One of my biggest projects this school year – so far – is to establish a creative writing club for our high school.  I started with a vision and my previous experience of working with my teacher bestie, Dorri, to start a writing club at my previous school.  To say that I learned from that experience is an understatement.

In that club Dorri and I worked to establish at St. Michael School, we dealt with technology issues, age differences (serving young middle grade students as well as middle school students), not to mention the hazards of the COVID 19 pandemic.  It is crazy to think that we achieved anything at all.  Yet, we did in a small way, even if the larger St. Michael community didn’t always recognize it.

We may have had a small core of roughly half a dozen students, but they were truly interested.  They eagerly learned from one another.  My 7th and 8th students demonstrated patience with Dorri’s 3rd graders, many of whom were just learning how to more fully express themselves in writing, expanding their thinking along with their vocabulary.  Dorri’s 3rd graders brought enthusiasm and fresh perspectives to their older peers’ projects.

When I started at Michigan Virtual Charter Academy this past fall, I knew that I wanted to become involved in some kind of club.  While I knew that we had a well-developed esports program, I didn’t exactly know what other clubs were offered.  It turned out that while we offer an academic creative writing class, we did not have a creative writing club.  Well, I sought to change that.  So far, I have succeeded.

At the beginning of the school year, I focused on creating an online classroom full of resources I could have only dreamed of as a high school student in love with writing.  There are dozens of websites to explore, hundreds of writing prompts, inspiring quotes, book recommendations, and so much more.  Then, I watched over several weeks as my students connected and explored common interests.  They grew as writers and found the confidence to share their work and a little bit about themselves.  Students then spent much of the semester writing pieces intended for eventual publication, likely a blog.  What happened next, I did not see coming.

We may have to wait until next school year to publish anything, but not only are both the  principal and assistant principal extremely supportive, our head of school now knows about the project.  In fact, I’ve received nothing but positive feedback.  Right now, I am working on helping to ensure we keep moving ahead in the right direction.  Who knows where this will take us?  Already, I have had two new club members join in the first few weeks of this new semester.  They’ve fit in seamlessly, which is a testament to the culture my students created.  I am incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved!