Three Days in Edinburgh!

I 've returned from three days in the beautiful (and sunny!) city of Edinburgh, where I presented a writing workshop for the EIBF's Schools Programme.


The event itself was delight--about 70 14-year-olds and me in a tent, talking about creating fictional settings, characters and conflict. With such intelligent and engaging students, and such high calibre TAs, including the Guardian's own Julia Eccleshare, the hour flew by.

So, what of the rest of my Edinburgh experience?

It began two days earlier when I met up with my son and daughter, and other friends. Hannah was working at as production intern for the comedy organisation responsible for the prodigiously talented The Boy With Tape on His Face, and I was lucky enough to get a ticket for his sold-out show.

.

...the next day I saw my son Sean (also prodigiously talented, of course) perform in his own free fringe comedy show with Adam (Prodigiously Talented) Hess. 














On Thursday, it was time for the main event (mine, anyway, if not the Edinburgh Festival's!)

The workshop went well (again, thanks to the superb EIBF staff!) and afterwards I signed copies of at Yellow Lake and chatted informally to the dedicated and enthusastic teachers who'd brought their students to my event. I can't thank the participating schools enough. I can't over-praise the behaviour, effort and talent of the students, either--they were fantastic!












After the signing, of course, there was time to relax....

And again, outside the writer's yurt, I struck gold--sparkling companions, perfect weather...

The Ab Fabs and me! 

 
 And, of course, the legendary (well, it soon will be if I have anything to do with it)  Authors' Toilet...

Teri Terry's grinning and bearing it...

...Dave Cousins is bearing it...just.

From an unforgettable day to a lovely evening.

The Teen Titles party, sponsored by Edinburgh City Council's Teen Titles Magazine, brought together writers, readers, teachers and librarians.

Here's lone Englishwoman, Kate Harrison, being totally outnumbered by Americans Teresa Flavin, Jane McLoughlin and Elizabeth Wein. Thanks to Linda Strachan for the lovely pic!

Again, thank you to everyone who made this such an exceptional experience for me!  

 

Twas the Night Before Edinburgh

Last night, I had a wonderful prelude to my Schools Programme event at the Edinburgh Festival on Thursday: a long, animated conversation about "At Yellow Lake" with my own niece and nephew, who are aged 14 and 12.

Seamus (far left) and Molly (irght)at the launch of  At Yellow Lake

Molly and Seamus, by their own admission, aren't avid readers. Seamus, in fact, rarely reads, and like may 12-year-old boys, gets most of his "story" action from computer games. They also admitted that if their auntie hadn't written it, it was unlikely they ever have picked up a copy of "At Yellow Lake."

But what made the night such an unexpected pleasure for me, was the way these young (and somewhat reluctant) readers became so involved in At Yellow Lake--the characters, the setting, the plot. They both "got" what I had tried to do, and to hear Molly's insightful ideas and Seamus' amazing recollection of details made me feel proud, not of my book, but of two brilliant kids who are related to me!

However, the highlight of the night wasn't just the perceptive character analyses, or even the generously poured glasses o "Dino." It was the Seamus and Molly's coining of a new, and inspired euphemism for, well...let's just call it "wigwamming."

So, well done and thank you, Molly and Seamus.  No only did you make me laugh, but you inspired me as a writer and made me more aware than ever of what young readers relate to and are excited by.

I couldn't have asked for a better Edinburgh eve!

Holiday Sounds

The best thing about a holiday to me is not the sun, or the sea, or even the sights...

It's the sound.

Sometimes it's the lack of sound...a quiet place away from other people, away from traffic, away from music, even...

Sometimes it's the sound of strangers' voices, the babel of foreign tongues, whether in a market in Dhaka or a Croatian beach, relying on inflection, inferring meaning, imagining an abstract painting of words.

Another sound that I relish on holiday is the silencing of my own writer's voice. No planning, no drafting, no thinking about character or plot or market...

Without access to social media the sound of virtual voices goes quiet, too. No mention of reviews or word counts, no iamediting hashtags.

The world makes its own noise for a change, without any input from me.

Lovely!

School's Out Forever

My final teaching day was earlier this week and I said goodbye to some of the classes I've worked with for almost a year. It's always (OK, usually) sad, saying goodbye to children, and I was genuinely touched by my students' good wishes and their reasonably convincing refrains of  "We'll miss you, Miss."

Although I'm happy to be leaving teaching, I wish my students every success and hope they continue to enjoy their learning. (10YA: there's your promised plug!)

I'd intended to write a longer post, sharing some final thoughts on teaching and education....the need for more creative time and space, my hopes for a  "slow-learning movement" in English, which could create a real appreciation of literature and writing for all students, not just the most able or motivated.

I'd hoped to thank (again) the brilliant support and SEN staff at my school, who make inclusion work and remind us that education is for everyone, regardless of what trolls like Toby Young may think.

But...the sun is shining and the year is over and I've already forgotten that I ever was a teacher!

"Igor" Young and his evil master Govenstein have been reduced to shadowy figures in a year 7 story that ends with the phrase "and it was all a dream."

This nightmare will recur, of course, but in the meantime...

what Alice says!

What Teaching Has Taught Me About Kids

Last week I wrote about the hard work and dedication of the many teachers I've known and worked with over the past ten years.

As I approach my final week as a class-room teaching, I'm thinking back on what I've learned about students. I've only worked as a qualified teacher in one school--a comprehensive in a rural and suburban community--so my observations may not ring true for every teacher. In fact, I trained in a school where there were many more "challenging" students. If I'd spent ten years there, I'm sure my attitudes would have been more Trunchbullian by now.

Anyway, here are a just few of my observations:

1) Children are not the enemy.

It's often easy and tempting (not to mention satisfying) to see teenagers as a potential massed army of droogs, but it's simply not a fair picture. Most of the moral panics involving youth crime are either a repeat of an earlier panic (teddy boys=hoodies) or involve heinous acts that are extremely rare.

2) Children are not all bad.

OK, maybe kids are irritating, noisy, confused, troubled, troubling, selfish, irresponsible, rude, highly-strung, aggressive, challenging, defiant, nasty, disobedient, arrogant, lazy, or annoying....

...but they're not all bad. Really.

3) Young people need adult support and approval as much, if not more, than they ever did.

In a school situation this is hard at times, especally as kids often act out their frustrations and insecurities in ways that are challenging (that word again) and disruptive. Frankly, I'm operating in "do as I say, not as I do" mode now. I've always found it hard to see beyond bad behaviour and find somethig positive in every kid.

But something good is always there.




 4) In short, what teaching has taught me about kids is that young people are kind, co-operative, hard-working, funny, caring, intelligent, energetic, hopeful, entertaining compassionate, inquisitive, easy-going, supportive, talented, charming and above all, good.

 

Most of them, anyway...

Warning: This blog post contains pictures of both Michael Gove and Toby Young

 

There are two weeks left  in the UK's school year and, for me, these two weeks will be my last. After ten years in the job, I'm leaving teaching. I've taken time off in the past (I had a year's sabbatical two years ago, which probably marked the beginning of the end) but I'll soon be completely out of the educational loop, except as a supply teacher, tutor and (I hope) a visiting writer.



 How does that feel?

Fantastic!

There are many things I will miss about teaching (OK, let's make that "some things") and there are some things I won't miss (OK, let's make that "many").

Right wing? Moi?

But now that anyone with the proper right-wing credentials can get state funding to open their school, and many parents think they can do a better job at educating their children than teachers, and the current education secretary has decided to re-make British schools according to his whims andd fanciful notions, I might as well throw in my comments about education, too.




 So, here are some of the things that teaching has taught me...

1) Teachers (at least every one I've worked with or met) are dedicated to their students and are good at their jobs.  

2) Teachers work harder than anyone who's not a teacher will ever know. The UK holidays do not compensate for the extra hours and the unrelenting stress. They don't even come close.

 3) Most of this hard work is unneccessary. The crippling workload serves no purpose.

4) Before I started teaching I thought that schools were like prisons. I still feel that way, although much of the "imprisonment" is internalised by both jailers and jailed (as a teacher, I felt that I was both). In such a pressurised (and politically volatile)  environment, it's almost impossible to think creatively or imagine a more effective way of doing things. At least it was for me.



5)Teachers who work in difficult or challenging schools should be rewarded with smaller class sizes and higher pay, not derision.

6) Everyone involved in education should be part of the national "debate" on education--students of all ages and abilities, teachers, TAs, SEN co-ordinators, admin staff, libarians, technicians, parents.

Know-nothing? Moi?

 Leaving important decisions to experts and academics alone is silly; leaving them to know-nothing politicians who use education as a convenient stopping point on their path to world domination is criminal. 








7) League tables have caused immense damage to education, and warped educational priorities so that results have become the only things that matter. This has set school against school, parent against teacher, teacher against student.


 More importantly, the very existence of league tables suggests (and not too subtly) that a student who isn't an academic high flyer is less valuable or important than one who is.    


8) Every year when GCSE and A level results are announced, there is an outcry about standards and dumbing down and blah blah blah. There will be one this year, too. I think some newspapers just run the same item with the percentages tweaked slightly.

 
They print the same picture every year, too. Those girls who are jumping into the air with glee? They are actually 38 years old now and are getting tired of this cruel reminder of their more energetic and agile youth.








7) Everyone over the age of 25 thinks that they were much cleverer and hard-working than the students of today. They weren't.

 And finally...

8) Having children dress up in suits and ties to go to school is creepy. Wrong on SO many levels. What's wrong with you people?

The Launch!

A massive thanks to the wonderful friends, family and colleagues who were at my launch on the 19th!

Maurice Lyons and Emily Sharratt, editors par excellence!

 

I really do wish that it could have lasted all night (I wanted to carry on reading, but everyone else had gone to the pub!)

I'd also like the thank the people of Paris, who helped me celebrate my actual publication date by posing for pictures with my copy of At Yellow Lake (sorry to disappoint you people, but it's not yet a global publishing phenomenon!). 

Everyone was good-humoured about it. 

 Some actually seemed pleased!













This was an exhilarating culmination of an unforgettable year! Thank you everyone.