 2009New Feature centers on George Caleb Bingham

Join the 2010 Reading Across Missouri project and reach out to readers of all ages in your community in January with our free serial story, “Colorful Characters,” about Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham.

This is the fifth year that Missouri Press Foundation has organized this project to get young people across the state inside their newspapers reading together and learning about Missouri history.

Author Kay Hively, illustrator Billie Gofourth-Stewart and the Missouri Press Foundation are donating the use of the story “Colorful Characters” to all Missouri newspapers that begin publishing the story in January. After January, the story will go into our catalog of serials available for sale nationwide.

The story is eight chapters, each camera-ready in a 4-column by 10-inch feature. Each chapter includes classroom activities correlated to Missouri’s learning standards. A companion teacher guide is available at no cost. You may copy this guide for your teachers, put the PDF on your Web site or offer your teachers the link to our posting at mo-nie.com using download code: teachmo10.

“Colorful Characters” is about a young George Caleb Bingham growing up along the Missouri River. This young
boy’s fascination with the colorful characters who were going west in the 1820s became his subjects on canvas.

Those of you already providing classroom newspapers should be sure to let teachers know the story is coming
so they can prepare to use it with their students. Teachers will find the teacher guide very valuable, so alert them to this resource.

If you aren’t delivering newspapers to your schools, this is a great way to get started. Many of Missouri’s newspapers have banks, law firms and other businesses sponsoring classroom copies or the cost of the space in the newspaper. To recognize them, you can add an inch or so onto each feature to include the sponsors’ logos.

A teacher in your school or the principal can help you reach teachers interested in ordering classroom newspapers. Include information on the story, when the newspapers will be delivered and the duration of the project. Ask how many copies each teacher would like to have – one per student is ideal.

A promotional ad (inset) was created just for this project. At the bottom of the ad is room for you to add your logo and the date the story will begin to be published in your newspaper. You may download the ad, all eight chapter features and the teacher guide at www.mo-nie.com using download code: readmo10.

Remember, this story is available at no cost to you only until the end of January. Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to join the 2010 Reading Across Missouri campaign and reach out to readers in your community with your newspaper.

OLDER NEWS