Is That a Light I See?

Six more days of school.  Graduation over.  Still nearly drowning!  Why?  I am editing a book my students wrote, all 250+ pages of it on the 130+ years of our school's history!

This was quite the massive undertaking.  Had I known, well, for for once in my life I would have said, "No.  No, thank you.  Absolutely not."

But I didn't.

This year's group of young adult minds have been the most challenging I have had in some years.  Such mass numbers too content with at 59.45, or, in other words, with just passing.  No, books may not be published with work that should have earned them a 59.44...that number does not round up, does it?  Thus, editing and revising...and revising and editing...these have now become the most important steps in this writing process.

Enough moaning.  This cups IS half full!

I had some wonderful, very well-research submissions, and, overall, once printed, this is going to be an awesome project.

The assignment?  Choose one academic year, find one story from the assigned school year, and write one page.  Sure sounds easy enough to me!

In retrospect, I should have asked for a half page, for, when submitted in single-space format, a half does equal a whole page.  Thus, in the editing, I am deleting much empty wording, for in their efforts to meet the assignment's expectations, some became quiet grand at wordsmithing!

Once this editing is complete, the book goes to a "real" printer, for I applied for and obtained a grant to fund this project.  Each student who submitted receives a free copy of the book.  Very exciting to be a published author!

If your school is coming up on an anniversary, I recommend the project if the data can be found.  We are fortunate to have an county historical museum and were able to find much evidence there for the early years.  For the latter years, yearbooks became our friends.  For some years, we struggled, finding little, for during the war years, yearbooks were not published due to cost.  Thankfully, the school was diligent in printing school newspapers.  For some years, we struggled, finding little, for yearbooks have walked away.  Such a shame, for so much history has vanished.

I am currently on year 1970...yes, I should be editing...instead of writing about editing!

Just one more glance, is that a light I see at the end of this 2014-2015 tunnel?  Why, yes, I believe it is!  I do hope you are seeing one, also!