Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 33

Oct. 6, 1990 Asbury Park Press 2 Movies 5 Advice 6 Television A if I i If- inVJr-'x I I' mml f3! --rs-Jjt i fss- (l rfP iniTL Camp show mostly fanny By BRIAN POTTER Press Correspondent Just when you thought autumn was upon us, there's one last chance to go back to the summer. It's called "Salute Your Shorts," a hilarious sitcom about kids' adventures in the great outdoors of Camp Annawanna (pronounced "I don't wanna" by the enthusiastic campers). Ian Giatti portrays Michael Stein, a likable 13-year-old who isn't too sure about going away for the summer. To complicate matters, he finds that his roommates, Bobby MICHAEL RAFFERTYAsbury Park Prats Russian from their "teleteacher" at Red Bank Regional High School.

4 colleges start to stress knowledge of another language in their admission requirements. Without teachers, though, already language-poor students stand to become even poorer. Enter SERC. It starts in a studio (in the case of the Russian class, the University of South Carolina) gets beamed up to a Spacenet 2 satellite circling high above the equator, then drops back down into high schools from Texas to New Jersey. Students watch an instructor give lessons in a given subject.

The broadcast is live. Fair enough. The weirdness begins, though, when the students start talking to the teacher 'A! Anna Collins, left, and Lauren Brunsky learn By BOB PFEIFFER Press Staff Writer At Red Bank Regional High School, two young Russian language students talk to their television. The television talks back. On a remote mountaintop in West Virginia, high school kids who would otherwise have no chance of learning foreign languages gather around a television set and learn Japanese.

Their teleteacher, who can speak with them and hear their answers, is coming to them via satellite. He is teaching 1,200 students at once, in 22 different states. Welcome to the future of foreign language instruction. It's kinda spooky. Lauren Brunsky and Anna Collins, who are seniors at Red Bank, are studying Russian with something called SERC: Satellite Educational Resources Consortium.

For now, they're just watching it. Soon, they will be interacting with it. SERC is the inevitable technological response to a problem that had to be solved the teacher shortage. Specifically, in this case, we're talking about the shortage of accredited language teachers to teach high school courses. According to Robert Strangia, superintendent of social studies and foreign languages at Red Bank, there are two certified high school Japanese teachers in the entire state of New Jersey.

That's right, two. So teachers are in short supply, language teachers even more so. As for the study of language, though, it's probably as popular as ever with students, and getting more popular as many The weirdness begins when the students start talking II to the teacher through a "phone patch. The teacher has a speaker in the studio through which he or she can hear student responses. And she can ask for specific students to respond, like "OK, Anna in Red Bank, how do you conjugate "babushki?" and Donkey Lips, are out to make his life miuerable.

Mike knew camp wouldn't be all fun and games, but this was ridiculous! Besides the mischievous practical jokes the dangerous duo continually subjects him to, they repeatedly keep bugging Michael to "become cool." To see how Michael responds to the peer pressure, tune into this humorous BRIAN POTTER Happy camper show. Screenwriter Steve Slavkin (he also wrote the book) seems to have a very accurate idea of what kids are really like, and he shows it by taking such stereotyped characters as the bully and the nerd and bringing them to life. Who could help but giggle after hearing that hefty Donkey Lips had mistakenly gorged down the raw macaroni from the Arts and Crafts table? (The yellow paint on the macaroni was not cheese like he had thought.) For the most part, I felt that preteen-agers would especially enjoy this program because of all the daring shenanigans. Older children may tend to side with the hapless counselor and dislike the rather childish antics. However, a low point to this show may have been its title.

Patriotism is in these days, (remember Sinead O'Connor at the Arts Center?) and the raising of shorts up a flagpole may be taking camp humor a bit too far. "Annawanna" spoil the rest of the show for you, so at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, pitch your tent in front of your TV and tune the dial to Nickelodeon. If you happen to be snug in your bunk Saturday night, you'll get a second chance when the program is rerun at 1 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

Tune in to "Salute Your Shorts," and you are sure to be a happy camper! DBrifin Potter is a 13-year-old eighth grader at Thompson Middle School in Mid-dletown Township. Don't miss 'Fresh Prince' By JAIME RUSZALA Press Correspondent What would it be like to live in the same town as Tom Cruise, Ronald Reagan or Molly Ringwald? What if you were used to neighbors on the floor above you, down the hall and on the floor below? What if you suddenly went from a city life to a neighborhood of mansions of the rich and famous? The "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" is all this and more. This new show airs at 8 p.m. every Monday night on Channels 3 and 4. It is a show no one will want to miss.

"The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" is the story of a teen-ager, from West Philadelphia who goes to live with his rich aunt and uncle in ritzy Bel Air, Calif. There Will is surrounded by rich and famous people and must try to fit into the community as much as possible. The show basically reflects the problems a boy from West Philly would have if he had to fit into a very rich community. Will goes to JAIME RUSZALA Fabulous three parties in shorts instead of tuxedos, teaches his cousin rap when she is supposed to be dignified, and doesn't respect his uncle. The different things Will does to try to adapt to his environment are hilarious.

I believe "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" is one of the better sitcoms of the new season. Kids, as well as adults will find it humorous and easy to relate to. Kids will probably enjoy it more than adults because of the way Will acts. I recommend it to everyone though. Out of three stars, I give it a fabulous three.

Jaime Ruszala is a 12-year-old Lake- I 3 fv I 1 i r- system. He smells possibilities. "There are aspects of this that make it a really fine tool for learning. For instance, if there's a section that the kids don't understand, they can just zero in on that part of the tape (every broadcast is taped), take it home and work on it "Does anyone have a question about that The voice of the teleteacher rings through the small office. None of the "on-line" students has a question.

Later, though, when the teacher asks for some oral conjugation, you can hear maybe five or six students chiming in with their answers, young metallic voices piping up in an electronic classroom. It is strange to watch this, to watch television, the ultimate passive medium, suddenly become a dynamic, two-way learning tool. Well, just how dynamic depends on your point of view. Ask Lauren and Anna if SERC stacks up against a flesh and blood teacher, and they answer quickly: 1 Jr jhsj. jfz -W '1s if1 "No, no.

It doesn't really compare" says Lauren. "We definitely learn with this system, and we know that if we didn't have it we wouldn't be studying Russian at all. But there's still nothing like a live teacher." There are 22 states in all who subscribe to the SERC (pronounced sir-see) program. They each pay a $35,000 membership fee to join the SERC network. Last year was a demonstration year in which 58 schools participated.

Now, there are 655 schools linked up. Joan Lipton, of the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School foreign language department, says that while her school doesn't have SERC, more traditional methods are alive and well. She says that as usual, the most popular language classes are Spanish and French. "Other languages like Russian and Japanese are still not that popular on the college level, so we don't have a lot of interest in them. But we have a lot of kids taking languages.

And while overall enrollment has dropped, the language enrollment has not I think that tells you something." Ms. Lipton says that students at Rumson are encouraged to stick with their language of choice straight through to the Advanced Placement exam. Many do. Also, she points to one of the department's more successful strategies, which has been to bring in native Hispanic and French speakers to give classes a taste of the real thing. "It makes then feel a little better about what they're learning, and in the process we can tap the resources that are out there in the community." The reviews of books for young readers are written by children who have been selected by Monmouth and Ocean county librarians.

SNIPER By Theodore Taylor. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. 227 pages. $14.95. ly any people go to the zoo or circus to see VI lions and tigers, but Ben Jepson, the main character of "Sniper," lives with them.

He sees them every day, and helps feed and care for them. You see, Ben lives on a big cat preserve, owned by his parents, Peter and Dorothy Jepson, the famous husband-wife journalism team. Living on the preserve is great, at least until Ben's parents decide he is old enough to stay home while they go to Africa. One night, Ben awakes to the sound of screeching birds and roaring lions. Outside, he discovers that all the cats have been let out of their compounds.

Ben wakes up the animal handlers to get them back in their cages. All the cats except two are nearby. After walking all over the preserve, Ben finds them, shot dead. In the next few weeks, four more cats are lost to the mysterious gunman, and a brushfire is set on the park perimeter. Worse, Ben can't get in touch with his parents.

The only suspects Ben has are his neighbors, all of whom are worried about the cats escaping, and therefore hate the Jepsons. The most probable person is Ritchie Lewis, an expert marksman who has been in fistfights with Mr. Jepson in the past. But, as Ben soon learns, Ritchie has been killed in an automobile accident. If he isn't the killer, who is? Another neighbor? Or someone Ben hasn't thought of before? He better find out fast because the gunman even shoots at him Matt Bourque, Grade 8 G.

Harold Antrim School Pat Pleasant Beak Raffi's album celebrates Earth through a "phone patch." The teacher has a speaker in the studio through which he or she can hear student responses. And she can ask for specific students to respond, like "OK, Anna in Red Bank, how do you conjugate "babushki?" "We haven't talked back to the teacher yet, said Anna Collins, "so' we're a little nervous about it." They will next week. The man who facilitates the operation of the SERC system at Red Bank is John Hird, a man who is obviously enthusiastic about the satellite Raffi's latest album isn't just for kids. Vf tMt -j By MARTIN KOHN Knight-Ridder Newspapers wo years ago children's performer Raffi announced he would refrain from recording, playing concerts and doing interviews for 12 months to almost literally stop and smell the flowers. "I want to watch the leaves turn color this fall in Toronto," he said.

"It'll be the first time in 10 years that I'll have a chance." In the ensuing time the singer-songwriter communicated, like Murray Burns' sister in "A Thousand Clowns," mostly by rumor. He was working on an album about the environment, not necessarily for kids. He was breaking up with his wife and longtime songwriting partner, Debi Pike. He changed to a different American record label. He moved to Vancouver.

All true, it turns out. Raffi's new album, "Evergreen, Ever-blue," released recently on MCA, not his prior label, contains 1 1 songs that decry pollution and celebrate the earth and living things, all of them written by Raffi (without Ms. Pike). The album is more mainstream pop than Raffi's previous folk-oriented material. "Raffi's music is not just for children anymore," states a promotional leaflet for "Evergreen, Ever-blue." While his music never was solely for kids, you won't find any songs here about Grandpa's farm, the wheels on the bus or brushing your teeth.

The man has clearly shaken his sillies out. "Evergreen, Ever-blue" is Raffi's crossover dream. He probably has lost the preschoolers this time. On the other hand, he has regained my daughter Maggie, 9. "This is his best record," she said.

"Could you play it again?" asked my daughter Anna, 5'2. No longer are we urged to wiggle our waggles away. Instead, Raffi exhorts us in the title song to "help this planet Earth" See RAFFI, page C3 v' wood Middle School seventh-grader..