Life is good here in Houston:  we successfully dodged another hurricane (no offense meant to Louisiana) and had a holiday all in the same week!  Yes, week two started under auspicious circumstances, indeed! 

My classes are rocking right along, and although I still see an estimated 180 students a day (who has time for an exact count?), the days pass quickly.  This is a fun time of the year:  I love getting to know the kids and watching as the insights and epiphanies begin...

One great assignment we gave our seniors was the six-word memoir.  In an move toward concise expression, an important quality considering the 500 word limits imposed by many colleges on their application essays, we discussed the idea of the six word memoir.  Given one sentence and six words, what can you say about yourself?

This wasn't my idea; no, I found it on a link from Daniel Pink's website to a book on amazon.com.  I believe the title is Not Quite What I Was Expecting:  Six Word Memoirs of the Famous and Not-So Famous.  (Or something like that.  I really should look up the exact title, but it is 9 p.m. and bedtime is growing near...)  Anyway, what a cool idea!  I highly suggest that you look at the amazon link:  there is a really neat video embedded within it.  Some of the names you will recognize (Yanni, Joan Rivers, Mario Batali, Nora Ephron) and others will be unknown. 

Again, the basic premise:  given one sentence and six words, what can you say about yourself? For example, I might say "Not as nice as I seem" or "I'm not a typical trophy wife" (that one ought to leave you wondering) or "I love to fiddle with language" or " Thoreau had it all figured out."

My kids had a great time with this assignment.  It really helped them to crystallize what they wanted to say about themselves.   I wish I could remember all that they came up with, but one of my favorites was "Dream job:  Ellen Degeneres, only straight."  Another was " The coolest nerd you'll ever meet."  Then there were the random ones:  "I make a mean taco salad" and "I can't think of six words." 

See, isn't it fun?

Give it a whirl - try responding with your own six-word memoir.  I'd love to see your creativity in action!

I'll sign out with this thought -  

 35 students, 30 desks:  no problem. 

 

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