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Winners of the 2008 River of Words Environmental Art & Poetry Contest Have Been Selected! Read more
River of Words has, from the beginning, received a lot of media attention. Editors and the public are eager to hear positive stories about today’s children, and ROW’s wonderful art and poetry is irresistible. ROW has been profiled on television on PBS’s “Green Means” series and also on radio on NPR’s “Living on Earth,” as well as on Voice of America and many radio and TV stations around the country. ROW artwork has graced the covers and pages of magazines, annual reports, textbooks and many other publications. ROW children’s poetry has been included in anthologies like Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon’s Prayers for a Thousand Years (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999) and in literary journals like The Potomac Review. Composer Steven Axelrod has even set several ROW poems to music to create a grand choral work, entitled (what else?) “River of Words.”
Below is a sampling of the press we’ve received
over the years.
- San Francisco Chronicle, January
9, 2004: "River of Words
Art and Poetry on Display at Crissy Field," by Kathleen
Sullivan.
- Parade Magazine, November 30, 2003: "They
Found Hope in Art" by Tamim Ansary.
- San Francisco Chronicle, November, 2003: "Nurturing
a Sense of Nature" by Rona Marech
- Timeline, November/December 1997: “River
of Words,” by Robert Hass.
- Continuum: The Magazine of the
University of Utah, Summer 1998: “River
of Words,” by Kirsten Wile.
- World Rivers Review, August 1998:
“Teaching Children Their Ecological
Address with River of Words,” by Pamela Michael.
- Hope, November/December 1998:
“The Poetry of Science,”
by Candice Stover.
- The International Educator, December
1999: “River of Words
Contest is Praised Worldwide,” by Eleanor Leyden.
What Teachers are Saying About River of Words
Often, envelopes of ROW entries contain unsolicited letters from teachers, facilitators and sometimes, students. Aside from kind words of praise and encouragement, many of the letters also contain ROW implementation or integration ideas that we think might be of help to folks just embarking on a River of Words project.
With our thanks to all the creative and hard-working educators who make River of Words happen in their communities, we offer the excerpts below:
“... Several of the students who turned in poems rarely complete any school assignments. If only you could have been here when the final drafts were due to witness half a dozen teens read their poems aloud, to the applause of their classmates, you would not need me to tell you that this contest inspired them to produce truly meaningful writing. Thanks for the inspiration.”
-Paul Jolly, teacher at Windsor High School, Windsor, California
“... I decided to integrate [River of Words] into my science classes. I wrote a grant to our local arts association ... and [received] funding for artists-in-residence-an artist and a poet-and for materials for the project. My school administrator was in total support of the project and provided communication and contact to the community and parents. The project has been an overwhelming success. I am presently compiling a booklet of poems and artwork for all the students and parents involved. Parent volunteers are collating and binding the booklets ... Copies of the book will also be given to local libraries, museums, and schools.”
-Leona Wunnenberg, 6th grade science teacher, Jackson Hole Middle School, Wyoming
“... Thank you for placing [ROW poetry and art] in centers throughout the community. It has allowed our students to participate in a unique brand of artistic community service.”
- Steve Ausherman, Art and Photography instructor, Sandia Preparatory School, Albuquerque, New Mexico
“... Thank you very much for this project. We think that this problem, we mean the protection of nature, is a very important one, all over the world. The pollution in Ukraine is more terrible than in other countries (you know, Chernobyl, and so on). But we haven’t such projects, unfortunately ... Children [who] take part in such projects will never do themselves such things which they painted in their pictures.”
-Anne Ivchenko, art teacher from Ukraine
“... I organized a collaborative project which included two social studies teachers, a science teacher, and art teacher and a guest poetry teacher. We read about the local Kumeyaay Indians from a book by a local author, Ruth Alter ... and visited the Museum of Man to see the Kumeyaay exhibit and took a field trip to Mission Trails Regional Park where Ms. Alter met us and told stories about the Kumeyaay ... Our science teacher taught a unit about our local watershed...the guest poet taught a lesson devoted to watersheds ... and the art teacher had her students read the poems and respond to them.”
-Rebecca Koskinen, teacher at Horace Mann Middle School, San Diego, California
“... As a teacher with a background in art, literature and environmental education, I found it rewarding to participate in this contest that so wonderfully integrates aspects of art, literature and science. It was empowering for me and for my students to learn about our environment in such an exciting context.”
-Margo Wixsom, teacher at Washington Manor Middle School, San Leandro, California
“... Over the past 2-3 months, my classes have been studying poetry intensively, examining themes and issues and looking at how different poets us a range of techniques to make their poems extraordinary. My classes then focused on [your] theme of watersheds to write poetry of their own, and compiled some incredible anthologies that included a 500 word introduction [about] watersheds ...The results were amazing. These students definitely had a lot to write about the watersheds in the Philippines, and I was pleased to see an awareness of the environment plus a deep appreciation of beauty. We also now have a “River of Words” river that runs through the school foyer to the corridors, containing at least one example of each student’s poetry.”
-Jean Hetzel, English teacher at Brent International School, Manila
“... Thanks to you and Robert Hass for continuing the contest. We’re grateful for the adventure of learning about our watershed and expressing it in poetry and art.”
-Carol Mahler Leonard, Chairperson, Humanities Committee of the Arts and Humanities Council of (Florida’s) Charlotte County
“... Your program provides tremendous motivation for these young writers as they develop and discover their writing skills. Also, the program provided a reason for these young people to learn about their Clinton River watershed.”
-Elizabeth Gifford, First grade teacher, Pine Knob Elementary School, Clarkston, Michigan
“We are 8th grade Cadette Girl Scouts and River of Words was part of our Silver Project....We had a great time learning about our watershed last summer so we could teach the Brownies in the fall...We hiked a small stream leading to Lake Murray and had [our Brownie students] draw pictures, write poetry or rub leaves ...The parents were also impressed ...Thank you for sponsoring the contest as part of the Water Drop patch.”
-Girl Scouts Annie Calabough and Jasmin Schlunegger, San Diego, California
“Our students began to see, sense, listen to and feel their surrounding watersheds, and to interpret them through words, paintings and drawings that were close to their hearts.....Many students became absorbed in the process, beginning with a drawing, then continuing on to form words that would become a poem ... Whatever form their work took it became a dimensional, comprehensive experience that they were able to share in as a school. Parents contributed to the project by taking the children on additional trips to area waterfalls ...Thank you for providing us with this opportunity.”
-Sheree Kaslikowski, teacher at Creative Arts Charter School, San Francisco, California
“... Since your ROW Teacher Training Workshop...we have been thinking, feeling, visualizing, talking and drawing our special watershed/forest environment here in Watsonville....Thank you for this opportunity for our children to ‘speak’ with the children of the world!”
-Linda Cover, Linscott Charter School
“These [poems] are a culminating activity of a class study of our Chenango Watershed Region. All of the poems include water, relative to human need and human responsibility, expressed in creative form ...Thank you for providing this excellent vehicle for the students to be scientists and writers and artists all at once.”
-Dorothy Pierce, 6th grade teacher, Chenango Bridge Elementary School, Binghamton, New York
“Thanks you so much for giving my students the opportunity to publish their poems. As a teacher, I am always looking for places where my budding poets can complete the writing process by publishing their works.”
-Teri Kent, 7th grade language arts teacher, Sutherland Middle School, Charlottesville, Virginia
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