Creative Writing + Local Artist = Best Thing EVER!!

Next year, I'll be teaching a brand new class tittled "Creative Writing". My minor was creative writing, so this is right up my alley. As we talked through making our kids creators, makers, and do-ers, I thought about how it really means that when we are writing, we need an audience more than myself. How do you make writing meaninful? It seems simple and the ideas are endless, but the amount of work seems daunting sometimes. It can be a lot when you aren't from a community with community/family connections that go back decades, or if you are timid about asking people for help. 

Bring those thoughts to the idea of what do I have kids do with their writing? I could try to figure something out for the last quarter, but what if I planned something out for next year? What if the world of creativity just dropped in my lap and a beautiful plan came together one day after school in the office? Well then... you just have to run with it!! 

We have a local artist who loves to bind her own books/prints. As in make a professional looking, hard-cover book! I love the idea of actually publishing the kids' writing (short stories and poetry) into a book. But what if they actually made their own book?? Like made the binding? This local artist believes the kids could do it. She also gave an estimate on the amount of materials, and I checked with Mr. Perrien and I actually have a bit of money that I could spend on this! 

So the plan is this: 

1. We spend our semester reading mentor texts, writing, editing and revising, and at the end of all things, we will finally have publish worthy writing. 

2. We have our local artist bind together a super professional looking hard cover book (Support local businesses!!). 

3. We have a workshop where the kids get to bind their own books to keep!! 

4. The professionally bound book gets displayed at our local library, our media center, and maybe even some businesses that have waiting rooms where people could read the kids' work while they wait! 

Authentic audience, old school awesomeness, and kids having the ultimate goal of publishing their work. 

OMG! What if the kids even designed images for the books?? What if we had an author's night? What if they read them aloud on the radio for Jerry?? What if Jerry read them aloud on the radio? What if one of the kids took their writing and used it for a speech script?  ALL THE THINGS!!