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Hear hels Senett WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAV, NOVEMBER 26, 1986. PAGE 9 Ilean hlpsSenettstudents create cornic strips R.A. Sennett Public Sohool students prýduced their own comic strips recen- tly under the guidance of a children's story author who produces one of the best in Owl Magazine. "I'm fot a trained teacher. I'm a freelance writer," insists Emily Hearn of Toronto, during recess at the Whitby school. But Hearn's skils in both professions were ' apparent in school classes as students eagerly learned the techniques of story-making to produce their own picture books. Hearn, 61, looks back on a career in children's programming that bas involved various types. of communication. She worked in the ibayof the National Film Board in Otaain 1944, and was later writing newsletters to nursery school parents when the CBC hired her for school broadcasts. She wrote for the Polka Dot Door television series before writing the popular Mighty Mtes series for Owl Magazine. She bas published eight books and is planning another. With funding fromn the Ontario Arts Council 'which brought her to R.A. Sennett, her second visit to Whitby in five years, ber communication was "one-on-one", a metbod which benefits some students, she says. "It's bringing out the kids who may be intimidated by writing," says Hearn. She's now planning to write a book about the school programs she has now taugbt for three years, a book she describes as a "how-to" for teachers. She says it took only 10 minutes for Paul Kierstead's Gr. 5 students at R.A. Sennett to pick out the characters and plots for their stories, to be told in pictures in each student's 24-page boolet. Hearn says the program heightens a student's interest in reading and wrlting. She worked for the CBC from the mid- 60's to early 70's and from 1974 to 1983 wrote for the Polka Dot Door. Sennett school uses readers which she edited with Dr. John Mclnnes for the Nelson Language Development Series. "They sent me across the country," she remembers of that job, which had her scek out Canadian writers.' One of ber greatest successes bas been the comnic strip Mighty, Mites which she writes and Mark Thurman illustrates. In the series, the main character' Good Morning Franny, wheelchair-bound as a, victim of spinal bifida, is a cheerful, active young lady whose adventures odeur in ber Bloor- Spadina neighborhood in Toronto. K-1 CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMER and story create their own comic strips as part of the author Emily Hearn recently paid a visit to R.A. school's recognition of Book Month. Sennett Public Sehool in Whitby to help studeats