TWIN DAY

Twin day....Senior Staff style

Feeling Scary? Writing Prompts for Spooky Stories

Horror Writing Prompts:

1.     You just found a finger in your mailbox.

2.     You just missed the last bus home. It has gotten very cold. You only have 2.00 and a half empty pack of gum in your pocket.

3.     Someone left a bucket of human hair on your front porch.

4.     Write a story in which something extremely un-scary is terrorizing a small town.

5.     A vampire just fell in love with a werewolf…and it is the zombie apocalypse.

6.     Announcement: “FCAHS is in lockdown due to a fast spreading virus.”

7.     You have been left home, alone. Just as you are falling asleep, your door creaks open.

8.     Nothing you believe is true.

9.     You are walking home alone. It is night. You turn to see a clown walking briskly toward you.

10.  You are unable to see. You hear a strange noise.

CMU Writing Contest- Excellent Opportunity

Attention Writers!

Remember our amazing Guest Speaker (2010), Jim Daniels? Well, he teaches creative writing at CMU and runs a great writing contest. Please check this opportunity out:

http://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/courses/writing-awards/mlk/index.html

There are writing prompts to find inspiration as well:
http://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/courses/writing-awards/mlk/docs/mlk_prompts_2008.pdf

This quote from one of the prompts speaks loudly to our interests in Tapestry:


“The impulse to art, the impulse to creativity is very similar to the impulse to
spirituality and to imagining and creating a more humane society. It's a way to
connect to something that gives you deep roots. And with the roots, then
you're kind of able to stretch out and move in directions that perhaps you
wouldn't have had the strength or the inspiration to do otherwise.”
  --Dr. Rachel Harding (Veterans of Hope Project)

Let me know if I can do anything to assist in your submission, and don't forget to use Manuscript for feedback!

A Thousand Times No

Today was our final Senior Staff planning meeting before we begin general staff meetings tomorrow during Thursday QRT's. *excitement*

I decided to use the video below to give the staff a final burst of inspiration and motivation before we begin to lose ourselves in the stress of creating the actual book. Today was our last calm-before-the-storm day.

A few of us mentioned things we will say 'no' to this year as a senior staff member, and things in trade we vow to say 'yes' to. I promised to say no to club exclusiveness that can inherently happen with a staff so large. I said yes to going into review sessions with an unhampered and totally receptive mind.

I realize the blog is suddenly becoming TEDTalks heavy... (but that's the way it should be. I think we should all start our day everyday with a good ol' TEDtalk. The world could use some more innovative thinkers.)

http://blog.ted.com/2012/09/28/bahia-shehabs-newest-evolutions-of-no/


See you tomorrow morning... first informational all-club session!


-Sam

I saw this video on TED talks just today, and I thought I'd share it with all of you guys~

The girl in the video Candy Chang talked about a project she started in her neighborhood, and this is

a before-I-die blackboard. Here's the link to the video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/candy_chang_before_i_die_i_want_to.html

and the website for this project is posted below:

http://beforeidie.cc/

I personally really liked the idea of the project, so tell me what you think~

Open Letter to 12th Grade Students

From the Desk of Mrs. Green, inspired while watching you respond to Nora Mathews:

Dear Twelfth Grade Student,

I am watching you watch our guest speaker, and as she responds to a question about college essays, you suddenly perk up, lean forward, strain to hear. As if what she is about to say will be the answer- the one you are waiting for, the one that tells you the secret. Well, boys and girls, I am here to report that there is no secret; there is no answer.

For so many of you, your “here there be dragons” space is college, but the real  "dragon" seems to be the college application process. Suddenly, your writing is going out to an unknown. It is sailing off, past the unchartered territory, and you are only hoping the dragon's breath doesn't burn it up. You may believe that if you send out that essay, and it is burned to a crisp, then all has been for naught, as if the entire life you have lived thus far has been solely for this: for the moment when you find out if you were good-enough, smart-enough, engaged-enough, talented-enough, involved-enough, unique-enough, what-they-want enough for (insert Dream College here). Well, I am here to say ENOUGH. 

You are going to be okay, even you get rejected. Where you go to college is just another mark on your map, but it is not the end of the road. Once you are there, you will look at your map again and realize that you fought through that only to find more unchartered waters ahead. You will be in college, or you will be doing something else, and either way you will be learning.

Because that is what you really want, isn't it. 

Isn't that what this is all about? Isn't it supposed to be about education? Education should not be the process by which we are judged; it should be the process through which we learn. And we learn through experience. You will step out of this school, and you will be in dragon territory, but you will discover that you are actually equipped with exactly what you need to survive and to thrive. You will have fun; you will be challenged; you will laugh; you will cry; you will fall in love; you will get hurt; but most of all, you will be learning. It will be your college experience. (At the least, it will give you fodder for your writing and for your art.)

Where you go to college will work out. Trust your efforts; write your best essays to show off who you are. You are enough. With any luck, you will have reached far enough that you will be rejected by a few places. Savor that rejection- it means you believed enough in yourself. I remember my rejection letters well.

Next year is unchartered territory, but the only guarantee is you will be there… And then you will be heading somewhere else.

As Nora said, just look up and trust the stars. 

Love,

Mrs. Green

Scholastic Awards

Hi!

So next Thursday is our first review meeting. Before that it would probably be a good idea to explain the award that Tapestry won!

The 2011-2012 Tapestry staff won first place in the Scholastic Awards. The criteria is made up of five total categories. Within those categories are anywhere from six to twelve subcategories. The main categories and the scores were:

Content Coverage: 360/400
Organization: 115/200
Design: 135/150
Presentation: 180/180
Creativity: 60/70

Last year's edition excelled in presentation but left something to be desired in organization. The 2012-2013 staff has a lot to live up to. In terms of specific goals, this year's staff obviously should strive to raise all scores and maintain presentation. Specifically creativity is very much within reach, especially when considering the talent in this school. Points in organization were lost through a dysfunctional table of contents and lack of publication data and intent of the magazine. Hopefully 2012-2013 group can fulfill these goals!