Sandy Fussell's Blog, page 17

7i, an all boys English class at Keira High School, are reading Samuari Kids: White Crane with their teacher. Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend an hour with the boys talking about being an author, the Samurai kids series and books in general.
Look at the beautiful flowers they gave me! Japanese theme complete with two large bamboo stems that I am going to keep and use when I do samurai dress-ups in some of my Stage 2 presentations.  I also received a big, beautiful card that they all wrote messages on. And Ciaran gave me some of his haiku.

This one is my favourite. It's called The Blizzard.
Freezing cold whitenessBlowing fiercely and stronglyShowing no remorse.
No wonder I always come away from school visits inspired all anew.

I've always been interested in ninjas. I have a collection of reference books and there are ninjas in two of the Samurai Kids series books - Owl Ninja has Japanese ninjas and Monkey Fist introduces ninjas from China.
So this made me smile.

I found it via a friend ,on the FaceBook Page of Life, Love and Hiccups.
And that's one of the reasons I like Facebook. It can make me smile.

The wonderful feedback I get for the Samurai Kids series never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes it even makes me cry. I am a big sook from way back. I cry in my own books. "You are so lame, Mum," my kids say.
I couldn't help but tear up when I read this Facebook post:"It's been a wonderful journey for us and our two boys, 9 and 7, too - your wonderfully spare, but evocative, writing, the effervescence of the characters, Sensei's wisdom, the cameraderie of the kids, the humour, the lessons on life and the dialogue. Phrases such as 'practice, more practice' already part of family lexicon and likely to be there for ever. Wonderful wonderful books. Thank you! "

It's true. I am surrounded by clutter. I have been like this all my adult life. As a child the rule in my family home was 'bedrooms are only for sleeping'. So the one room in the house I could call my own had nothing in it that said it belonged to me. There was a bookcase but it was removed because I was suspected of reading when I was supposed to be going to sleep. I wasn't reading but I was up to someting. My mum had another rule 'homework is given by teachers who don't get their wok done in class'. The time I was allowed for homework was never enough - so I did it by torchlight under the covers when I went to bed.

But back to the clutter issue. In the Sunday paper there is a '7 days' feature. Last weekend it was "7 days to declutter your life."

Monday  Start in a room, work for 15 mins. Move on.
This didn't work for me. the only room I have any real control over is my office. It's full of books. None of them are clutter.

Tuesday  Sort paperwork - the bills kind.
Snap! I already do this. When I was sick last year, I had no energy for anything. So I caught up on the paperwork. I discovered so many errors that had cost me money I resolved to always be up to date. Good thing too. The errors haven't stopped. Last week my health fund underpaid a dental claim by $100.

Wednesday  Update your wardrobe. Throw out wasn't doesn't fit.
No. I am not a clothes person but the things I have I love. Last year illness meant I lost 17kg. I've hardly put any of it back on (not for lack of trying - I have been doing some serious chocolate eating lately!) Now I can wear all the clothes I loved and kept even though they didn't fit.

Thursday  Empty your wallet
Now it's getting easier. This one does itself. Stuff tends to fall out.

Friday Clear out cosmetics.
I can do this! I don't have any!

Saturday donate items.
I am on a roll. I do this all the time.

Sunday Keep It Up
"Now that your home is clutter free...  "

Except that it's not. I'm still keep my Christmas cards out for a year - they hide the dust and remind me of friends. There are books and papers everywhere. I have more photos and artwork than wallspace. There's the tapestry I designed - I'm going to do it one day. Family history research - going to do that one day too. I guess I have to face the fact that that I can't live without my clutter! It's who I am.

In December I bought myself a special Christmas present - a bauble on the Asia Bookroom tree to raise funds for Classrooms in the Clouds in Nepal. I blogged about here.

The tree was such a success it raised $2,301 - enough to employ a teacher at  Shree Bakhapalam Lower Secondary in the Solu region of Nepal  for a year at the Government teaching rate of pay ($170/month).
I feel good. I feel like I contributed to something important.
 Shree Bakhapalam Lower Secondary School 

For me, the year always begins with a holiday. Every January our family goes to Merimbula for two weeks - after New Year's Day, to the same house, with the same two families of friends. The kids who were toddlers in the beginning are now teenagers who sometimes come and go on the bus rather then brave the family car trip. Once we would rush arund 'doing things' but now we rest and relax.

But the friendship never changes. Not one bit. It's the perfect start to a new year.

There are always highlights although these too have a habit of recurring year after year. We do what we like to do!

Booktique, Merimbula, NSWHighlight No 1: I visited the Booktique Bookstore and gave a talk to a group of kids. Booktique is one of my favourite bookstores - books, chocolate and coffee! And Michelle, the sort of person every booklover likes to find in their store - someone who loves books and knows all the answers to a customers' questions.


Pambula Show: Longest Blade of GrassHighlight No 2: The Pambula Show and more specifically, the official Longest Blade of Grass in the exhibitor's hall. I have to admit I didn't see it this year. #2 son was in a cast and tackling the Show on crutches was too hard. But my friend Amy reported back complete with a pic.

345 days until Merimbula 2012

In early December #2 son's school had a card fundraiser. Perfect timing! As I filled in the form he said, "Don't be disappointed Mum but we're not allowed to draw anything to do with Christmas."
Another casualty to over-political correctness. I respect that many families don't celebrate Christmas. Sometimes its cultural issue and sometimes it's a religious one. In fact most people I know simply celebrate the values Christmas reminds them of- family, goodwill to others and community spirit - rather than the birth of Christ. To me christmas is a spiritual period but I would never force that view on others.

Similarly I think it is wrong to deny the majority children, who celebrate the many variations of the Australlian Christmas, the joy of drawing the icons of the holiday period - the tree, the reindeer, Santa, bells and even the nativity if they want to. Parents who find this inappropriate for their child must already have strategies they use when the child is confronted as early as November by the plethora of Christmas items in the media, stores and general conversation. A little tactful diplomacy could surely see this extended to the classroom.

But ultimately I decided not to make a fuss and to take my lead from #2 son. He wasn't worried. It was fun to make any card. So we have a wonderful, colourful picture with a ninja bang in the middle and a Christmas message inside:
From me to you, from mine to yours, have a happy ninja Christmas.

I love libraries and am an active advocate of the role they play in schools.Yesterday I received an email about Australian schools who had or were in the processing of removing books from their libraries. Some have even dispensed with the library completely, replacing it with a book-less (not even an eBook!)technology area.

Now I'm not anti-technology in any shape or form. I work in IT. I had the Internet connected  at home before it was commonly accessible for recreational use. I have an Ipad I use to read e-Books. I can envisage a time when the school library will be predominantly on-line and electronic, when hard copy books are no longer the norm. But I don't think we're close to doing that equitably yet and certainly not in our country's underfunded school libraries.

What worried me most about the books being removed was the lack of a replacement 'literature or story' and 'professional expertise'. The books weren't replaced by eReaders and eBooks. There space was simply reassigned - to more high tech resources and a VCE centre. Some non-fiction books were redistributed into classrooms with no cataloging or borrowing process in place. A teacher librarian wasn't considered necessary.

A number of libraries have already removed most of their non-fiction. While on-line resources are wonderful for research, they are not  'fiction-friendly'. I am concerned that there are rumblings of fiction being removed along with the non-fiction. How will a child learn to love reading if a library contains mostly eBooks and not enough eReaders for books to be borrowed and read at leisure?  Lots of families don't have eReaders.  Fiction needs to be portable. Kids need to be able to take a story home, to sit reading it in the playground, or a quiet time in class. Not only read it when they are in the library.

How can a school library even think of surviving without a teacher librarian to make it more effective? It doesn't matter what form non-fiction information is in, it still requires a professional to manage it and teach students the best way to maximise information and its usage. How will a child learn to love reading if there is no librarian to guide them and help them select books? I have met many wonderful , dedicated classroom teachers who have a limited knowledge of children's fiction outside the texts they teach. They don't have the time to research new releases or develop knowledge of a wide range of titles. That's the role of the teacher-librarian.

On the plus side I heard a story of a NZ school who replaced the library with a cyber cafe but have since reversed the decision and put their library back again. That's what I like to hear!

I love the way Cath Crowley strings words together. Graffiti Moon was one of my favourite books for 2011. I was guilty of sharing it around with lots of friends and gloating 'I called it' when it won so many awards. My personal reading criteria for a great book is an enthralling story and beautiful words. I like other mixes too, but that one's my favourite. And it describes Graffiti Moon perfectly.
I dropped into the Cath's blog today and found this ...

In that nothing nightThe stars caught the busTo the other side of townTo go to the pubThe moon followedLike moons do....
Head over to Cath's blog to read the rest of the poem.

I love Halloween but I know many of my friends feel differently. I've heard all the arguments (it's unAustralian (this particularly puzzles me as Santa Claus and Easter eggs are allowed), a pagan practice, greedy kids etc etc). I am not phased by the arguments because everyone is entitled to their own view. Now that's Australian!
For me, Halloween is a celebration of community. The children in our street and their friends dress up and connect with their neighbours. If it wasn't for Halloween some of the big generation gaps in our street would never be crossed by conversation. It's supervised - lots of parents and advertised - neighbours choose if they want to be involved by displaying a sign. Our street is very steep and very few kids go to all the houses. Once there's a few lollies in the bag, it's more of social occasion.
For me Halloween began one magical night in Tennesee when all the children in the mall were wearing costumes. When #1 son saw the old holiday slides, he wanted to go trick or treating. We explained that no-one did in Asutralia (this was 10 years ago). But every year he asked and eventually I relented and arranged a visit to my immediate neighbours. For the next week my phone was ringing with people asking why we didn't call on them.
The next year we letterbox dropped some 'street rules' about lollies, quantities and the start time. Neighbours who didn't want to participate would simply not display the 'Trick or Treaters Welcome Here' sign on their mailbox and doorknockers would respect that. When lollies ran out or dinners was in progress, the sign could be removed. There was a high proportion of older people in our street and I was certain they wouldn't want to be interrupted but they were the biggest supporters. They loved those trick or treats and I love the fact that my children eventually met all their neighbours.
Nowadays it's a well-anticipated annual event - by kids and adults alike. My other half builds a haunted house and sometimes there are 60 kids queued to go through. This year things were a little different as we had a lot of illness in the family and just didn't have the time. But good fun was still had by all and I'm looking forward to next year.