It's A Mystery to Me

In September 2015, a new group of sixth grade students walked into my classroom excited to begin the year ahead. They were filled with residual summer happiness, new school year anticipation, and cautious enthusiasm. They had waited two years for 6th grade. "Not that we didn't like the other projects," one student said, as she sat down to her first assignment of the new year.
After reading Sherlock Holmes, taking pop quizzes to test their skills of observation, solving some short mini-mysteries and learning the characteristics of a mystery story, I had explained they would now have to write their own story. Fear filled their eyes, as they prayed for some magical powers to wash over them giving them this new ability. After some comforting words and reassurance that much like a story, magic is just good planning, these new authors opened up their notebooks and starting painting words of suspense on their papers.
They started writing feverishly. Pens hit composition notebooks and a silence as deep as the Passaic River filled the room. They stopped. They stared blankly. They thought. They wrote. This pattern repeated and repeated, over days and weeks, and then suddenly, even the most doubtful child had produced pages of wonderment. Over those few weeks I looked into eyes filled with fear, perseverance, confusion and finally, pride. And now these same children that once uttered, "I can't write a WHOLE story!" are asking me, "Are ten pages too many?"
Every year I watch over my class as they create something amazing. It brings me back to when I sat in school and found my love for writing. While I hope this book lasts a lifetime on your shelves, what matters more is that your love for writing keeps growing. Twenty years from now you may not remember this project, you may not remember this class, but if you're writing a story because you WANT to, you've made me the happiest teacher in the world.
What isn't a mystery, my awesome students: YOU are magical.
- Mrs. Almaliah
ISBN: 978-1-937072-91-9