To: Summer Institute 2009 Participants
Fr: Tracy Baisden, Coalfield Writers Director
Re: Start day for SI 2009
Date: 5.1.09

During the Saturday kick-off meeting it was mentioned that Logan County Schools was holding an optional work day for elementary teachers on the day immediately following the last day of the school calendar (June 10, 2009). At that time our SI leadership team didn’t think this would present a problem for our members, who were committed to the summer institute.

Students enrolled in the Spanish classes at Logan High School celebrated “Latino Poetry Week” from April 6-10, 2009. During this week the students studied the lives and poetry of Lydia Cortes, Federico García Lorca, Martín Espada and Pablo Neruda. The poems below, written by LHS students, were modeled after the poems “I Remember” by Lydia Cortes and “Son de negros en Cuba - Song of the Black Cubans” by Federico García Lorca.

I Remember
By Katie Lee

I remember her
Beautiful silver hair tucked
Tight into curls on her head
I remember them
Suddenly gone

I remember her

Carrie Browning, a teacher consultant from Summer Institute 2008, was a guest presenter during the Annual Kickoff Celebration on April 25, 2009. She is a second grade teacher at Omar Elementary School. She taught the participants for the 2009 Summer Institute a delightful way to teach new vocabulary words. She transported us back to second grade by showing us new words. To prepare to recognize when the story was read, we played a game with a skein of yarn. A bright colored skein of yarn was produced.

Logan High School’s third annual Spring Arts Festival was held April 2, 2009. The festival, a collaboration between the school’s art, creative writing, and band departments, featured a variety of artistic creations.

Artwork of student artists from Peggie B. Hensley's classroom was displayed in a gallery walk. Students had the opportunity to sell their original drawings, calendars, and 3" buttons.

Students from Tracy Baisden's classroom hosted poetry readings every 20 minutes. Group poetry events also occurred during the evening.

Summer Middle and High School Creative Writing Programs Available to Area Students

Marshall University Writing Project, Coalfield Writers and Logan County Schools will offer two separate summer creative writing programs for area students.

my space, my voice, my writing is a high school level creative writing symposium. It will be held June 23, 24 and 25, from 11:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. daily at Logan High School in Logan County, and is open to students in all area schools currently enrolled in grades 9 – 12 for the 2008-– 2009 school year. my space, my voice, my writing will provide an artistically rich experience for creative students to explore and experiment in improving their personal writing, as well as technology opportunities featuring blogging. During the symposium students have a choice of three genre workshops for concentration. These workshops include: Memoir, Short Story and Poetry. Each day’s schedule will feature 1 hour of whole group experimental writing, 2 hours of genre workshop in break-out sessions, and the last hour will be blogging and revision groups using technology

Marshall University Writing Project, in association with the Logan County Schools, and Coalfield Writers will offer a 3-day Creative Writing Symposium for high school students this summer. The institute, named myspace, myvoice, mywriting will be held June 23, 24 and 25, from 11:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. daily at Logan High School in Logan County, and is open to all students currently enrolled in grades 9 – 12 for the 2008-– 2009 school year. Enrollment fees for the creative institute are $30.

Creative students in West Virginia and Ohio abound! Recently Peggie B. Hensley of Logan High School, Logan, West Virginia, and Peggy H. Murphy of Ironton High School, Ironton, Ohio, combined the talents of two of their students: Taylor Daughtery and Kaity King.

Kaity's poem was chosen to be highlighted in a Poetry Poster. Taylor used one of his original photographs and designed this wonderful poster.

Coalfield Writers, a satellite of Marshall University Writing Project and affiliate of The National Writing Project, will offer Summer Institute for Teachers in the summer of 2009. Teachers in all area schools are invited to apply for this prestigious program.

Thursday Readers Book Club, an informal book discussion group sponsored by Coalfield Writers, will continue meetings this fall. Book club meetings are held at Chirico’s Restaurant, in Logan, beginning at 6:00 p.m., and the public is invited to attend. The meetings are free and open to anyone with an interest in reading interesting books.

On Monday, campers studied African American culture. Teacher-Consultants, Debbie Holly, Karen Dillon, and Jennifer Aliff facilitated the sessions. See the Photo Album here.

On Tuesday, Debra Secrist and Judy Southard facilitated the activities. The campers learned how to make shadow boxes and puppets. See the Photo Album here.

Wednesday’s campers were treated to a better understanding of the Jewish culture and traditions. Cynthia Ooten and Angie Loggins taught the campers how some Jewish traditions are observed. See the Photo Album here.

Thursday the campers learned how to do rain dances and play traditional Native American games. Rebecca Johnson and Sharon Blevins taught new and interesting things to the campers. See the Photo Album here.