Writing to you from St. Thomas High School...

I am actually writing today’s blog entry from the library at St. Thomas High School in Pointe-Claire. It’s lunch hour and I am lucky to have company – nine students who’ve come to eat lunch with me and do a few writing exercises.

Right now, they are doing one of my favourite exercises: writing book blurbs. And judging by the way their pens and pencils are zipping along the paper, they’ve got many good ideas.

Today, I’m meeting with three Grade Nine classes. I only get 50 minutes with two of the groups, but I had nearly two hours with Tania Ditchburn’s class. So there was time for a writing exercise! I asked the students, who are studying memoir writing, to remember back to when they were five years old. Many of them came up with great material and I asked three of the students for permission to share what they wrote. So here goes:

Thomas wrote about remembering how, when he was in pre-K, he was forced to eat liver: “It smelled nasty.” Amanda remembered posing for a family photograph. She included the following lovely detail: “My sister played with my hair.” And Anthony wrote about his grandmother’s noodle soup and about jumping on the family couch, “pretending to be a zoo animal.”

I’ll end today’s blog entry with my absolute favourite moment of the day. A Grade Ten student named Hannah who did a writing workshop with me last year popped by for lunch and told me how, ever since we met, she has followed my advice about keeping a daily journal. Here is what Hannah had to say about her journal: “It’s helping. It really is. It’s getting the creative juices flowing!”

So thanks to librarian Carolyn Pye for inviting me to St. Thomas again this year. Thanks to the teachers for sharing your students – and thanks to the students for being bright and open! Here’s to all of you!