I read a variety of blogs each week, and one of my favorites is The Wren's Nest Blog from Atlanta's Joel Chandler Harris House Museum, which I visited last summer (you can read about that here). In February, I saw a call to volunteers on Twitter for a project The Wren's Nest and nearby charter middle school Kipp Strive Academy were teaming up to do.
The gist of it is that writers from the Atlanta area are paired with fifth graders to help him or her write a narrative of a story told to him or her by a family member. It's about several things: teaching interviewing skills, transforming interview notes into a story, preserving family history, and involving the community at seriously, the coolest school I've ever gotten to check out.
Really, it didn't take any time at all for this to be the thing I spend all week looking forward to. This week was my third meeting with my student. He is smart, funny, animated, excited, energetic, and just a fun person to spend some time with. I'm so excited about the story he is working on, and I can't wait to see it in print this fall at the Decatur Book Festival, where the students' stories will be unveiled in a published book.
The Wren's Nest Blog is continuing to talk about this program. You can read their take on it here. And, fellow volunteer Jamie Allen is writing about it on his blog, too. Check it out here and here.
More to come on this, I'm sure!
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