Imagination High 2008

Wow! For the second year I was the administrator and curriculum director for Imagination High at Cleveland State University. This year we had 36 students attending from 16 different high schools in Ohio. Students came from high schools located as far west as Toledo and as far south as Loudonville.

Guest artists this year were Tim Seibles, Poetry; Sarah Willis, Fiction; Scott Miller, Playwriting; and Terrence Spivey, performance. All of the guest artists were terrific. All had imaginative prompts, were friendly and outgoing with the students, and stated how they appreciated being part of the program.

Each day was similar. The day began with a whole group session, modeling, reading, and discussion. The large groups were complimented by small group work. Each small group was led by a current MFA Writing student or a recent MFA graduate.

We ate every two hours. Bagels, juice and cream cheese in the morning, a catered lunch, and Welch's Fruit snacks, rice krispie treats, and cookies in the afternoon.

And the students wrote, revised, conferenced, wrote more, revised and conferenced.

All the participants felt good about themselves at the end of the week. Or at least on one reported that they felt other than good.

I was exhausted each day. I complained about the lack of a networked printer until I got one. I complained that the printer that was installed did not print multiple copies. I complained about the attitude of the office workers in the site. And when nothing was done about my complaints, I complained about the inaction.

There were other problems with the site and the program, but that will be in another blog.