Tuesday, February 23, 2010

School Visit?

The elementary school in town is trying to set up an author visit by a big name author thanks to me and my big mouth. I pointed out she would be in the area and things kind of took off from there. This author writes books for older kids so it would be for maybe the fourth through sixth graders.

If the older kids get an author visit then the younger kids need to get one too. It's only fair. I suggested a few authors who I know live relatively close. But close isn't too close. We're kind of far away from everything around here, plus you never know if an author is going to be able to come or if the school, whose budget is around zilch, will be able to afford them.

So there I am, the local children's book author who is at the school every day dropping off my kids. The unofficial liaison between the public library and the school. The honorary committee member who was asked to come to the school staff meeting this morning to discuss author visits. And I kinda sorta said that maybe *gulp* I could someday do an assembly for the little kids.

In my defense it was early in the morning and I am know to do or say any number of fascinatingly ridiculous things in the early hours.

By some sort of coincidence there's been two links pointed out to me today via Twitter that have to do with school visits. I'm worried it may be some sort of sign. But, they're really good links! I wanted to share them with any of you that do school visits or may...someday.

There's a great blog post about what and what not to do during school visits:BookMoot: Advice for Authors on School Visits

There's also this Writers in Schools PDF created by the Primary English Teaching Association.

As for me, we shall wait and see.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for these links. I'll check them out. I taught for many years both in the classroom and in outdoor ed. programs but am hoping to do school visits in the future. We shall wait and see.
    I hope your school puts you on the program!

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  2. Why not you, Heather? You are a published author of children's books. You are a liaison between the library and the school -- albeit unofficially. You have the heart for it. You are knowledgeable. I say, go for it!

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  3. I'm glad you found the links helpful, Paul. I bet you'll be great at doing school visits!

    Big name author doesn't have time to visit the school, so I'm off the hook--for now.

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