Book Week Bravado
I have recently been invited to participate in and conduct a number of creative writing workshops at our local primary school as part of this year's Book Week. The aim being to promote and foster the fun and worthiness of literature within a child's world.
Running from the 22nd to the 26th of August, it promises to be a packed, productive and I wonder, if not slightly punishing week.
Of course I'm looking forward to engaging the creative minds and spirits of every child from Prep to Year 7 with a stomach turning mixture of sheer excitement and trepidation. After all how many similar workshops have I attended thus feeling well confident with my content and subject matter? After all how much passion do I possess about the subject matter? After all how difficult can it be to persuade kids to feel the passion too? After all they're kids...They're kids. And there in lies the rub. They're kids; possibly the world's most difficult group to publicly address.
And so with this in mind I feel it prudent to properly prepare myself for Book Week. I'm pretty sure bribes of sweets and gifts won't sustain their attention for long so am issuing this little prayer instead:
God bless all the lovely children. Give them the ability to forgive (and possibly forget if it all goes pear shaped). Allow them to find humour in all that they see and hear from me and equip them with humility and compassion in sufficient enough quantities to get all of us through this wonderful, wonderful week.
Running from the 22nd to the 26th of August, it promises to be a packed, productive and I wonder, if not slightly punishing week.
Of course I'm looking forward to engaging the creative minds and spirits of every child from Prep to Year 7 with a stomach turning mixture of sheer excitement and trepidation. After all how many similar workshops have I attended thus feeling well confident with my content and subject matter? After all how much passion do I possess about the subject matter? After all how difficult can it be to persuade kids to feel the passion too? After all they're kids...They're kids. And there in lies the rub. They're kids; possibly the world's most difficult group to publicly address.
And so with this in mind I feel it prudent to properly prepare myself for Book Week. I'm pretty sure bribes of sweets and gifts won't sustain their attention for long so am issuing this little prayer instead:
God bless all the lovely children. Give them the ability to forgive (and possibly forget if it all goes pear shaped). Allow them to find humour in all that they see and hear from me and equip them with humility and compassion in sufficient enough quantities to get all of us through this wonderful, wonderful week.
I'll let you know how it goes...
Comments
Congratulations on your Book Week workshops.
My only piece of advice is ... Relax, enjoy and take lots of photos.
Mine are split into 3 sessions, so we'll have one on different ways to generate ideas, one on character development and one on writing our story and finding challenges for the characters. Then they'll finish up their stories and we'll print them up in books for them :)
Let me know if you find an activity that works well with the kids! Best of luck!