announcements

“When you get to the fork in the road, take it.”
—Yogi Berra, storyteller, Major League baseball player

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

In life, it is said, one thing happens after another. In stories, it is also said, one thing happens because of another. No matter what happens, the story won’t go on until a character makes a decision. In fact, we might look at stories as a series of decisions—some monumental, some incidental—that give the narrative shape and direction.

UPDATE: Make sure you sign up for the upcoming narrative writing workshops -- March 13 and March 20 -- below or by email to gg, Katy or Erik. This is a great opportunity! Spaces are limited! (Online follow-up after workshops)

UPDATED: 3.10.2010 11:40 p.m. -- A change on Twitter
We had a couple of complaints by folks regarding the setup for Twitter. It defaulted to posting to twitter.com/ywpvt and folks following it say they were being deluged with references to all your posts. While they just stopped following ywpvt, that was not the purpose -- we want you to get more readership from this.

So, for the moment, we've disconnnected the global account. We'll continue to manually highlight great work, until we adapt the module. HOWEVER, if you have a Twitter account, you can post links to your work on your Twitter account. Here's how: Go to "My Account," click "Edit" tab and then click "Twitter Accounts" tab. Put in your info about your account. (You can then choose to have your Twitter posts come into your space for others to read.) Then when you create a blog post, you'll see an option to post an announcement about your blog post on your Twitter account. Check the box for yay, uncheck the box for nay.

More below on the other changes.

UPDATE: We'd like to have a list of schools that participated. Did yours? Please let us know in comments below or send gg an email.
Vermont Writes Day was featured on WCAX in advance story featuring Winooski Middle School! Thanks to WCAX! (If your school participated today, add a comment below or send us an email: ggevalt@youngwritersproject.org) ...If you want to submit work you create on this day, log in here, "Create a Newspaper Entry" and choose "general writing" keyword. or post it with your firstname, last initial and school on vermontwrites.ywpschools.net (no login necessary)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 is Vermont Writes Day, a day for schools, teachers, students, administrators and staff to STOP what they are doing and write for SEVEN minutes. Here are three prompt ideas for you to use, but feel free to write about anything you'd like.

• Purple. Put this phrase in a story, poem or essay: "I've never seen such a beautiful, deep shade of purple ..."
• Afghanistan. Write about what comes to mind when you hear that word.
• Surprise. Write a story that starts with this line: "I had the surprise of my life when I opened the door and saw . . . "

Young Writers Project sustains itself from the fees it charges schools for its Digital Writing Classrooms and from the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations. We try to acknowledge people who give us substantive gifts but we thought it would be good for you to know about a few recent donations:

• The Admiral William Nelson Foundation of Fort Lauderdale, FL (To help support our new Digital Storytelling Project and Digital Writing Classrooms)
• Darkside Snowboards which raised money at a recent snowboard sale at its Ludlow, Killington and Okemo stores and donated the proceeds to YWP "with deepest gratitude for the work you do."
  

Do you like writing and reading? YWP is looking for help selecting the best student submissions for publication in newspapers and on the Web site. All work is done online and takes an hour or two each time. We rotate the judges so that you won’t judge more than a few times during the year – unless you’d like to do more. It’s fun and interesting and is guaranteed to help improve your writing too!

If you’re interested in judging, contact Lee McIsaac, the YWP content coordinator, or call 802-324-9539.

Lee McIsaac

UPDATE: 1.12.09: Thanks for your responses -- keep them coming, either below or via email.
As we consider who will be on our Core Group, let me say that we want to involve anyone and everyone in this process in one way or another. All of your voices WILL be heard. Here are two quick things you can do to help:

• Go online and surf. What Web sites do you find fun, interesting or engaging either because of what happens on the site, what you can do on the site or because of the way it is laid out. Criteria: Sites should be focused on youth expression, community, social action and multi-media.
• Encourage a few folks to participate in this process who are NOT involved in YWP? One below suggested a reader who doesn't like writing... what about an athlete or an actor or a visual artist or a debater or someone engaged in community service or someone who's awesome at a trade -- metal working or carpentry -- or someone who's into video or lighting or someone into computers. We're talking fame and fortune here, guys. (kidding) But actually it's an opportunity for them to design something that might be interesting to them.

I am announcing a new project. And I am looking for volunteers. Consider this a journalism project. Consider it also a project to the lay the ground work for the next generation of youngwritersproject.org

As many of you know, we've been noodling on how to take this site, and this project, to the next level. Frankly, we've been so busy that we really haven't had the time to give YWP's future the attention it needs.

So I come to you. I'd like to assemble a team comprised of you and some sharp adults -- journalists, writers & artists, digital educators and software engineers -- to figure out what YWP should become.

This team will do the following:

1. Research: Through online research, interviews with peers and experts and surveys, determine what great ideas are being done or haven't yet been developed.
2. With that research, brainstorm concepts for the next generation of youngwritersproject.org
3. Focus ideas and research into a vision and detailed plan.
4. Develop and test prototype; document ideas and planned programs.
5. Raise money and implement.

It sounds a bit more ominous than it is. Your parts will be divided on your expertise and interests. We are going to work on the theory that many heads make light -- and fast -- work.

We are looking not only for you, but perhaps students you know who are not involved with YWP. We are looking for writers, techies, artists, athletes, dramatists, civic activists and a few folks who are downright bored with school but might be intrigued to engage in a project they might like. Talk to them about it.

We will have a few sessions in person. We'll have a lot of short sessions online through a cool meeting interface that everyone would call in on (Skype on Sterioids). You guys will tackle some of the research on your own.

What we can offer in return is some basic guidance on basic journalistic techniques -- because this is, as you will discover, a kind of journalism project. We can run this as an independent study project for credit at your school, or write you recommendations or give you something you can put on your resume for college. We can occasionally feed you pizza.

We will not be taking everyone who submits their name. We want a working team whose members are committed to making this project a better place and who are also intrigued with the idea of what we will be looking to find out -- Who's doing cool things with youth online? What would teens like to be doing online that they can't now? And what can YWP do to become better? Can we develop leading edge technology, ideas and programs that engage, intrigue and excite?

Interested?

Contact me as soon as possible. ggevalt (at) youngwritersproject.org or call 802.324-9537. Or hire Pony Express or Western Union. Or comment below -- but don't just say you're in; ask questions; get the dialogue going.

cheers,

gg

Long lines, sold out shows, by now, many of you have seen Avatar. What do you think of it? Blog about it and put "Avatar" in the keywords or comment below. Click "Read More" for a trailer to get you back in the mood. Sorry, no glasses available. -- gg

Braving cold and snow and snow and cold, the YWP Players -- P-T, Usagi, Qwerty, Peaches, Geist, Special and Bailyrae -- did a fantastic job at First Night in Burlington Friday. Remarkable writing and editing; rehearsed and performed in an incredibly short time frame. I was proud to be a part of it. Many accolades from folks in the audience, including some surprise luminaries of Burlington. Nice job, folks. Special thanks to Robin Fawcett for her amazing coaching. And special thanks to all of you who contributed 6-word visions of 2110. Here are the script, sound and images. Click here for Gallery. Video to come in a few days. -- gg

YWP folks....

YWP has submitted an application to the Knight Foundation for a NewsChallenge project that will involve many of you -- if we get it. This is a long and very competitive process, but we remain, as always, optimistic. This is the nut graph as they say: We want to create a journalism project by and for teens that would include building the next generation YWP site and online and in-person instruction on journalism, art and digital media.

The comment period is over for the proposal and thanks so much to all of you who viewed the specifics of our proposal. (We've attached a copy.)

This application is all about taking YWP to the next level, about encouraging as many of you as possible to engage in writing about your world, your observations, your concerns. You do that now. But we have some ideas for helping you do an even better job with a foundation of good journalism and cool technology.

I've been noodling on this idea for a while. As someone who spent 33 years working in journalism, it's been very difficult to watch the mega-news companies shrink, cut, exploded newsrooms around the country to the detriment of us -- we have less deep, true, accurate information to judge what is happening in this world.

I don't know whether we'll ge the grant. Probably won't. But I am trying to figure out ways we could make it happen anyway, to be able to assemble groups of you with some of the best journalists, software developers and digital experts that I know to create something new. And over the years I've been fortunate to work with some amazing folks. One of them, Bob Paynter, wrote me this morning about his potential involvement in the project. Bob was responsible for our former paper winning the Pulitzer Gold Medal for Public Service in 1994. Here's what he wrote:

>i>I would love to be involved in your project. I can't believe that all our efforts and aspirations over the years were for naught. There must be a way to distill the essence of what we were about, boil away whatever has become obsolete and irrelevant in this bizarre new world, and pass along the heart of what remains to kindred souls in the youth-o-sphere. So, bravo on your powerful idea.

We'll let you know how you fare. In the meantime, rest assured that we will be embarking on new things in the coming year.

Stay tuned.

gg

YWP folks,

We received word this morning that our proposal has been accepted by Burlington City Arts! We're on the schedule for a 12-15 minute show (repeated four times over an hour) during the Burlington First Night Celebration.

To aid in organizing this, we have created a new group for you called First Night. This is your space to brainstorm, discuss and post writing related to the Vermont in 2110 theme. Our key creators and performers are already members of this group (Locke-Peter, NonSequitur, ParisianTwist, QwertyGirl, Usagi & Peaches) but all interested students are encouraged to join and share your thoughts -- just remember that posting here is not a guarantee that your work will be included in the final performance.

ALSO, you will notice that we are seeking 6-Word Stories about Vermont's Future in the widget in the upper right. Change gears; envision Vermont in the year 2110 and express it in six words!

And if you have a flare for performance, be sure to let us know -- there may still be opportunities to expand our show.

If you have any questions, contact GG or edevries by email (ggevalt and edevries at youngwritersproject.org) or by phone or comment here.

So here's a question that we'd like to discuss... What kind of "blogging" is appropriate for this site?

Now I will be the first to say that the word "appropriate" has changed in meaning in recent years, with the advent of movie ratings and the invention of adult-driven restrictions on Internet use. I think of the word appropriate in a much different way -- does it belong? does it fit? is it part of a larger point?

So is "blogging" about ones daily life appropriate for this site?

In an effort to communicate with all of you better, we are reviving our Facebook page and our Twitter account. To help us get the word to you, we hope you will become "fans" of us on Spacebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Writers-Project-Inc/54341961467 and will also follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ywpvt

We hope you don't mind this intrusion into your lives, but we also want to make sure that you get our messages, announcements, etc...

We also want to further highlight the Daily Reads, Daily Podcasts, Daily Songs, etc... to bring you more fame, if not fortune.

Green Mountain Book Award Master List 2009-2010

This is the fifth year of the Green Mountain Book Award, a reader's choice award for students in grades 9-12. Co-sponsored by the Vermont School Library Association, Vermont Library Association and the Vermont Department of Libraries, this program is designed to introduce to high school students some excellent books for their pleasure reading. To participate in blogs about the books, click this sentence for link. (This takes you to an external site.)

These books, to be read during the 2009-2010 school year, comprise the master list for the award to be made in 2010. Voting forms will be made available to all Vermont schools and public libraries in the spring so that young adults can vote for their favorite book. The master list titles have been selected to satisfy the reading interests of young adults in grades 9-12, and include both adult and young adult books. All books on the list were first published in 2004-2008 and are available in paperback.

Some changes, improvements:

• Choice the way comments are presented. Do you like to see the most recent comment first? Or the beginning (oldest) first? When you link to a comment do you want to go right to it? Or are you ok with scrolling down? YOU DECIDE! (note new options block at top of comments to stories...)
• Recent Podcasts has returned
• Clicking "more" on recent blocks gives you new option to search by username
• New site search under "Find stuff"
  

Podcast is a clip of one of VPR's piece last week on Otsuka and her book. She is reading a passage. Click keyword "Otsuka" to link to VPR series and to other material.
Qwerty, a couple of teachers and I met the author on Sept. 26. Sorry more of you couldn't make it. I found it fabulous; I learned much:

• She writes with a paper and pencil, usually at her favorite spot in a local cafe. She types it later and then marks up the hard copy.
• (Nonnie, I did NOT pay her to say this.) She believes research is essential to make fiction believable and to give her confidence as a writer.
• She spends a lot of time "writing up" or polishing a piece.
• Her novel began as two short stories.
• Her favorite is to write from the "we" point of view.
  etc.
  I will be posting snippets of her discussions about writing in the next week or two.

To see all the material on Otsuka -- including interviews, podcasts and info about the book and a new book group click keyword Otsuka.

For those of you not familiar, this is a novel of the experiences of Japanese American families who were imprisoned during World War II simply because they were Japanese. We have loads of stuff about the book and the author -- including interviews and podcasts -- that you can reach by clicking here

YWP is beginning another season of the YWP College Mentors program in which trained college students from UVM and Castleton State College will be providing substantive feedback to the best work you submit to the YWP Newspaper Series.

Our aim is to time the feedback before we do selection of work for the series so you might have the time to act on the feedback and improve your piece. (Remember, revision is the secret to good writing!)

Updated 9.2.09

YWP Folks,

We begin a new school season and a process of change at youngwritersproject.org. The change occurs because new people come onto the site -- and this is always an exciting adventure -- and because we are in the throes of improving the site and the program.

We'd like to remind folks about some basic rules for the site and for basic Internet safety:

• Please update your account information ASAP: Update your grade level, school, email address and zip code. Thanks!
• Do not put your email address on any post or comment. (Your real, active email address must be part of your account profile and that is NOT shared with anyone.)
• If you receive an email from someone other than Eva, Lee or GG who purports to have something to do with YWP or asks you to do something in relation to YWP, do not respond and let us know right away. FOR INSTANCE, some of you may have received an email inviting you to participate in a local "PostSecret" project. DO NOT RESPOND.
• Don't share your real name, address or phone or other personal information within any post or comment. (We do ask for real information for entries to our Newspaper Series. We are devising an alternative login procedure in the next few weeks so you can maintain an anonymous blogging identity.)
• Be civil. Your posts can always be honest or have an edge or push the boundaries, but please respect the sensibilities of others -- we have an age disparity on this site and what is cool for a high school senior may not be for a seventh grader. Coming onto the site to call each other names is NOT appropriate.
• Remember that anything you say is going to be taken more harshly than intended; be aware of your tone -- soften the edges, particularly in giving feedback, and your words will be both appreciated and heard.
• You may run into "captcha" questions regarding your comments. It is important that you respond accurately and carefully. We have a new spam protection software that keeps track of your history, so after a while the captchas will diminish.
• Support each other. This is a site that works when you are reading each other's work and commenting. No one likes to write in a vaccuum. So read and react! And have fun!

And, of course, if you see any kind of post that disturbs you, don't hesitate to contact me -- email, phone, pony express.

gg

UPDATE: Speak out! I know it's summer time. I know school is the last thing on your mind. But we have an opportunity: Your IDEAS WILL BE HEARD! How can your school be improved? Mr. Vilaseca will soon be reading your suggestions! (By the way, we have preserved the previous responses!And thanks to those who are getting this new forum going! KEEP GOING! BE THE VOICES OF CHANGE!)

Sound off!

Armando VilasecaArmando Vilaseca is the new Commissioner of Education for the state of Vermont. Vilaseca has been a teacher, principal and superintendent. He lives in Westford and, in recent years, has been a leader at Essex, Colchester and then Franklin County schools. By all accounts, he's a great listener.

Tell him what you want him to do to make your school better. What problem do you want him to fix? Is it not enough time for lunch? Too much time spent preparing for statewide testing? Do you use computers enough? Are your classes good? Are you and your peers engaged? Or bored?

If you ran your school what one thing would you change first?

gg

For those of you who are new to this site we do a variety of things to keep this site safe -- to ensure that the posts and comments are civil and respectful, to ensure that we have Vermont and N.H. students and a few selected teachers and mentors, to ensure that we don't have Internet trolls or bots. This is not an easy task.

So from time to time we change how we accept new users. So for a time, if you want an account on this site, you will have to email Geoffrey Gevalt at this address ggevalt (at) youngwritersproject.org

You must provide us with your desired username and password, your real name and phone number, email address, school and grade. WE DO NOT SHARE THIS PERSONAL INFORMATION and your profile is not accessible to anyone but the few of us who work at YWP.

We will create your account and email you with verification.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Geoffrey Gevalt (GG)

Benson Village School performed its ballad on Wednesday. Here's an earlier version sung by Pete Sutherland. For the background story, links to news coverage and other fun stuff: http://ywpvt.net

YWP Workshop folks...

I took a break from sugaring to thank all of you who were able to come to Saturday's Workshop. Depending on who was counting when, we had 40, 41 or 42 people who came. Awesome.

The podcast is the sounds of folks in the Character Creation room. We also had writing areas for 2009/2010 prompts; First Sentences; and writing to a Photo slide show.

We want to get your assessment of the workshops. Please click here to take a survey. THANKS!

Highlights for me:

• The energy and good cheer all day!
  

Huge kudos to Misilover, Perspiciens, Magz, Pepper_Tree and Karlie, who won UVM's annual Vermont Competition for Excellence in Writing for their grade level at their schools. Not only does this honor confirm what we already all knew - that they are wonderful writers - but it also gives them the opportunity to compete in the regional write-off this spring.

Please let us know about any other YWP writers who have won the competition in your school. We'd love to let everyone here know about them.

Click here to read Perspiciens' winning essay. Thanks so much for sharing it with us P.

Click here to read Magzdoodle's winning essay. Thanks for sharing!

UPDATE: Magzdoodle came in first for sophomores at her school, Milton High. Congrats!
Pepper_Tree came in second for freshmen at her school, Essex High.

Folks,

Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it works too well in ways that you didn't expect.

As we mentioned, we got a grant to work with Pete Sutherland -- an extraordinary musician and songwriter -- to work with several groups of Vermont students to help create ballads -- musical stories -- that would be performed.

We planned to choose one school to hold a string of workshops and to hold one long workshop with you folks -- fans of this Web site.

As it turned out we had several compelling requests from schools and we made the decision to hold workshops in two schools instead of one and to do things differently with you guys.

A podcast is, simply, an audio story or essay. Click here for samples. Below are instructions on how to write a podcast and then TECHNICAL STUFF to record your audio piece. The only technical equipment you need to create a podcast is a computer and an inexpensive microphone. Also below are ways to get your piece considered for broadcast on Vermont Public Radio.

IMPORTANT: You can upload a podcast to this site in two ways: upload a podcast file to your blog entry -- or create a podcast; whichever way you do it, be sure to put the KEYWORD: podcasts in the keywords section of your entry so everyone can find them.

7-Word story block is in hiatus again...

North Country students... The 7-word-short story block is NOT a place for chatting. The purpose is to, actually, see if you can write a short story using only seven words. A short story should include a character, a conflict and, potentially, resolution or a climax.

Chatting is not the same. Chatting is when you say weird or personal things to other people, particularly if they are in the same computer room.

Thanks to all who participated in today's Vermont Writes Day II. You can still post at http://vermontwrites.ywpvt.net this afternoon and evening. (no login required.) (Final Vermont Writes Day will be held on May 5. One prompt will be on Farming -- What does it mean to Vermont? More to come.)

Info on Vermont Writes Day II:

• We've received hundreds of submissions and know of dozens of schools that participated;
• We had not planned to compile info on number of schools participating. HOWEVER, to salve our curiosity, let us know if your school took part in the March 17 write-in by emailing us.

  YWP is suggesting three prompts for today's write-in:

  • Green. Put this phrase in a story, poem or essay: "I've never seen such a brilliant shade of green..."
  • "Lately I've been struggling with . . . . "  Write a story, poem or essay that starts with this line.
  • Luck. Tell a story about one time when you had good luck - or wish you had some.

  Young Writers Project is a nonprofit dedicated to helping students become better writers.

   

UPDATED
GG was interviewed by Peter Mallory on WDEV radio Monday Feb. 23. Here's the show; ads were edited out.

Young Writers Project has moved to Champlain Mill!

YWP, which began and flourished with the guidance, support and shared office space of the Vermont Business Roundtable moved to its new digs over the weekend. To read more go to: ywpblog.ywpvt.net I've ADDED PICTURES and will add more info later this week. Our new address:

Young Writers Project
Champlain Mill
20 Winooski Falls Way, Suite #4
Winooski, VT 05404

Our new phone number: 802-324-9537.
cheers
gg
P.S. This is a picture of the mill from the flood of 1927. We are windows 6-10 under water!

Hi,
This is gg.
For those who don't know me, I'm geoff gevalt, the director of ywp. Or, rather, YWP directs me.
Today we had a dust-up, as I like to call it. We had a couple of kids who were obviously ticked off at each other -- lovers' quarrel as it were -- and they acted like ticked off kids. I had to block one of them and I'm sorry for a couple of their posts; we blocked them as well.
In any community, people fight and get ticked off and say things they shouldn't or wish they hadn't. Forgive. Forget. And move on.
This site is a rather amazing collection of Vermont (and N.H.) students who really care about learning to write better. Keep that in mind. Provide each other support and suggestions and constructive ideas. Push each other but remember these three words: Calm. Respectful. Truthful.