Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

Sadly, Delores has opted to close her blog, so this is her last month to supply the prompts.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the prompts are supplied by Delores and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are: 

1: The season that speaks to your heart 
2: So many ways to say I'm sorry

Here is my effort:

I'd arrived at the small, ramshackle building almost a year ago. To call it a Schoolhouse was a wild stretch of anyone's imagination, but I'd been assigned here and on my first day and handful of pupils turned up, looking as if they had been freshly scrubbed just for this occasion. Over time, several more came along a few days a week, but only if they weren't needed at home. I now had students ranging in age from first grade to seventh. 

Most could barely read and spelling was atrocious , as was grammar, but as I taught them, so they taught me. I learned how the seasons worked out here in the middle of nowhere, when was the best time for planting various types of seed, when the best time for fishing in the river was. I'd sent away for extra assignments and when they arrived I discovered they'd been planned for children of a higher educational level, probably for children in a township, but I decided I'd give a modified version of these and today was the first "test" of my teaching and their learning. 

I handed out pencils and paper, asked each child to write their name at the top of the page and then told them today's lesson was to be an essay, which is just a fancy word for short story. "You want us to write a story Miss?" said Harriet. "Yes, I do, Harriet and the subject matter will be (I crossed my fingers here) "The season that speaks to your heart."

"What does that mean?"asked George. "I think it means we have to write about the seasons," said Annabelle. "Yes, that's right," I said, but not just all the seasons. I want each of you to write about the one season that makes you feel happy inside and why." "Does it have to be a big story?' asked Stanley. "Do you mean a long story? No, just one page will do, but think about it carefully for a few minutes before you write, then I'll give you an hour to get it done. Write your names now and in five minutes I will ring this little bell to start writing."

If this went well, I'd try another assignment next week, a suggested title in the book sent to me was "So many ways to say I'm sorry." I thought that one would go better if we made it a class discussion.