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Create a Blog: Your assignment for the next two weeks is to use [|www.edublogs.org]to create a blog. You can go to this site for more instructions: []

Your blog should include multiple post and be designed for easy use. Have fun. I was at the talent show auditions the other day and was hoping to see a little bit more representation from the Creative Writing Crew. There is so much you could do in this class that would be perfect for a talent show audition. Here are some of your options: -poetry -a one person play or monologue -a stand-up comedy act - a persuasive speechy
 * Talent Show Time**

Extra credit for those who auditon

Happy writing. In my reading class right now we are working on a book called //The Book Thief.// The book is written from the perspective of death. So when the book says "I," it means death. Death will come to a scene when it is someone's time to leave the earth. Then, death will quietly and invisibly take the soul of the person who is supposed to die. In the book, death is not mean or judgemental, but a being with thoughts and feelings. He does not judge and sometimes finds a beauty in what he does.
 * From the Point of view of Death.**


 * For today:** I want you to write a short story from the perspective of a feeling, a sickness, a thing, or even a place. You could borrow the idea of writing from the perspsective of death, you could write from a city, a piece of furniture, or a house, or you could choose a sickness, worry, doubt, or fear. Have fun and make sure to focus on the situation where that thing would need to be present.

Here are some options of perspectives: Chair Desk house room item (pen or pencil) An important item An article of clothing fear love doubt anger violence death sadness Happiness peace

And many, many more...

3 Element Story

 * a hot classroom, fried bacon, and smelly socks
 * a broken desk, a paper football, and a lock
 * a police chase, stolen butterfinger, and a sold out football game
 * wiz khalifa, a school assembly, and a bully
 * a broken touch screen, on punishment, and a show on tv
 * the internet, missing keys, and police dogs
 * a pawn shop, a rare diamond, and $30
 * a test, lost pssas, and a baseball through a window
 * Creative writing class, an angry school teacher, and a really dirty floor

A Good Day for a Thought Provoking Quote "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." As a teacher, I hear people all the time that have opinions about the school, their neighborhood, and their lives in general. I think most middle schoolers want things to be different or better than they are now. Some middle schoolers decide to complain about the way that things are. One of my favorite quotes comes from Gandhi and it is listed above. I like it because it puts the pressure on all of us. If we are complaining about something, the first question we should ask is what are we doing about this? How can we make a difference? = = = = = = =**FREESTYLE FRIDAY!!!**=

[] and chose a prompt and responded to it. Today, we are going to do the same thing. Please stay focused and work hard.
 * Many of you still have work to do on your assignments from Monday. We went to**

Good job to Shawn Stubbs, Kayla Cohen, Remy Mcyntyre, Jada Felder, and Chris S. for keeping the new stuff flowing on your wiki page. = = = = =**It is time to get creative:**= Today, you will have the freedom to pick from a variety of fopics. 346 topics to be exact. I want you to go to the link that is connected below and scroll over some of the topics until you find one that you like. When you have found a prompt that you like, you can title your story by the number of the prompt and begin writing. There is almost anything on this page. []#

Have fun and write for the entire period.

=**Have fun with this line:**=
 * "The last time I saw that, I was tipping cows in a small town in Mississippi."**

"**If you know anything about aliens than you would know what was in the sky above the Getgo."**
 * "One night in jail is all it took to convince me to stop picking on little cats."**
 * "What do you think would happen if you mixed a lemonade with an orange soda?"**

Write a story that includes one of those lines. The rest is up to you.

have fun, happy writing. = = = = =The Real Tragedy of Trayvon Martin=

By now everyone is familiar with the story of 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Visiting a family friend with his father, Trayvon fatefully walked to the corner store for an ice tea and skittles and never again would see his friends or family after a violent confrontation with self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. This story, which has now gripped the nation for over two weeks, has progressed from a heart-wrenching tragedy to organized outrage to serious examination of the facts to political drama as competing narratives sediment and the legal process slowly cranks forward. While the final chapter has yet to be written, the real tragedy of this story is that the death of Travyon Martin has not changed this nation's conversation on race. In fact, it's dredged up the same old conversation, revived the same tired narratives and distracting questions that almost every race incident that garners national headlines prompts. Until we start asking the right questions, we will never change the conversation on race. The question isn't whether George Zimmerman is a racist. The question is what cultural cues, scripts and neighborhood arrangements prompted Mr. Zimmerman to view Travyon as suspicious. The question isn't whether Mr. Zimmerman is a bigot, but rather what hostile territorialism or defensive neighborhood protectionism generated a misguided sense of responsibility to zealously pursue Travyon despite being told by the police to back off? The question isn't whether Mr. Zimmerman was chasing down Travyon like a vigilante, but what anxieties contributed to a combustible situation? The question isn't whether the police are racist, but rather what narratives exist that motivate police officers and other Americans to view young black men as 'criminally suspicious'? The production of racial inequality in contemporary America is less a result of individual racial prejudice than a product of culturally embedded, subconscious racial associations and neighborhood arrangements, which distribute opportunity unevenly across our cities and towns. It is deep structural forces, like pervasive patterns of residential racial segregation and subconscious implicit biases which make black youth seem alien or criminally suspect in private, largely white gated communities that are at issue. The tragedy of Travyon Martin perfectly captures this nation's deepest race problems, and yet almost no one is talking about what those problems really are. Until we start asking the right questions, I fear there will be more Travyon Martins.


 * Assignment:** Today, I want you to work through some of your thoughts on Trayvon Martin, race, and the situation we are in here in America. This can be in the form of a persuasive essay calling for George Zimmerman's arrest, a poem, or an essay about race. THere is a lot of freedom here, but I want you to let this moment get you a little fired up... and then write.

Happy writing.

The Angel on your Right Shoulder and the Demon on your Left
Maybe I am just feeling in the religious spirit with Easter on Sunday, but I thought it would be fun for you to write today from the good voice and the bad voice in your head. This could be in poetic form or in prose. I heard somebody the other day talking about a split personality. They were saying that they have one good side and one bad side. You can write from the point of view of your good side and your bad side.

ST. LOUIS -- Congratulations, Mega Millions winners! You've just won the biggest lottery in history. Move over, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Not so fast, Richie Rich. For you three winners -- one in Illinois, one in Maryland and one in Kansas -- there's no doubt that you're now each a member of the 1%. A life of comfort and leisure awaits, and managed wisely, it just might await your friends and family for generations to come. Let's just not get carried away. A luxury box at the stadium you can afford, but forget about buying the franchise and becoming the No. 1 fan of your favorite NFL or Major League Baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers just sold for $2 billion, besting the NFL record price of $1.1 billion for the Miami Dolphins by nine times your take-home winnings. If you'd like to turn the keys at the sweetest pad in New York City -- an $88-million apartment at 15 Central Park West -- you'll have to spend nearly all of it to close the deal. The current owner is the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian billionaire. Even if you're looking to become the next great philanthropist, your good deeds can't compete -- at least in terms of dollars and cents -- with that Gates guy. His foundation has given away close to $26 billion since it was established in 1994. So, you've got some catching up to do. Don't worry, you're starting from a good place. In the hours before the dramatic Friday night drawing, the jackpot was estimated at $640 million. If you each take the lump-sum payout, the cartoon checks made out to you will be worth about $150 million. Uncle Sam gets his share, and your state might, too. All told, you'll each have about 100 million reasons to call April 2, 2012, the best Monday morning of your life. If you follow the advice of those who know money, you won't splurge on those big-ticket items, such as the top-of-the-line Gulfstream G650 jet ($64 million, excluding pilot, maintenance, hangar and fuel costs), a place to fly it or your own private island (let's call that $25 million even). Had you won the whole pot and invested the $300 million conservatively, Steve Fazzari, an economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis said, you could have expected a nice salary of about $7 million "after __ taxes __, every year for the rest of your life and the rest of the life of your heirs." Put another way, that's $19,000 a day. Forever. That's more than enough to join up with the 1%, which the Congressional Budget Office pegs as households with incomes that average more than about $350,000 a year

Assignment: Your job today is simple. What would you do? Really. I don't the want the buy a car and a house and quit school, but the real questions of what you would do and who you would help if you came into that kind of money.

Diary of a Wimpy Wilkinsburg Middle Schooler
Just kidding, I'm not calling any of you wimpy. I am, however, asking you to take a shot at writing a journal or a diary. I am not sure how many of you have seen the diary of a wimpy kid series, but the writer basically takes a humorous look at all the things that take place in a school: the bad lunches, the wierd teachers, the places that smell awful, the kids that look at you strange. You diary should be true, but change some names to protect the innocent. For example, you creative writing teacher can be Mr. Bolle instead of Mr. Boll. You get the idea. Do at least a few day's worth of entries.

Have fun and happy writing.

We're going back to the start!
Hey class, In the beginning of the semester we did something called element stories. Basically, you had to write a story using three words that I would give you. Most of you did a great job with that assignment.

Today, you have to write a story that starts with these words...

"It seemed like a normal PSSA week in Wilkinsburg. Kids came for three straight days, took their tests, and left at lunch to enjoy the new spring weather. However, as I look back on what went down that week, it was anything but normal."

I think this is more fun if it is fiction. You could write a story about stolen tests, lost supplies, corrupt teachers, kids getting in trouble, or whatever your mind can imagine.

As always, Have fun.

Image Free Write
Your job today is to write based on one of the pictures above. You have a lot of freedom. You may write poetry, a narrative, or your thoughts in an essay format. Be creative and have fun.

Blabberize PSSA Message
Your job today is to create a blabberize at [|www.blabberize.com]. You will have to create a user name. Follow these steps.

1) Go to Sign Up toward the bottom of the page and click on that. 2) Create an account on the right hand side. You should use your wilkinsburgstudents account. that would be yourloginname@wilkinsburgstudents.org. 3) Then, look for a picture of the celebrity you want to Blabberize. Once you have found your celebrity, you will have to find a closeup picture of them. 4) Save the picture in your picture file. 5) Go back to blabberize and click on "Make" at the top of the page. Follow the arrows and directions on the screen to complete you own blabberize. 6) Record a message from the person's point of view for the students of wilkinsburg. 7) Finally, click on share and and copy and paste the message to your wiki page.

Have fun.

IT'S FREESTYLE FRIDAY, YO!


Hey folks, today is a great chance for you to either: Ms. Jackson's class is doing a poetry slam on Fridays. She had her students write thematic poetry. You could give this a try if you feel inspired. Here are some of the themes:
 * Continue working on your Super Hero Project
 * Or, Write some poetry
 * Family
 * Love
 * Peace
 * Pride
 * God
 * Hope
 * Etc.

[]
 * Super Hero Creator**

One of the most popular projects last semester was the Super hero project. The goal if for students to create a superhero that has a special power, wants something in life, has an enemy, and has something that is their weakness. For example, Spiderman wants to save the city from crime with his powers to use webs and fly between buildings. There are a lot of enemies who want to keep him from saving the city. Most times, those villains attack his weekness, which is the girl that he loves. Is it better to save the world or save the love of his life? Your Super Hero story must include these components:
 * Super Hero Project**
 * A main character who has a superpower
 * Something that the main character wants in life (Save the world, the city, stop crime, etc)
 * An enemy, or group, who wants to stop the superhero from accomplishing their goal
 * A weakness (superman- kryptonite)
 * Descriptive language to describe characters, settings, feelings etc.
 * a conflict (major, like spiderman fighting the green goblin)
 * a resolution to the conflict

We spend a few days on this story, so I expect it to be a little longer and well-developed. If you would rather draw, I will accept a comic strip for this project. Of course, I will also accept a narrative story. Have fun with it. If you want, you can write a story about yourself and give yourself super powers.

I will give more instruction to help you out as we move on.

Happy wriring. Today's assignments requires you to think about your future. What do you want in your life? What goals to you have for the next 30 years? Write a reflective piece from your own point of view at the age of 42 or 43 or 44. Explain the decisions you have made in life that have brought you to this point. What has been the road you have travelled and what has happend in your life? Reflect on the good things and bad things that have made you who you are.
 * 30 Years Later**

Happy writing. Good day.

I often hear students talking about the things they do not like about school. I am not talking about the amount of work we do or the fact that you can't have cell phones, but the things that you genuinely feel would make this school a better place to learn. What things would have to change, in your mind, to make this a great place for students to grow and mature? Is it safety? Is it making classes harder? Is it challenging students more so that they are prepared for college? Today, I want you to write an essay about what you feel would make the school a great place to learn. Come up with changes that you would like to see the school make and work to persuade the school to make those changes. Are the changes possile? What would have to be done to accomodate your wishes? Please explain and it is ok to be persuasive in your writing.
 * A Perfect School**

Have a good day and happy writing.

**Let's give it one more try...** This is, as you know, Black History Month. Today on Freestyle Friday, the only requirement is that you talk about your identity in your writing. This does not mean that you have to talk about your racial identity, but I want you to think about who you are and what that means. How does the person you are and the family that you come from make you who you are? What is it that makes you who you are? A middle schooler, a kid, a friend, a fighter, a lover, a tough guy, angry, frustrated, happy, smart, a reader, a class clown, a teenater, a boy, a girl, a neighborhood, a family, a group of people, a race, a religion, a street, a park, a hobby, a belief... WHAT MAKES YOU.... YOU? Check out this story in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: []
 * Point Of View Story**

After reading the story, I want you to write a first person narrative from the point of view of someone who was there when this happened. You can choose from a few poeple:
 * Person in the car (who drove into PNC)
 * Someone working in the building
 * Someone on the street
 * Police or Bomb Squad sent to investigate

Of course, this is a strange story and one that no one really understands at this point. Please use description, explain your feelings, and describe senses like we did in the descriptive writing on Monday.

Have fun and happy writing.

Last week, you described a walk that you often take. Some of you did a great job with description of setting, sights, sounds, feelings, and smells. However, I believe that great writers could write forever about the smallest things. We do this through description. Think of the five senses you are experiencing right now: If you take time to describe all of these things, you could write for a long time about this very moment. It may not be exciting for you or your reader, but you could do it. Today, you will use this understanding of sensory description in your choice of writing prompts.
 * Describing Things (Take your Time)**
 * You hear Mr. Boll talking
 * You see the other students in the class, the room, the desks, etc.
 * You feel the desk under you, and whatever emotion you may be feeling today
 * You taste your breakfast, a breath mint, or the just a regular mouth taste
 * You smell your something (and in a middle school classroom, these smells change frequently).


 * Describe a “first” (first apartment, first time riding a bike, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses.
 * Describe a memorable event, positive or negative, and how it felt to you, but **do not name the feeling**. Instead, tell how it felt in your body (damp hands, metallic taste, tight throat, wobbly knees, etc.).
 * Describe a significant place, allowing the details to reveal why the place matters.
 * Describe a significant person (teacher, neighbor, mentor, coach, parent, sibling) with as many sensory details as possible.
 * Describe a presence in your house —a person, a pet, a piece of furniture, an illness, a secret. Use all five senses. Be as detailed as possible.
 * Describe the room of one of the following: a high school student about to drop out; a cashier who has just won the lottery; a faded movie star who still thinks she's famous; a paranoid person. Be as detailed as possible.

As always, write for the entire period. Enjoy.

Welcome to Freestyle Friday Great Job this week folks. As a reward, you get a Freestyle Friday! Freestyle Friday is a chance for you to explore any avenue of writing that you are interested in. You can write poetry, a narrative, an essay, a letter, an opinion about something that has been going on, or just a journal entry about how you are feeling at the time. You can write in first person, third person, or from the perspective of somebody else entirely. There is a lot of freedom, which you would expect on a freestyle friday.


 * MLK POSTER thoughts: What do you think of the quote on the MLK poster? You could write a poem, and essay, or just your thoughts based on this poster
 * First person from the point of view of the man in the poster- Standing up to tanks
 * Poetry
 * Essay
 * Letter to anyone
 * First person story from somebody else's point of view
 * Journal Entry (How are you feeling about the world today?)
 * Song
 * Opinions about things
 * Lists (like a top ten or a "Things to do before you die")
 * If nothing else, you can write another 3 element story

Have fun, and happy writing.

Many of you take walks every day. I'm not sure how much you notice on these walks, but there is certainly a lot that happens in any city neighborhood. It could be the houses, the people, the scary dog, or the cracked concrete that makes up the walk. There could be nice houses, abandoned houses, businesses, or stores. I want you to describe a walk that you take often.
 * A Descriptive Walk**

Use adjectives in your writing. For example: The street is long. (no adjectives) Penn avenue can seem as I walk past the record store, the soul-food restaurant, and the pizza shop.

Any walk from my house starts with a few steps over the chipping green paint that covers my front porch. A short sidewalk runs through my small front yard and connects to the sidewalk along the street that is usually lined with the cars of my neighbors. Sometimes, if I am lucky, my three year-old neighbor will bang on the window and wave at me happily as I am leaving the house. Delaware Street is usually pretty quiet, with the occasional group of kids playing or dog barking. My house is one of 4 sets of smaller brick duplexes that contrast the larger single-unit houses on the far end of the street. I could move to the right and go past those larger houses on my way to Riverview Park. I would pass the house with all the fish tanks that you can see glowing through the front window at night. As I walk further up the hill I would pass the crowded front yard of the guy that works for the electric company. He told me he works for an electric one time when I asked him where he was getting all the telephone polls that he was cutting up and placing around his landscaped flower bed. Next Is the Jackson’s house, and I can remember many fun moments that were spent in that house with our close friends. A few houses further is the house where there are always old men sitting on the porch drinking cheap beers and smoking cigarettes. They tell stories and wave kindly. But I don’t have to walk right and go past the big houses to the park. I can go down the steep city steps that lead down the hill to Watson Blvd. The row houses at the bottom of the steps are home to many kids who spend most days playing basketball on the rattled old portable basketball hoop that somebody has put up along the street. I have played with them before. Sometimes when I am going for a jog I will stop and hit a few jump shots, an action which usually brings loud cheers from the kids. I can also go to the left and reach the bus route in just a few hundred feet. The 8 goes goes up and down Perrysville Avenue all day and could have me in downtown Pittsburgh in 15 minutes. Depending on when the bus is coming, there is usually 3-5 people waiting beside the old stone bus stop at the corner of Delaware and Perrysville. Nobody waits in the bus stop because it smells like a mixture of leaves and urine. That is gross, but it is true. I like my neighborhood. I like the people and the houses. I like the bus and the park. It makes Pittsburgh a great place to live and work and I am thankful for where I live.
 * Boll's Sample:**

Welcome to Freestyle Friday Great Job this week folks. As a reward, you get a Freestyle Friday! Freestyle Friday is a chance for you to explore any avenue of writing that you are interested in. You can write poetry, a narrative, an essay, a letter, an opinion about something that has been going on, or just a journal entry about how you are feeling at the time. You can write in first person, third person, or from the perspective of somebody else entirely. There is a lot of freedom, which you would expect on a freestyle friday.
 * Poetry
 * Essay
 * Letter to anyone
 * First person story from somebody else's point of view
 * Journal Entry (How are you feeling about the world today?)
 * Song
 * Opinions about things
 * Lists (like a top ten or a "Things to do before you die")
 * If nothing else, you can write another 3 element story

Have fun, and happy writing.

**3 Element Story** The goal for today is for you to write a creative story using three parts that are assigned to you. We will do this periodically throughout this class as a way for you to write stories and brainstorm ideas. I will think of the options for what goes in your story, and the rest is up to you. The requirement for length is that you must write for the entire period. Have fun with your story, be creative, and be descriptive. These are your story options for today:
 * cafeteria green beans, Mr. Uhlinger's beard, and a broken CD
 * a unicorn, a rainy day, and crowded football stadium
 * A carnival, Soggy french fries, and a new pair of jeans
 * Mr. Boll's classroom, a fast car, and a snowball
 * a book report, a stolen notebook, and a very expensive pen
 * a basketball, a short man, and a crowded street

Happy writing! WRITING IS A WAY OF LIFE! As you may have guessed, this is a writing course. We will write many things throughout the course of the semester and you will have fun if you are willing to work hard. This class is opportunity for all of you to write in ways that you may not be writing throughout the rest of your day. We will do a lot of storytelling, writing about thoughts and feelings, and responding to issues that face our community and world. You have to think to be a good writer, so be prepared to think. I look forward to reading all of your writing and learning and growing with you in this class. If you come to class, complete assignments, and challenge yourself to do your best, I believe you will find this class to be rewarding. Most of your writing (Not all) will be completed right here on the class Wiki. If you do not already have a username and password you will have to create one. ** Assignments ** The assignments for this class will always be here on this page. I will post them on the top and go over them at the beginning of class. Your job is to click on your name to the right and begin typing. At the end of the semester you will have a full and complete page with various writing assignments completed on your page. Please title all of the assignements in the same way that I do on this page. For example, your first assignment should be titled "**Response 1."** It helps if you make it bold on your page as well. Thanks.
 * Expectations ** I expect that you work hard, stay focused, and do your best. Always be respectful of everyone in the room. When on computers, only go to the websites that you have been instructed to use.

** Response 1 ** I want you guys to begin with an easy assigment. Please write for the remainder of the period on your thoughts on community, school, and where you live. Are you happy, excited, proud, nervous or angry. Explain your point of view. Describe a “first” (first apartment, first kiss, first time driving a car, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses. Describe a “first” (first apartment, first kiss, first time driving a car, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses.