If you were to make another story Mr. Wilhelm I think I would be an interesting character because I am fabulous and myself. I am bold and out there. My name’s Nathan. I am friends with 8th grade girls middle popular. 7th grade popular girls, middle popular. I can’t ever be mean because I feel too bad after the fact. Guys that are jocks make fun of me and I am a good singer (decent), play trumpet, do drama, and that’s me.
That’s written in purple ink on a slip of notebook paper. On a school visit recently, a boy came up after a classroom session and handed it to me.
I visit middle schools often, and kids sometimes do hand me notes — or they’ll ask if they can write in my pocket notebook. I've generally shown them the notebook, as part of my talk, and explained how it’s a tool that I use. Ideas and observations go in the front — that's anything I might notice, especially in schools, or an idea that comes up. In the back goes information, like email addresses, where I've parked in an airport, and books that kids or teachers tell me I have to read.
An entry I make in the notebook, I'll tell students, could grow into something. You never know! It could become a detail, such as what it says on a kid’s t-shirt. It could give rise to a character. It could even become the idea for the story itself.
It's generally after a session like this, which moves from my opening talk to a Q&A and discussion, that a student or two may come up and either hand me a note or ask to write in the notebook. The notes they give me often feel private; sometimes a kid will hand me a tightly folded piece of paper and then flee. Nathan’s, above, didn’t feel that way. He spoke with me as he gave me the note, and clearly he wants to be a character. So I hope he won’t mind my sharing it.
And what happened was, his note stayed me for a while. It was in my car, where I’d read it after leaving the school. I left the note sitting in a cupholder, so I kept seeing it — and it got me thinking. All the kids who write in my notebook: in doing that, they're hoping to be heard, right? I mean, every kid wants to be recognized. We all hope to be heard.
So here are some of the things that middle schoolers have written in my pocket notebooks, over the last year or two:
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