Mary Fons: Something that really stuck out to me about Mary Fons’ performance was that her passion for her poems was very apparent. In every one of her poems, she was totally connected to what she was saying. Nothing really fazed her, especially not performing in front of multiple classes of high school students. She was so outgoing and interactive with the audience, which was nice to witness. Overall, Mary Fons was a great way to start out Writers Week this year.

Dr. Small and Emily Hill’s Dad: I would like to start out this section by really congratulating Dr. Small, and Emily Hill’s Father on a job well done. Before they spoke, the made it known that they are writers. However, I think they did a phenomenal job presenting to us. I was paying attention to what they said. Even though they aren’t the best at presenting their writing, I think that they did very well. It took a lot of courage for them to do what they did. Both of them had great amounts of detail, and I could tell that their writing was very well-prepared. Another thing that I liked about their performances was that they were able to control themselves, and not let nerves take them over.

Jonathan Eig: Mr. Eig was very low key all through his presentation. That wasn’t a bad thing, but at times he did lose my attention. Even so, he made it very apparent that he put a lot of time and care into what he is writing. He was very comfortable performing, which made everyone relax while listening to him. What he really emphasized through his speech was that research is key. Being unfamiliar with his kind of genre of writing, it was interesting to see how meticulously he creates his book. There was so much effort but into his writing, and overall his presentation was very interesting for me.

Students: Like the faculty members on Tuesday, the student speakers showed a lot of courage presenting to us. Even though some of them were not the best speakers in the world, it was nice to hear the writing of my peers. I could tell that some of them were very nervous, but they were able to pull through and have effective presentations. It’s difficult for a student to present their writing, but I think that the first period student speakers passed with flying colors.

Faculty: These men were very experienced in presenting their writing, so I had high expectations for them. I thought all of them did very well presenting to us. All of them were very comfortable speaking in front of their students, so it was nice to see people who were very confident performing. All of them were very relaxed speaking, and all made good eye contact throughout. Seeing these teachers speak was a good way to end my first period Writer’s Week experience.

With everything considered, I thought that Writer’s Week XVII was better than last years. Part of it was that I actually appreciated the people who came to speak to us this year. Last year, I was just amazed that people were able to come to Fremd and speak. This year, I actually listened to what the writers had to say, and I enjoyed watching everyone speak. I like going to Writer’s Week because I really get to see how intelligent and effective writers are, and it also makes for a nice break in the typical school day. Writer’s Week XVII was a great success this year, and I’m looking forward to next year’s writers!