
creative
Creative Writing
Click below to explore our instructors and the classes offered.




Julian Simmons
Teaching Artist

Julian Simmons
Teaching Artist
Julian is an award winning published author. He has worked in the Publishing industry for over 14 years and is a Charleston-native and graduate from the College of Charleston. He is a former recording artist and has performed at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall. In his spare time, Julian enjoys writing stories with his three kids, wife, and their pet rabbit.
Becoming a published author teaches students fun ways to release the stories from their mind and how to structure those narratives. Once the stories are created they will learn about tools for editing and publishing before finalizing their projects for marketing on social media.
*Word Wars: Students will break into teams for a game of Word Wars. Each team will battle against each other on who can write the most words while telling a cohesive story. As each team is defeated they merge with the remaining teams. The group with the most words at the end wins!
*Write to Excite: Students are given a set of characters, objects, and landscapes and must bring them to life using words to describe how their characters are related, what they eat, where they live, how they survive in their habitat and where they reside in the food chain.
*The Said It Edit: Students are given a card with a word on it and have to talk to each other to find their matching homonym. We then discuss the pitfalls of showing vs telling where students will act out a skit and “show” the audience their action and the audience has to write down what they are watching and guess the action phrase.

Diane Brown
The Art of Writing

Diane Brown
The Art of Writing
As an Elementary Art Educator with 21 years of experience, I noticed when speaking with students about their artwork they often spoke about details not visible on the page. For the past 12 years I have explored the relationship between students' art and their writing inspired by their artwork. Creating content specific art prior to writing allows students to mentally rehearse and organize their thoughts. As a result, all students are engaged. I had one reluctant writer tell me "This was easy and fun because I got the words from my picture."

Lisa Trott
Arts + Academics = Love of Learning

Lisa Trott
Arts + Academics = Love of Learning
Lisa Trott, 2013 CCSD Teacher of the Year, is a retired veteran elementary teacher who has dedicated her career to developing arts-integrated learning experiences for her students. Lisa fervently believes that providing creative paths for students results in deeper meaning and understanding. Within each learning experience, students will merge academics with the arts in a multitude of forms such as music, visual arts, dancing...you name it, we’ll do it!!
*Native American Artwork: Seeing Indigenous Americans Through Their Eyes
(ELA and Social Studies) - Students will be immersed in the culture and natural resources of 4 main geographical Native American regions (Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Plains, Eastern Woodlands) through legends and beliefs, as well as create an iconic piece of art for each region.
*Calligram Poetry and Mosaics
(ELA and Science) - This is truly a multifaceted learning experience! Students will learn about calligram poetry - shape poetry - but there’s a twist! While the shape can’t move, students will use strong verbs and adverbs to describe the daily movements of a chosen animal. This “moving” shape animal poem will then be completed with an interior mosaic reflecting the habitat of the animal!
*Finding the Beat with the Beatles
(ELA) - Using songs from the Beatles, students will learn about poetic rhyme patterns and types of poetry. Students will be introduced to the artwork of Peter Max andHeinz Edelmann (Yellow Submarine) with their use of primary colors and psychedelic, comic book style in conjunction with zentangle art - merging the two.