Super Super Bowl Media Day

From the weird to the whack to the Sunday winners.

Before the big game on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL holds an event that reporters around the world look forward to all year long: Super Bowl Media Day. Held in the host stadium each Tuesday before the Super Bowl, media day is a chance for reporters to talk to the players and coaches.

My dad and my uncle drove me to Dallas from Houston to cover the event for Scholastic. Getting there was a breeze. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Overnight, though, all that changed. We woke up Tuesday to cold wind, snow, and ice. Only 300 miles from home and I was in a winter wonderland.

The drive from the hotel to the stadium took much longer than we anticipated. We drove veeeery sloooowly past trucks and cars stuck in the ice all on the road. We got caught between three vehicles sliding around on an inclined entrance ramp to the highway and an 18-wheeler. It took about 30 minutes to get out of there!

Once we got inside Cowboys Stadium, you would never know it was snowing outside. The host stadium for Super bowl XLV is only a year old and has the world’s largest retractable roof. It was, of course closed, but could be open on Sunday if the weather clears up.

The stadium could fit six of the world’s largest whales inside—if you wanted to do something that whack. The gigantic jumbotron screen that towers over the entire field begins on one 20 yard line and stretches to the other.

The first player I talked to was shivering and complaining about the cold.

“You play in Green Bay,” my editor said to him. “You think this is cold?”

He quickly defended himself by pointing out that there’s a big difference between sitting still for an hour for interviews (even inside) and running around on a field, no matter what the weather. (What about those guys on the bench?)

The interviews were mostly held in booths set up along the sidelines. First the Green Bay Packers came out for an hour, then the reporters were all served brunch. Then to the Steelers. After that, the Fox broadcast team held roundtable discussions.

The fun was on the field, however. When I interviewed Brett Kiesel, I was one of the few reporters to ask a serious question. Everyone else wanted to know about his beard. It was pretty wild! I had seen pictures, but to actually see it in person was awesome.

Also not serious were some of the crazy reporters I saw. There was a girl in sweats doing pushups for the players before interviewing them. There was also a guy in a bull fighter outfit. TV Azteca was asking players to demonstrate with a giant wooden toy block on a string that you had to swing out and try to catch on a stick. No, I couldn’t do it either!

One reporter was wearing a blue box. Yes, a BOX! It opened up with swinging cardboard doors. He said he brought his own broadcast booth.

Another guy was wearing a wild furry hat and coat, leopard pajamas, and brown pointy shoes. He was a radio reporter so I guess it didn’t matter.

The coolest part of the whole day was talking to all the other reporters (the ones NOT wearing leopard pajamas or tights) and finding out how they prepare. Watching the adult professionals in action was a great experience. I was even interviewed by some of the reporters who turned the tables on me!

One camera man watched me doing my closing and gave me some advice for how to make it better. He told me to look directly into the camera like I was looking someone in the eyes. He said he would look better on camera and help me concentrate, especially with all the craziness going on around me. It worked! Check out the video!

—Kenny Figueroa

PHOTOS: Kid Reporter Kenny Figuero becomes the news at Super Bowl Media Day in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on February 1, 2001. (Photo by Suzanne Freeman)

Critical Thinking on the Football Field

Learn first, block a lineman second, says Roger Goodell

The panel was called “The Parents and the Village: Fostering a Learning Culture in our Communities." Quite a big subject, with some even bigger names on the panel.

Included were Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York; Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner; and Russell Simmons, music producer. They discussed the importance of parents being more involved in their children’s schools.

After the panel, Goodell took a minute to talk to me about education and athletes. He told me as a child he wanted to be in the NFL and his dream came true because he never lost sight of his goals and worked hard to achieve them.He really wanted to be a football player but in the end decided not to.

"I do still play football,” he said. “I played football with my two 9-year old daughters over the weekend. You can play football in different fashions. It's a great way to get active.”

Click on the play button to find out what Goodell had to say when I asked him about the importance of athletes getting a good education AND what athletes need to know on the field. It isn't all about size and speed.

—Kenny Figueroa

VIDEO: Courtesy Scholastic, Inc.

Blackberries For School

No, not the kind you eat! This BlackBerry is an educational tool.

He wouldn’t say much about the PlayBook, a new competitor of the iPad, but David Neal, the technical expert for Research in Motion, had a lot to say about BlackBerries and education.

Research in Motion is the company that makes BlackBerry phones. His company gave a Blackberry Torch to every participant at the NBC Education Nation conference in New York this week.

He talked to Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa about the Torch, which is a cell phone/computer with a touch screen. He expects it will soon be a necessary tool for students both in and out of the classroom.

The Playbook, which was revealed to the world at a press conference on the west coast yesterday, is still a mystery. Neal wouldn’t discuss price or functions, and he certainly wouldn’t compare it to the iPad when asked!

Check it out by clicking on the play button above.

VIDEO: Scholastic Inc.

Teacher Shortage No Joke

There is a crisis in the country, said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a live broadcast at NBC's Education Nation today.

"We need more teachers in schools," he said from the stage of NBC's comedy sketch program Saturday Night LIve. The stage, which normally looks like Grand Central Station, took on a more serious look and feel for the education conference.

Seated with Duncan was NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw. Together they took questions from the audience of education experts as well as from college students in Florida, Arizona, and Washington, D.C., via satellite.

The room was cold and industrial looking except for the stage, which was a blaze of lights.

Secretary Duncan began his remarks with a plea to the college students listening via satellite: please consider becoming teachers!

"We are going to travel the country to recruit the next generation of teachers," he said. "This is going to be the largest teacher recruiting effort ever in this country."

Math and science teachers are especially needed, he continued. He also made a plea for more men and minorities to get into the profession. He called on the education departments at colleges to work on recruiting more teaching candidates.

Teachers need to be valued more in this society, he said. This happens when you pay teachers more and when you understand that teaching is the most important job in the country.

I got to talk to Secretary Duncan after the press conference. I asked him about paying teachers more.

"People have been saying that for years," I said. "Realistically, how are you going to that?"

He had a ready—and passionate—answer, at least for providing incentives for college students to get education degrees.

"With 10 years of public service, all your college loans are forgiven," he said. " Up to that point, it's reduced to 50 percent of your income. That's a huge, huge financial incentive."

He also pointed out that all of the work can't be done by the Department of Education, or the administrators, or even the teachers. It's a community problem with a community solution.

"We have to promote parental engagement," he said. "Schools have to be open longer hours. They have to open up their doors more to the community."

—Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa

PHOTO: Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa at a press conference with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

 

Think Outside the Xbox!

Computer labs are a thing of the past—more computers a thing of the future.

You may think that things like Xboxes and iPods are for fun and games, but it can help you with school and make you much smarter. That’s what I’ve learned so far at the NBC Education Nation conference in New York City. And I like what I’ve learned so far!

Today, I sat in on a conference in 30 Rock, the NBC news building in New York City, about technology in the classroom. Panelists discussed ways to get electronics into schools in a way that helps both teachers and students.

Just putting a computer in a classroom without technical support or teachers trained to use them is not enough, panelists agreed. And computer labs should be considered a thing of the past, not the future.

“Would you have a pencil lab where kids would have to go when they need to use a pencil?” asked panelist Barry Schuler of Raydiance, a company focused on developing the smallest, fastest computer technology ever. “Computers are not something separate from the students.”

He and others made the point that schools are supposed to get kids ready for the work place and that computers are used in every aspect of almost every job from the service industry to retail to manufacturing, on and on.

Some of the most exciting ideas came from right there in the audience. Suzi Levine of Microsoft, who sat right right next to me, told me about a teacher in Switzerland who teaches his students with the Xbox! He uses guitar hero to teach a variety of subjects.

For math the students are told they are rock stars and are given a budget to plan a concert tour. They have to write songs, decide how much to spend on hotels, T-shirts, and employees. They also have to plan their tour schedule. Now that’s thinking outside the Xbox!

I spoke to Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson after the discussion was over.

“I hope this conference will help bring a higher awareness of the importance of education, a higher awareness of the need to enable teachers to have the tools to do the jobs of helping the kids,” he said. “And also to need to make available the technology that every kid can use.”

So what should kids take away from the conference?

“I’d have to ask you that Kenny,” he said. “I hope that you will find out that there are a lot of adults focused on improving education for young people and working to help you become a leader for the 21st century.”

                                                                                                              —Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa

PHOTO: Kid Reporters Kenny Figueroa and Grace McManus listen in on a panel discussion about technology in the classroom.

Education Nation Learning Plaza

In New York City, you have a chance to see what education is really like in America.

From Sunday through Thursday, Rockefeller Plaza has been transformed into the NBC News Education Nation Learning Plaza. The Learning Plaza is a sort of education tree with five leaves. Each leaf represents different aspects of what's happening in the education system.

The first leaf is The Learner. When you walk in you come to a touch-screen assessment that tells you what kind of learner you are. I took the quiz, which I realized was a personality test about my learning skills. The quiz told me that I'm a social learner. Part of the reason I'm a social learner is because I like to talk during class — even though my teacher doesn't like it — to understand what's going on.

The Learner is the first stop on a journey through education in America. The other leaves are The Educator, Call to Action, Schools and Community, and The Nation. As you go through the Learning Plaza, you go from the personal to the national. In other words, The Learner is about you as a student, and the final leaf, The Nation, is about how the whole country learns.

One of the things visitors will notice when they come to the Learning Plaza is that America isn't doing as well as they might think when it comes to education. For example, in The Nation leaf, stats about where the country ranks in certain education categories are posted on the walls. These stats reveal that America is 10th out of 30 nations in literacy, 25th in mathematics, and 21st in science. 

"Based on what I've seen, it's pretty bad," Jacqueline Gaines, a parent from New York, said about the state of education in America. "We're not doing very well as far as test scores are concerned."

But while test scores are a problem, other people at the Learning Plaza saw other issues in the American education system.

"The way education is taught in America, there can be a lot of improvement. But I think the first thing is having children back in uniform," Shanie Peraud, a parent from New York but originally from Guyana, South America, said. "I think the uniform is a form of discipline. I think that's really, really important for students."

Education Nation is meant to generate conversation and ideas about how to improve learning in America. The Learning Plaza is an important part of that conversation, and it's already getting people talking.

—Kenny Figueroa 

PHOTO: Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa at Learning Plaza at Rockefeller Center in New York, Sunday, September 26, 2010. Photo Courtesy Scholastic Inc.