It’s cool when people ask me to speak at conferences and do workshops. I like it, it’s fun, and hopefully everybody gets to learn something that rocks their world.
Here are short descriptions of the types of presentations and workshops I do:
The Language of Objects
This workshop is mainly designed for elementary teachers who want to learn more about integrating history, art, and language arts. We talk about and practice object investigation and explore the ways that those observations transform into written works for kids. The idea is to build both greater understanding of the role of objects as sources of historical evidence but also the ways in which to use the information gathered from them to engage students and enhance literacy skills.
Writing for Young Audiences: Strategies for Museum Exhibition Developers
This workshop/presentation is designed to help people who develop exhibits specifically for young audiences–and integrated audiences–find ways to approach complex subjects in simple, yet engaging ways. Building upon examples pulled from children’s nonfiction (and some fiction) picture books we explore point of view, setting, language, and message. We also explore some design strategies in exhibit text panels and “environment design” that work for serving varied audiences. It’s a fun, hands-on session. If done as a workshop, we explore very specific elements of projects on which participants are working.
Digging for Details: Historical Research for Writers and Teachers
With the plethora of museums that are actively posting their collections online, writers and teachers have more access to solid object information than ever before. But how do you find and use it? This workshop/presentation walks through the abundance of “hidden” sources and how one finds them, both online and in-person. We work with both general and specific information from object collections to obituaries, a geographical thesaurus to provenance records. All of this information is critical to building believable settings, characters, dialog, and overarching external stories.
COLUMBIAKids in the Classroom
A fun introduction to COLUMBIAKids for librarians, teachers, parents. The presentation includes the origin and educational theory behind Ckids, as well as strategies for integrating its great short stories in elementary classrooms.
With the 2009-2010 school year just getting into swing, here’s what’s up:
October 9: Washington Library and Media Association Conference, Yakima, WA.
Presenting “COLUMBIAKids in the Classroom”
October 10: Washington State Council for the Social Studies Conference
Presenting “COLUMBIAKids in the Classroom”
October 25: Washington State History Museum Teacher Workshop
Open to teachers of all grades who are interested in all WSHM resources and the National History Day program.
