"What if the lunch monitor and the school secretary were sisters?" -- Another Happy Day at St. Thomas High School

You are probably wondering where I got the idea for the title of today's blog entry, "What if the lunch monitor and the school secretary were sisters?"

Catchy, don't you think?

The idea came during junior lunch at St. Thomas High School, where I was completing my last day of a series of writing workshops. I had lunch with two girls named Jordan and a guy named Noah, and the three of them started inventing a story which started with the question, "What if the lunch monitor and the school secretary were sisters?" Those three students were super inventive because their story got better and better. Their fictional characters turn the children into food and serve them up to the other students. A dog named Cricket (a real life dog who is the school's mascot) sniffs out the trouble!

I often tell students that for me, writing is a mix of work and play -- my three lunch companions were definitely having fun PLAYING with ideas. Now if they'd get to WORK, I think they could write a great story together!

Today, I worked with students in grades seven, eight and nine. One of the best questions I got all day was from a seventh grader named Kurt (he's Miss Beach's student). Kurt asked, "Isn't it a bit disrespectful to let someone else's secret out in public?" This question arose after I told the students how I got my mum to share a story she had kept secret for more than 60 years -- about her experience as a child in a Nazi concentration camp. I answered Kurt's sensitive and mature question with something my mum once told me, "If you think it helps kids to hear the truth about my life, go ahead and tell them!"

In the afternoon when I was working with the grade nines, I focused on writing exercises. With Mr. Katz's class, we did observation and discussed how what we observe reveals something about us. With Miss Ditchburn's class, we did an exercise that required students to access a memory of trouble. Nicholas came up with a beautiful phrase that he gave me permission to quote here: "pushing deeper into my regret." And a student named Samantha stole my heart when she described witnessing a family argument. Instead of focusing on the actual argument, Samantha wrote, "My cat jumps on my bed to try and console me. He curls up in my lap." Beautiful work, Samantha, and so moving!

So that wraps up my writing workshops at St. Thomas High School for this year. Special thanks to librarians Mrs. Pye and Mrs. Di Maulo for hosting me, to the teachers for sharing your classes with me, and to the students for being a great audience. If I need young readers to test my next story on -- well, I know where to go! Happy reading and writing to all of you! Remember -- life and writing require courage!