One of my favorite days of the year is when Author Phil Bildner visits our library for a Writing Camp with 4th grade!  He leads them in a fun, engaging learning session all about writing and the kids always walk away with new ideas and inspiration.  This was his first visit to England Elementary and he had nothing but amazing things to say about our school and our awesome students!

Mr. Bildner gave us lots of great advice, but I wanted to share with you some of his most important messages:

• If you put your name on something, it is a direct reflection of who you are… so make sure it’s your best work!

• The key to being a good writer is that you have to READ!!  Read on your own, for fun, every single day!  Reading is NOT OPTIONAL.

• The real writing takes place during the re-writing.  Editing is not the most fun part of writing, but it is the MOST important.  Your first draft should never be your final draft!

• When you think you’re done, you’ve just begun.  Spend 10 more minutes on your writing and you can turn something good into something better!

Mr. Bildner challenged all of our 4th grade students to become an EXTREME READER, and to try a new genre, book, or author!  He even recommended many of the titles that we have here in the library, like The One and Only Ivan, or Wonder — both on next year’s Texas Bluebonnet Award list!  Check in the library for other books that Mr. Bildner suggested to our 4th graders!

Five students were selected to have a special lunch discussion with Phil Bildner!  These students had written really great letters persuading me to choose them for the lunch group and we all had a great time visiting and asking each other questions.

We hope you’ll come back again next year, Phil!