Zoom with MSCA

A Narrative Writing learning event was had on Zoom yesterday evening with thirty-two participants. Thanks to Alice from MSCA for organising everything. My intention in presenting some Narrative Writing ideas was to give some basics about writing craft and show how to implement strategies for generating stories, elaboration and dialogue into lessons and routines in the classroom. I hope that I succeeded in some way. It’s always hard to determine how much content is perfect for an evening on Zoom, when most likely teachers are tired after a long day at school; however, the hour and a bit went by fast. I worked hard during the week preparing to get just the right amount of information in there, but I may have done what I usually do and planned to do too much. It’s also easier now that I have more time, to spend more time!

From my perspective much of the focus on some basic writing craft was covered and will no doubt enliven the classrooms some place in Australia and New Zealand in the next little while. In the book there is so much more explanation for both personal narrative and fiction writing to assist understanding of the writing processes and many more ideas of ways to give variety to those 6-12 year-old beings in Montessori Classrooms, and hopefully elsewhere too.

After all these years I’m still so in love with the Montessori approach which allows time for the child to develop through their learning in a collaborative and supportive environment. The multi age group classrooms are key to much of the way a child is able to learn with no negative competition stifling their confidence, and thats not to say they cant be competitive, but support and admiration for each other’s difference in a supportive environment is awesome to be amidst. Of course like all classrooms there has to be the right balance and include consequences for unwanted and cruel behaviours. There are many factors which need to be aligned to have the ideal Montessori classroom - alive, motivated children with a love of learning, who are able to navigate freedom responsibly and make choices not just for themselves, but which are beneficial to the whole community.

Book Launch

Wow! What a great night it was at the Mirror Room on the top level of the Abercrombie Hotel in Chippendale Sydney. This proved to be such a great venue for a small gathering. Amongst the chatter we not only connected and worked the room, but created a great collection of ideas for characters and stories. The background to this was a camping trip to Western Australia where my husband and I created incognito names for ourselves during some long drives up the coast to Kalbarri and into the beautiful Pilbara. This character generating exercise is not in the book, but this activity would definitely work in the classroom. I may have to try it in an upcoming workshop for educators!

There were some unique names created from the themes given out including some fantastic opening lines. Here’s one from the shopping theme. ‘Bart Seconds was in the mall when he ran into Vinnie Westfield, a guy he’d sold a preloved yoga mat to some months earlier. He’d been trying to get in touch with Vinne for some time, as the mat was transmitting urgent messages from places unknown.‘

Thanks to all the educators, friends, Montessori trainer and administrators who came to support and of course buy some books that were so artfully printed by Morgan Printing here in Sydney. Working from Kobenhaven, Ulla Koorgard of uladesigneriet.com, is the brilliant designer responsible for the beautiful design and layout of the book.

I hope Writing is a Journey Tips Lessons and Montessori perspective is helpful in encouraging the joy of writing for the children in your lives, ……..and perhaps even you!

Creating characters and opening lines at the book launch

So you think you’re a writer

A website name like fionamackenziewrites would definitely make me, make time to write – that was my thinking. I could even make a time to write at 5am every morning like some writers I know. That rarely happened for me, despite the call of the birds and cicadas including the extra early light of daylight saving. I’m not disciplined with writing, except if I have a project such as this one about teaching writing. The draft pretty much flowed onto the page before getting feedback from anyone. Somehow though time flies by and many things in life seem to creep in to demand attention. To add to that, I decided that since I was teaching less and had more time I could have a puppy. Prior to this I was a committed cat owner and still grieving for the loss of a beautiful Balinese family cat of 16 years. I admit that I failed to realise what gaining a puppy would mean. A puppy wasn’t just a bit of company and a cuddly fur ball. Apart from needing much attention and a couple of daily walks, the vigilance that is required to check what’s going into the puppy mouth is quite substantial when wishing to prevent damage to clothing, glasses cases, collections of socks or to retrieve some plastic item which could potentially create a scarily huge vet bill! I didn’t get that having a puppy is kind of like having another child – a permanent toddler – joyful and fun, but quite an amount of extra work. I very definitely and consciously put that distraction into my life myself. However; I did still manage to write a book, so it wasn’t all puppy love!

 Self-publishing 2024 – who could predict what an incredible journey that would be. It was very convenient that Writing NSW had a course on self-publishing which I attended in February 2024. It alerted me to some of the pitfalls and the benefits of taking on self-publishing a book.  My book was aimed at such a small market I doubted the publishers I sent it to would take it on and I knew I had to be prepared to publish myself.

I’ve learned so much over the past year and met many wonderful people along the way including enlisting the expertise of family and friends. Thanks go to Writing NSW for the courses and contacts for editors and proof readers. My fantastic editor and writer Eila Jameson Avey brought her writing, teaching and editing expertise to the job. Laura Boon proof read my work with a fine tooth comb and after her years of experience in the publishing industry had great tips to give me on publishing and printing. My close friend Sue put me onto my amazing book designer Ulla Korgaard. With Ulla’s guidance and expertise in the style, layout, colour, papers and art work, the beautiful book I envisaged came to fruition.

Bookbinder friend Cali @Andersen’s Bindery referred me to a Sydney printer – Tony at Morgan Printing. He was the most accommodating and calm person to work with, especially when there were a few last minute changes after I read through the proof copy. Thankyou Laura for insisting ‘Yes, always get a proof copy!’ There are a couple of small lower case c’s that are my fault, not Laura’s, and the odd space missed but only I’m allowed to notice those! Obtaining copyright proved to be a time consuming mission in some cases, but Chicken House were very easy to deal with and I counted that as a success. I decided to omit the other publisher that was sending me in circles to obtain the correct person to deal with. In the end it was easier to delete the paragraph example I wanted to use.

Every day as I sat down to write, I had in front of mind Montessori teachers in Montessori classrooms and although this work could be useful to teachers in other classrooms, it’s especially directed to align with the Montessori method. I sincerely hope this book will be useful to Australian and New Zealand Montessori teachers who want some guidance and direction in the process of teaching the craft of writing to children aged 6-12. It’s also likely that ages 13 and 14 would get a lot out of some of the later lesson content.

 I’m proud of how the book has turned out and glad I chose to print it in Sydney. I think people will see that it was worth it. It feels great to finally hold the physical book and although choosing to self-publish was often a challenging learning curve, it proved to be a great project for me. Marketing is another new perspective entirely and I’m grateful to be supported by MSCA and many Montessori colleagues in distributing information and getting the word out there.

If you want to purchase books are available from this website February14. If you preorder, you’ll get first preference.

Books will be available for purchase at the book launch in Sydney February 12. Invitations will be sent out soon.

Thanks for supporting this initiative.

Why only distribute in Australia and NZ?

 If it’s received well here I will decide whether to enlist the help of Amazon in printing and distributing in America. That’s work for another day!

Let me know what you think.

Fiona