{color}time

I hope you enjoyed our various activities last week using COLOR as our inspiration.  I was pleased with your effort and impressed by your productivity.  I hope you came up with some things you are proud of.

In a New Post on your blog Wednesday, please post at least 3 color-inspired pieces you wrote last week.  If you'd like to split them into 3 separate posts, that's okay, too.  Try to include at least 1 piece that is longer.  And definitely include some images.  If you need me to show you how to do that, I'd be happy to. You might check your journal for pieces from the "dreaming in color" day or you could write about something you included in your silhouette.  You should also have several different pieces created in response to the paint sample cards we worked with.  If you'd like to write something new or add to something you started in your journal, that would also work. 

If you finish, you could revisit your object-inspired piece and add to or accentuate it.  You could also tour some of your classmates' blogs and see what they're working on.  If you choose to leave a comment, let's stay positive and supportive rather than critical at this point.  More on that later...

We'll be moving on to a new unit of study centered on dreams and dreaming after today...

Be sure to turn in your dream silhouette drawing with at least 10 words and 5 images to Mrs. Fraser by the end of class on Wednesday, too, for points.  Thanks!

Stealing (authentically)

It's been a real pleasure getting to know you all these first couple of weeks.  I hope you are enjoying our class.  I have been quite impressed with your creativity and willingness to try new things here from the very start, and I look forward to seeing all that you come up with throughout the semester. 

I wanted to gather my thoughts and give you a preview of some of the other ideas I'd like us to consider and be inspired by over the next 14 weeks, all in keeping with Jarmusch's idea that it's more than okay to use everything around you to get ideas, that it's not where you get the idea but where take it. 

I'm organizing in terms of "themes" (rather than genres) and have a variety of activities connected to each to get you started on pieces of your own making.  Here's what I'm thinking (perhaps in this order or with some adjustments):

Writing inspired by:

• Objects
• Color
• Art
• Dreams
• Books
• Music
• Food
• Childhood
• Photos
• Films
• Gifts



Leave me a comment here if you have an idea or something you'd like for us to study or try.

Thanks again for being such wonderful people to start the day with...

XO Mrs. Fraser

objects {of inspiration}

"One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at.  This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is
a powerful source of creativity..." ~Edward de Bono

Please post a new piece of writing today on your blog inspired by our look at found objects.  Please spend time to come up with at least 300-500 words (you can type on Word for a word count then copy and paste).  Also, try to add at least one image today (click on the icon on the tool row that looks like a photo--I can show you how, just ask).  Be creative and take this assignment in whichever direction you choose:  fiction, narrative, poetry...You may come up with a finished product today or maybe just a good start on something you revisit again later.

Some options:

• use one of the objects in the photo above that we passed around during class Wednesday (expand on one of the ideas you jotted down in your journal)
• use one of the objects you found on our walk around campus and the park
• go back to one of the objects you shared with everyone those first days of class
• you can make a story up or you can write a story that is true

I'm spending some time today briefly commenting on your "I am..." poems and giving credit for those in the gradebook.  If you finish your piece, you can continue to customize your blog page with gadgets in the sidebar, interesting background, profile info, etc.

Thanks for making class so pleasant so far...have a great weekend!

Make it yours...

Thanks for creating a blog today.  I hope you will continue to add to and refine your layout to make the page reflect your style as we go.  

I'd like to try the project above in class tomorrow to personalize your spiral writing journals.  If you have magazines, comic books, posters, etc. you'd like to cut up, please bring them.  I have lots of magazines in the classroom you can use, too.

Be sure to fill 5 pages in your journal this week!

I am...Mrs. Fraser

I am...

a daughter, the oldest of 3, raised on small town sports, a life in the country and the desire to be a good girl.

 

a sister, the first to do most things, lucky enough to have been born with 2 built-in best friends.

 

a granddaughter, missing the days spent in the country with my Nanny and Papaw and my 9 cousins, riding horses bareback, picking vegetables from the garden, sitting around the old dining room table for meals and domino games, going shopping in a Ford Crown Victoria piloted by my lead-footed grandmother and keeping in touch through letters with my family far away.

a Drury girl, where I learned about Alice Walker, the secrets of Pi Beta Phi, how to live with roommates, and that the world is much bigger than Cassville, Mo.

a wife to Ryan, my friend and partner since I was 19, a man who knows I don't like to talk when I first wake up, who loves me even though I don't like to cook, and who every day tells me I'm silly and sexy and sassy and smart.

 

a mother to Macauley, a sixth grader who's been reading since before kindergarten but can't tie his own shoes, a little boy discovering this world faster than I can show it to him, already living his own life and letting me in on only pieces of it, amusing me and frustrating me and making me better every single day.

I am...

 

sweet tea and chocolate milk, chips and guacamole.

 

puffy, comfy white couches, ironstone pitchers and platters, chippy white furniture, burlap and linen, mismatched silverware and old photos, flea market finds and treasures that make me smile.

a tattered teddy bear bought with my birthday money in Eureka Springs when I was 8.

 

tightly folded notes passed between teenage boys and girls in class and church.

 

photos and scrapbooks and a project always in the works.

 

big, thick books and glossy magazines.

 

sleeping late on weekends, especially when it rains, in a soft bed with lots of covers and feather pillows.

I am...

 

dark blue eyes and my dad's olive skin, black-framed glasses when I read or watch TV.

 

blonde, small but not thin, curvy and soft.

 

pointy-toed shoes and lots of black, jeans and flipflops, a ponytail and no makeup, Uggs and a cardigan.

in the fourth decade of my life whether I feel like it or not.

 

not 16 anymore.

 

older and wiser, more experienced.

So, here we go!

Blogs are an interactive, visual way to share our writing, and I'm excited for you to create your own today. I am providing some written instructions on the yellow handout, but I think you'll really just learn as you go. What I've set up here is a central class blog where I will post assignments and my own writing. You can usually check here for directions or what you need to get started, so please take the time to read the information I post. When you create your blogs, I will add each of them to a "blog roll" on the right hand side--this page is where you can hop on and see what everyone else is up to, and I'll be looking for you to make supportive and appropriate comments on your classmates' blogs beginning in the near future. This whole process of creating a blog is a new one for most of you, so I appreciate your willingness to jump in and try something unfamiliar. You'll just have to spend a little time playing around with your layout, and I hope you feel free to add your own personal touches and make your page your own. You can start with the basic setup and let it evolve from there.

Some things to know/keep in mind:

• A post is a new entry you create from scratch with your own thoughts and ideas. A comment is an idea or thought you attach to someone else's post.
• While your blog is meant to be a place for you to express yourself and for others to communicate with you, we aren't using our blogs for socializing like facebook or texting. I hope you're kind and friendly to one another, but resist posting casual messages or silly small talk or really anything not related to our work together as a class. Later on, when you've moved on from Creative Writing, you may want to continue your blog and of course then you can do whatever you want with it!
• Since your blog is an "assignment" for a writing class, please attempt to use proper grammar and punctuation. You should not use text-speak or abbreviations or slang that you might use in texting or email. i do not want you to type in all lowercase like this. I DO NOT WANT YOU TO TYPE IN ALL UPPERCASE LIKE THIS. Use complete sentences and your best grasp on writing conventions. This is not to say we won't all make a few mistakes here and there, but we want it to appear that we were trying not to, not like we just haphazardly slapped some stuff down.

When you've created your own blog today, leave the name and url of it as a comment here. I'll link all of them to this page and this will be our home base. You can name your blog whatever you want, but I'll be listing them by your name in the blog roll because it's much easier for me to keep track of that way.  I do hope you enjoy this process...I'm here every step of the way so don't hesitate to ask me if you have questions or want some guidance.

Your first post will be the "I am..." Poem you drafted on Friday. You should be able to copy and paste the text from the draft you saved. Try to add an image or two using the button that looks like a photo (next to the blue word Link) on the tool bar. 

Leave a comment on my "I am..." post telling me something you found interesting or something we have in common.