Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 116
June 20, 2012
SSDA: In the beginning
Short Story Day Africa is a celebration, a party, and I got started with mine at 7:15am when I dropped my daughter off at school. ‘Why can’t I go in?’ my son asked. ‘Because you have to help me,’ I said. We drove around the school until we reached the bottom entrance. I had to convince the scholar patrol to let me in to the parking lot / netball court. I draped my son in bags filled with dictionaries, writing journals, paper, chocolate, stamps and 23 copies of every worksheet. Bearing his burden like a proud donkey, he stumbled his...
June 19, 2012
Tomorrow is the big day!
Short Story Day Africa's main events are all primed for the 20th of June. I'm going to be busy teaching and trying to type up what comes out of the kids' brains. So before I forget, I'd like to thank a very special lady: Please click here to read: Dear Rachel Zadok
June 18, 2012
Foiled!
I went to the Cape Town Book Fair over the weekend. (Something I'd love to blog about in more detail, but not today.) During the event I was introduced to Bontle Senne, who is managing director of PUKU. (Their main website seems to be acting up today, so I've linked you to their FB page. This is amusing for reasons you'll see in just a moment.) So Rachel and I are chatting with Bontle and she tells us a story. It is a story where Facebook has decided not to actually share your page's news with the people who have...
Done!
This morning I sent all 29 stories back to Mrs Nel's class with comments and stamps. There was also a Grade 2 Smart-Kids Literacy book that attached itself to Tyla's story. (See her story here.) Hope she enjoys it. A number of stories (including Tyla's) from that workshop have also been officially entered for the main contest. But Short Story Day Africa loves any attempt by a budding storyteller, so copies of all 29 are being sent to SSDA headquarters, too. Then...then I rolled up my sleeves (but not too much, because it is cold!) and finished making the 23*...
June 17, 2012
Life has never been about being fair
But it is a hard concept for a 7 year old to understand. Short Story Day Africa is providing a life lesson, if you will, for Thing 1. I won't let him enter any of the contests or drawings. Think about it - we have asked people to donate all these prizes. What if he was older and won the one worth almost R3,000? Yeah, my participation in this whole deal would look pretty dodgy. So sorry kid, tough. Then I went and put up a few stories on the Short Story Day Africa website under that day's event. (Have...
June 13, 2012
Learning how to teach...
Oh my goodness, I am home from my workshop with an entire classroom full of Grade 2 students. (That's 7 & 8 yr olds, btw.) They were darling, and maddening, and cute, and huggy and chatty! They started off like Stepford robots with scarily impeccable manners, but they got over it soon enough. We started off talking about what is an inanimate object? The kids came up with an impressive list after we decided wolves, ladybirds and people are NOT inanimate objects. We picked a rock. We talked about big rocks, small rocks, blue rocks and rocks that fly in...
June 11, 2012
Twittering
Was staring at my new twitter account wondering what (if?) to write when I came across an interesting article: How Twitter is putting an end to our private lives. I read it. Lots to think about. Like when Jeans Smith said: 'Before you write anything, just stop and think: 'Do I want 20,000 strangers to read this?' Well...I do want to ask people 'got ten bucks?' If 20,000 strangers (and maybe a handful of friends and family too) across the globe said 'yes!' and donated to Short Story Day Africa my worries over how we afford the postage for these...
June 9, 2012
How to explain patriarchy to a young person
Cracks me up, but makes the point oh so well. (Got the gif from this thread.)
June 8, 2012
This is where we beg
From the peeps at Short Story Day Africa: As some of you know, and some of you don't, Short Story Day Africa is not funded by anyone. We do it because, like all of you, we love African fiction, and we live in hope of that love becoming infectious. But, we need a little bit of money for administration costs. We've started an Indiegogo campaign. Every little bit helps, and we'd be grateful for every little bit. Wanna help? Click here. You don't have to be living in Africa...just sayin'.
June 7, 2012
Adult Competition at Short Story Day Africa
Like the logo? I noticed that A.Igoni Barrett put it up on his blog when he let his readers know that his short story Let Me Tell You is up on the Short Story Day Africa site. (Go read it!) I thought putting the logo up was a rather good idea. Good News! The writing competition for adults is up. What an amazing opportunity. I'm rather envious. I'd LOVE to go to The Caine Prize Workshop. See info about the contest here and the guidelines here. Then my local library turned around and asked me if I'd toss together an...
