Capital Letters 2015

NZATE Conference in Wellington

 

Day 2

Today's line up - Bernard Beckett and then Bernard Beckett.  And in between, food and then food.  Excellent.  I was very pleased that my timetable lacked complexity and appeared to err on the repetitive side ('appeared' being the key word here)for after yesterday's trials and tribulations, simplicity was my heart's truest desire.

The workshop

Call me shallow (I don't mind) but I trust a man in a cardy.  Maybe it's because I'm from the deep South.  Whatever the case, Beckett wore his well; hands in pockets, welcoming us as we entered the room at Wellington Girls' College.  Outraged readers, I ask you not to focus on the superficiality of my wardrobe commentary.  Instead, read this as an assessment of mana.  Cardies represent other c words to me: comfort, casualness and confidence. Beckett's command of the space was all of these things - comfortable, casual (as in relaxed/friendly/unpretentious, not slack!)and confident.  Pretty much everything I would want in a teacher.  Well, throw humour in there, too.  And you can, because Beckett is astutely funny. Laugh-out-loud funny, and in all the right places.  If you saw his keynote, you'll know this, but I'll talk of that soon.

It seems to me that a great teacher is an artist.  I got the sense that Beckett is this - he talked about teaching as being a conversation; an evolving discussion between people.  Inwardly I was fist-pumping - everyone loves an echo chamber (she said cynically).  Jokes aside, I think we can get really cynical about how exposure to theories, views and beliefs that match our own can be a never-ending loop of back-patting. There is real value in the inspiration that can come from those that seem to 'speak your language'.

 

Sorry (not sorry) - bad pun. 

Bernard Beckett's workshop was on narrative.  The blurb read:

Bernard Beckett

Picking apart narrative

As English teachers, we are well used to pulling text apart, to look for themes, revelations, metaphors and connection. Traditionally though, literary criticism has paid less attention to narrative: how it's constructed, what the tricks of the trade are, how the flow of the narrative affect us and why (film criticism, by contrast, pays much closer attention to narrative devices). In this workshop, I intend to come at narrative from a writer's perspective, and using some well known texts, look at how we might go about talking about and teaching the construction of narrative tension.

B22

 

It's true - literary criticism (including us as teachers - ME as a teacher) HAS paid less attention to narrative. In fact, I would posit that the word PLOT is almost a dirty word in English classrooms.  How often have you told students 'stay away from the plot', 'less plot, more opinion', and 'this is a plot summary'(said in a tone that insinuates more is needed)?  I know I feel like I've given that feedback before, in various forms, and I'll tell you now, Beckett has given me the confidence to STOP DISSING PLOT and value its place in the construction and deconstruction of texts. After all, if you don't have the story, what have you got? And, as a fellow teacher at this workshop said to me, plot can be a valuable way in for some students who struggle with theme, character, setting etc.  

Plot, you are hereby renamed NARRATIVE and shall be given the attention you deserve.  I apologise for the neglect you have experienced.

Beckett spoke about the importance of several elements.  They were:

* Building empathy
* Three act structure
* Reincorporation
* Internal coherence
* Endings
 

Beckett's notes on narrative - a conversation via whiteboard!

As I review this, I see the skill with which Beckett structured his workshop.  It all seemed so comfortable, casual and confident it would be easy to think that Beckett had no plan.  Indeed, he spoke of how, as a keynote, he was obliged to present a workshop - but foolish would be those of us who thought this meant a lack of skill and vision.  I felt like I was in the presence of a master teacher, and, as you can see from the focus points above, there was definite structure and flow.  What a remarkable teacher this man must be. How I would have loved to be in his classes!

Storycorps app - allows you to record interviews with people and save and/or upload to a site.

The keynote presentation

After food, Bernard Beckett presented his keynote to a cavernous hall of English educators.  Again, one could have been fooled into thinking that this was an unplanned presentation.  There was nothing but Beckett's name up on the screen.  Again, one would be foolish to think so. This address was an eloquent political commentary on where teaching seems to be heading and Beckett's views on this. I was so inspired by the image he described at the end - that of a teacher-as-assistant to students through a crucial part of their lives as they negotiate what it means to be, well, human. 

I think Bernard Beckett is my new hero.



P.S. I have more to write about Day 2, but am very excited to be going to the launch of Rachel Barrowman's biography of Maurice Gee, a favourite of mine.  And so I must abandon this, to return later tonight.  I'll be back!

Capital Letters 2015

NZATE Conference in Wellington

 

I'm practically falling asleep as I type, but I fear no post will come if I leave it until tomorrow so here goes!  Please excuse any typos, grammatical errors and jokes that aren't funny. I've been up since 4am.

Ah, the English Conference.  Held once a year in the middle of winter.  Last year, Rotorua was the destination; this year, Wellington.  I've been to three NZATE Conferences before - as a first year teacher on an NZATE scholarship (when teaching at Tolaga Bay Area School)in 2010, the Dunedin conference in 2012 and this year (as a teacher of five and a half years!) in Wellington. Whilst perhaps being seen as geographically strategic, in that I have family in Christchurch, I live in Dunedin and I love Wellington, the NZATE Conference is always inspiring.  Sometimes I have been too damn tired to be too inspired, but it's always been worth it, and I've always felt ready to hit the third term (in some ways) because of it.

This year it has truly been epic. And this is why.

Day One really started with Day-One-Minus-One, in that snow was predicted to fall in Dunedin on PRECISELY the day I was supposed to fly out.  Now, my friends know that I am the first to initiate the teacher-snow-dance (perhaps a truly Dunedin phenomenon? Although I suspect teachers in Otago and Southland all practice this), but this time - Noooooo!  I had a plane to catch!  Day-One-Minus-One was really me ruing my decision not to pay that extra night's accommodation and fly up on Tuesday night. 

I thought I was being pretty clever by booking the 6.50am flight.  I'd arrive in Wellington at 8, jump on a bus and be ready to rock up to the registrations at 8.30am. Sweet.

And then, it snowed.  As predicted, for once.  

Our street.  And snow.

Still our street.  And still more snow.

 We are on a hill, so when it looks like this, you're pretty much stuffed as far as any kind of transportation goes.  Except for your own two legs.

I was under strict instructions to call the shuttle company at 4am, and so that's when the alarm went off. Ugh. That's early, even for me.  No shuttles were moving anyone anywhere on the hills, but if I could get down to the Railway Station, well the hallowed shuttle would be waiting for me.  But departing at 5am.  And so I hustled.  

It was beautiful walking in the snow at 4.45am.  That is, equal parts beautiful and manic.  But I made it.

The airport

I was greeted with 'there's ice on the runway and check-in is suspended.' Aghh and ugh. Glenn Colquhoun's keynote and writing workshop were still within the realms of possibililty and hope at this stage - he was one of the reasons (after geography!) that I was attending this conference.

And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited. Five hours in the end.  Enough time to run my phone battery down.  

It looked like this.

Ad nauseam.  This was only 8am.  We took off at 11am.

You are keeping me from Glenn Coulquhoun!!!

Pretty.  Sigh.

The plane.  Five hours of looking at the plane.

Arty

And then ... finally!! At 11am, we were in the air.  I was just hoping to make lunch at this stage; anything else was going to be a boon.  I had lived a lifetime in a morning.  I was the water in the river.

So here is proof I'm here now: it's supposed to snow in Wellington.  It's stalking me; making me pay for all those years of southern snow-dancing (fellow southerners, you KNOW what I'm talking about!)

But more's the point - here's the Beehive.

From the bus.  I really think you can sense my relief in this picture.

I did manage to both arrive for lunch and corner Glenn Coulquhoun to say nothing original and everything cliched: 'you're my favourite poet and I like your poems and I teach your poems and I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW I'VE BEEN SITTING AT DUNEDIN AIRPORT THINKING ABOUT YOU.'  He was very polite, of course, and said he didn't want to add insult to injury, but that the workshop really was very good because English teachers are so receptive.  I recovered from this dagger to the heart by once more blabbing at him about something unmemorable and insignificant.  He was stoked, of course. Jokes. Ah well, the lunch was good, and my triomphe ultime was making it in time to enjoy it.  Small victories, by this stage, were clawed at desperately.

The afternoon workshop went by in a blur - I have lots to ponder and write about at a later date on group work and mixing students up - but I'm seeing double, so not now.  Karen Melhuish-Spencer made some salient points, but I felt pretty comfortable in the fact that I'd considered a lot of what was discussed.  I loved the 'Todaysmeet' stream - this allowed the audience to 'live comment' on the presentation. Cool, except my phone died because of the DAMN airport thing.  More adding of insult to injury: someone called my rapidly-flattening battery a 'rookie mistake' on the live feed.  I nearly stood up to demand they show their face.

www.todaysmeet.com.  Good times, although my phone died.

Righto, that's all for Day One.  Hopefully tomorrow is less epically eventful and more educational.  I'm excited about hearing Bernard Beckett talk about narrative and teaching it - tools I can use.  Excellent.

http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/beckettbernard.html