Think Before You Shoot 12 week creative writing & visual arts program will be available for grades 6th – 12th, two days a week for 12 weeks.
Equipped with computers and writing/visual presentation tools, students will learn the keys to a variety of writing forms, visual creations, and presentations. These lessons will give the students both tangible abilities in technology and writing, and intangible abilities including college and career readiness, communication, interpersonal and social-emotional learning skills.
The creative writing portion focuses on teaching the students how to express themselves creatively through writings while utilizing their imagination. Each week the students will learn different writing techniques from journalism to writing jingles. The writing sessions will allow students to use a wide range of idea creation techniques, analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems, articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts, and much more.
The visual arts sessions will allow students to integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. The presentations provides another level of conceptualization as well as the realization that they have the tools to produce a film, report a major news story, or compose a song.
As a result of being a part of the program students will walk away with the confidence and knowledge of one’s creativity, presentation, and ideas. We want to expose them to a growth mindset; the belief that with effort and perseverance, you can expand your intellect, broaden your skills, improve your character, and overcome obstacles. We want them to understand and see that the key to getting ahead is not as a result of inherited talent or skill but, old-fashioned hard work. It’s believed that the fundamental difference between the wildly successful and those that settle is not any inborn characteristic or individual learned behavior but how we think about skills and learning in general. The objective is to inspire the youth to become successful creator leaders and change the way in which the students think. How we think creates change.