February 2010

I had my last school visit for I Love To Read month today at Constable Finney School. It was the perfect way to end a great month of author visits!

The students in both Ms. Williams’ and Jennifer Miles’ classes were very welcoming and have clearly done A LOT of writing. You have also done great work  making your writing even stronger – way to go! I was very lucky as a few students  even shared their adventure-filled, suspenseful writing with me. Other students made artistic sketches of me that I got  to take home as a souvenir of the day –  they are AWESOME!

Thanks for inviting me to your classrooms to read from Lights! Curtains! Cows!, to answer your excellent questions about being an author, and  to talk about writing. Remember- those three editing tips can be used no matter what sort of writing you do.

And of course, keep on reading!

Hope to come back again soon!
 – Karin

I visited my first school in the Winnipeg One School Division today – Greenway School, and it was terrific! I think that this visit broke the record for the number of questions asked – it was awesome to experience how interested you are in reading and writing. It sounds to me like you’ve had an amazing I Love To Read Month, and that the teachers at your school are very dedicated to encouraging your reading, writing, and creativity!

I left my visit not only with the feeling that I’d made about 100 new friends, but also with a list of new books to check out! Thank you to all the students who shared the titles of their favourite books, stories, and graphic novels that they’re enjoying – they sound great! Reading is such an important thing to do, so I hope you’ll all keep it up (plus…it’s TOTALLY FUN!).

To all the great students at Greenway: Keep on following your dreams!

A special thanks to Ms. Langtry for making the arrangements, and to the staff for welcoming me and hosting me for the morning. Thank you also for your thoughtfulness by presenting me with a lovely card and gift!

Hope to see you again sometime soon!
– Karin

(I used a thesaurus to come up with the title for this post – can you tell? 😉 )

I was in for a real treat when visiting Mme Simpson’s Grade 4’s today  at James Nisbet. First of all, I got to see some familiar faces from my previous visit and to share my writing workshop with a very bright, perceptive and creative bunch. (You were the first class to notice “alliteration” in the paragraph exercise – very impressive!).

I also got to take part in the students’ “story sharing circle” where students take turns reading from their VERY creative stories! I listened to imaginative stories about lively cheeseburgers, inventive professors, man-eating chickens, and so much more that  it’s impossible to list everything here (but my mind is still spinning!). I loved the use of humour and expressive words in all of your stories.  I was most impressed with the comments that you shared with each other, and how you all cheered each other on when stories were read. What a cool, creative and supportive group of friends!

It was an awesome time – thanks so much to Mme Simpson for the invitation (and for doing so much to encourage creative writing among these notable, neat, and nifty minds!)

Hope to see you all again soon…

– Karin

I’m back at schools this week for the last stretch of I Love To Read Month, starting with a second visit to Arthur E. Wright school. Ms. Slipec’s Grade 5’s were awesome to meet and spend time with. Since they are reading Lights! Curtains! Cows! together as a class, I got the chance to read Chapter 15 – the next-to-last chapter. (Did you guys read the end yet? Hope you enjoyed it!)

I LOVED your questions and comments about the book, and was very impressed with your “punny” names and book titles inspired by Constance Noring, a very punny lady herself. I’m still laughing!

Yes – this class sure has a sense of humour, and a great sense of creativity (I saw some AMAZING artwork accompanying creative writing pieces – WOW!). Good luck to you all as you follow your dreams, and to the budding writers in the class: keep up the amazing work!

I shared with you the special story of how Ms. Slipec inspired me as a young writer to get more creative with my words by using a thesaurus, and also to read, read, read! It’s wonderful advice  – you are all very lucky to have such a creative and caring teacher!

Thanks again for having me visit your class – it was tons of fun. Hope to visit your school sometime again soon!

– Karin

I was back at R. F. Morrison today for two more workshops with some wonderful students (plus I got to see lots of students that I met on Monday again  – that was cool!).

Thanks to Ms. Dutka’s super-creative grade 3s and 4s for sharing your questions, stories and sense of humour with me! 🙂 Mr. Illyniak’s fantastic grade 5 /6 class is the oldest group of students I’ve had the pleasure of working with so far – you had wonderful insight about writing and showed impressive attention to detail. I’m sure you will all do great things!

It was exciting to come to Morrison to share some of Lights! Curtains! Cows! with you, and to hear about your excitment  for No TV? No Fair! (I’m excited too – woo-hoo!).

I’d like to say a special thank you to Ms. Walkoff for making all the arrangements and hosting me with such friendliness and welcome. Thank you also to the Morrison staff for the lovely note and the gorgeous basket of goodies – it’s awesome and so thoughtul!

To all of you budding writers – keep on writing and flexing your creativity! And to everyone no matter what your dreams are, work hard at them and follow them…and have fun while you do!

Hope to see you again soon!

– Karin

I just returned from a full day of reading and visiting with the awesome students of James Nisbet school!

Boy, was that fun! Thank you so much to Mme Gaudet and Mrs. Chilelli for arranging my visit and for hosting me in such a friendly and welcoming way. I met so many teachers and students today that it’s impossible to list them all here, but I sure felt welcomed  and “at home” at your friendly school! I was given a  huge, beautiful card  to take home with tons of student signatures and a sunshine-y sunflower to remind me of James Nisbet School and this very happy day. Thank you so much!

Before I say anything else, I must give **huge congratulations** to James Nisbet for reaching a total of 511 students (and counting) at your school!  It was so fun to participate in your first-ever outdoor assembly. I love camping and campfires, and to gather around a campfire and sing songs with over five-hundred other friends was just awesome! Plus, the paintings you made in the snow were awesome works of art – I’ve never seen anything like them! Congratulations once again on this special day!

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing a chapter from Lights! Curtains! Cows! as much as I enjoyed reading it to you. It was SUPER COOL meeting a whole grade 4 class that had read my book (WOW!), and also members of the James Nisbet book club who are reading Lights! Curtains! Cows!, too (that was an awesome question about p.20 by the way – very smart question!). 

I thought you all had excellent questions about my book and about writing  and being an author. A question that came up often is “why did you become an author?”. The answer is that it was always my dream to write stories. The other part of  that dream was to share those stories with students like you – so thanks for being a part of a wonderful dream come true!

Till we meet again…

– Karin

I had an absolutely wonderful visit to R. F. Morrison School today. I met two fabulous classes – Mr. Tarasiuk’s students and Mr. Semus’ students! Thank you for welcoming me to your classrooms and for letting me share a bit of Lights! Curtains! Cows! with you!

Every time I meet a group of students, I am so amazed by the talents that you all have. Many of you are writing stories, graphic novels, comics – it’s great! There were also a lot of excellent questions about how to get published. I am planning to post a page on my site soon about that with some more specific tips and advice, but the three biggest rules are:

Write the absolute best you can.

Be patient.

Don’t give up!

And one more rule – whenever you write something creative, whether or not it is published, enjoy the writing, and be proud! It’s a very special thing to create a story and to take the time to write and share.

Thanks again for a great Monday morning of reading, visiting, learning and getting to know you. I will be back at Morrison on Wednesday to meet two more classes, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Follow your dreams! 😉
 – Karin

I had my very first author visit today at a Winnipeg school, Arthur E. Wright. It was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! Everyone at the school – teachers, staff, and students- was very friendly and welcoming.

It was truly terrific meeting Ms. Hershfield’s Grade 4 students and Mr. Price’s Grade 5 students ! You sure had  great questions, and it was lots of fun to read and chat with you! I enjoyed reading from Lights! Curtains! Cows!  – I hope you all had a chuckle or two! 🙂

I was thrilled to meet some students who are writing books, poetry, songs  –  all sorts of creative writing! Keep up your hard work, try to write as often as you can, and try to use those 3 tips we talked about to “make your writing (any writing!) shine!”.

To everyone that I met today: thanks for being so friendly for my first author visit ever, and all the best as you follow your different dreams. I know that you’ll all do amazing things!

– Karin