What lights U up?

 The most compelling characters in the wizarding world didn’t just appear — they arrived carrying histories that shaped every choice they make. This course shows you the backstory techniques that made such memorable characters, then hands you the quill. You’ll dig into the untold pasts of two series regulars and write the histories that explain everything.

 A hooked nose. A pink umbrella. A pair of half-moon spectacles.What makes a character unforgettable often comes down to a single perfectly chosen detail — one that lodges itself in a reader’s memory. In this course you’ll explore the art of crafting signature descriptions, then put that technique to work. Your subject: an author of a Hogwarts textbook waiting for the single detail that will define them forever.

Every fairy tale holds a secret – a story waiting to be told from a different angle, by a different voice, or with a twist that changes everything. In this course, young writers explore the art of retelling: swapping heroes and villains, borrowing familiar plots and spinning them somewhere new, and finding their own creative voice along the way. Because the best stories aren’t just read — they’re reimagined.

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What makes Harry Potter’s world feel so impossibly real? This course invites readers to immerse themselves in the world of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, exploring its storytelling craft through projects and activities as imaginative as the book itself — creating fantastic beast artwork, making spell books, sorting friends and family, and more. Because the best way to understand great writing is to play inside it.

You’ve read it. You’ve loved it. But have you ever really looked at it? This course invites you to dig beneath the magic and examine what’s really holding this world together: the themes, the darkness hiding in plain sight, and the questions Rowling buries just beneath the surface. You’ll discover that one of the most beloved stories ever written is also one of the most carefully crafted. You thought you knew this story. You’re about to meet it for the first time.

Something ancient is stirring in the walls of Hogwarts, and the closer you look, the more there is to find. We’ll brew potions, peer into the language of spells, and venture into the darkest corners of Hogwarts — all while digging deeper into the story’s layers, from hidden character backstories to the literary devices J.K. Rowling wields like a wand. Expect adventure, and chambers within chambers waiting to be revealed.

There’s a boggart in the wardrobe, butterbeer on the stove, and a new year at Hogwarts ahead. In this course, we’ll read Prisoner of Azkaban and slip into its world along the way, dreaming up Florean Fortescue’s latest ice cream flavors, giving Hagrid a hand with lesson plans, and devising suitably ridiculous Gryffindor passwords. All while you read, write, and think with the kind of creative magic the wizarding world runs on.

What really sparked the American Revolution? In this hands-on exploration, we travel from the French and Indian War to the Boston Tea Party, meeting the dramatic events and remarkable people behind America’s road to revolution. The voices history often sidelines — including women and lesser-known figures — take center stage here. With captivating stories, creative projects, and firsthand accounts and artwork from the era, you won’t just learn history…you’ll see it come to life.

The American Revolution didn’t begin with a battle — it began with decades of tension, injustice, and debate. As we discover the flashpoints that pushed the colonies toward revolution, we’ll dig into primary sources, multiple perspectives, and the voices of women and lesser-known figures too often left out of the story. Great stories, creative projects, and interactive tools make the past anything but distant — because history is far more interesting than the textbooks let on.

Unseen. Unsung. Unstoppable. They boycotted, spied, and rode through the night, they picked up fallen soldiers’ guns, wrote poetry that shook a nation, and even fought in disguise. In There All Along, we’ll meet the women who risked everything for a revolution that didn’t always see them coming, and give them the place in history they always deserved.

An inn-keeper. A socialite. A farmer. They worked in shadows, spoke in codes, and made up the Revolution’s other army — one that never fired a shot. Let’s slip alongside the spies, double agents, and secret-keepers who changed everything and discover the hidden world that quietly won a war. Because the most thrilling parts of history are the parts nobody was supposed to know.