Bringing the wars home

Reading the Creative Communications Remembrance Day assignments is a highlight of my year as an instructor.

Students write short stories about a Remembrance Day ceremony. Many of these include interesting and touching details, such as an elderly woman fainting at one Winnipeg service.

Each student also writes about a person who has been affected by conflict. These stories are often memorable.

Instructors encourage students to interview members of their families. Often it’s the first time a grandparent – or aunt or uncle, even a brother – has spoken about the most tumultuous periods of their lives.

Together, the student and his or her family member or friend, or perhaps someone they had not met before this assignment, build new memories.

It’s up to the students to maintain these memories because often, the people they interview are in the last years of life.

Several of the students have made these experiences public by blogging.

Here is a sample: Good work by Allison Bench, Jackie Doming, Monique Pantel and Corinne Rikkelman.

O joy! O delight! An election assignment!

With a federal election set for May 2, can the elections assignments be far behind?

Of course not.

This week my Creative Communications journalism students will choose one of a dozen or so topics, then do some research and present their findings to their class.

Here’s a preview:

Who are the leaders of the federal parties? What are their personal and political histories? Tell us something we didn’t know about each of them. Tell us about a couple of past leaders: the good, the bad (always more interesting) and the otherwise. Finding fun facts is encouraged.

Funny, eh? Show us current and historical examples of interesting cartoons, satire or other humorous takes on Canadian politics.

Wild card: Show us at least 10 interesting things that we did not know about Canadian politics and elections.

Research early and research often!