*This class is promotionally priced until October 1. Students enrolling prior to Oct 1 can lock in the $8 price for the full academic year. It will return to its regular price of $10 starting October 1.
**Get one class free with coupon code JJEREPNUT10. 
***Sibling discount now available. Enroll one learner, and additional learners are half price.

"Sometimes [prose and] poetry demands to be heard out loud or witnessed in person" -Sarah Kay

I believe that teens have a powerful voice that often goes unheard.  It is the teenagers of today that will shape our tomorrows. And all of us have different ways of expressing ourselves. The idea behind the Audio-Visual Teen Voice Project is to encourage and empower teens to express themselves through the combination of a variety of media and means that appeal to them, taking prose and poetry off the page and making it something more, even for the shyest of students. For the bold and the brave, spoken word and slam poetry has been doing this for decades, but not everyone is comfortable standing on stage.  Still, everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard, and there are other ways to take prose and poetry off the page and make it more accessible to all. The idea is for students to write original prose and poetry, then combine it other artistic and creative projects, including drawing, photography, painting, sculpture, and a whole lot more.  The only limit is their imagination.

This class is all about helping students to develop confidence and comfortability in their writing. It is more about building students up and getting them to grow as writers and hopefully having fun as they develop and strengthen their love for writing. A lot of the writing exercises are "sneaky" in that they improve formal writing skills in ways that don't always feel like learning. I am definitely more about telling kids that their writing is good and then helping them to make it better by suggesting things that they could do the next time. This class will build writing skills that will last them a lifetime and provide them with writing exercises and activities that they can use just as long.  I still do most of these activities to help with my own writing, and I still enjoy doing them.  Teens have a powerful voice.  Join me as I help them to find it and to strengthen it.

Class Format:  
During the first part of the class meeting, students will present and share their writing and projects with the class and provide each other with positive feedback. The teacher will also offer feedback at this time.  Additional teacher feedback on students' work may also be provided through private messaging. After discussing student writing and projects, we will then either engage in a writing activity and/or discuss the upcoming project as time allows and depending on the week. The specific weekly writing tasks and projects will vary and students will never know exactly what to expect, but our monthly schedule will follow the categories as listed below.
Since this is an ongoing class, first time students enrolling after the first day will not be expected to present a project; however, they will be asked to present themselves, just a typical introduction so we can get to know them.  One of the most important parts of this class is getting to know each other, building positive relationships, and creating an environment that is more like a writing family than it is like a class.

Projects
All projects will include both a writing component and a physical artistic component that will be completed independently.  These artistic components may be specifically assigned or chosen by the student, depending on the week.  Most projects are fairly simple and do not require a lot of time nor do they require purchasing many supplies. Basic art and craft supplies such as glue, markers, paper, scissors, etc, as well as some additional items that can usually be found around the house, will be needed. Given that students have a lot of creative freedom within these projects, an exact list of supplies cannot be provided since each student is free to approach each project as they wish in accordance with some basic guidelines. Estimated time 1-3 hours per week.

Office hours and teacher communication
I am always available to answer questions via email on the Outschool platform.  I will typically respond within 24 hours.  Please note that I typically take Sunday and Monday off (PST) and that may delay response time on those days.  Private 1:1 sessions are not included but are available on request for an additional fee.

Monthly Schedule
Weekly writing tasks will be based on Tuesdays (in the US). Each week within the month has a specific category from which tasks will be selected; however, within each category, there are many options. Courses that are scheduled for days other than Tuesday, shall still follow the schedule based on the specific Tuesday (ie, if a month has a fifth Tuesday in the US on the 31st, all Peanuts classes during the week shall complete the 5th Tuesday writing task). Tasks are based on First Tuesday, Second Tuesday, etc.

1: Monthly Messages
Largely focused on characterization and perspective, students will be asked to write letters, messages, notes, postcards, and more, typically from the point of view of other characters. These assignments take a variety of shapes including "postcards from the edge," "messages in a bottle," "lighthouse letters" and more.

2: Second-day Surprises
Alway something new.

3: Third-day Throwbacks
We're going back to some of the best assignments we've ever done, new for the new, and still fun to go back to for the long-timers.

4: Fourth-day Photo Stories
A Mr. J. classic, writing stories with random photos. Square peg round hole anyone?

5: Fifth-day Syth-day
Time to explore our dark side...nothing too bad, maybe create some villains, monsters, scary settings, or just something disgusting.




A note on time
Class is listed as 30 minutes; however, I expect that we will go over time periodically.  When we do go over time, students are free to leave as scheduled, or are welcome to stay as long as I do.



Previous writing activities
The following is a list of our initial assignments, as of the end of August, we have added many more and never duplicated.  This list is included for reference only, and will also serve for our "Third-day Throwbacks

01/09-01/15
Introduction and instructions for making a “Writer’s Box”
Writers’ Box, Journal, and letter to you.

01/16-01/22
Ice cream and epitaphs

01/23-01/29
Creating a villain or monster

01/30-02/05
The recycled project

02/06-02/12
Messages in a bottle

02/13-02/19
Found Poems

02/20-02/26
Haiku

02/27-03/05
Take a walk: sensory poems and personification

03/06-03/12
What’s in the Bag

03/13-03/19
Hero’s Journey photo story

03/20-03/26
“Honest Poem” with styrofoam head or mask

03/27-04/02
A story in photos

04/03-04/09
Recipe poem and food (with fake food)

04/10-04/16
Postcards from the edge

04/17-04/23
Ship of stories.

04/24-04/30
Impromptu Story