Home | Course Offerings | Teacher Bios | Schedule & Fees | Directions | Sign Up! Courses For Children, Summer 2008 Create a Puppet Show Everyone loves a puppet show! This is your chance to go behind the curtain and become the puppet master. We'll learn how to create many different kinds of puppets, starting with hand puppets, and then progressing to mouth puppets and rod puppets. Together we'll make sets and props, decide on a story line, and put on a show! Perfect for children who love crafts and the stage but may have a bit of stage fright. Rising 1st – 4th graders. (Class size limited to 25) Instructors: Michael Haines and Joanne Sutton-Smith June 23 – 27, 9 AM – Noon $175 Drawing, Painting and Poetry in the Crum Start your summer off playing… with your drawing pencil, paintbrush, and journal under a weeping willow or among wild roses. Discover the joy of creating in a relaxed, nurturing environment inspired by nature. Each day, we'll walk to Scott Arboretum or Crum Creek Woods for subject material (weather permitting). Rising 3rd – 6th graders. (Class size limited to 25) Instructors: Michael Haines and Joanne Sutton-Smith June 23 – 27, 1 - 4 PM $175 Nature Artists and Explorers Are you curious about the natural world? In this workshop, join science guy and fine artist Michael Haines and writer Joanne Sutton-Smith, as we explore the area around Crum Creek while investigating how to sketch, draw, paint, and write about the wonders that we'll discover! You’ll learn how to create a field journal and discover specific creative techniques for your drawing and writing. Studio time will be spent in longer sessions with each student receiving individual instruction. Together we’ll gain a richer understanding of our relationship with the world of nature and how it transforms and inspires us. Rising 2nd – 5th graders. (Class size limited to 25) Instructors: Michael Haines and Joanne Sutton-Smith July 7 – 18 (2 weeks), 9 AM - Noon $350 Fort Making and Fantasy Worlds Have fun in the Crum building teepees and forts.  Let your imagination dwell in “debris huts" or magical, miniature homes created for gnomes and fairies. Then write a fantasy story or poem to capture the whole experience! Rising 3rd – 6th graders. (Class size limited to 25) Instructors: Michael Haines and Joanne Sutton-Smith July 7 – 11 (1 week), 1 – 4 PM $175 Behind the Headlines: Introduction to Journalism This two-week workshop will feature an introduction to all aspects of journalism, including the basic interview process, municipal meeting and governmental coverage and newspaper photography as well as sports, column and feature writing. Several guest speakers are expected including a school district public relations representative, newspaper editor, sports writer and photographer, area correspondents and local columnists. Students will be invited to attend a working municipal meeting as well as tour a regional newspaper operation. Aspiring journalists will have the opportunity to have their finished pieces published in summer issues of The Swarthmorean. Rising 8th – 12th graders. (Class size limited to 12) Instructor: Loretta Rodgers and Regional Reporters July 7 – 18 (2 weeks), 1 – 4 PM $400 (includes transportation for newspaper tour) Writing the College Application Essay The personal essay of the Common Application for Undergraduate College Admission is the most efficient means for a college to learn about you, beyond scores, school, and schedule. Your mission, which all college-bound seniors must choose to accept, is to convey the essence of who you are, in 500 words or less. To that end, we will examine successful essays, brainstorm ideas and styles through free-writing exercises, and help you select the essay question that suits you best. By Friday, you will produce a solid working draft. Class size limited to eight rising high school seniors. Instructor: Reisa Mukamal One week, choose either: July 7 – 11, 1:30 – 3:30 PM - THIS CLASS IS CANCELLED July 21 – 25, 1:30 – 3:30 PM - THIS CLASS IS CLOSED $200 Become a Comic Strip Artist All over the world, artists and writers use comic strips to express important ideas. In this class, you'll learn how to create your own crazy characters, whether they be wise-cracking house pets or world saving superheroes. Bring a pencil and eraser and come prepared to draw and share! With its emphasis on action, pictures, and dialogue, the comic strip class is ideal for the reluctant writer. Rising 3rd – 6th graders. (Class size limited to 25) Instructors: Michael Haines and Joanne Sutton-Smith July 14 – 18, 1 - 4 PM $175 Summer Road Trip: Writing Tour for the Creative Mind For young writers, there are so many creative paths to travel! Whether the genre is a personal essay, a memoir, a piece of fiction, or an opinion article, moving one’s thoughts from the mind to the printed page is the most important, and most exciting step. For students who wish to try their hand at a variety of writing forms, this course offers an opportunity to dabble across genres in an entertaining and meaningful way. Focusing on a different “project” each day, the students will begin with a customized writing exercise to jump start their thought process. Once their ideas are formed, students will have ample time to further their concepts and draft final pieces of work to share with the group and collect feedback. Through this course, students will discover which writing forms best suit their personalities and styles while gaining a universal appreciation for the power of words. Getting there will be all the fun!! Includes outdoor time at Scott Arboretum (weather permitting). Rising 5th – 9th graders. (Class size limited to 12) Instructor: Emily Mendell July 21 – 25, 10 AM – 1 PM $200 Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction Many young adults enjoy reading adventure tales which feature swords & sorcery, wizards & spells, or futuristic technology. In this one week workshop, students will get a chance to try their hand at inventing their own magical characters and places. We will explore authoring strategies including how to spin a plot that keeps the reader guessing. As we analyze the work of others, each student will create a short work of fiction using the classic elements of fantasy or science fiction. Mysteries and creepy campfire tales are welcome too! Includes outdoor time at Scott Arboretum and Crum Creek Woods (weather permitting). Rising 5th – 9th graders. (Class size limited to 12) Instructor: Michael Aronovitz July 21 -25, 1:30 – 4:30 $200 Courses For Adults, Summer 2008 Life is Material: A Writing Workshop for Parents As a parent, you have a unique opportunity to write what you know. You share countless moments with your children that you wish you could save forever. Now you can! Come join a circle of moms and dads who are interested in writing about those parenting moments that are most meaningful to each of us. Whether it is a comical story, a piece of parenting advice or a poignant moment between you and your child, these are the pieces that you (and others) will want to pick up and read again and again. This evening workshop offers writers and non-writers alike the opportunity to reflect upon, record, and share their experiences as parents in a variety of forms including essays, articles and blogs. (Class size limited to 12) Instructor: Emily Mendell Tuesdays, June 24 – July 22 (5 weeks), 7 – 9 PM $200 The Poet at Work Who's the poet in you? How do you find your poet's voice? Discover your subject? This workshop will explore the subjects each poet is drawn to and which of these elicit strong, lush, meaningful poems. We'll rely on a lively give-and-take, each week looking closely at each writer's work and making supportive constructive suggestions. Poets at all levels are welcome. Our sessions will be a mix of workshop and looking at contemporary poems for what we can greedily learn from them. We'll work on a range of poem assignments to get at the poetic essentials: form, imagery, voice, movement within the poem, and the pleasures/impact of sound. (Class size limited to 12). Registration Deadline: Wed, June 18 Instructor: A. V. Christie Wednesdays , June 25 – July 23 (5 weeks), 7 – 9 PM $200