Triggering creative writing in teens

Album artwork (unseen)

This activity is an oldie (like me), but still a worldie!

My high school class on Thursday evenings has been focussing on music recently - what we listen to, when, how it makes us feel etc. Obviously, as the fuddy-duddy in the room, I have no clue about the J-pop & k-pop sounds they are into...and they have no comprehension of what a CD collection is!

With a (scary) blank piece of paper, they were tasked to draw any image that came into their heads from some music I'd chosen (an EP, for vinyl fans = more time to be creative!)...and to then pass their picture on to the left & keep drawing, in the vein they were inspired to be feeling/imagining, and so on until they got their original picture back, with everyone else's contributions 'on top'.

Once the imaginative juices had been fired up, the follow up task was to keep the music in mind & use the artwork created to 'see' an imaginary holiday experience, and to write a postcard thus inspired. You will see unique takes on Bob Marley's Iron Zion Lion reggae track here in the next few days - I hope you'll enjoy!

Artists at work!

I'm never critical about 'drawing' or art skills - I'm rubbish! I was hoping that my students would show their imagination & reactions to the team pictures & the vibe from the music, and explain their holiday so far, current activity, and plans for the next day or two > subliminal aim = demonstrate control of a variety of tenses. How did they do? Any other tips on getting cool music into high school students' doamin?!

Grown ups' Christmas party at Luna

Barely time to catch our breath after the children's party this afternoon, before we welcomed our bigger friends and students to the school for our end-of-year/Christmas party. Last year's BYO format was really successful, so why change a winning format?!

It never ceases to amaze me that in Japan, "start at 7pm" means you can expect everyone to arrive at 7pm on the dot...and so they did tonight. A lot of familiar faces, some bravely coming for the first time and making new friends. Eleanor stole a few hearts, and Jim went quiet for the first time all day.

Unlike last year, we put on a couple of events which got people working together less self-consciously. Tana's quiz was hard - "What do Turkmenistani people do at Xmas?". The winning team scored about 40% - and this was multiple choice!

The "Who am I" activity worked well - Taro Aso won. However, some very long faces due to the fact that Bugs Bunny was apparently a woman, Nelson Mandela and Winnie the Pooh American. Jun didn't know too much about reggae, and Ineko couldn't remember John Lennon's name. Oh well!

Frank Sinatra also featured, as we broke into some unusual karaoke to the tune "I love New York in June". Two teams had to organise the lyrics first, then put a dance together and sing along. Hilarious efforts from both teams and a lot of fun, before attention returned to finishing off the buffet.

Lots of happy faces, new friends made, promises to come and party some more with us in 2009. Wishing everyone a super Christmas - few more classes yet before we can relax properly though!

Cheers!