I barely convinced my family to go to the Arts Academy Jazz concert. (It was a school night.)
We listened to performances by the beginner, intermediate and advanced bands. There was some amazing young talent.
This was Jasmine’s first concert event. She got bored a couple times, but did pretty well.
Jasmine got selected to represent her school at the Oregon Writing Festival. We thought it was a just local school district thing. Turns out it is a rather prestigious gathering from k-12 schools around the state.
The brochure says…
It is an annual springtime event organized by a group of educators from the Oregon Council of Teachers of English and Portland State University. The Festival is designed to recognize and encourage the efforts of Oregon students and teachers to improve writing. Students have an opportunity to hear from well known authors and to participate in writing workshops. In addition, each student brings 12 copies of an original piece of writing to share with a group of students on the day of the Festival.
Jasmine wrote this story two days before the event…
I have a cat named little man. He is amazing playful, and very cute.
How is he amazing, you ask? Well he is so amazing because if you need something to cuddle with he’s there to cuddle. Or if you’re not feeling well he’ll come up to you and meow. And when he’ meows its like he’s asking are you ok? That’s why he’s an amazing cat!
He’s also very playful. He’ll chase lasers and play with his toy mice and feather. He can sometimes play too rough. But on the other hand he’s a very athletic cat. Oh he can also jump really high! Probably about a few inches off the ground. He’s so very playful.
He’s the most cutest cat in the world. He’s cuter than a kitten or a newborn baby. Well not as cute as a newborn baby and a kitten But you know what I mean. Right? Do you something as cute as that?
Wait there is one more thing that I probably should mention. He thinks he’s a dog. He fetches, likes his belly to be rubbed, sits at the end of your bed, and makes the rounds to make sure everyone is safe or is in bed at night. He also is playful, amazing and very cute. Now that is my darn amazing cat… Little man.
On the way to the festival, I teased her – “We’re taking our girl to college, we won’t see her till Thanksgiving. I hope you have a nice roommate. And don’t you go meeting a nice boy and getting married today.” As you could imagine, Jasmine made various eye rolls and comments back to me.
The morning sessions were open to the adults. I attended Kim Stafford’s lecture “A Writer Has a Writing Practice”. Some memorable quotes…
Writing is thinking.
Good writing is where the ordinary meets your imagination.
Emily went to Matt Holm’s lecture “Creating Graphic Novels” of which you can see a couple of the slides in the photo gallery.
Then Emily and I attended the session on “Helping Your Children/Students Grow as Writers”. Lots of good tips.
The afternoon was reserved only for the kids so us adults had to fend for ourselves. We had lunch at the Laughing Planet – an organic health food cafe. Then we explored campus and the farmer’s market until it was time to pick up our aspiring writer.
