14 The Courier sun • OCTOBER 9, 2014 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com ISABELLA Isabella Taxilaga was the grand prize winner of the Be Kind People Project’s nationals student writing contest. My name is Isabella and I am in the second grade at P.S. 122 in Astoria. My favorite things to do are reading, writing and drawing. I love to write poems, songs and stories about my family and what I feel. I really love doing this job and I’m very happy and proud to write for everybody. Writing help BY ISABELLA TAXILAGA Writing is an important skill to have. When you are older you might want to become an author of a famous book or a journalist or you can write for fun. When you write it is like showing people a movie in their mind. They can see what you were writing because you “showed” them every detail. For example, you can’t just say, “I went to the park,” you should write — “I went to the park and I went on this humongous and bumpy slide.” Writing is fun. You can write every day! I have some tips to help you get started: 1. Get a notebook that you love and a nice pen. 2. You can write messy, but if you do you can go back and fix it later. 3. Draw lots of pictures. Where to write? I can help you with some more of my ideas: 1. Do it in class, but only during your free time or activity time. 2. At home, after your homework of course, or at night just like I do. 3. At the park. 4. On the bus. I hope you have fun writing in these places. These are the places I love the most. Writing makes me really happy so I hope you try some of these ideas and have a great time! Write, write, write as much as you can. THE COURIER/Photo by Salvatore Licata P.S. 207 offers a free after-school program. Howard Beach has a new, free after-school program BY SALVATORE LICATA [email protected]/@Sal_Licata1 P.S. 207 in Howard Beach now has a new after-school program that benefits students beyond the school’s enrollment. The program, which is open to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, is free and will accommodate any student who is able to arrive by 3 p.m., no matter which school he or she attends, said Michael Taylor, afterschool program director for P.S. 207. “The cornerstones of structure for the program are STEM science, technology, engineering and math, literature and leadership,” Taylor said. “We provide a successful model for children to follow.” The after-school program is called School’s Out New York City (SONYC) and is run by the Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF). P.S. 207 is one of the 33 schools in which SASF established new programs for the 2014-15 school year. The program runs five days a week from 2:30 to 5 p.m. It mixes both intellectual and physical activities to fully engage the students, Taylor said. These include studies in core curriculum, newspaper writing, video editing and activities in gymnastics, basketball, yoga and Zumba, among others. Educators will also work with students on leadership skills, engaging them in teen talk, community service, student counseling and peer mentoring. “Our job is to make sure kids are not only occupied but that we keep them productive,” Taylor said. “With this model, the sky is the limit.” Students will also work on programs such as Middle School Today, High School Tomorrow, where they will visit schools and learn different things about the high school application process to better prepare them for their futures. Furthermore, the program will take students on field trips to places such as Coney Island and to productions such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical” at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. “We were given top-quality resources to run the program which allows us to do a lot of different activities,” Taylor said. “Our desire is to get kids engaged and provide a fun learning environment.” To learn more about the program, email ps207@sasfny. org or call 718-848-2700 and ask for Michael Taylor. Flushing school to be part of city biking program Photo courtesy of East-West School of International Studies The school applied for a bike to school program and it will be the first Queens school to be included in the city’s project. BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ @ericjankiewicz [email protected] Teenaged bikers are coming to Flushing, with the backing of the city. The Department of Transportation (DOT) has accepted a Flushing school’s application to participate in a biking program that would develop bike routes for students to use in their commutes to school, according to the school’s spokeswoman, Polly Chea. The three-year program started last year, and East-West School of International Studies, a sixth through 12th grade public school, will be the first Queens school to participate in the DOT project. Schools are selected through an annual competitive application process. Throughout the program, schools work with the DOT and community partners to develop safe bike routes for kids to use to get to school. The school will also install bike racks and create a bike club, for the more hardcore bikers. Chea said that the school will be holding a bike-a-thon on Oct. 18 to celebrate the new project. Students will be cycling around Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s Meadow Lake in the morning. Schools selected to participate in the DOT project will receive a stipend of $500 to assist in implementing the program. The school also has to include a curriculum with in-classroom discussions of bike transportation as well as special community building and recreational events.
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