Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Teachers are the real rockstars!

A big shout out to my hubbie, Shawn, and teacher buds, Jo, and Kelsey, who helped me develop my writer workshops for the Young Writer's Conference in Sherwood Park on February 27th. I would have been a big old bust without you. ;0

The kids were AMAZING. So keen/clever/cool. I could see bits of my tween/teen self in all of them. I would have loved that kind of experience as a kid. Getting to meet authors, artists - workshopping and asking questions. The whole day was food for my writer soul. I forgot to bring my camera. If I come across some pics of the conference, I'll post them later.

I have to give a big shout out to teachers...damn, you work hard for the money! I did two, 90min workshops and spent about 12 hours creating my presentation: from powerpoint slides to criteria, working the piece to peer evaluations...it was all work, work work.

But then I got to sign autographs for 30mins (370+ students in a gym with authors/illustrators). There I was with Marty Chan, Sigmund Brouwer, Mary Woodbury, Gord Steinke, David Poulsen, Patricia MacQuarrie, Rita Feutl...and more Alberta authors/illustrators. We felt like kings and really all we did was teach a few classes.

Teachers need an autographing tent at the end of EACH DAY - you guys are freaking ROCKSTARS!

2 comments:

Tami Klockau said...

Awesome post, Tracy! Thanks for that. I don't think teachers or anyone in the education departments get enough recognition. Most get paid peanuts, but devote their time to the future. I can't imagine facing that each day.

So awesome you got to sign autographs! :)

Tracy Belsher said...

Thanks Tami - it was quite surreal. Especially since I didn't have any copies of UMS with me, I was just signing little postcard sized promos for the book launch party. ;) I met so many cool, supportive authors and crazy smart kids. Gotta love it!