Hotchkisses and Hugs: Youth Writing Camp

A few summers ago, I joined the North Star National Writing Project. Not only did it give me six hours towards my Masters, but it also helped me become a better teacher to my students. I was able to join reading and writing together more. Best part was I got to make some relationships that I never knew possible.

This summer a few of my Project members ran a Youth Writing Camp. I have to tell you that at first I was wishing I hadn't signed up for it. I was extremely stressed out at the end of school and it felt like another thing added on. Running the camp made me so happy that I had decided to go through with it. I had the best time.

We had two camps running at Calhoun Middle School and Guyer High School with 18 students ranging from 4-10th grade. The pieces that these students came up with were incredible. Many I had during the school year, and I had no idea that they could write like that. We got to do a lot of activities to help deepen their writing and make it more their own. A lot of the students camp willingly and many came by force of their parents, but at the end of the week each one of them couldn't stop talking about how much fun they had. We had started a blog for them to publish their writings, and many were using that as a way to stay in touch. I seriously can't wait to do this again next year.

We had a celebration for them at the end of the week. Our sponsors, UNT members, and parents got to see and hear all that they kiddos had been working on. I found myself coming to tears a few times at what all they students had taught us.

I get a worried about showing students' faces on the internet, but I thought I'd show a few pictures that I have that are faceless.