Crazy Week Continued...

Then, the morning after Chickee's 8th grade graduation, we drove 3.5 hours to the State Power of the Pen writing competition. Chickee had made it through the District tournament in January. She placed 11th in the Regional Competition in March and was honored to represent. She was the only 8th grader from this side of town who made it to the State competition.

 

 

The kids compete in three writing rounds. They are given a prompt then they have 35 minutes to write a story. They are judged by two judges who have to agree on her rank and a quality score out of 100. The kids who do well in the first 3 rounds of writing, they take the top I think it was 50 (out of 350?) to go to the Power Round.  One of her morning rounds she got a #1 ranking and a perfect score. The other two rounds she got a #2 ranking and a #3 ranking. So she did great and qualified for the "Power Round".  The Power Round was a more difficult prompt and only 30 minutes to write. She didn't place overall but did fantastic. I still think she has a chance to win a "Best of Round" certificate for the #1 she earned. 

 

But the experience was great. We brought her BFF with us, and the girls got to hang out on a college campus, sleep in a dorm, eat in the cafeteria, navigate multiple campus buildings, hear an inspiring author speak about what makes for success.  All great stuff.