Student of the Quarter Award Winner: Rachel Krauss

Senior Rachel Krauss, shown here with her parents, is the English Department Student of the Quarter. English teacher Ms. Erin Timmons nominated Rachel and introduced her at the Student of the Quarter breakfast today. Ms. Timmons, who works with Rachel in El Diablo, the student yearbook organization, celebrated Rachel's natural leadership and incredible organizational skills. Rachel is currently the Managing Editor of El Diablo. Congratulations, Rachel!

Two HC finalists in the 2011 Normal Mailer Writing Award

Hinsdale Central Alum Maz King (2011) and Senior Stephanie Lenchard-Warren have earned recognition as national finalists in the 2011 Norman Mailer High School Writing Award for Creative Nonfiction competition.

Evaluation criteria for this elite award reflected qualities of writing Norman Mailer pursued across a lifetime: originality; insight; clear voice and style; artful arrangement of elements and materials; and overall aesthetic, emotional, or intellectual effect.

The essays of Maz and Stephanie were among the top five entries received from high school writers across the country. Congratulations to both of them!

The New Online Devils' Advocate!

If you haven’t checked out Devils’ Advocate Online, do it now! It is beautiful,very cool, and new, going online earlier this week. And, according to Sue Grady, Adovocate sponsor, and English teacher, a hit across the country with . You can find it here: http://www.hcdevilsadvocate.com/

This is such an exciting opportunity for kids a whole new frontier. While the sliding pictures/headline thing on the homepage is cool, my favorite thing is to go to one of the sections, like sports, and scan down the pictures and headlines – exactly like I do when I'm on online news websites.

El Diablo 2011 wins national awards!

The 2010-2011 El Diablo yearbook was recently awarded FIRST PLACE from the American Scholastic Press Association. Congratulations to all of the staff, especially editors-in-chief Alexandra Lanphier ’11 and Audrey Jeannin ’11. Additional congratulations go out to the following returning members of the editorial staff: Maddie Beja, Jordan Bromberg, Madison Grace, Sneha Kasuganti, Rachel Krauss, Allie Pitcher, Hayley Prokos, Carlee Schwartz, and Taylor Wilder. Congratulations also to El Diablo advisor, and English teacher, Erin Timmons.

Poet Kevin Coval Performs

Kevin Coval, the “New voice of Chicago,” according to the Chicago Tribune, and “a new, glowing voice in the world of literature,” by the late, great Studs Terkel, performed poetry from his new book, L-VIS Lives: Racemusic Poems, to several hundred students in the auditorium today.

Senior Divya Kirti (on left, photo by senior Taylor Wilder of the Advocate staff) served as emcee of the event, which also included poetry readings from several Central students, which were written (in almost all cases) in a poetry workshop that Coval ran for English 2 Honors courses last Thursday in the Community Room.

Between poems, Coval (on right, photo by Taylor Wilder), who was part of a Character Counts! presentation five years ago, spoke to students about writing and self-expression. I was excited to see how many male students took an active role in the reading, answering questions, asking questions, and -- at the end of the performance -- swarming around Coval at the stage like he was a pro athlete. Poetry lives!

In answer to a question from the audience, Coval gave three pieces of advice for aspiring writers: First, be excellent at your craft. You become excellent only by steady and focused practice. Second, be part of the community of writers. Join a group, give and get feedback. Third, don't stay hidden on a mountain, waiting to be discovered. Share your work. Be heard.

Kirti, shown above wearing her new Homecoming Court sash while performing an original poem, invited students to join HC's poetry club and spoke movingly about the importance of writing and poetry in self-expression and self-exploration. She said, "It's never a bad idea to explore yourself via pen and paper.... Poetry is a way for kids to explore themselves and explore language."

Find out more about Coval at his website here.

Thanks to Taylor Wilder for these great photographs.

Devils' Advocate Expansion to Cyberspace

If you haven't heard yet, The Devils' Advocate is set to expand online on October 3. This week's Doings reports on the change here. I happened to speak with senior Online Co-editor Lizzie Shaw this morning. She is very excited about the increased ability of the DA to cover a wide range of stories about the Hinsdale Central community quickly. And she's excited about the cool new online medium, too. I think that it's such a great learning experience for the entire DA staff. Good luck to Lizzie, along with the other online-co-editors, Kristy Hamilton and Priyanka Aribindi, as well as the printer editor Katherine Doyle and Gabby Georgieva.

English teacher Sue Grady has been working hard behind the scenes for a year to prepare for this launch.

You will be able to find The Devils' Advocate online on October 3 at www.hcdevilsadvocate.com.

Duke Prof says to Engineering Student from Hinsdale Central: Writing Skills Key to Engineering Success

From time to time, HC English teachers receive feedback from HC grads. Typically, the feedback reports that they found themselves to be well prepared for the writing tasks they encounter at college. That doesn't surprise me because the senior rhetoric class at HC is every bit as challenging as the Rhet 105 classes I taught at the University of Illinois. Teachers, of course, cherish these notes of gratitude.

The following email, though, from an HC mom, expresses not just gratitude for the expert and caring teaching, but also shares an important insight into the world into which our graduates are headed: writing well is a necessary component to rising to the top of any field. One of my favorite contemeporary writers, Atul Gawande, says something similar in his book Better: the doctors who distinguish themselves -- the positive deviants -- in a wide range of healthcare fields share one thing in common: they write to understand and to communicate.

This email was sent to English teachers Lauren Otahal, Christine Hicks, and Jared Friebel. I have changed the student's name.

As Laura’s English teachers when she was at Hinsdale Central, I thought you’d be interested to know about a writing curriculum Laura is in as a mechanical engineering major at Duke. A graduate of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering who has been working in the field of aeronautical engineering came back to Duke to spearhead a writing program for engineers. Duke has discovered that it is an inability to effectively communicate that impedes engineers from progressing in their field. The gentleman heading up this program, a unique one among engineering schools, told Laura’s class that if one has gone into engineering to avoid writing papers, they have made a grave mistake. While at Duke, every presentation and paper will go through a draft process in this writing center. And those who hoped to get away from writing will end up working for the students in the class who excel at writing and communicating ideas (which made Laura smile). I was surprised to learn from Laura that her two engineering courses this semester are project presentation and writing based (a very different, more technical type of writing that Laura is learning). We just wanted to express our gratitude to the three of you for helping to make Laura such a proficient writer and communicator. No matter what direction Laura's education and career takes, the Hinsdale Central English curriculum has clearly provided her a solid foundation on which to build.