I had an amazing day at Paul Revere Middle School in Brentwood/Pacific Palisades. This school is a magnet school that buses students in from Northridge to Compton. After meeting their teachers, and seeing all this school has to offer, I see why parents are pushing to send their kids here. They have a freaking farm on campus and an agriculture department!
The kids were adorable and so smart. Though I’ve spoken at schools all over the world, this was my first time doing a presentation that included a mini-comic book workshop. The presentation kept their attention for the most part. I had cleverly placed comic book trailers and videos in between some of the slides to keep them interested. However, the comic book workshop part of the presentation was a HIT with every group of all six hundred students I spoke to, from sixth graders to eighth graders!
Instead of doing breakouts like I originally planned, I had students raise their hands to give me on-the-spot dialogue for a blank page of “Young Grandmaster Choi” that we wrote together before their teacher-librarian and I acted out each character. The kids had jokes, they had slang, but most importantly they had fun!
