Q&A with Melanie Gerard Wreck This Journal Camp: A Healthy Way to Be Destructive

If you haven't heard of Wreck This Journal, here's your chance to know why it's such a big deal.

“It’s a book that allows you to destruct what you have just created,” Melanie Girard, a middle school English teacher from Dallas’ elite Greenhill School, explained in a nutshell.

Author Keri Smith’s international bookseller has morphed from an interactive journal, an app, and now a summer camp offered for kids healthily exploring the creative process. 

“Kids are always taught to read directions literally, draw within the lines, and contain themselves. This book encourages the exact opposite. It’s like building an intricate creation and then lighting it on fire - which we have actually done in my camp.”

Participating in this create-and-destroy activity is a balancing act. Fortunately, Melanie is as adventurous with her students as she is knowledgeable in fostering healthy emotional and social development with kids in 5th-8th grade.

“My camp is a perfect example of your ‘provide the space and supplies, then leave them alone’ philosophy,” she told me.

“I sit back, play some jams, and take them outside towards the end of camp to let them do some wrecking. The kids would totally lose themselves in the journals. It was awesome!”

That does sound awesome, Melanie. Let me sign my kid up!

She answered a few of my questions about the camp that I’m sharing with readers and other like-minded parents who might be interested.

You’ll enjoy reading her responses because it feels like sitting down and having coffee with an old friend.

She’s funny and lighthearted, but she’ll make you cry when she tells you stories about her kids, how she wants them to feel, and why she thinks making a mess is beautiful.

Will you tell our readers a little bit about yourself? I want you to talk a bit about your professional background, and if you wish to share some of your personal interests, we’d love to know about that as well. I think you should mention something quirky about your hip hop dancing interest, too.

I started teaching when I was 22 and quickly discovered that middle school was the place for me. I love their awkwardness, sarcasm, and ability to surprise me with their thoughtfulness in a time when their world seems to be shifting and uncomfortable.

My favorite times with my students are when we are so engrossed in a book that there is an audible gasp, or “WHAT?!” when we’re reading together in class.

And yes, I love to hip hop dance and swim with my kids.

You mentioned that you (as an adult) made your own Wreck This Journal for yourself. Describe how something like this is suitable for all ages and share some of your experiences in how it benefited you personally and professionally.

I started my journal last summer with one of my camps that had a small number of students in it. I sat with them and found that when I was working WITH them, they opened up to me, shared some of their ideas, and were surprised that I was putting myself out there creatively as well. I think students don’t see teachers do that enough.

I also don’t consider myself to be artistic, but I do consider myself to be creative. It confirmed for me that even if one doesn’t have inherent talent, their effort can make up for it in so many ways.

Plus, it was quite cathartic climbing on top of our Pre-K dome climber and chucking that journal as far as I could! It kind of reminded me of Garden State when they are on top of the bulldozer screaming into the abyss. I got to really let go and be vulnerable in front of my students.   

My daughter recently discovered this journal, and she loves it! Although she claims that she’s not a writer, I’ve caught her being so engaged in writing and reading from cover to cover. She even video chatted with a friend to do a few prompts together. Hours of entertainment! I know she would love to attend your WTJ summer camp. Tell me a little bit about the details.

My camp is for students going into 5th-8th grades and is coeducational. I have had a class as small as 3 and as large as 17. 20 is my limit simply due to supplies and attention I can spread between them all. I provide them with art supplies, candy, water, access to dirty cars, high places, flowers, trash, feathers- you name it. I give them the journal (they cost around $15) and the camp is $180 for 3 hours for one week.

I know WTJ is a fun and engaging way to keep kids writing. But how has using it improve literacy skills?

It’s been interesting how the literacy piece has grown with this camp. My most recent camp had students including poetry or quotes into their work- and once one kid uses a quote suddenly they ALL want to have cool, “deep” quotes.

 Many of them used 365 Days of Wonder by R.J. Palacio, which is a fun collaboration of quotes that follows the story of a character from the book Wonder.

Many of them also create their own free form poetry during this time. I don’t require any of this, but in their attempt to be really creative, they often draw from other creative minds.

I think about some of my own students’ personalities. You know, the Perfectionists, the Nervous Nellies, or Anxious Annies. Then I imagine having them go through this exercise. It would be so perfect for them! Who were some of your students and how were they able to get over their fear of making mistakes or ruining a blank page? Which kids have you seen who have benefited the most?

I am so glad you asked this question. I initially thought this would be a fun camp, but when I saw the positive experience of these perfectionists, I told myself, “I have to do this camp!”

I had one student, let’s call him, "Sam," who was very driven and honestly kind of a know-it-all in my history class. I rarely saw him having fun in school.

Sam's parents have high expectations and academics were to be taken very seriously. When he came into my camp and realized it wasn’t a journal writing class, he was ecstatic. He wasn’t quite sure how to handle the fact that this camp was to be entertaining, plus he got to wreck things!

I watched him bound into my room each day with such excitement, and he was the most engaged student I had by far. He came up with so many ideas like,  “Wreck it Baseball,"  “Wreck it Dodge Ball,"  and “Find the Journal."

Sam would say to me so many times, “This is so good for me. I never get to be reckless. I never get to let go. I feel invigorated!”

At a time where he was feeling out of control (his parents were also going through a nasty divorce), he was completely in control of creating and destroying in a way that was suitable to him.

I totally came to love that kid after our time together in camp. So many students who are high performers have a hard time remembering that what they do is important, but it’s also temporary. It’s okay to mess up, and sometimes these messes are beautiful.

And they can mess up, and THEY are still beautiful!

What's your favorite WTJ activity and why?

This is kind of a small one, but we would tie strings to our journals and take them for a walk around the campus. Oh, and they students had to name their journals. So, here we are, talking to our journals.

"Come here, Ralphie, watch out for that rock!”

We would drag our journals in the dirt and concrete all while other students and camp counselors are watching. We got a lot of strange looks, but it was like it was our little secret. Only we knew what we were doing, and it was perfectly normal to us.

Anything else you want to add?

I almost feel like pages from the journal could be used as a great prompt in a creative writing class, or anytime a teacher feels like their students are a bit lackluster in their creativity. Even if only one day a trimester was “Wreck It” day, I guarantee the students would be constantly asking, “When is our next Wreck It day?”

** If you are interested in learning more about next year’s Wreck It Journal summer camp or have any questions about Melanie's hip hop dance moves, send her an email girardm@greenhill.org.**

**Greenhill School, consistently ranked in the top 5 of Best Private High Schools in the DFW metroplex, is a coeducational private day school with a population of over 1200 students, pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 located in Addison, Texas. It prides itself in academic excellence among diverse thinkers.**

 Pia Villanueva-Pulido is a published children’s author, content writer, and English teacher. She also specializes in marketing communications.Together with her husband, Michael Pulido, a music producer and homeschool music teacher, they have developed a series of children’s picture books and songs from the River of Imagination collection.