How to Grow Poets

Are you interested in the education of gifted children? I'm looking forward to the Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of March when I'll be attending the NZ Professional Association for Gifted Education Conference at the Amora Hotel in Wellington. The conference promises to focus on three key themes: Maori giftedness, early childhood education for gifted learners and curriculum teaching with gifted learners.

At the conference I'll be giving a 45 minute workshop presentation on 'how to grow poets' which will cover how to start and maintain a successful creative writing group within a school. I'll talk about how schools can encourage students to write poetry. Topics covered include extension exercises, the vital role a poetry competition can play in fostering student work, the role of student leaders and student designers and the importance of visiting writers for maintaining student enthusiasm. I'll focus on my experience running a creative writing group—what's worked and what hasn't worked so well. If you're interested you can find out more about the programme at the GiftEDnz site.