COURTESY DELAND HIGH SCHOOL
By Nicolas Rios, DeLand High School Staff Reporter
Creative writing is a fun elective to take because not only are you able to make your own stories, poems, and plays, but you’re also able to make something even greater. You are able to make a children’s book for your very own first grader!
In the creative writing class of Deland High, Mr. Finkle, the creative writing teacher, is known to get a reward for a thousand dollars in order to fund the children’s books. During this process kids in the creative writing class get a specific child that goes to Blue Lake Elementary and get a profile on them. With this profile we then get everything we need to come up with ideas for the book we make. For example I got a child who was curious about how the sun stays in the sky. With that information I was able to write them a complete book about explaining the concept in a fun way for my child to understand.
For me personally, the experience was incredible! We all went to Blue Lake Elementary on April 28th and the kids were so excited to see their books. Sadly, I was one of the few people whose child wasn’t there and it was the same for a boy named Lucas whose high schoolers weren’t there either. Luckily I was able to read to one of those kids and he enjoyed his book and the one I made as well.
I took an opportunity to ask Mr. Finkle about the books and he said, “This was the most books we had ever made for this event and the most kids to come and read books as well”
I also got two students to give their thoughts. One was Jacob Moore, who says, “It was really fun to walk there, read the book to the kid and overall it was just really fun and a nice experience”
Jacob Moore’s was a nice and simple but the one I got from Ethan Howard was a little more chaotic. This quote from Ethan Howard was mainly about the character of his book as he quotes “Gary is my blood, he’s my water, my bread, my life, Gary is everything.”
Besides his joking, he was also satisfied and happy about the experience as were the rest of the students in creative writing. As one of those students I can say the experience was something you don’t get to do in your everyday life. It was fantastic for myself and the kid I got to read to.
I hope this might encourage anyone who loves to write to consider joining creative writing in their next school year. If you have that creativity and love to write, look no further than Mr. Finkle’s creative writing class. Not only is he a great teacher who will help you push your ideas to their fullest, but his class will also be one that allows you to put a smile on the face of our future generation as well.
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