School Visits...

The last few days have been hectic, but rewarding with school visits and the Reading Matters conference. To celebrate the fantastic new library at Toorak College, Mt Eliza, I worked with the gorgeous Year 8 girls. We talked about Finding Darcy, which the girls study next term and did writing exercises. What a talented group of writers!
Thank you to the girls and to the wonderful library staff, especially a childhood friend, Sue, who I reconnected with, for your support and for spoiling me.
Today I've been to a much smaller , but just as enjoyable, school - Koroit and District PS where we talked about ideas and how to turn them into stories.
Now I need to finish my last assignment for this semester - more about Reading Matters later.

Autumn and e-books...

I worked as a teacher yesterday, which I always enjoy. While I was on yard duty, a poppet rushed up to me with an injury - well a scratch, but that's an injury to a Prep. Arms waving in the air, she explained she needed a Bandaid, because she'd... She stopped, arms mid-wave, and gasped. For a second I thought I'd underestimated the scratch, but then her face broke into a massive smile. She sighed and spun around, arms out wide. 'Look at all the colours. The leaves are beautiful!'
She was right, the leaves were the most beautiful colours - rust, magenta, olive, yellow and everything in between.
Bandaid applied, she skipped off to collect leaves to show her teacher after play. I took a little more notice of the leaves.I didn't ever find out what caused the scratch!
This chilly weather is perfect for reading. Finding Darcy, After and Dare You are all available at ebooks.com.

Librarians Rule!

This week I had a quick visit to Star of the Sea in Gardenvale for the school's Library Week. What a terrific school! Gorgeous, warm, friendly staff and students and such a wonderful library. A huge thank you to Sabina, Julie and the gang in the library who spoilt me rotten - brownies and scones!

At Star of the Sea, I once again saw the importance of school libraries and librarians first hand. I am in awe of the staff's knowledge, dedication and passion to not only books, but to matching the right books with the right readers.

And yet sadly, more and more schools are phasing out librarians and library classes, leaving a room of books lacking the warmth, knowledge and passion needed to encourage students to not only read, but to LOVE reading.

In my youth I marched to Save The Whales, protest about uranium mining and nuclear weapons, stop the Franklin River from being dammed (and damned) and many other causes. Please tell me I don't need to dust off my overalls (it was the 80s), pin on Save School Librarian badges and march again!

As an aside, an unexpected bonus of my visit was renewing contact two old and dear friends, and then this morning an email from another, as a result of Tuesday. All people who are important to me, but I'd lost contact with. So Tuesday, was a busy day, but a ripper!