Writer's Week

Monday- Julie Halpern. Having read her book Get Well Soon last year, I was really excited that she was kicking off writers week for me. I thought she brought a lot of energy in her performance which got me engaged in her talking. I liked how she wasn’t ashamed to admit she was in a mental hospital because most people wouldn’t even dare to admit they were in one. She inspired me to keep journaling because who knows maybe I’ll one day become a writer..probably not though. By seeing all her journals it made me realize that journaling is something I should keep up because I’ll want to look back on them later when my writing becomes more mature. Overall she kept the audience’s attention and I enjoyed it greatly.
Tuesday- Students. Today was a quiet day for me. The students Unser and Jonathan, like everyone else has said were definitely the most entertaining. I’m going to disagree with Lizzy and say that Unser’s performance was not too inappropriate and did not ruin the period for me. I thought it was actually entertaining and put an interesting spin on the problems with technology today. I really liked how he called it the H1N1 of love and dating skills. I thought that was pretty funny. Jonathan’s performance was also entertaining and like people said how often do you get to meet a bird caller for Disney? What made these two stand out was that they were very enthusiastic and brought energy instead of reading blandly from a piece of paper. Not saying that Tamar’s Nakendra, Colleen, and Alaina’s performance were bad they just didn’t bring that much energy. Although props to Tamar for talking about that best friend could have been very nerve wrecking, especially if they were in the audience like Joe said.
Wednesday- Sierra DeMulder. One word to describe her is OUTSTANDING! Like Brady, I also saw her last year. It was a great performance! Her energy behind each poem and they way her voice sounded different from poem to poem really made her stand out. Although she repeated poems that I had heard last year, like the Jeffery Dahmer one, I enjoyed it the second time. I liked this one last year too because it made me think of how the mom of a criminal would feel. I liked how she brought life to each of her poems by changing her voice a little and it sounded like she really felt each word in her poems.
Thursday- More students. So today was a little better than the first group of students because it was music. I like that they demonstrated that writing doesn’t have to be just poems and short stories. It can be song lyrics too. I liked Maggie’s about watching someone you love, love someone else, because almost every teen has gone through something like that. Well maybe not love but really liking someone. I also enjoyed Daniel’s because I thought that his rap made sense and flowed together instead of the rap we here today that just rhyme and don’t make any sense whatsoever. I don’t know why but I didn’t like Hannah’s music as much as other people did. It just didn’t really pop to me. Maybe it was because her music is not my style but her OC was good.
Friday- Billy Lombardo. So I really enjoyed when he read parts of his work but I thought he just wasn’t a performer. He sounded a little nervous to tell you the truth. However his writing is awesome. Maybe it’s because I love baseball because I play softball or because he put the love of the game into words. His details and adjectives describing Wrigley field were amazing, although I am a true SOX FAN but I have been to Wrigley and he matched the place perfectly. (I was only there for the Cubs vs Sox game). My dad has his book The Man With Two Arms, and now I’m interested to go and read it.
So by far my favorite performer was Sierra during fourth hour, but overall it was FANBOYS! They were incredible. It was neat to see the English teachers out of the classroom. (Miss Berdick, in the fanboys fan video I thought your part was pretty funny.) They definitely entertained the audience and seeing my old softball coach (Mr. Anderson) rock the stage was cool. I learned from Writer’s Week that there’s more to writing then poems and stories, like music is considered writing too. I’ve gained more respect for writers as the process to become one is not easy work. I am so thankful that I got to see them everyday so thanks Miss Berdick!