Maya's 1st published article

Here's Maya's first article
Published May 30, 2008

My little Billy Bob
By Maya Trujillo

Friday, May 9, 2008 my dad bought me a scooter. He bought it because I haven't seen him in years and I'm almost 16. It was his gift to me as if he was saying "I'm making it up to you." I decided to call my scooter Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie. I don't know why I gave it that name, but I did.

The next day my mom, Guillermo (my mom's boyfriend) and I went up to the Luciernaga (the San Miguel mall) so I could practice for the very first time on Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie. It is a wine red color and it is an Elite 125. I am afraid of it. It is bigger than me and much much heavier.

After being able to drive it in a parking lot which is new, smooth and paved, with almost no cars, I came to the conclusion that I am afraid of cars, people walking in the street, bumps, holes, rocks, turning, stopping, falling and balancing on Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie.

My mom bought me a small black helmet the next day to go with the aviator glasses I "have to wear" to protect my eyes from dirt. I tried ridding in front of my house and around the neighborhood by myself. This time, it was a lot harder because we have no streets and there are more holes and rocks. I tried to tell myself I could do it on my own and prove that I am not afraid and I'm not a total coward.

Riding around I come to a turn. I hate turns. I'm afraid of them. And just to make my life worse...a car comes in front of me (which I am also afraid of) and I stop really fast to let it go by. Unfortunately for me, I was stuck in a hole. That's not the worst part though. The worst part was that I was on a hill stuck in a hole. Plus, Billy Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie was tilting way more then I can handle. I was so scared, I dropped the scooter. I waited for someone to walk by and help me lift it off the ground, get it out of the hole and turn it around. So a guy finally did. I thanked him.

"It's OK. You were just afraid." he said not knowing what had happened, but I believed it was pretty obvious.

As I was on my way back home, there was a wind storm and I was in the middle of it. Since my streets aren't paved, there is dust flying in the air and I had to wait 15 minutes before I could see anything. When I finally got home, my hands were shaking. I was really scared. It made me not want to have a scooter anymore.

I know I need to keep trying and I know I should conquer my fears. Even though my mom is always happy to have her own scooter, I will not give Billy Bob up. But she is always welcome to drive it or drive me.

Week 5

We didn't get a chance to meet with Suzanne this morning because she had an urgent meeting. The girls this week are going to send their updates to Suzanne for comments via email.

And the big news is Maya had her first article published! Check it out!!!!!!!

http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/index.php?enghome

Not What I was Expecting... #2

A couple of weeks ago, on a Thursday, I was hanging out at Kirby's house, like always. Kirby is one of my best friends, and i always go to her house, weather its for dance or a TV show or just hanging out. I had gone over there (no surprise) to watch LOST one of our favorite TV shows, this is a ritual, not watching LOST would be like dying every Thursday night, no kidding. Kirby and I always watch LOST on Thursdays because that is when it comes on. Normally there isn't anything too creepy on that show, because, well, its just about a bunch of people lost on an island. Well Kirby and I were getting kind of hungry and we always eat something before the show, so we had gone up to the kitchen to find a snack or something to eat right before the show started. We walked up to the kitchen, our stomachs craving something incredibly delicious. Kirby looked in the pantry for some chips or popcorn or something and I looked in the fridge for whatever left over there might be in there, we couldn't find anything. We were slowly losing hope and our stomachs were moaning. We were really hungry. We looked in every container that we could find. And then I spotted it. A lonely container sitting on the counter. It was your average tupperware, where food is stored in, to not go bad. I wondered what was in it, we hadn't found anything that looked appealing to us yet. This looked like a possibility, so why not? I picked up the container to see what was inside, but the plastic was translucent. I picked it up, shook it a little, looked at the bottom, but i still couldn't figure out what was inside. I took the lid off, as if to open a container of nuts or something, and screamed. There was a giant dryed-out, hairy, brown, totally dead tarantula just lying there. It was staring at me with its beady little eyes, and it looked evil. It was scary!!!! This was very weird because I'm not afraid of insects or spiders or anything like that. When I was younger i had picked up a baby scorpion and petted it, this should not have scared me. I was taken by surprise. I mean who expects to find a tarantula, when you are expecting to see something like grapes or pasta or something? But this totally scared me to death. Jody, Kirby's mom, had found the tarantula on the beach in the sand while she was in Oaxaca. She had brought it home and given it to Wyatt, Kirby's younger brother. He had put it in the container, and placed it in the kitchen to see who would open it and get scared. Apparently, his joke worked.

Another Party Pic

Splish Slash

Savannah's pool party on Friday!

Week 4

For our 4th meeting, the girls printed their blog entries for Suzanne and she went over each of them.
For Maya Suzanne began with her Q & A's from Doris and gave the following suggestions:

• Divide the questions into 3 categories: 1 Doris the dancer, 2 Doris the person, 3 Info on the upcoming performances
• Ask some follow up questions about Doris' position at Recreo, get her position, title, correct name spelling
• Read thru the questions and notice the rhythm - not making each too long so the reader has "breathing room"
• make note of the questions Maya would be willing to have edited out if there's not enough room
• Deadline is this coming Wed. for the piece
• Send me a draft first on Mon for review and I will return to her by Tues.
• Include photos
  
• Make a post on blog site

For Melissa piece on the tarantula, Suzanne's comments were:

• Divide in 3 parts: 1 set the scene, 2 the surprise, 3 the ending
• Give more information on Kirby, why you're there, what you're doing, what you're hungry for...showing, not telling
• Possibly tie in jungle island thoughts from Lost after seeing the tarantula
• work on ending - tying it up
• Blog your updates
  

For Kirby's piece on the goat, Suzanne's comments were:

• Set the scene more, i.e. what kind of school, more description
• what were kids doing at lunch, soccer, activities, etc.
• what does the area around the school look like
• what did kids do when goat wondered into the school yard
• describe the goat, his leash, etc. and what he did in the classroom
  
• give kids responses in Spanish
• give teacher's response
  
• what the goat's owner did
• Blog your updates
  

For Maya's piece on the scooter, Suzanne overall like it - wanted her to make some minor corrections and check spelling. She wants this piece sent in on Sunday to go into the paper with another scooter article that's been written.

Kirby and Melissa need to put their Q&A's up on the blog

Good job girls!

Qs and As from Doris

1.What were your dreams before you became a dancer?

  I actually wanted to be a singer when I was young.

2.What are your dreams now that you are a dancer?

  To be a better dance teacher and choreographer so the pieces I       create touches people and work with professional dancers.

3.What has been your most embarrassing moment on stage?

  When a choreographer decided to present a piece in a poetry          festival and our dance had nothing to do with the theme, so the    audience had an open dislike. It wasn't only embarrassing for me,  but for all the dancers too.

4. What is good about working with teenagers?

   They have energy, they are very creative and funny.If they really    want to learn how to dance they are interested in my class.      Working with teenagers for me is a big challenge for my personal growth as a teacher and a professional. 

5. What is bad about working with teenagers?

  Nothing. They can be challenging though. 

6. Did you go to a dancing school?Where?

  Yes, I did. In Germany, Bellas Artes in Toluca and a private dance studio in Mexico City.

7. Why do you like dancing?

  It makes me feel good. I guess I like to express myself through  movement and I think dance is a universal language that can be  understood everywhere. 

8.What is your greatest fear?

  Being paralized I guess. ha ha!

9.Did your parents encourage you to dance?

  Not really. I actually made another career because of them. I'm a  chemical analyst. 

10.Did they accept or like the fact that you came to Mexico?

  No. Not really. They felt it was too far away and we wouldn't see  each other very often.

11.What is your idea of perfect happiness?

  My idea of perfect happiness is to find a balance between my professional life and my private family life. Also that my family is living in harmony. 

12.Which living person do you most admire?

  I don't think I could put it in one person. I admire great writers. I admire people that fight for ecology and that make a difference in the social environment. 

13.What do you dislike about yourself?

 I'm actually pretty at peace with myself.

14.Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

  "5,6,7,8." and "From the top." and "Ready?"

15.If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

   Thats a hard question. I would have to think about it.

16.What would you consider your greatest achievement?

  Starting a performing art school inside an already existing  institution which is the Recreo. Another great achievement was  having three children that are all wonderful young people. 

17. What is your most treasured possession?

   My music collection. I couldn't live without it.

18.What is it that you most dislike?

  Ignorance towards environment and poverty.

19.On what occasion do you lie?

  I don't. I learned from a very early age that I shouldn't.

20.What is your greatest regret?

  That I didn't take the advantages of learning new things when I  had the opportunity. 

21. When and where were you happiest? 

  One of my happiest moments was ridding on a wonderful horse in the  middle of an open field and I had a tremendous moment of freedom  and liberty. Also when my children were born. Some of the  performances I've had. I actually had many happy moments in my life. 

22.Where do you see the Sindicato in 5 years?

  I would like to see it with a lot of students interested in art: dance,music and theater and being able to give scholarships to the ones who want to dance but cant pay for it. 

  

A couple of weeks ago, on a Thursday, I was hanging out at Kirby's house, like always. I had gone over there (no surprise) to watch LOST one of our favorite TV shows, this is a ritual, no kidding. Well Kirby and I had gone up to the kitchen to find a snack or something to eat right before the show started. Kirby looked in the pantry and I looked in the fridge, we couldn't find anything that we wanted to eat. Then I spotted a container sitting on the counter. I picked it up to see what was inside but the plastic wasn't translucent, so I took the lid off and screamed. There was a giant dryed-out, hairy, brown, totally dead tarantula just lying there. This was very weird because I'm not really afraid of insects or spiders or anything like that, when I was younger i had even picked up a baby scorpion, this should not have scared me. I guess I was taken by surprise to find a tarantula when i was expecting to see something like grapes or pasta or something, but this totally scared me to death. Although I have to admit, it was very funny!

Freakishly Scary (for me anyway)

Friday, May 9Th 2008 my dad bought me a scooter. 

He bought it because I haven't seen him in years and I'm almost 16. It was his gift to me as if he was saying "I'm making it up to you." 

I decided to call my scooter Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie. I don't know why I gave it that name, but I did. 

 The next day my mom, Guillermo (my mom's boyfriend) and I went up to the Luciernaga so I could practice for the very first time on Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie. It is a wine red color and it is an Elite 125. I am afraid of it. It is bigger than me and much much heavier. 

 After being able to drive it in a parking lot, I came to the conclusion that I am afraid of cars, people walking in the street, bumps, holes, rocks, turning, stopping, falling and balancing on Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie. 

 My mom bought me a helmet the next day to go with the glasses I "have to wear." I tried ridding in front of my house and around the neighborhood  by myself. This time, it was a lot harder because we have no streets and there are more holes and rocks. I tried to tell myself I could do it on my own and prove that I am not afraid and I'm not a total coward.

Riding around I come to a turn. I hate turns. I'm afraid of them. And just to make my life worse...a car comes in front of me (which I am also afraid of) and I stop really fast to let it go by. Unfortunately for me, I was stuck in a hole. That's not the worst part though. The worst part was that I was on a hill stuck in a hole. Plus, Billy Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie was tilting way more then I can handle. I was so scared, I dropped the scooter. 

 I waited for someone to walk by and help me lift it off the ground, get it out of the hole and turn it around. So a guy finally did. I thanked him. 

 "It's ok. You were just afraid." he said not knowing what had happened, but I believed it was pretty obvious. 

 As I was on my way back home, there was a wind storm and I was in the middle of it. Since my streets aren't paved, there is dust flying in the air and I had to wait 15 minutes before I could see anything. When I finally got home, my hands were shaking. I was  really scared. It made me not want to have a scooter anymore. 

 I know I need to keep trying and I know I should conquer my fears. 

Although my mom is always happy to have her own scooter. 

           

   -Maya & Billy Bob Thorton Mackenzie

Bob the Goat

Today I'm in the mood for writing and there's no better place than the San Miguel blog. I think I will tell you all a story from school

About four years ago when I went to my old school, Atabal, Melissa and I were sitting outside eating lunch by the soccer field. I guess you could call it a soccer field even though it didn't have grass or goals. We were talking and suddenly a goat appeared. You know....just an everyday goat with a funny beard-looking clump of hair on his chin. All the kids came over to see him. He had a leash around his neck, assuming that his owner was walking him, u know...like normal. I can't exactly remember what his name was so we'll just call him Bob for now. We all assumed that Bob's owner would eventually kill Bob and eat him so we decided to hide him in the classroom. Bob hung out with us for about 2 hours in class and eventually left with his owner but he was pretty cool. Definitely coolest goat I've ever met...

3rd group meeting

We met with Suzanne this morning and she reviewed the girls' interview questions and gave suggestions. From here they are to complete their interviews and begin writing their articles for next week. By Tues. they are to email me and/or post here their first drafts for comments.

We talked about the reverse pyramid approach to journalism writing, by putting the most important information first and least important last so an editor, when needing to cut a story, will start at the bottom.

Suzanne told the girls to just begin writing and then look for what would most likely be the lead paragraph (often it's about 3 paragraphs down when you begin writing). The lead paragraph has to have a "hook" - something that catches the readers' attention and draws them in.

She also asked the girls to write a separate story about a personal experience that was either funny or sad; something that evoked emotion for the reader.

Finally we worked on the blog profiles and got everyone's account set up so they can now post thru their acct and not mine.

We're on our way!
Jody

Questions For Doris

Here are some questions that I came up with to ask Doris for our interview: 

Why do you like dancing?

Did your parents ever encourage you to dance?

Did they accept or like the fact that you came to Mexico?

What is bad and what is good about working with teenagers?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Which living person do you most admire?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

On what occasion do you lie?

What are your dreams for the future?

ok so those are a few questions, but not all of them. 

I also have a brief idea of how I am going to write my interview:

I describe the place I interview her in; sitting on the dance floor. 

Then, I describe Doris. 

I ask her questions.

In between the questions i write interruptions For example: Her water spills and she then, cleans it up. 

I write my opinion about how I think she is so interesting. 

Finally, I end with my conclusion. 

OH! and at the very end I'll advertise Doris' show at the Sindicato and the Angela Peralta. 

Teen Interviews

Kirby & Melissa:


This week we have been working on interviewing other teens around town. For the interviews we asked only one question. This is what we have asked:

We are doing an article in the Atencion about the different teen activities in San Miguel and we would like to know what activities you are involved in after school and on weekends, where you go to hang out and what you would like to see available for teens in San Miguel.

So far we have interviewed 8 people.

These are the interviews we have so far:


name: Savannah Cooley age: 13 school: Victoria Robbins gender: Female nationality: American

"I am involved with two extra curricular activities. I take dance and play the violin. On the weekends I like to go to the movies or hang out in the jardin with friends. Generally I'm pretty busy on weekends. I think that San Miguel should have an ice rink because all ages would enjoy it and it would be profitable."

name: Cameron Jones age: 14 school: Victoria Robbins gender: Male nationality: American

" I hang out with friends and I like to go to the movies. I would like an ice skating rink or a bowling alley; I think it would be fun."

name: Juan Jose Lopez age: 17 school: Pipila gender: Male nationality: Mexican

"The activity I enjoy doing after school is singing. I think San Miguel could use more sport centers."

name: Alex Rolland age: 15 school: Victoris Robbins gender: Male nationality: American

"I would like to see a place for teens to hang out and coexist....... haha,
as for after school activities... they are pretty much
nothing. I walk dogs for money, and I have a guitar lesson
once a week. I'd like to see maybe some sort of a community center,
just a place for kids to chill and stay out of
trouble, although, Im sure that wouldn't even make
that much of a difference.

But on a secondary note, the reason this town has so
many drug problems is because teens have no where to
go and nothing to do.But other than that, week days
theres nothing for teens to do."

For this next one, we interviewed Doris Van Bebber about her two sons, Nico 17 and
Mattias 14.

"My oldest son goes home, works, hangs out with his
friends at bars, and likes to play music. My other son
sits at home most of the time, takes music lessons
mostly piano and takes a Kung Fu class. What I would
like to see more of in San Miguel are more sports
teams, and more community centers like the Sindicato,
but maybe for purposes other than dance and such like here."

These are the interviews we have collected so far and we hope to get more from teens at other schools and more teachers and parents.




Kirby & Melissa

Week 2

We met with Suzanne and the girls each discussed their outline ideas.

Melissa and Kirby have decided to work together on a story about what teens do with their free time in San Miguel. They are to come up with a good interview question and begin interviewing teens and people who know about teens in SMA, such as teachers and parents of teens.

Maya wants to do a profile article on her dance teacher Doris and her assignment was to come up with interview questions for Doris.

Suzanne talked with the girls about doing interviews and asked them each to find a magazine article that has an interview in it and to single out the questions/answers they liked and why.

She also asked the girls to find a website that give tips on journalism writing.

We also agreed to start a blog that we will all contribute to and send to Vic to keep her updated on the class.

We're meeting again this Friday at the Cafe Santa Ana at 9.

Hasta pronto!

Getting started

May 2, 2008

The girls and I met with Suzanne the first time to discuss ideas and how to get started on their journalism projects for the Atencion.

Each of the girls talked about their ideas of what to write about and Suzanne gave suggestions on what to pursue.

It was decided that the girls could either work together on a story or work individually.

The focus of their writings were to be from a teen perspective.

Suzanne wanted them to each think about something interesting and appealing and for the following week to bring in an outline on what they'd like to write about.

Below are the outlines each girl turned in:

From Maya:
5/5/08
I think it would be a good idea if I or we or who ever, go around asking teenagers (or what ever they are) where they are from and then interview them about how they feel about leaving their home town. What it was like to leave friends and family behind and come to a new country. If they like it here. If it is hard or was hard for them to make new friends. If it was difficult to accustom to a new place.

And I also think we mentioned interviewing teens on their after school activities and how long they've been taking them. If they take classes just to do something or they really love it and want to be good at what they are doing.

From Melissa
5/5/08
I would like to do an opinion essay about what is
needed for teenagers in San Miguel. I think that this
would be fun to write because I can express what I
feel about this and it is something that I feel
connected to. Not many people think about this or have
any idea of what a teenagers life in San Miguel is
without things to do like activities and such and so I
would like to inform people about this.
I will state ideas of what SMA needs, how it will
affect the teenage life, possible about teenage life
in San Miguel.
Some of my questions for Susan:
How many words should this essay have?
What font?
Who should this be directed to?
How personal should I get?
Do I need to interview other teens about this?
How strongly should I state my opinion and how
directly?

From Kirby
5/5/08

The Need for a Teen Center in San Miguel

This article will be about creating a teen center for San Miguel. Although there are many activities in San Miguel, there aren’t very many places for only teens to hang out. This article will be an investigation piece because we aren’t sure whether there are other places for teens so we would like to find out.

· We will talk about how we would like the teen center to be. Whether it would be owned by the city, or privately owned, what kind of entertainment it would have, whether there would be adult supervision, where it would be located, or what we would like it to look like.

· The best way to find out how teens would like the teen center to be is to interview people. We will interview 10 people, 5 girls, 5 boys, through the ages 12 -16. We would also like to interview teens that are Mexican and American and other nationalities because there are many teens living here from other parts of the world.

· We would like to talk about why a teen center would be such a good idea for San Miguel. How teens would have something more to do and a new place to hang out with other teens.

· There are teen centers in other cities that we could mention in comparison such as the Aspen teen center.

Once we have a clear idea of teens would like, we will make a list of questions to ask the city.

A few questions for Suzanne:

In what format would you like it to be written? i.e. which font, double-spaced, etc.

1. Should we include a picture? (of another teen center maybe)
2. Once we develop questions from our topic, to whom in the city should we speak to?
3. How many words?
4. Should we state our opinion too?