Assignment #16 - Eric Walters Response

Eric Walters writes books about teenagers discovering who they are and dealing with some pretty serious issues. His books appeal to teenagers because the characters are realistic. In fact, some are so real because they are actually based on real people. In the grade 8 presentation, he talked about how he would turn Noah and Tara into characters in one of his novels. He also presented in an engaging and entertaining way that brought all his stories to life. If he took those same words and put them on paper, he would have the start of a wonderful written story. I hope you were inspired by Mr. Walters.

It was so wonderful to have Eric Walters as our lunch guest this Monday. He told us about a lot of his new ideas, and I, for one, was astounded that he's written 73 books in the past 16 years. On average, that's more than 4 books per year! He described to Prof. Scott, Tara and I at least five new ideas that he's working on right now. Amazing!

In response to Mr. Walters' visit, I'd like you to write a creative text featuring a realistic teenage character (based on yourself) and an issue you think is important.

Before you get started, think about some of the books you've read by Mr. Walters, ones that you've heard about, or research some of his books online. Each of his books has a message and a purpose and he writes about real issues for teens living in Canada and around the world.

For the first part of your assignment, I want you to select three Eric Walters books and write, in one sentence, what you think the main idea or message of each of those books is. Post this on your blog.

For the second part of the assignment, I want you to select an issue, a message or a main idea that is important to you. I want you to bring that issue to life in your writing through a character that is based on you. This character can have your name, some of your experience and emotions, and or some physical characteristics that you have. It will be easy to make this character come to life, because you're already alive! A great writer writes about things he or she knows, and what do you know better than yourself?

Create a short story about your character (either a stand alone story or a chapter of a larger novel) in which he or she is dealing with the issue of your choice.

You may write this in your free write book or on your computer, and when you are happy with it, post a copy on your blog.

This assignment will be due after the winter break.

Assignment #8: HOW are you Creative?

Hello pups,

I was asked a very interesting question the other day, which is "HOW are you creative?" This person took for granted that everyone IS creative, but we are all creative in different ways. I loved that attitude and I totally agree with it. Sometimes people claim, "I'm not creative." All I can say to that is WRONG! Each one of us is creative, but sometimes in very different ways.

Your task is to tell and to show us how YOU are creative. Some of you have wonderful talents that I already know about. Willeme denies it, but he is an AMAZING dancer. Noah can navigate a basketball court. Tyler loves to draw. Amy is a writer. Haneen is a poet. Melissa is a songbird. Hannah is an empath. Jeffrey is an animal tamer. Sara is a rocker. Charlotte can express herself through art. Qavi is a stand up comedian. Reshad is an artist. Mateen is a programmer. That's not all you are, though. Each of you is so much more than that, you may not even want to focus on those talents that I've listed. There are SO many talents that you each have and you often keep them hidden. It's time to bring them out into the open!

Our classroom FLAIR was a great way for you to demonstrate your passions, and I'm going to let you do that again, on your blogs. Not only will your classmates and I see what you have to share, but so will your buddies in Ms. Thurow's classes in Toronto (hi!) and your buddies in Ms. Crosbies classes in Oshawa (hello!) and my classmates in the course I'm taking at Queen's (hola!). In fact, anyone, anywhere in the world with Internet access, can see where you shine and HOW you are creative.

I want you to be creative in how you complete this task. After all, this is a task about your individual creativity. Your requirements are: start a new blog post and in it, tell us (with words) and show us (with music, pictures, video...) HOW you are creative. Your posts will be very unique, but I want you to make sure you really showcase your abilities. In the words of your post, you need to include a description of HOW you are creative, HOW you express that creativity and WHY it is so important to you.

Some examples: you may want to record yourself dancing and post a video of that on your blog with a description of why you are passionate about this and how it helps you to express your point of view. You may want to photograph and post examples of designs you've created for clothing. The sky is the limit on this one. You may want to embed samples of your video game designs.

If you need access to a video camera or digital camera and do not have one, you can make an appointment with me and we'll use mine. I'll even show you how to upload and embed videos and photos.

You'll notice that this post is a lot of text and not much else. That's deliberate on my part. I don't want to sway you too much one way or another. I want you to create posts that are meaningful and exciting to you.

There is a lot of freedom in this task and I don't want you to rush into publishing your post. You can always hit "Save now" and come back and work on a post in the "Edit Posts" tab. This is a very personal, innovative task when I want you to reflect honestly and share creatively. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Good luck!

***when you start your post, make absolute certain to link back to this assignment post*** (you should be doing this on all your assignment posts)