Another year beckons!

In preparing for upcoming topics, I have stumbled across some wonderful resources including an excellent'Romanticism'ning site. This is well worth visiting.

http://romanticism.ning.com/

May Term 1 be productive and stress free.

Barbara

StannersCircle Ning

I have set up a Ning site for HSC resources. The idea is that it becomes a repository for teachers to use and add to. I have set up three groups to get us started,

'Frankenstein' and 'Blade Runner', 'Hamlet' and 'Science Fiction'. I have also posted some basic resources relating to them. I still have to master some of the 'Ning' features but it seems fairly straight forward thus far.

It is fairly open for everyone to use at the moment but I might find that it needs tweaking to increase functionality and stop it from becoming cluttered which is what I find most annoying with some of the other 'ning' sites I have visited.

It is interesting that different sites such as blogsites, wikispaces and nings have different strengths and weaknesses in terms of layout, accessibility and options. Nings seem to be the most complicated in regards to streamlining but I will wait and see how much traffic it attracts before I put too much time or energy into making it look better.

My aim is to encourage teachers to share resources more and feel comfortable with expressing ideas and strategies as well as having a rant if need be. The ning offers a forum, blog and posting site which seems easier to navigate in some ways.

This is an experiment -

watch this space to see if it blooms or withers.

http://stannerscircle.ning.com/

Extra resources available at my wikispace

http://stannersenglishmatters.wikispaces.com/

Science Fiction Workshop

Have just posted the details for my first TTA workshop - Science Fiction for the Extension English Genre course. The date is March 20th and yes I know it is a Saturday but it is impossible to get a day off school to run one in Term One. The venue is the Liverpool Catholic Club which is easy to get to via the M7.

I really enjoyed working on the 'Exploring Genre' book that was released for this elective during Term 4 and look forward to getting the course notes finalised in the next few weeks. I will only be able to run ONE course in Term One and so if you are interested and want any further details, drop me an email or leave a comment. I will be posting some resources on my wikispace in preparation for it.

New Term Beckons

Have enjoyed the break but am now gearing up for the new term. Have found some excellent resources for both junior and senior coursework. This includes sites that offer good ideas for creative writing, especially for the Extension 1 'Crime Writing' genre course. I will be posting links to these in coming weeks.
My new 'Crime Writing' book 'Murder Most Foul' is now with the publishers for graphic design and formatting prior to publication. I stumbled onto the brilliant caricature site of Robert Doucette that I have listed below. He has collaborated on some of much of the artwork in the book and we are both excited to see what the final version looks like. It will hopefully be available mid Term 1. Anyone who is interested can email me or Phoenix Education direct for information about the contents.

http://douceart.blogspot.com

Enjoy the rest of your holidays