Out and About

Its been a busy last last three months. These are the places I went and the things I did:



Iam McLean and me

Maitland and Newcastle Teacher Librarians and educators (MANTLE) conference - I gave two presentations - one about fantasy and historical fiction and the other about social media - and its use in schools and libraries. I loved doing the research for the latter and found as I was making suggestions - there were many things I didn't get right myself! My references and resources are on my Mantle Pinterest Board. The conference was excellent, the food was wonderful and it was good to catch with illustrator extroadinaire Sarah Davis and Ian McLean, the very deserving winner of the 2012 John H Lee Memorial Award for “excellence in leadership in innovative and collaborative teaching practice through the integration of learning technologies”.

Sally Murphy and me

At SCBWI I did no work but learned a lot, caught up with heaps of writerly friends and had a very positive assessment of my YA work in progress by Jill Corcoran from the Herman Agency New York.

I visited five wonderful schools to talk about reading and writing in the National Year of Reading - Helensburgh Public School, Bellambi Public School, Thirroul Public School, Bulli Public School and West Wollongong Public School.

Suzanne Gervay, me and A J Betts

I was involved in a project at Berry Public School and the subsequent presentation at the Australian Literary Educators National  Conference in Sydney. More about that in a later post. I was lucky to sit on a few sessions and excited to hear Catherine Beavis frim Griffith University speak talk about gaming in literacy - a subject of great interest to me. Also at the Conference were Mem Fox, Jackie French, Libby Gleeson, Suzanne Gervay and A J Betts with a big smile on her face (see below - no doubt becuase the next fews days were to see the announcement of her receiving the Text Pubishing Prize for Zac and Mia!