The Stand
Recently, I (The Stand’s Director) have been quite busy. The Web site was updated nearly every day last week with new stories and election coverage, and necessary administrative work seems to never end. New stories have been posted this week, too. Follow us on Twitter to be first to hear about updates!
And this past weekend, I taught two sessions during the Writing for Ourselves Workshop held Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Dunbar Community Center. My first session included nine students in ninth and 10th grades. Then my next session included around 60 students in a mixture of sixth through 12th grades. Faculty and current students in Syracuse University’s School of Education helped out a lot with the second larger workshop. I really must thank Bryan Ripley Crandall whose teacher’s skills kicked in to take charge of this large group and keep them focused. We were all able to keep the session interactive by focusing on interviewing skills. It began with and interview of myself and then went “Oprah-style” by opening up questions to the audience (the students). Next, students worked in clusters at their tables to develop questions for others in their group and then interviewed each other.
The workshop sessions also inlcuded lessons on poetry, dialogue and script, academic writing and tips for students’ college essays.
I am very fortunate to have been a part of this experience and hope to participate in more such events in the future. I also hope to hear from students who attended because I’d love to get their work featured here in The Stand.
Saturday I also met a talented 16-year-old, Seth Dollar. We plan to run a larger feature on his talents and entrepreneurial skills, so stay tuned. For now, check out his Web site, which is also promoting The Stand — Thanks Seth!
And please help promote us. Each story has an option to share on your Facebook page or to e-mail to a friend and more. If you like something and know someone else who would like to see it, then please pass it along.