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First afterschool Literary Magazine activity: Creating a Word Jar. I gave the kids prompts, like "words that describe sounds" and "words that describe a place you really don't like." They filled pages with words, then cut them out and put them in a jar (except that I'm a science teacher, so it's really a 1000 ml Word Beaker). We then chose 8 words. The assignment: write something that includes 7 of the 8 words. I was concerned about whether the kids would have trouble with it, since the list was pretty tough. I sat and thought for quite a while before I could find anything to write. The kids had no trouble, however, and all their stories and poems turned out to be very different from each other and very original! Next week, we are going to use paintings as prompts for our writing, since my school has many art posters on the walls.

Teaching Science is always interesting, but this week it feels like a day job: I have an exciting new gig teaching creative writing!