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.
With the new school year just getting into swing, my schedule is pretty tame, but here are few things to check out in the next couple of months:
Thursday, September 25: Free film screening at the Washington State History Museum (yep, I’m hosting) in partnership with the YWCA “The Color of Fear.” This is a powerful film/discussion from 6-8pm in the auditorium.
Sunday, October 4: SCBWI’s Inside Story at the University Bookstore in Bellevue (I’m not presenting, but lots of super cool authors are)
Friday, October 10: King’s Books Author Reading and Open Mic
Tuesday, November 11: Veteran’s Day at the Washington State History Museum. Washington’s Poet Laureate Sam Green will be there to do a reading and discuss war-time, war-inspired poetry.
Thursday, November 13: Free film screening of “Way of the Warrior” a historical perspective on Native American contributions to the military. 6-8pm, presented in partnership with the YWCA.
