Get excited! Literary Character Day is coming up this Thursday, February 27th! It gives people the opportunity to show their love of literature by dressing up as their favorite character. This event is a way the Writing Center brings the community together to celebrate writing. To encourage people to participate, the Writing center is offering incentives to dressing up or come to the "Parade of Characters": those in costume will recieve a pizza lunch, and those at the parade can help themselves to various baked goods. There will also be a judging for best costume in both single and ensemble catergories (Best Ensemble, Best Single Costume, Best Children's Story Character, and Best Representation of a Creature or Symbol), with gift cards from Barnes and Noble and Stabucks for winners. The "Parade of Characters" will begin in the library at 12:45, and faculty judges for this year are Mr. Lukacs, Ms. Reuden, and Ms. Harris-Marcus. Please dress up and come celebrate with us!

Its that time of year again! As the Berkeley first graders prepare for their upcoming Author’s Tea, the Writing Center tutors are enthusiastic about helping out.  On Thursday and Monday, tutors will write letters back to our first grade buddies, introducing ourselves and just saying hello. The actual tutorial session will take place on March 5. Last year, our tutors had an excellent experience in the first grade classrooms, getting to know the kids and helping them craft a personal story. As Elizabeth Pearce recalls, working with Wren Hoversten, the two developed a friendship and now always greet each other when they meet around campus. This goes to show the tutorials go beyond promoting strong writing, also serving as the basis for friendships between divisions. Although it will be hard to beat, the Writing Center is looking forward to making this year an even more positive experience than last!

It's That Time of Year Again...

Academy Prep visits! Last Tuesday, Mr. Righter led a group of Interns and Directors over to Ybor City to work with the Academy Prep students in the comfort of their own classrooms. The Berkeley tutors helped students come up with drafts of free verse poetry and persuasive essays. They would later bring those pieces over to our campus and polish them to perfection with the WC tutors.

The seniors started off the visits on Febuary 12th working on persuasive essays. I was paired up with a hilarious 7th grader named Adrian who's goal was to convince me why middle school students needed to have cell phones. I knew he would be a bit of work after he began the tutorial saying: "This is stupid." However, I broke past his sassy exterior when I convinced him that writing wasn't stupid and sometimes could be fun. He told me the story about when he got his first cell phone, and then proceeded to ask me everything about my life from what I got for Christmas to what class I had after lunch. Through all our conversation, I managed to help him organize his thoughts into an outline and complete an introduction- something he asked for extra help on. I had a great time with Adrian and it was sad to think that this is my last year working with these students.

The tutorials will continue on February 18th and 19th. Berkeley Juniors will be paired up with 6th graders and Sophomore tutors will be working with 5th grade students.