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    Windows to the Teenage Soul
    Windows to the Teenage Soul
    Windows to the Teenage Soul
    Ebook222 pages1 hour

    Windows to the Teenage Soul

    By Los Gatos High School English 9H Class of 2017

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    About this ebook

    This book is a collection of poems by high school students about a wide variety of topics - including love, nature, identity, social issues, emotions, books, music, technology, school, sports, ages and stages of life, and inspirational messages - to give you varied "windows to the teenage soul." Put together by the English 9 honors students at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, California, this unique poetry book offers a fresh, new perspective on life and is the first class-produced ebook of its kind that we know of in the nation. "Windows to the Teenage Soul" is also a fundraiser for the LGHS Class of 2017 - and a bit of a "how to" manual for other classes that may want to try something similar. At the end of the book, we provide an overview of how we completed this ebook publishing project with the help of Smashwords CEO Mark Coker, Los Gatos Librarian Henry Bankhead, and our two English teachers, Tonya McQuade and Kathleen Wehr. We encourage you to support our freshman class by buying our book. We promise it will be well worth it and are confident you will enjoy the new viewpoints it offers as you look through the eyes of a teenager.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTonya McQuade
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9781310993572
    Windows to the Teenage Soul

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      Book preview

      Windows to the Teenage Soul - Los Gatos High School English 9H Class of 2017

      Preface

      By Tonya McQuade

      Sometimes, it really is about your connections. If it were based on technical expertise, I would certainly not have been the teacher to take on this project, but because of my friendship with one of the Los Gatos Library’s head librarians, I found myself sitting down for a meeting with the other head librarian, Henry Bankhead, and the CEO of Smashwords, Mark Coker, to talk about having my class publish an ebook as part of an effort to promote authorship and epublishing in the community. Henry was in the process of writing up a grant proposal, and they were looking for some teacher buy-in because they wanted to expand the partnership the library already had with Smashwords into the local schools. I said I’d be interested in learning more … and now, here we are!

      Poetry has always been one of my loves, and it’s something I already have my students write, so it made sense to focus on creating a class poetry anthology for our publishing project – especially since I know so many of them write truly amazing poems! We were just finishing up our Poetry Unit in my English 9 Honors English classes, so I told each student to choose one poem they wanted to include in our book and recruited Kathleen Wehr, the other English 9H teacher, to have her students do the same. After presentations to my classes by Mark Coker about the business, benefits, and best practices of self-publishing, we jumped right in and started forming teams to get the work done: an Editing Team, a Layout & Design Team, and Art & Photography Team, a Marketing & Publicity Team, and an Event Planning Team. Each team has included a description here of the tasks they were expected to complete and the processes they followed. We also had to decide on a title and a Front Cover design. A class vote led us to Windows to the Teenage Soul – and we really do believe these poems offer just that!

      Originally, our plan was to create a book that would be offered for free to anyone interested, but then we thought, what if we made this a class fundraiser? Each class works hard over their four years at Los Gatos High School to raise money toward their senior ball and other class activities. With 116 freshmen students contributing to our book, we decided this could be a great opportunity to not only raise funds for the Class of 2017, but also teach students about marketing, advertising, publicity campaigns, press releases, and revenue reports – all real life skills that could prove useful in helping students learn about career opportunities they may want to consider in the future. Even more, why not have a fun celebration at the end – a Book Launch Party – that would involve students in learning about Evites, Jooners (for online food donations), event planning, and Program creation? When I talked about the possibilities, I could see many students’ eyes start to light up. And thus, our ebook grew into something even bigger.

      We also decided to reach out to local media – newspapers, television news, and radio – to share what we were doing and see if they would be interested in covering our project. Both Mark and Henry expressed their belief that nothing like this had been by a high school class before, and they felt confident that others would want to hear about our project – that maybe other classes might want to try something similar. With Smashwords providing a free self-publishing platform for anyone interested, this is certainly a project that is available to all. And it’s certainly one I plan to repeat in the future!

      I’m excited that the first epublishing project with which I’ve ever been involved is one that’s all about poetry. Since my elementary school years, I’ve been writing poetry and songs. Poetry is really why I became an English major in the first place.

      A poem I wrote back in high school clearly captures my thinking at the time:

      Schooltime Wisdom

      by Tonya McQuade

      Punctuate correctly

      And use your grammar well;

      Consult a dictionary

      If a word you cannot spell.

      Two plus two is four,

      And three times three is nine;

      Percentages and fractions

      Fill the corners of my mind.

      Make sure you don’t forget

      That great year 1492,

      For that’s when Christopher Columbus

      Sailed across the ocean blue.

      A body’s made of organs,

      Which is turn are made of cells,

      And a cell is just the home

      In which a tiny atom dwells.

      All this information

      Has been planted in my brain;

      Through reading, writing, and arithmetic

      True wisdom I’m to gain.

      But what of imagination

      And creativeness we hide?

      It’s such a shame to waste

      The precious gifts we have inside.

      Poetry gives us the chance to use our imagination, to be creative, to explore our deepest thoughts and feelings, and to discover the gifts we have inside – gifts and talents that maybe we didn’t even realize were there. It is my goal every year to help my students discover the joy, the beauty, the self-expression, and the catharsis of poetry – both in reading it and writing it. Many of them do – and every year, some of the poems they write make me smile and others move me to tears. Now, for the first time, they get to share that with a bigger audience. I hope you will enjoy the poetry the English 9H students of Los Gatos High School’s Class of 2017 have put together in for you …

      - Tonya McQuade, April 2014

      Book Dedication

      Dedicated to Los Gatos High School’s Class of 2017

      A Poem for Our Generation: 2010’s Kid

      by Danika Lyle

      Why, yes, I am indeed a 2010’s kid.

      What does that entail, you ask? So glad you did.

      Gone are your days of Barbie dolls and baseball bats;

      I’d rather stay inside, unless there is an app for that.

      I’m into more mature things that may pack a shock;

      Learn more at my twitter @coolkid_ontheblock.

      But we aren’t all that different, both happy and smiley;

      I, too, look up to that pop star named Miley.

      Oh, but Hannah Montana has taken a fall;

      I look up to the twerking one on the wrecking ball.

      I’m told I need sunlight and real life friends,

      But I’ve got 1,000 on Facebook, #InternetNeverEnds.

      I may not watch High School Musical where you got your kicks,

      But I have my own love, and its name is Netflix.

      Though you may find my childhood sad, a shame, or a lie,

      To me it’s still magic, and it came with Wi-Fi!

      ONE

      Looking at Love

      Everything and More

      by Emily Vindasius

      You are the wind beneath my wings,

      That carries me through the storm.

      You are the sun to my spring,

      That keeps my flowers healthy and warm.

      You are the stars to my sky,

      That keeps the night bright.

      You are the tear to my cry,

      That picks me up from the fight.

      You are everything and more,

      The one I now love,

      So let’s go soar

      Like two white doves.

      You are the frosting to my cupcake,

      That lets me look good.

      You better not let my heart break,

      Like no one should.

      Love

      by Sydney Miller

      Love is pink.

      It sounds like a compliment.

      It feels like a hug.

      It smells like a rose.

      It

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