Travel Tip

Tomorrow I leave with 13 students to travel to Kansas City for the JEA National Convention.  One great tip for you as an adviser/chaperone is to create a directory of your travelling students.  Take mugs of each, list their cell number and an emergency number beside their photo and place in alphabetical order.  This gives you a quick reference for each student.  If a chaperone is travelling with you that may not know the students well, it also provides them with a handy identification method.  Should police or convention officials need a quick reference, this is an invaluable tool to have.

Have a wonderful rest of the week.  The blog will be updated on Monday after convention.

Sports Columns

Get your non-sports students interested in sports column writing by sharing Rick Reilly columns from either of his books:  Life of Reilly or Hate Mail From Cheerleaders.  Both offer a unique glimpse into the sports world through his creative spin on the sports column.  For example, in Life Of Reilly his entry, And The Band Fought On, is a hilarious take on a brawl that broke out during a halftime performance.

Creative Writing Prompts

Two books that are exceptional for creative writing are Room to Write and Writing Down the Days.  Both are great for a simple writing prompt in any English or journalism class.  They each prompt students to think before they write.  Room to Write affords more in-depth questions and Writing Down the Days lists a significant event which happened on each day of the year, then prompts the student to write about a related topic.