1. Respect: We are polite, kind and appropriate at all times. Remember that many students, teachers, and others will view your comments.
Anyone is welcome to comment or join a discussion as long as he or she is respectful.

2. Fun: It's okay to have fun in this space, but if others are having a learning conversation either add to it positively or make your comments in a new post.

3. How to Participate: Ask questions. Answer questions. Share your learning. Synthesize ideas. Plan projects or assignments. Reflect on the processes of writing and learning.

4. Safety: In general, be reserved about revealing private details on web sites. You don't need to use your full name, but use enough of it so that the organizers and other students will know who you are. Though this is a password-protected site, it is digital information that anyone could copy, forward, save to hard drive etc. Anything you type into a digital forum may last forever, so respect your own and others' privacy.

5. Decorating your personal space: Arrange your personal site to your taste, but keep it wholesome. It may be your choice to walk on the dark side, but one of the purposes of this site is to add to the world's light. Please, no gross, disgusting, immoral or irreverent photographs. Also, don't put up a background that makes your text hard to read. Communication is a primary purpose of this site, and design should enhance rather than obstruct communication.

6. Formality: The level of usage here is "informal standard English"--which is what is used in business, government and education for everyday work. No texting abbreviations. Use complete sentences and standard spelling. Remember, the whole world is watching.

7. Anything you post here should be somehow related to writing or Writers Week. The connection can be direct or indirect. If you're asked to explain your posting's relevance to writing or Writers Week, you should have an answer. If you don't, bye-bye.

8. If I could disable the Friend feature of this ning, I would, but I can't. So, let's have no "Friend-ing" dramas. If another student requests to be your ning friend, you must accept that request before you do anything else on here.

(Many thanks to Mr. Michael Umphrey, author of The Power of Community-Centered Education: Teaching as a Craft of Place, for his help with these ning rules.)

Fremd High School
Fremd English Department
Viking Booster Club
Writers Week/FHS Web Site
Writers Week Blog Archive
Mary Fons
Tony Romano, Author
Tony Romano from HarperCollins
The Conspiracy, Fremd's Lit Mag
The Leaky Cauldron

Dave Cullen

The Viking Logue
Buddy Wakefield
Ray McNiece
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Sharon Draper
Chris Crutcher
Wordle: Beautiful Word Clouds
Poetry Slam, Inc.
Word! Webzine
Contest/Publication Opportunities
Smokelong Quarterly
Polyphony H.S.
Teen Ink
Simone Elkeles

Veronica Roth

Sara Holbrook
Michael Salinger
Daphne Willis & Co.
Alyse Liebovich (Fremd '01)
Harry Mark Petrakis
Greg Herriges Interview
Dana Kozlov (Fremd '86)
Antwan Lewis
Frederik Pohl
Nikki Giovanni
258 Journal Topics
100 College Essay Topics
Hazelwood West Writers Week
Daniel Ferri on NPR
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Palatine Public Library
Rolling Meadows Library
Barrington Area Library
Schaumburg Township Library
Cristina Henriquez
FHS American Studies Ning
Cirque-tacular Entertainment
Expository Composition (EMC)
YouTube: AtGoogle Talks
Alex Kotlowitz
Patricia Smith
Julie Halpern

Rebecca Skloot

Teenreads.com
Palatine Poetry Slam
Top Shelf Books
Billy Lombardo at OV Books
Umphrey's McGee
Robert Kurson
The Neo-Futurists
Xtranormal Text-to-Movie
Loung Ung
Robin Wasserman
Mike Bellito: Ten Again
The Neo-Futurists
Dennis Florine
Daphne Willis
Dan Zamudio
Twitter
GoodReads


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