Wonderful Wintry Day With Students from Centre Collegial de Mont-Tremblant

April 7 -- you might think winter was over in this part of the world, but it isn't. I had to drive in wintry weather on slick roads to get to the townhall in St. Jovite this morning. But it was worth it -- or in French, ça vallait la peine. I worked with three classes of students from Centre Collegial de Mont-Tremblant and they were JUST WONDERFUL. In fact, during the writing exercise portion of my workshop, I actually had to make them stop writing. (Breaks my heart to do that, but hey! there were still a few more pointers I wanted to share with them -- and stories, too!)

My invite came from English teacher Amanda Juby. Amanda and I go WAAAY back, to the days when she was working as an administrator for the Kativik School Board in Nunavik. So, part of the fun from today was meeting up with Amanda (we even got to go for lunch afterwards!!).

Back to the highlights of my work with the students. I tried a brand new writing exercise today. Because the students come from all over the Mont-Tremblant region and many of them live close to nature, I asked them to write about the place where they feel most at home. A student named Sales, who came to Canada from Algeria when he was four years old, wrote about his family's kitchen in Algeria. He remembered his "grandmother eating fish, and the view of the Mediterranean from the balcony." Thanks, Sales, for taking me there! (I told the students that is the goal of all good writing -- to take your reader somewhere with you.)

Later, I asked students to write about a moment of change in their lives. Sarah wrote about her complicated relationship with a parent. Sarah, I read enough of your piece to know you are a good writer with an important story to share. Go for it!

Anthony is studying Pure and Appled Sciences, but I think I got him interested in professional writing. He told me afterwards that while I was speaking, he thought to himself, "Oh, that's great!"

And a student named Ninon kept writing and writing -- it looked as if her pen was flying off the page. I must say that made me very happy.

In fact, my whole visit today made me super happy. Thanks to the teachers for inviting me, to Amanda Juby and Alexandre Laplante for getting things organized, and to my former colleague Johanne Courte, and new friend Genevieve Scott, for being part of the fun today! Special thanks to the students. I loved working with you!