Siouxland Media Lab

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in Siouxland this afternoon. After a stop at the Anderson Dance Pavilion last night she’s expected in Storm Lake in about an hour. More than 100 people showed up at the riverfront in Sioux City to hear her 3 a.m. agenda. Those are issues keeping people up at night, according to the U.S. Senator from California. “How will we fight for the America we believe in?" "So, we can solve the problems that people face every single day.” This was a similar message she delivered in Sioux City during a visit in early July. Harris does say the United States needs reasonable gun safety laws. However, she says Congress lacks the courage to act on gun control. Harris kicked off a five-day tour of Iowa in Sioux City. She will also take the Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair tomorrow. Pressure is mounting on another Democratic candidate for president, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. He’s at the bottom in polls and low on campaign cash. Many in his home

The summer members of Girls Inc. took part in the Siouxland Media Lab to get a feel for the world of broadcasting. In this occasion, Tina flew solo and had the opportunity to tour a local television and talk to one of Sioux City’s most popular news anchors, Larry Wentz. Larry talked about his career, memorable stories and even his favorite music. Usually, he’s the one doing the interview. Special thanks to Siouxland Public Media’s Jorge Quezada for helping produce this segment and for leading the Siouxland Media Lab project.

We sat down with Mandy Engel-Cartie, executive director of Girls Inc. In this interview she talks about her perspective of Girls Inc. and about her position.

Ruby: Do you ever like to try to draw the pictures of your past experiences? Inge: No, I'm not a good artist no. You know what I say, I paint with words. Ruby: That's a good way to word it. Ruby, host of this episodes Kid Talk, interviews Inge Auberbacher who is a H olocaust-survivor and author of the the book I Am a Star. The interviews was conducted in honor of Tolerance Week.

Alexis: Technology....for better or for worse is here to stay...giving us instant access to answers and beyond what is in our textbooks. It is entertaining and interactive and we seem to be born knowing how to use it. Jami: We like using technology, plain and simple. It allows us to go beyond what we thought was ever possible. Alexis : Personalized instruction sounds great on paper, but the reality of large classrooms and limited resources is what students are often faced with. Jamie: The Loess Hills elementary school in Sioux City has been specialized to teach coding to students at a very young age. According to Principal John Beeck the idea was to incorporate programming into all of the core subjects and then move ahead with training. Technology has its own language and the younger a language is learned the better. The problem...not everyone attends the Loess Hills Elementary school. Alexis: Anyone can open enroll, but it isn’t always easy to get to the specialty schools if you live

Anna: When people talk education you often hear, “One size doesn’t fit all...” Parker: Equality versus equity ...we all get the same or we get what we need. Anna: Exactly, like differentiated learning in the classroom. Getting what you need to succeed. Parker : Last year we talked about this in one of my classrooms. It made me think about something that happened to me years ago. We had just moved and as it was a new school I was being placed in classes. We take Iowa Basics every year and it was at the end of my fifth grade year that we moved to a new school. My fifth grade scores weren’t ready, so the new school used my fourth grade scores to place me...I hadn’t done as well in fourth grade, so I was placed in classes that weren’t as challenging. Anna: But what does that have to do with equality vs. equity ...? Parker: Well think about it..when we get into middle school, we are placed in many classes based on how well we did on those standardized tests. Many kids are placed in advanced

Anna: When people talk education you often hear, “One size doesn’t fit all...” Parker: Equality versus equity ...we all get the same or we get what we need. Anna: Exactly, like differentiated learning in the classroom. Getting what you need to succeed. Parker : Last year we talked about this in one of my classrooms. It made me think about something that happened to me years ago. We had just moved and as it was a new school I was being placed in classes. We take Iowa Basics every year and it was at the end of my fifth grade year that we moved to a new school. My fifth grade scores weren’t ready, so the new school used my fourth grade scores to place me...I hadn’t done as well in fourth grade, so I was placed in classes that weren’t as challenging. Anna: But what does that have to do with equality vs. equity ...? Parker: Well think about it..when we get into middle school, we are placed in many classes based on how well we did on those standardized tests. Many kids are placed in advanced

Anna: When people talk education you often hear, “One size doesn’t fit all...” Parker: Equality versus equity ...we all get the same or we get what we need. Anna: Exactly, like differentiated learning in the classroom. Getting what you need to succeed. Parker : Last year we talked about this in one of my classrooms. It made me think about something that happened to me years ago. We had just moved and as it was a new school I was being placed in classes. We take Iowa Basics every year and it was at the end of my fifth grade year that we moved to a new school. My fifth grade scores weren’t ready, so the new school used my fourth grade scores to place me...I hadn’t done as well in fourth grade, so I was placed in classes that weren’t as challenging. Anna: But what does that have to do with equality vs. equity ...? Parker: Well think about it..when we get into middle school, we are placed in many classes based on how well we did on those standardized tests. Many kids are placed in advanced

Sydney: I think that people don’t always understand what it means to communicate. Or more so, what it means to communicate effectively. ( music stops ) Brianna: When we visited with Dr. Jessica Lutjohns, a behavioral therapist in Sioux City I got a clearer idea of what communication is and how to generate conversations in a more positive way. Jessica: Communication would be both being able to get your thoughts out verbally as well as having those thoughts be understood by someone else and hopefully respected by someone else... and I would say that communication implies that it goes back and forth and it’s not just one person’s thoughts and feelings being heard but it is a two way street. Sydney: When I was thirteen I found myself in a really bad situation involving an older boy. I was not at all equipped to deal with it. I started showing all the textbook warning signs... acting out and all of that trying to get my mom to understand that something was wrong. Call the police or

German born in 1934, Inge Auerbacher was taken to Terezín (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in Czechoslovakia at the age of 7. Of 15,000 children imprisoned at the camp, about 1 percent survived. Miraculously, her parents, who had also been transported to Terezín , lived. Upon returning to the place that had been their home, the family discovered thirteen close relatives had been slaughtered by the Nazis. They soon immigrated to the United States. Inge grew up, became a chemist, a poet, and a novelist. Her book I am a Star tells the story of her families years leading up to and during Holocaust. Our interviewers, Emilee Salcido and Hailey Orozco, are a part of our Siouxland Media Lab project. Girls Inc. of Sioux City has opened their doors to allow us in with the purpose of teaching some of the young women there the craft of NPR style journalism and digital storytelling. This project is made possible by a grant from the Gilchrist Foundation . We offer a special thanks to Book People