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In 2008, I began my first year as the Windrush School Sixth Grade Humanities teacher, and I was determined to bring to the middle school what I had started at Live Oak School in San Francisco: a showcase publication for student writing and visual art. Throughout the year, my students worked very hard on language arts assignments as well as on self directed writing. All were encouraged to publish some writing in our very first edition of Spark, which came out in June, 2009, and all published authors/artists were thrilled to see their work in print! After almost an entire day at the copier and binding machine, I was able to share 58 pages of poetry, stories, and art work. The magazine was distributed to all three grades, the middle school teaching staff, and to the  fifth graders at a 'getting to know you' session in June, 2009. Last week when I met with Iwei's class, I encouraged them to check out the new online zine version...

I still have every single art and literature magazine from my high school which contained much of my writing and art. I will never part with these 'life bookmarks,' and remind my young authors and artists that it's impossible to measure now what your work may mean to you later in life...

In 2009, Spark was briefly student directed, when sixth grader Kyle Hunt became an editor. As I update this in June, 2011, I hope this magazine will grow and blossom.