February 1, 2011 — Little people, big world. Twelve- and 13-year-olds standing elbow to elbow with seasoned journalists and professional reporters. One by one, stars of the silver screen make their way along the red carpet from microphone to microphone. They look down, they smile and from out of the mouths of pre-teens and teenagers come personal, serious and well-researched questions about the actors’ pasts, their passions and the philanthropies they support.

 

Santa Barbara Middle School Teen Press reporters interview Al Gore about his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. This year marks the sixth year the young journalists have been part of the media corps for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

This year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival marks the sixth time that Santa Barbara Middle School Teen Press will ask what inquiring minds want to know.

 

“The professional journalists come in often with really basic questions about hair types and dresses,” said David Teton-Landis, Santa Barbara Middle School teacher and Teen Press co-adviser. “Our kids come in with both a great attitude and really great questions, and consequently, they get taken seriously and they get respect.”

 

Fellow Teen Press adviser and social studies teacher John Seigel-Boettner recalls a few years back when actor Brad Pitt came to honor his wife, Angelina Jolie, at the film festival.

 

“The only press group that he agreed to speak with was us,” Seigel-Boettner said. “The kids asked him about his work in New Orleans (post-Hurricane Katrina), and he was impressed that they knew what he was about.”

 

Current and past SBMS Teen Press students often remark how the curriculum and the experience makes them better people.

 

“It’s teaching me how to be more outgoing; less shy,” said Marlon Godlis, a SBMS seventh-grader who is completing his first quarter in Teen Press. “I’ve become a harder worker, and it’s been easier for me to approach people.”

 

Zoë Plaxco, a SBMS seventh grader, is a two-quarter seasoned veteran. “Teen Press helps build up your self-confidence when you ask complete strangers well-researched questions, and they really get into the interview,” she said.

 

Since the inception of the SBMS Teen Press five years ago this week, Teton-Landis said he has routinely witnessed quantum leaps in his students’ self-confidence and self-reliance.

 

“In this process of researching, approaching and engaging adults, the kids learn to listen more, speak more fluidly and think on their feet,” he said.

 

Former Teen Press member and current Santa Barbara High School sophomore Logan Carmody said the reporting opportunity made him a quick thinker.

 

“You are encouraged to prepare for whom you’re interviewing, but when the topic starts going elsewhere you need to follow it,” Carmody said. Now, he is the floor director for a locally directed and student-driven live weekly teen magazine show called Santa Barbara Teen News Network. Its format is fast-paced just like Teen Press.

 

“Logan’s a really good leader,” said Trixie Geyer, program director for sbTNN. “He can take charge, and he’s an independent thinker.”

 

“Life is moving pretty fast for me in high school, with papers due, club volleyball and extra-curricular stuff,” Carmody said, “so having the Teen Press experience has helped me handle the pace of high school life.”

 

Teen Press members also put their interview skills to use with Santa Barbara County Supervisor Janet Wolf, in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Santa Barbara High School senior and Santa Barbara Kids Magazine editor-in-chief Katy Villanueva said the magazine project is a direct result of the independent “go for it” spirit she learned while she was a student at SBMS. Wanting to give back to her community, Villanueva spearheaded the magazine as a social enterprise that recycles all advertising profits back into community programs. She said the message is simple: “Any kid can be a change-maker, so don’t be afraid to take your idea and run with it.”

 

Carmody’s Teen Press classmate Eliana Schiffer recalls ending each of her interviews with the same question, “What do you want your legacy to be?” Now, this SBHS sophomore reflects on that question with deeper meaning.

 

“I kind of go through life now with a bigger picture of what I want my legacy to be,” Schiffer said. “That I’m honest, that I choose integrity, and that these are the characteristics that I live by.”

 

As Annette Bening, Christopher Nolan and James Franco are asked about their legacies this week, their young interviewers will be busy creating their own — one well-researched question at a time.

 

 

Frances (upper) and Desmond (lower) enjoying the very REAL experience of picking their very own vine ripe tomatoes in Oxnard, CA at Deardorff Farms as they learn about how their food actually gets from farm to plate.

November 19, 2010 — At the crack of dawn on a glorious November morning, three-dozen bleary-eyed Santa Barbara Middle School (SBMS) eighth grade students headed out of their traditional Garden Street campus and traveled south down Highway 101 to combine Spanish, science, economics and human geography for the day.

 

Big deal, right!?

 

However, it’s not everyday that the classroom becomes Produce Row in a field of vine-ripe tomatoes on the Oxnard plain. On this day the classroom instructors are the employees at Deardorff Family Farms; a fourth-generation farming business known for sustainable and organic farming, excellent working conditions, and forward-thinking business practices. They grow strawberries, celery, and mixed greens as well.

 

Student Spencer Bloomer can’t imagine working these acres of fields for eight hours every day. “Doing it for an hour is going to be hard, but I am interested to learn how my food gets from field to table.” This was the theme for today’s lessons.

 

Field trip organizer and Spanish teacher Kelly Rosenheim wanted to create in the students a sense of gratitude for what goes into getting food on the table, and a sense of empathy for those who help get it there. 

 

“When you’re driving through the agricultural belt in Oxnard along Highway 101 you don’t capture the full immigrant experience,” remarks fellow Spanish teacher Marco Andrade. “These are people with stories, with families, with an agenda which is far deeper than just going to work. We want to try to give the students some perspective.” 

 

With ten newly picked tomatoes in hand, student Graham Collector places them in the basket with a whole new attitude. “I thought this was just a plant; something that grows in the ground, and then you pick it. But it’s lot more complicated than that. This could be dinner tonight.”

 

Deardorff Farms grow on two thousand acres; 20-percent of which is organic farming. Scott Deardorff, one of the owners explains, “The way we define sustainability is the three-P’s: people, planet and profit. The people component speaks to incentive pay, bonuses and health insurance for all, including our part time and seasonal workers.”

 

Deardorff says that they carefully consider the planet in their business practices. “We utilize soft farming techniques which include biologicals to control pests, natural fertilizers on conventional fields, and educating the farmers and community on our organic program.” Profit strategies speak to using the latest tools and technology to maximize production. “Staying one step ahead of changing market conditions is vital,” remarks Deardorff.

 

Even though the market can rebound just as fast as it falls, student John Chambliss wonders about the risky economics of farming. “It’s like a game…it’s like the stock market; you don’t know what’s going to happen. The weather could change and ruin your whole supply of crops for that season.” 

 

Mostly men work the fields. They come from various states in Mexico. Some stay local to harvest tomatoes and strawberries. Others follow the celery crop from Oxnard to Santa Maria to Salinas and back again.

 

SBMS students toured the packinghouse where tens of thousands of tomatoes are sorted and boxed each day. Here is where most of the women work. The students were surprised to learn that the tomatoes are separated by size and grade. 

 

“At the packing plant there are ten different bins for ten different types of tomatoes that go to ten different businesses. It’s an example of how sophisticated and complicated the agricultural business has become,” says Rosenheim.

 

The science component of the day was keenly noted by Victor Dominocielo, SBMS science teacher. “Maintaining food safety and disease prevention,” Dominocielo observes, “is really a science in and of itself. At the onset, you have to closely monitor what goes into the produce, beginning with the soil. Then you add fertilizers, pesticides, as well as how the growers and pickers handle the ripe produce, and this is a really closely monitored, scientific process.” 

 

The day was a field of knowledge about family farming and migrant workers and their stories. “Food is culture,” smiles Human Geography teacher Jim Brady. “This is not just about today; this gives us a lot to process and think about back in the classroom.”

 

As a field trip finale the students included several self-addressed envelopes, and attached each one to its own pallet of tomatoes. So far these pallet destinations are unknown. Meanwhile, SBMS students are waiting patiently to hear whose plate the fruits of their own labors will land.
 

 

Jesse Kasehagen, 6th / 7th grade science teacher and Bike “Monkey” (Mechanic) staff advisor, along with 9th grade student Bailey, team up to build bikes for the Santa Barbara Eastside Boys and Girls Club.

November 15, 2010 — Friday afternoon, November 12th Hazard’s Cyclesport was teeming with hard-working Santa Barbara Middle School (SBMS) teenagers assembling brand-new bikes for some lucky recipients at the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara. When Santa Barbara Middle School science teacher, Jesse Kasehagen, got the last minute call from Bruce Davis, owner of Hazard’s Cyclesport, to rally his team of bike mechanics (known as the “Bike Monkeys”) to help assemble bikes for the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara, his response was, “Of course!”

 

Kasehagen extended the offer to the school’s Mountain Bike Club with the idea that “many hands make light work,” and on Friday afternoon 30 SBMS teens were aligning head sets, attaching brakes, and pumping up bike tires for the young recipients at the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara. The students also prepped 100 helmets that were given away with each bike, and organized the tool sets that other volunteer team members would be using on Saturday to assemble even more bikes. When Brian McWilliams, SBMS Head of School was asked about his students’ unexpected day of service learning, McWilliams replied, “Seizing authentic learning opportunities is one of our strengths. This is the real work of education. We like to see beyond the four walls of the classroom and capture these real opportunities to learn and be of service to others. It is one of the things that make us different; it is one of the things that Middle School does best.” 

 

Davis explained that these bikes donated to the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara came from a large company that was in town for a corporate retreat and who wishes to remain anonymous. Davis says, “The company was here in Santa Barbara on an employee retreat and were looking for a meaningful alternative to the traditional team-building exercises that often take place. That’s when the idea to donate and build bikes for children who would not otherwise have a bike came to them.” The team of company executives were introduced to the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara’s mission and felt that this community service project fit their team-building objective for the retreat. 

 

To become eligible for these new bikes, the unsuspecting youngsters at the Eastside Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara were invited to submit a letter or create an art project that highlighted the values of the bicycle. Those children that participated were then asked to come to the Eastside Boys and Girls Club this past Saturday, November 13th, with the understanding that they were there to help clean up after some earlier Club festivities, and then head out on a “surprise” field trip. Little did these young members know that waiting for each participant inside the big tent that had been erected in the back of the Club were 100 brand-new bikes.

 

The unveiling of the bikes brought a lot of smiles and excitement to the almost 100 kids in attendance. Some of them had never owned a bike before. They were fitted with helmets, given a talk regarding bicycle safety, and sent out on an inaugural ride around a course laid out on their playground. 

 

As the children headed for home with their new bikes one of the members of the Eastside Boys and Girls Club remarked, “Our Club will need to have new bikes racks available so that we can now ride our bikes to the Club.” This community event was the perfect combination of true community service, resulting in surprising joy for many of our Santa Barbara youth.

About Santa Barbara Middle School – Founded in 1976, Santa Barbara Middle School is a private, co-educational day school for grades 6-9 located in Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara Middle School specializes in cross-curricular instruction and authentic community service learning experiences.