This blog is an archive

This blog is an archive of work done at Cabrini Connections in the 2000s. Use it as an example of what's possible in an organized, site-based, tutor/mentor program. 

The Change Makers: FIRST PLACE!

Hello friends!

Last week we kicked off our Cabrini Madness Fundraiser. Our team, The Change Makers, pulled into first place after some tough competition from The Dream Team. We're so proud of our team. Special thanks to Paris Lockett, our writing club student and fundraising extraordinaire! Paris organized her own candy sale with her tutor/mentor, Tiffany Smith, bringing in $60 for our team last week, great job Paris! Also a very big thank you to Casey Moran's in Wrigleyville! They are our top donor with a generous $500.00 donation! We look forward to holding a little fundraising mixer at Casey Moran's very soon. Hopefully The Change Makers will keep up the pace and hold our strong defense!

Aside from Cabrini Madness, last week we began an activity in honor of Valentine's Day. We are making our own homemade greeting cards...but not just any greeting card. You see, on Valentine's Day all of the store shelves are bursting with a plethora of pink and red heart clad cards. Roses are red, violets are blue....

So we are taking it a step further, we are finding pictures that aren't obvious cliche love notes. We looked at some examples of artistic expressions of metaphoric messages relating to love. Like a man holding onto a bird... I know that seems a little odd, and that's exactly the point! The students picked out some great artistic photos and even began to write the message in the card, this week we are finishing them up and will post the finished products later today!

It's Cabrini Madness Time!

It's that time of year!

In anticipation of college tournament basketball season, Cabrini Connections is heading up a fundraiser that makes a play on March Madness. This is a team oriented challenge called Cabrini Madness to raise some funds for our program. We depend on donors to help keep Cabrini Connections up and running so the writing club is participating by introducing Team Change Makers! Meet the Team...

Shannyn Nellett: Writing Club Coordinator
Christine Conzett: Writing Club Coordinator
Steve Miller: Cabrini Connections Board Member
Tiffany Smith: Tutor/Mentor/Volunteer
Paris Lockett: Cabrini Rockstar Student
Charlie Goff: Tutor/Mentor/Volunteer
Veronica Reyes: Cabrini Veteran
Sean Hannon: Fundraiser Volunteer
Alayna Van Hall: Fundraiser Volunteer
Javan Gordon: Cabrini Rockstar Student


Instead of playing basketball, each team has created a fundraiser page and will be raising money. The teams that raise the most money will advance into the Elite Eight, Final Four, and then to the Championship! So please, friends, help the Change Makers advance by donating to our page
http://giveforward.com/cabrinichangemakers

Even if you can't donate, you can help us out by posting our link to your social websites. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace...etc. are great platforms to spread the word.

The Writing Club is made possible by donors like you and we greatly appreciate your continued support!

Go Team Change Makers!

A is for Alliteration!

Last week the writing club began an activity that focused on a writing technique called alliteration. Alliteration is when the writer stresses two or more syllables of a word group by using the same consonant sound or sound group. After we discussed what this meant, and how to use it, we put our new technique to work.

We wrote stories using each letter of the alphabet as a sentence, stressing the letter in each sentence as much as we could. The rough drafts are pretty good so far, we plan to polish them up and post them next week! So check back and tell us what you think!

Happy Holidays from Cabrini Connections!

Click here to donate.

Free write journaling...

Last week was Thanksgiving so we took a little break and enjoyed family and food. We hope you were able to do the same!

The previous week we had light attendance (Charles and Sean we miss you!) so we focused on free writing. Javan, Paris and Savon wrote in their journals about anything that was on their minds.

We then openly discussed our journal entries and related to each other in what we have going on; with the Holidays approaching and for the students grades are coming out so all-around stresses are running higher than usual. Next week Miss Misha will be introducing a new activity that is hands-on and lots of fun so stay tuned!

A Day In My Life...

Last week we began an activity that mirrored the activity we did two weeks ago about the Minors. Each student began with a sheet of paper and titled it "A Day in My Life."

The concept: Each narrator began his/her story with a situation that embodied a day in their life. After two minutes of writing we dropped our pens and passed our stories to the person on our left. They then continued the story and applied it to a day in their life. We were almost finished when our 6:00pm bell rang and writing club ended. We'll pick it up where we left off on Wednesday and share some of our finished products with our friends that visit our blog.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Insight from Paris Lockett

Paris Lockett is one of writing clubs new members of the 10'-11' school year. She attends the Military Academy and so far has shown great depth and soul in her writing. So much so that we wanted to highlight one of her free write activities. She would like to make it clear that this is a piece of fiction.

Untitled, by Paris Lockett.

Now here we go with this again. The thought of love invading my soul. Love. Man, it's over and done with. No motivation for me to continue on drowning in this vast ocean of uncertainty. I wish I could get out of here....

That's how I was feeling once upon a time. I begged and tried for the feeling to dismiss. No more love for me. Because my one true love, the one that said he would always have my back no matter what, left me for dead. And since, my life has spiraled down.

Dad? Daddy? Where are you? My pleas and cried go unheard to dismantled ears. Mom took me to the funeral but her significance of being present angered me. All I wanted, as any young child does, was love and a relationship with the man that birthed her into existence. But it don't matter, struggle will make me better. Now I'm soul searching. But my haunt is finna stop because no young guy can replace my heart, my foundation...my DADDY.

I hate when people say stupid things in regards to him. Every will and strength I have, you're outta here. Wow, to actually get this out is both hard and unbearable. Sure, I have people who've been there for me. But, SO?? Deep down inside, my heart only yearns for him. Now I feel like crying because unfortunately, I do really miss him.

But the pain grows and the distance has deepened. God it hurts. Let the pain dismiss. If pops was here, I wouldn't be fat. My boyfriend and I would have more in common and that awkward feeling I get around him and his parents would cease. These green military clothes I wear cover the true colors that blind my life.

And we're off!

This week we started off with a 15 minute free-write in our journals and then we went around the table sharing our thoughts. Sean Mayfield is working on a dictionary for "White Slang"-it's comical and harmless. Savon Clark is remaining focused on his goals, we appreciate and encourage his confidence and determination! Paris highlighted reasons that she is happy today, mainly siteing that the simple things in life tend to be quite beautiful if you look at them with a positive attitude, well done Paris!

After our free-write we dove into a fun interactive project called "The Mine."

The concept: Everybody wrote "The Mine" at the top of a sheet of paper. We then each began a two minute creative writing involving anything to do with a mine. The idea, of course, mirrored the heroic tale of the 33 Chilean minors that were rescued after 69 days of being trapped miles underground.

But rather than tell their story, we used our imaginations to create our own renditions. It was so much fun and we all look forward to finishing the stories next week, so stay tuned!

2010-2011 School Year

Writing Club had gotten off to a great start for the 2010-2011 school year! With two new club coordinators and several new students, we spent the first week getting to know each other and sharing things we love about writing. Last week, we took a look at The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and discussed writing from the perspective of an animal or an inanimate object. After picking a theme, such as the zoo, the students wrote a paragraph from the perspective of something at the zoo. Once finished we all tried to guess whose perspective they were writing from!

We have such talented writers in the club who continue to amaze us with their fabulous stories!

7/2: Fire Boy, by Savon Clark!

A few week's ago, as writing club was sitting down for our weekly group, Savon Clark strolled on in and for the first time ever, placed in front of me a little something he's been working on in his spare time. (Maybe with a little creative advising from Mr. Sean Mayfield...)

When I picked up the two pages Savon presented me with, I was pleasantly surprised to find that he has began to write his own little piece of fiction...

Fire Boy, by Savon Clark.

"Alrighty class, that's the bell. I'll see you guys tomorrow and remember to check the matchups on the board for tomorrow's final on your way out!" Mr. Grange said.

Jason was the first one towards the door, and sprinted towards the board, followed by a rush of kids.

"No way, yes!!" Jason yelled.

"Jason, why so excited?" Ryan, Jason's friend, asked.

"I got that stupid cocky Conner, I've been waiting to kick his butt for the longest!" Jason exclaimed.

"Jason, are you sure you're even ready to for him, he does have a pretty stout record and he's just our age." Ryan replied.

"I don't care, tomorrow he's going down!" Jason said.

"Just then a blue-eyed, blue-haired boy walks through the crowd of kids, he looks at the board for a second, then he looks at Jason.

"Pttf, looks like another easy 'A' for me." The boy said.

"What did you say?" Jason asked.

"You heard me, don't try to act stupid now." The boy replied.

"You know what Conor, I've got the nerve to shut you up right now." Jason fired back.

"Jason, we all know you don't have the guts, nerves or even the brains to try to something as foolish as to attempt to touch me." Conor replied.

"Let's not fight now guys." Ryan reasoned

Just then a crowd started to chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

At that moment, Mr. Grange decided to step in, "Alright, that's enough, we'll save the fighting for tomorrow, got it?"

"Yeah, alright." Said Conor.

"Sure." Said Jason.

"Ok." Said Ryan.

After that, both Ryan and Jason left the classroom, and then Jeffrey H. Picdonald Elementary School. As they were walking Ryan said, "Jason, you can't just let Conor get you worked up like that!"

Jason said, "Easy for you to say, he's been talking trash for the longest, and-"

"Yeah, and that's all it is, trash, Jason." Ryan interrupted.

Jason thought on it for a moment and agreed, "Yeah, you're right."

"My point exactly." Said Ryan.

"Who are you supposed to be fighting tomorrow anyway, I got so worked up I didn't even look." Admitted Jason

"I'm supposed to fight Raymond tomorrow." Ryan answered.

"Ewwww...good luck with that one..." Jason said.

"Yeah, I'll need it. But what's going on with you and Stephanie?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing!! She is just another girl at school, nothing special..." Jason replied.

"Sure it is, Sure." Ryan said with some sarcasm.

That's when they came to a split in the road. They said their goodbyes and Ryan went to the right, while Jason went to the left. Shortly afterward, Jason was already on te porch of his house. He then stuck his key inside the door handle, unlocked it and opened it. When he then shut and locked it, his mother was the first to greet him.

"Hi Jason, how was school?" She asked.

"Hey mom, school was good." He mumbled as he rushed up the stairs. Once he got up there he knocked on a door twice.

"Hey, it's you. You're home a little early, I'll be there in a second." A voice said.

A few moments later, a very slim figure popped out from the door and spoke, "Hey are you ready for the last day?"

"Of course I am, I need to kick someones butt tomorrow. You know it's the last day of school right Zeke?" Jason replied.

"Yeah, I know, we better get going unless you want to take a break?" Zeke asked.

"Do you think Conor is taking a break, I don't think so..." Jason said.

"Then let's go." Zeke said.

Jason and Zeke were leaving the house when their mom told Zeke, "Zeke, don't let you brother get hurt today, ok?"

"Alrighty mom." Zeke said, and then they left.

To be continued....

..........................................................................................................................................................................

Excellent job so far, Savon (and Sean...) Keep it going so we can see what happens next!

Week 6/2: Featured Jumble Story

Following up with our ‘Jumble Story’ activity, I have to say that all of the students put a lot of creative thought into their storylines. Each story had a unique vision and path, leading to some…peculiar and hilarious resolutions. It was truly a joy to read all of them, however, we have chosen to feature just one for the blog; and the winner is…Sean Mayfield!

What he drew:

1. Character: A jazz musician
2. Setting: A concert hall
3. Time: During a concert
4. Situation/Challenge: A secret needs to be confessed

Seans’ Vision:

Headlining at the New York Concert Hall, Joey was at the top of his game, playing in front of one of the finest crowds of his jazz career. Later on, he decided to treat his crew to a celebratory dinner. After some great food, fine wine, lot’s of laughs and maybe a little insanity, everybody except for Joey and Vintinashi decided to call it a night.

Vintinashi had a little wine, so Joey decided it was best to drive him home. While en route, Vintinashi began to mumble some strange things…

“Hey, Joey?” Said Vintinashi.

“Yes?” Asked Joey.

“What I’m about to tell you will blow your mind.” Vintinashi stated with great conviction.

“Oh yeah, what is it?” Laughed Joey.

“I….am an alien.” Whispered Vintinashi.

“Oh reeeeaaallly?” Chuckled Joey.

“Ish true!” Said Vintinashi as his voice and accent changed and he began to glow in a florescent green color. His skin started to peel and replacing it was a shiny layer of blue ‘skin’- his head sprouted horns that stabbed two holes in the hood of the car.

Joey was mortified. In a weak attempt to conceal his terror, he mumbled, “W..wow…”

Vintinashi was pleased with himself, with a creepy smile, he asked, “And you know what?”

Joey could feel his heart pounding through his chest while sweat beads dripped down from his forehead into his eyes….”What?” He hesitated to ask.

Vintinashi, still smiling and ever-changing, said, “Now…you die.”

The End.

Now to be fair, Sean is a smart cookie who caught on to the process of picking his numbers, realizing if he picked all 10’s, that his 1-4 items would all coordinate. (i.e. A jazz musician, at a concert hall, during a concert…) This originally did not please me, but I was very impressed to see that, when he could have decided to go the easy and boring route, he instead went off the beaten path and truly created his own vision with great detail and imagery. And it was pretty entertaining to boot, so here’s to you Sean!

Great job to Charles Hill, Gregory Hatchett, and Savon Clark as well!

Week 5/2: Jumble Story!

This week we had the table full of writers, enthusiastic and ready to do something fun! So we decided to do an interactive writing project called ‘Jumble Story’ –here’s how it works.

It begins with this list:

Character

1. A new mother
2. A photographer
3. A recent high school graduate
4. A restaurant owner or manager
5. An alien from outer space
6. A homeless child
7. A 93 yr old woman
8. An environmentalist
9. A college student
10. A jazz musician

Setting

1. Near a National Forest
2. A wedding reception
3. A celebration party
4. An expensive restaurant
5. A shopping mall
6. A city park
7. The porch of an old farmhouse
8. A polluted stream
9. A college library
10. A concert hall

Time

1. During a forest fire
2. After a fight
3. The night of high school graduation
4. After a big meal
5. Sometime in December
6. Late at night
7. After a big thunderstorm has passed
8. In early spring
9. First week of the school year
10. During a concert

Situation/Challenge

1. An important decision needs to be made
2. A secret needs to be confessed to someone else
3. Someone’s pride has been injured
4. A death has occurred
5. Someone has found or lost something
6. Someone has accused someone of doing something else wrong
7. Reminiscing on how things have changed
8. Someone feels like giving up
9. Something embarrassing has just happened
10. Someone has just reached an important goal

I held the only copy of the above list and had each student write numbers 1-4 on a sheet in their journals,

1 = Character
2 = Setting
3 = Time
4 = Situation/Challenge

Next, we went around the table and for each of the above, the students randomly selected a number 1-10 to correspond to an item for each category. This will outline the story that they need correlate.

Here’s the luck of the draw:

Greg Hatchett

1. Character: photographer
2. Setting: celebration party
3. Time: after a big meal
4. Situation/Challenge: someone’s pride has been injured

Savon Clark

1. Character: restaurant owner/manager
2. Setting: porch of an old farmhouse
3. Time: forest fire
4. Situation/Challenge: Something embarrassing has occurred

Charles Hill

1. Character: restaurant owner/manager
2. Setting: a college library
3. Time: sometime in December
4. Situation/Challenge: a death has occurred

Sean Mayfield

1. Character: Jazz musician
2. Setting: concert hall
3. Time: during a concert
4. Situation/Challenge: a secret needs to be confessed

Shannyn Nellett

1. Character: an environmentalist
2. Setting: a celebration party
3. Time: after a big thunderstorm
4. Situation/Challenge: someone feels like giving up

Veronica Reyes

1. Character: 93 year old woman
2. Setting: a college library
3. Time: night of a high school graduation
4. Situation/Challenge: an important decision needs to be made

Sandra Lee

1. Character: a recent high school graduate
2. Setting: near a National Forest
3. Time: after a big thunderstorm
4. Situation/Challenge: Someone has lost found something

After we all picked our numbers to create our jumble stories, we discussed the proper elements needed to write each story. We discussed creating characters that would embark upon such ‘jumbled’ situations and how to glue it all together. The one element that each student is creating on their own is the ending/resolution. So please tune in next week to see what we all came up with!

2010, Writing Club resumes!

We’re back from the Holidays!

And to begin our new semester, here is an inspirational little excerpt from an album of songs written by Writing Clubs’ own Charles Hill. Enjoy!

Song: Wish List

The Holidays coming around so quickly
I can’t think of a better present
Wishing so hard
You’d come around
You can see my dreams
Wondering and wishing that you’d be here with me

It’s on my wish list
To see your smile again this holiday
I’ll be holding you so close

Together we can’t be torn apart
We’re an impenetrable heart

This holiday you won’t forget
Why I love you and hold you so dear
For this holiday you’re all that’s on my mind

You’re on my wish list
To kiss you and make you dream
We talk together (Ah da da da)
That’s why we’re a good team

You’re on my wish list
This holiday
You’re on my wish list
(You’re on my wish list)
(You’re on my wish list)

I just love it. Great job Charles.

Week 9: Our Visions…and Chuck Norris vs. Oprah?

I would first like to acknowledge Veterans Days by thanking all of the men and women serving our country. And…because of you, our students didn’t have school today so they were in pretty good spirits.

We began the hour with a little jam session and snacks along with some discussion on our futures and where we envision ourselves in it. To help get the ball rolling, Veronica and Shannyn created a little questionnaire. This allowed us to not only get to know each other better, but also provided some hilarious insight to what makes us each unique. Some of the questions/answers are as follows:

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Sean Mayfield: Video Game Designer
Veronica Reyes: Middle School Teacher, Social Studies
Charles Hill: Journalist
Savon Clark: A professional football player, Economist or Computer Engineer
Shannyn Nellett: Documentarian, Writer, Photojournalist

2. Where do you see yourself in 4 years?

Sean Mayfield: Graduating High School and Furthering my education
Veronica Reyes: I see myself teaching. Maybe living in Chicago, but I do want to teach in the city for a couple of years. Hopefully I will be closer to having my own ‘family’ life.
Charles Hill: Going to College
Savon Clark: Graduating High School and Going to a Big 10 school.
Shannyn Nellett: Being published/Adapted. Displaying gallery work, art. No idea where I’ll live or what my status will be, and I’m ok with that. I would like to do a considerable amount of traveling.

3. Who inspires you? What kind of person do you inspire to be?

Sean Mayfield: Nobody/I want to be a successful person
Veronica Reyes: My family is my inspiration. They put their faith in me, that keeps me focused and dedicated to move toward my goals. They help me strive to be the well-rounded and open-minded person .
Charles Hill: Nobody really. I wish to be a person who is recognized to have achieved great accomplishments at my age. I want to be a person who is unlike any other.
Savon Clark: My parents inspire me to do great things because they provide the best for me. As my duty, I will do whatever I can to succeed. I want to be a role model, as I try to be now.
Shannyn Nellett: My mother and older sister inspire me. Throughout a life of struggles they remained strong and positive. They truly appreciate the simple things in life and do not allow insignificant negatives to burden them.

4. What makes you happy?

Sean Mayfield: Chocolate?
Veronica Reyes: Friends and family
Charles Hill: I wouldn’t exactly say I found something that makes me truly happy, or happy in any way.
Savon Clark: Listening to music I guess
Shannyn Nellett: Positive energy. Cabrini Connections. Music. Beaches. My niece and nephew. Visiting home. Chicago. Boats. Sundays.

5. What does family mean to you?

Sean Mayfield: They are irreplaceable
Veronica Reyes: People who support you and never judge you. People who you love unconditionally and love you.
Charles Hill: A group of people who are very close to you. People who you trust very well and can rely on.
Savon Clark: Family means to take care of each other and support one another through any endeavor
Shannyn Nellett: Everything

6. Do you envision yourself having a family? If so, what kind of family do you see yourself having?

Sean Mayfield: No.
Veronica Reyes: A big family
Charles Hill: I do see myself having a family. The family I see myself having would be one that is completely free to act and be who they want to be
Savon Clark: Yes I see myself having a family that has morals
Shannyn Nellett: I always wanted a very big family. But I’ll gladly take whatever I am blessed with.

7. Do you have plans for college? If so, where do you want to go?

Sean Mayfield: Yes. ITT
Veronica Reyes: Yes, I’m a DePaul student
Charles Hill: I plan to major in Writing and minor in Music. I want to go to either Northwestern or DePaul
Savon Clark: I want to go to a Big 10 school , and I will either be playing football and/or taking classes on Economics/Computer Engineering
Shannyn Nellett: Did undergrad at San Diego State University, would love to earn a graduate degree…maybe I will

8. What are you going to carry with you forever from Cabrini Green?

Sean Mayfield: Memories
Veronica Reyes: Chuck Norris vs. Oprah
Charles Hill: Being from Cabrini Connections
Savon Clark: I will carry all of my childhood memories
Shannyn Nellett: Every year end dinner, watching the students perform their work

9. What interests or hobbies do you have?

Sean Mayfield: Making comics
Veronica Reyes: Arts & Crafts. Music, reading , and going to museums.
Charles Hill: Skateboarding. Writing. Playing guitar. Listening to music. Psychology
Savon Clark: Watching football. Anime. Basketball. Helping within the community.
Shannyn Nellett: Art. Photography. Film. Writing. Music

10. What is a favorite memory that you have?

Sean Mayfield: Going to my first Bakugan tournament
Veronica Reyes: Christmas when the whole family was together, playing balderdash
Charles Hill: The day I started randomly writing poetry out of boredom
Savon Clark: My sister falling down the stairs….
Shannyn Nellett: The train ride to San Diego from Ohio, amazing

Next week we'll be transposing these ideas onto our vision collages. Oh…and while we were putting these on paper, the boys began debating Chuck Norris vs. Oprah Winfrey. Veronica and I were at a loss, as we are not exactly Chuck Norris buffs… but it turns out that the collective agreement is that Oprah wins because she could buy Bruce Lee to take over Chuck Norris. We will dig into this theory a little more next week so stay tuned!

Week 8: Welcome new Mentor!

This week in Writing Club we were graced with a new presence. Ms. Veronica Reyes, a fourth year DePaul student studying Elementary Education, has joined us as a mentor for Writing Club! I am thrilled to welcome her into our program! Hopefully with our combined enthusiasm, passion, and dedication to Cabrini Connections students, we will build a very exciting writing club this year.
We dove right into the activity from last week on lyric interpreting by discussing the chosen songs along with our summarized interpretations. Building off of this, we took it a step further and created our own verse to add to our songs. Here is a couple that we came up with:

Charles Hill: ‘You Know You’re Right’ by Nirvana

I would never bother you
I would never promise to
I will never follow you
I will never bother you
Never say a word again
I will crawl away for good
*For you have left me I’m dead*

(Chorus)
I will move away from here
You won’t be afraid of fear
No thought was put into this
I always knew it would come to this
Things have never been so swell
I have never felt failed to fail
Pain (x 3)
You know you’re right (x3)

I’m so warm and calm inside
I no longer have to hide
Let’s talk about someone else
Steaming, soon begins to melt
(Nothing else is right!!!!)
Nothing really bothers her
She just wants to love herself
*She’s full of greed and nothing else*

(Repeat Chorus)

*Charles’ Verse*
Things will never come ahead
I am lost without my head
I can barely stand
You don’t care, you just want more fans
Pain, you know you’re right, pain

Veronica Reyes: ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ by Darius Danesh

We get it on 'most every night
When that moon is big and bright
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

We have fun but we never fight
You can't dance and stay uptight
It's a supernatural kind of delight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling
A fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Hey
Feeling warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight
*Veronica’s Verse*

We laugh for fun while we’re stepping light
Everybody smiling big and bright
Feel the groove don’t put up a fight
Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight

Week 7: Interpreting Lyrics

This week in Writing Club, we have two new members! Please join us in welcoming sisters, Breonca and Yolanda Hyles. Or as I was introduced, BeBe and YoYo. (Did I get it right this time girls)?
We often discuss new songs or artists and how their music touches, relates or speaks to us. So Shannyn and Jessica decided to incorporate this collective interest into this week’s activity. We each printed lyrics to some of our favorite songs and then wrote a brief summary on what the artist is trying to say and how we can relate to the song.

Imann Mitchell: ‘Rehab’ by Rihanna, featuring Justin Timberlake
In this song, Rihanna sings about how she is so deeply in love with this guy that she’s actually ‘addicted’ to his love. But she doesn’t want to be so addicted to him that if he was to leave, she would go crazy. So she would need to go to rehab to get over her addiction.

Breonca Hyles: ‘Nothing at All’ by Myci
It’s basically about the mistakes she made in the past, and if she could change the past, she would change ‘nothing at all.’ It relates to me because I made mistakes in my past too, and I wouldn’t change them either because it is our mistakes that we learn from and make us who we are.

Charles Hill: ‘You Know Your Right’ by Nirvana
This song was written by Kurt Cobain as a divorce song that he was going to give to Courtney Love before he died. The songs meaning is pretty simple, “I’m leaving you, you only care about the money. Our child needs the both of us and even though I’m feeling pain, this is the best I’ve ever felt.” This song relates to me because I’ve felt a lot of pain over the years, but have always found something to be cheerful about anyway.

Yolanda Hyles: ‘Tell Him the Truth’ by Keri Hilson
My song is about relationships and difficult times. This song sometimes can go with me because I do have difficult times with boys and relationships, like most people do. But this is a diverse song that can relate to all people, young or old, in relationships.

Excellent job everyone! Next week we will take it one step further by adding our own verse to the songs we chose. It should be very interesting, so check back next week!

Week 6: Haunted Halloween

Haunted Halloween, by Charles Hill.

Halloween, a day of terror in some eyes, while others consider the day magical. It all started in Ireland, the date of October 31st. Ancient Pagans thought of this day as a day when mortals and the people from beyond the grave were able to walk together, as one. Brought back from the dead, although still dead, they were known as the undead. Because for only this one night, they could walk with mortal humans.

Witches, wizards, zombies, and even cartoon characters. The day the Pagans worshipped for the dead and others has now become a day of trick-or-treating. Now I do say, the Pagans may like the idea of costumes supposedly being there to ward off demons. But I doubt all the good boys and girls really care about the demon part, just getting the treats from the neighbors is good enough. Games are always fun to play right? I’m pretty sure you love to play games on Halloween, if not, then oh well. One game that has been played on Halloween is bobbing for apples. Simple right? You just fill a bucket of water and attempt to get an apple from out of it, the only catch is, you need to do so with your mouth.

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, these are images of frightening ghouls in today’s tradition of Halloween. Usually watching a classic “Dracula” movie, or one of the new horror movies they have out now. Like “Saw”, even though in my most honest opinion, the horror movies that are made today are not what they could be. They are easily predictable, they aren’t frightening anymore. I miss the days of true ghouls like Frankenstein, even a misunderstood monster was capable to do more damage than “Jigsaw” nice name also. It’s not very…creative, but still a puzzle piece name will always just be a puzzle piece name. Anyways, since the story began getting off topic with my opinion, I will go on with the words “Urban Legends” and “Chain Letters”, these are stories that fill my MySpace ads, internet letters, all types of technological outlets. One chain letter that I loved reading about, which doesn’t have a title, or at least not that I know of, so I gave it a name of my own, “The Clown?” A story of a girl who is babysitting a couple of kids while their parents are at a restaurant. The babysitter is putting the kids to bed one by one. The family has a group of collectible clowns and such placed by the baby’s crib. There is one large clown statue in particular that seems to be standing in the middle of the chair, which the babysitter thinks is just a normal statue. She goes back downstairs, then back up when the baby starts fussing. She notices that the lights are on, but she’s pretty sure she turned them off when she left. Next she notices that the clown statue seems to be very human like. This frightens her so she runs back downstairs and calls the family. She tells them about the clown statue, to which they say, “We don’t have a clown statue.” Then the phone cuts out and the babysitters breathing becomes very heavy. She doesn’t want to turn around to face her paranoia, and then…she’s dead. I don’t consider it very sad since her death created a chain letter.

All in all, Halloween is a day of colors. Orange, Black, and screaming children? No, they aren’t screaming out of terror for their lives because of some crazy monster chasing them, or a vampire sucking their blood or any other crazy thing. They’re just happy because they get candy and chocolate. Halloween is spread everywhere; Japan, America, Ireland, and many other countries. The 31st of October may be one of the spookiest days, but I will always admire it’s creativity for terror.

Week 5: Halloween; digging a little deeper.

The time of year has come around again, Halloween is rapidly approaching. Stores are flooded with consumers looking for fake spider webbing, jack-o-lanterns, corn husks, scarecrows, plastic tombstones, gobs of candy and the all-time best seller for Halloween, costumes. This week in writing club we discussed this holiday in great detail and researched the traditions not only here in America, but also in Ireland (the original country to celebrate Halloween) and Mexico (El Dia de los Muertos).

We first learned that Halloween was carried to America via Irish Immigrants during Irelands Great Famine of the 1840's. It has roots in the Celtic Festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints' Day. Samhain celebrates the end of harvest season in the Gaelic culture. Ancient Celts associated the dead (buried under ground) with the crops and harvest. So a tradition was born to hold bonfires into which slaughtered livestock were thrown. The only reason costumes were worn was to disguise mortal beings from evil spirits during this celebration. Most of these disguises were ghosts, zombies, witches and other relevant evil-spirited phenomena that could make an appearance during the celebrations.

A far cry from our American take on Halloween, and furthermore, costumes. The National Retail Federation in the United States found that American consumers spent nearly $5 billion on costumes in 2006. I have a feeling that the Ancient Celts would be greatly displeased with a Britney Spears School Girl wanna-be dancing around their bonfire. We, as a group, discussed the overindulgence in the 'ostentatiousness' (putting it very nicely) of female costumes in America. It could be argued that the traditions of Halloween are a bit lost on our generation. So the Writing Club is digging a little deeper and writing essays on the traditions of Halloween in other cultures. Stay tuned to see what we come up with!

Week 4: Featured Writer!

Writing Club veteran and excellent student, Charles Hill, wrote a song in his spare time over the last week. He was generous enough to share this incredible piece of work with us and now you.

Song Title: Pain

Anyone can do what I have done
It isn't very hard
To take the things I have won
And set it all ablaze

It takes my pain away!
It's all a lie
Nothing is important now
Cause all I do is quit

I keep on trying to make a smile
But I keep on frowning
It isn't something I can't feel
But it's all I cannot kill

It' takes my pain away!
I can't let you follow me (follow me)
I can't let you follow me (follow me)
I can't let you follow me (follow me)
It takes my pain away

It's all a lie
A double sided knife
It takes my pain away!
Stop and try
All you do is quit on me

It takes my pain
It takes my pain
It takes my pain away!!!

-Written by Charles Hill

Charles, I always look forward to what you'll do next! You are truly a gifted writer with an insight and perspective that surpasses you in age, but not wisdom or experience. It is quite remarkable. We are going to set some wheels in motion to make sure we can help develop your talents to the best of our ability. In the meantime, keep the creative juices flowing and excellent job on the song!