Roseville High School has added a creative writing class to its roster this school year. Creative writing teacher Jaime Handling was inspired to bring this class to the Roseville Joint Union High School District because no school in this district offered it. Handling had taught creative writing at all schools she worked at prior to RHS and felt through this experience it was beneficial to all types of students.

“It’s just been such a rewarding experience to see kids figure out that ‘Oh I like writing’ or ‘Oh this is actually kind of fun’,” Handling said. “I love teaching it and I love writing, so seeing kids write is just exciting.”

Handling wanted to represent the kids whose passions weren’t enriched by the school through an elective class.

“Writers are an untapped group as far as electives go,” Handling said. “We offer electives for music, for video, for hands on artistic or cooking or sculpting or what have you but there’s nothing for kids who are really cerebral and want to express themselves with the written word.”

Handling was shocked by the turnout of students interested in the class.

“It was amazing how many kids actually signed up for the first go without having any idea of what I was going to do in the classroom, they just said ‘Hey this is creative writing and I wanna take it,’” Handling said.

Junior Griffin Sims thinks that the class is a good way for students to express themselves in a way they never had before in a regular english class and to learn about their peers.

“Writing is one of those things that can be interpreted in any way,” Sims said. “From different perspectives it teaches you to see through different eyes.”

According to senior Eva Lewis, Handling is the perfect teacher to hold the class together.

“I honestly think Ms. Handling really brings the class together, because she created the class and she puts a lot of her personal touch into it,” Lewis said. “It’s her thing. I feel like if it were a different teacher it’d still be a really great class, but Ms. Handling is the man.”

Handling’s students are able to see her passion for creative writing and appreciate it.

“She’s very passionate about what she does. She’s a very caring teacher,” Sims said.

Students take the class for different reasons – some in preparation for their future and others for their pure love of writing.

Lewis plans to go into screenplay writing and is anticipating Ms. Handling teaching the class how to publish their work online.

“I think it’s really cool to get that experience, to grow as a writer,” Lewis said. “And just be able to know how to do things out of high school and to go into the professional world of writing.”