I’ll be at the summer SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in August, as well.

What: Workshop: There Is Enough Time in the Day! How “Art-ful” Educators Maximize Meaning Making across the Curriculum.
When: Friday November 18, 11:am-12:15pm
Where: Chicago Hilton / Palmer House, Salon Three, 3^rd floor

Join kc dyer, Lee Edward Fodi, Lori Sherritt-Fleming, and myself as we give an interactive demonstration. We show how educators can successfully encourage students to connect ‘artfully’ to cross-curricular outcomes so that teaching literacy is not a separate experience, but rather an assemblage, taught through all subject areas. Quick and easy visual art, drama, dance, and music activities model how an ‘art-full’ day can build a more literate classroom. Writing Levels: Elementary (K-5), Middle (6-8).

Information about the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention is available at ncte.org/store/2011-annual-convention; see also the events listings or download Lee’s poster.

Writing for Children Workshops
Led by Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters
Saturday October 29, $25 for one workshop, $40 for both
5035 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal (Vendome metro)

Workshop 1, 11am to 12pm, Genre Transformations: Moving between Plays, Graphic Novels, and Picture Books:

Finding the most apt genre for your story is no easy task. Writing for the stage is different than writing for the page. Similarly, a play is distinct from writing a picture book or writing a graphic novel — not only the format, but in the composing itself. As an award-winning children’s author and playwright who has had experience writing across these three genres, Kari-Lynn Winters can say that each transformation requires its own unique organization, thought pattern, and communicative expression. Ideas such as text purpose, writer/reader relationships, rhythms, and benefits/limitations of different genres will be explored. Illustrators are invited to attend this interactive session.

Workshop 2, 1 to 2pm, Keep ‘em Laughing: Writing Funny Fiction:

Humour is a tremendous tool for writers. When done well, it can make your stories more memorable, improve your chances of being published, and earn you financial and personal rewards. In this workshop, award-winning children’s author and playwright Kari-Lynn Winters will draw on her own books as well as the writing of others in order to demonstrate concrete ways to hone your humour writing skills and to keep your audiences giggling.

A maximum of 30 people will be accepted per workshop.

Email Carol-Ann Hoyte to register, or for more information. See also pwacquebec.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/kid-lit-workshops/.

About the workshop leader: Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children’s author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. Sixteen of her picture or poetry books have been published or are in press. An experienced teacher of writing, she has worked with students across Canada and the United States, including pre-school, special education, primary and intermediate, high school, and university teacher education. Kari-Lynn is an assistant professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, ON. Her research interests include drama in education, children’s literature, literacy, and multimodal forms of learning. More information about Kari-Lynn can be found at www.kariwinters.com.

“Picture Perfect Picture Books,” Saturday 3:30pm

Show, don’t tell. Explore the cadence of the language. Create images in the readers’ minds. These are concepts that many authors grapple with, regardless of genre. In this workshop, award-winning picture book author Kari-Lynn Winters will demonstrate some of the tools you can use to make your children’s writing leap, sing, and dance off the page.

“Keep ‘em Laughing: Writing Funny Fiction for Kids,” Sunday 11:00am

Humour is a tremendous tool for writers. When done well, it can make your stories more memorable, improve your chances of being published, and earn you financial and personal rewards. In this workshop, award-winning children’s author and playwright Kari-Lynn Winters will draw on her own books as well as the writing of others in order to demonstrate concrete ways to hone your humour writing skills and to keep your audiences giggling.

See www.siwc.ca/speaker/2011/kari-lynn-winters

The Word On The Street is a national celebration of literacy and the written word. On one extraordinary Sunday each September, in communities coast to coast, the public is invited to participate in hundreds of author events, presentations and workshops and to browse a marketplace that boasts the best selection of Canadian books and magazines you’ll find anywhere.

There is always plenty to see and do at Canada’s largest book and magazine festival, and best of all, The Word On The Street and all of its events are FREE!

Kari-Lynn Winters – Host
Event Info: Children’s Activity Tent at 2:45 PM – 5:45 PM

Kari-Lynn Winters is a picture book author, poet, and performer. After finishing her doctoral program at UBC in literacy education, Kari-Lynn assumed her new job as Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she teaches drama-in-education to and mentors teacher candidates. Kari-Lynn has over a dozen books published or in press, many of which have won reader’s choice awards.

See more at www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto/author/kari-lynn-winters-host.

Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children’s author, playwright, performer, and scholar. An experienced teacher of writing, Kari-Lynn has worked with students across Canada and the United States in preschools, elementary and high schools, community centres, festivals, and universities. Her latest book, Runaway Alphabet, is a fun way to introduce the alphabet to children. Instead of focusing on words beginning with each letter of the alphabet (a is for alligator, etc.), it introduces letters to kids through sounds made by people or objects, such as “g-g-g-g” for the sound Pa makes when gulping down his coffee. Kari-Lynn is an assistant professor at Brock University. Her research interests include drama in education, children’s literature, literacy, and multimodal forms of learning. More information about Kari-Lynn and her books (i.e., book reviews, author visits, teachers’ guides) can be found at www.kariwinters.com.

See edenmillswritersfestival.ca.

This year the Faculty of Education is proud to be welcoming graduates back to campus for tours and events in Robert Welch Hall and the IRC on Saturday, September 17 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. as part of Brock Days 2011.

Meet your Faculty of Education friends on Saturday Sept. 17 at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. as you take a brief tour through your old stomping grounds. Bring your family and view the impressive changes to Welch Hall and the Instructional Resource Centre (IRC), which showcases a collection of Ellison Dies and puppets. While on tour, you’ll stop at the Education Technology Digital Playground to play with some of the latest educational technology resources and see how they are being used to support 21st century learners. Stop by to see how SMART boards, digital video cameras, iPods, smartpens and clickers are changing teaching and learning.

Events for the whole family! Current Faculty of Education students will treat guests to a show using the IRC’s impressive collection of puppets, and award winning children’s book author and Assistant Professor Kari-Lynn Winters will be onsite for readings from her published works.

And don’t miss:

See more at www.brocku.ca/education/alumniandfriends/alumniweekend2011.

Meet me in LA! The conference features “3 spectacular days of agents, editors, publishers, workshops and networking plus one optional day of intensives, all designed to take your writing and illustration to the next level.” See www.scbwi.org/Conference.aspx?Con=8.

Guest Speakers:

• Teresa Bubela, Art Director, Orca Book Publishers
• Eillen Cook, author, “The Education of Hailey Kendrick”
• Christ Howes, Editor, Orca Book Publishers
• Jared Hunt, author and editor
• Crystal J. Stranaghan, author, “The Pirate Who Lost His Aarrr!”
• Kari-Lynn Winters, author, “On My Walk”

More info:

• Webpage: www.scbwicanada.org/west/
• Conference brochure: scbwicanada.org/west/Forms/Conference%20Information.pdf
• Registration form: scbwicanada.org/west/Forms/Registration%20Form2.pdf