Scholarship Opportunities

I'll be entering student work (probably some of yours, if that's okay!) in an area writing competition called LAD Fair in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to let you all know about a couple of scholarships being offered in case any of you SENIORS would like to apply.  I'll link to the applications and more info on each below.  The deadline for these is Friday, 18 March, when they will be hand delivered to Willard High School with the rest of Kickapoo's LAD Fair entries. I'd be happy to help you put something together for these.  

Nick Harkins Scholarship Rules + Application

This one is for students with an interest in diversity and inclusion and requires a writing submission on those topics.

Naturalist Scholarship Rules + Application

This one is for students with an interest in ecology and the environment and requires writing submissions centered on those topics.

Famous First and Last Lines: Make them yours

In a New Post on your blog, type up the original writing of about 400 words or more  inspired by the pink famous first line and the purple famous last line you glued into your journal.  This could be one continuous piece or two separate pieces.  Include an image and an interesting title to your post. Put the lines you used in bold.

Famous First and Last Lines

In a New Post on your blog, present the following information  for each of the lines you chose.  Title this post Famous First and Last Lines.  You could link to relevant informational sites.  

Be sure to include the following for EACH:

• the line word for word
• the author, his or her birth/death years, and a bit of info about him or her
• the year it was published
• a 40-50 word summary of the novel in your own words
• 40-50 words on why you personally would or wouldn't like to read this book
• at least one image for each

Here's an example:

Famous First Line:

"You better not never tell nobody but God."

This line opens the novel The Color Purple, published in 1982 by author Alice Walker, who was born in Georgia on 9 February 1944. Through letters written back and forth to one another, the novel traces the story of two poor, African-American sisters who are separated, one married off to an older, misogynistic neighbor and the other called to serve as a missionary in Africa. The main character Celie also writes letters to God because she has no one else to share her shameful secrets and her deepest feelings with. 

I first read The Color Purple in a college class at Drury, a class taught by one of my favorite professors who I have long admired and tried to emulate as a teacher myself. I had read the work of Maya Angelou and found myself drawn to the stories of African-American women, and this story captivated me. I have since read the book 6 or 7 more times, and every single time I find something to shake my head at, mumble a "yup!" to, laugh about, cry about...Such a powerful work to me--I will read it many times more, I know. I wrote about a passage that reminded me of the turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri, back in 2014.

Famous Last Line:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

F.Scott Fitzgerald ended his most famous novel The Great Gatsby with these words, considered by some to be the best closing lines of any novel ever. The novel came out back in 1925 but still shows up on collections of all-time classics and high school reading lists. Narrator Nick Carraway offers insight into the vapid society of West Egg, New York, in the 1920s, as well as the mostly empty marriage between Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The action centers on languid afternoons and extravagant parties at the mansion of Gatsby, an enigmatic millionaire.

I read The Great Gatsby in English class my junior year in high school. I re-read it again la couple of summers ago and enjoyed it very much. I liked the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (so cute! totally one of my girlhood crushes) as Gatsby released a couple of years ago. The director, Baz Luhrman, also did one of my all-time favorite movies, Moulin Rouge, so I knew I'd really like what he did with Gatsby.

The lines were pulled from this list of Best Opening Lines and this list of Best Last Lines.  You could browse them for other writing ideas or inspiration.

Be ready to post some new writing of your own tomorrow using the first and last lines as a starter.  We will use Monday as a catch up day for all post related to BOOKS/TEXT then move on to putting together a couple of pieces to send to my friend's Chinese students for our writing exchange.  I'll collect journals on Thursday, 3 March--you need 20 NEW, unstamped full pages.

Your future's so bright...

...you've gotta wear shades. Have you heard that song before? Perhaps our visit to  417 Magazine inspired you to pursue a creative career...maybe in writing or maybe in graphic design or marketing or something else. There are, of course, lots of  schools that offer creative writing programs and there are several different directions you might take to work as a writer.

No matter what you see yourself doing down the road, take some time to do a New Post on your own blog and respond to the following questions:

• discuss 3 or more interesting ideas from the presentation Tuesday
• ask 1 or more question about something discussed
• write about a specific magazine you would like to work for, why you'd be interested or a good fit there, and what job(s) you'd like to do (you could choose 417!)
• write about where you'd like to be in a: 1 year, b: 5 years, c: 10 years and d: 50 years (this might include careers or work, accomplishments, family and friends, homes, possessions, emotions, etc.)
• include at least one image that shows what you see in your future
• include the word "future" or the word "magazine" somehow in the title of your post
• if you'd like to put a link in your post the way I have with the words in purple (maybe to the college you're interested in or a magazine you'd like to work for or something else) I can show you how--you just highlight the word you want to be linked, click on the icon with the little green circle and chainlinks on the toolbar then copy and paste the url/web address of the page you're linking to...I usually change the text color of that word, too, just to be consistent

When you've finished your own new post, read several of your classmates' and make a comment.

6 Word Memoirs

In a New Post on your blog, please share whichever of the 6-Word Memoirs you came up with in class  that you are comfortable sharing.  Just one or all of them.  Include an image or images.  You don't need to explain them, but you could if you wanted to. You could also submit what you've come up with to the Smith magazine website.

in the news{paper}

In a New Post on your blog, please share some writing inspired by our dig through newspapers Wednesday.  You might have one longer piece or several shorter ones, but come up with at least 400 words.  Include some images and a catchy title.  You could note the headline, photo, ad, etc. that sparked your idea, or you could leave that a mystery...but don't just describe or narrate what you cut out--make up something new.

If you still have time, please click through your classmates' blogs and leave some comments.  You don't have to read every piece...Just choose one or two, read and comment, and move on to another blog.

Blackout

Thanks for trying the Sharpie blackout technique (scientific terminology there) in class. Please share at least one of your blackout text pieces as a COMMENT on this post. You could type the text you left on the page as a sentence or poem or story.  You could also take a picture with your phone and post your work that way on your own blog, but that is optional.

I'm thinking you could do this same technique with any printed material containing a good chunk of text to work with. I also think you could be inspired to write all sorts of other pieces by using your blacked out piece as a starting point.

You could visit Austin Kleon's website to see what others have come up with and even post your own work there if you're up for it. 

Another interesting Sharpie-related item you can check out here...