Teacher Characters # 2: Miss Bruff
A few days ago I chatted about why I include teacher characters in my books, and introduced you to Stanley and Elizabeth from 1915. Today, I’d like you to meet, if you haven’t already, one of my favourite teacher characters.
Who is my teacher character? Miss Bruff
What book does she appear in? Pearl Verses the World
Why is she there? When I started writing about a lonely girl, I knew she was very lonely at school. Setting a large part of the story at school necessitated a teacher, but as soon as I introduced Miss Bruff with ‘her singsong voice’ and her passion for poetry, I knew she would be a major character in Pearl’s story.
What role does she play? For much of the book Miss Bruff seems an antagonist, she wants Pearl (and the rest of the class) to write rhyming poetry. Pearl hates it. She thinks Miss Bruff just doesn’t get her, But, when Pearl has something terrible happen in her life, she realises Miss Bruff is a lot more understanding that she seemed. And Miss Bruff learns from Pearl, too.
What did I learn writing about her? Miss Bruff reminds me a lot of myself as a teacher. Too often I just assume that if I’m enthusiastic about something, then my students will be, too. I learnt to perhaps stop and view things from my pupils’ viewpoints, and to remember that if there are twenty five kids in the class, there will twenty five different experiences.
Favourite Miss Bruff moment? I don’t want to give too much away, in case you haven’t read the story, but I love that Miss Bruff comes to see, after hearing Pearl read her poem outside of school, that poetry doesn’t always have to rhyme.
It is easy to portray teachers as either really nice or really horrible. I hope that readers of Pearl Verses the World, and my other books, can see that teachers can grow and learn, too. My next post in this series will look at Miss Timms from Toppling.
Pearl Verses the World, illustrated by Heather Potter and published by Walker Books, is available from good bookstores. It is also published in the US by Candlewick Press, and in the UK,under the title Pearl, by Walker UK.
Poetry Friday: Teachers
It’s Poetry Friday and this week I have been thinking about teachers, partly because I am always asked about which parts of my own life appear in my books, and also partly because I saw this amazing tribute to a teacher online, which made me weep.
Amazing, huh?
Anyway, as a result of this introspection, I’ve started blogging about the teacher characters in my various books – yesterday I posted about Stanley and Elizabeth in 1915, and over the next few weeks I am going to post about several of my other teacher characters. So, today I went looking for poems about teachers.
In Pearl Verses the World, Pearl has a bit of an up and down relationship with her teacher, Miss Bruff. She even writes a poem about her:
A teacher known as Bruff
Was very, very gruff.
She preached and she taught
Much more than she ought
Till the class had had more than enough.
Poor Miss Bruff! The good news is, by the end of the book, Pearl has a new understanding of Miss Bruff (who, incidentally, I’ll be blogging more about on Sunday).
One of my favourite poems about teachers is Taylor Mali’s poem, which you may have come across before. It begins:
What Teachers Make
by Taylor Mali
He says the problem with teachers is
What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life
was to become a teacher?
You can read the whole poem on Mali’s website here or, you can see his performance here:
Teachers do make a difference. Thanks Taylor Mali – and thanks Mr Tamatea who was such an amazing teacher that 1700 students turned out to honour him. And thanks to the teachers who populate so many of my stories and do their best to guide my young characters, to cheer them on and to just teach them.
Have a great Poetry Friday. The roundup this week is at Keri Recommends.
Teacher Characters #1: Stanley and Elizabeth
I get asked all the time how much my books are inspired by my own life. While none of my stories is fully autobiographical, and I don’t like to embarrass my family by putting them directly into my stories, I know that things and people around me do influence my work, and even sneak into my books, sometimes unintentionally.
One thing I have noticed is the number of teachers in my books. One reason for this is that I write children’s books – and in most kids’ lives there are teachers. But, on top of that I was (am?) a teacher myself for so many years, that they sneak into my books even when I don’t plan on them being there. And, if I’m honest there’s a bit of me reflected in those teachers – either in the teacher I was, or the teacher I wish I was.
So, who are my teachers, and why are they there? In this series of posts, I’m going to introduce you to some of my teacher characters. First up, I’m going to talk about my most recent teacher characters.
Who is My Teacher Character? Stanley Moore, and his twin sister Elizabeth.
What Book do they appear in?
Australia’s Great War: 1915 (that’s Stanley, with the amazing eyes, on the front cover).
Why are they there?
When I was planning 1915, I needed a soldier character who young readers could relate to. I thought about an older brother, a teen who had put his age up, a parent, lots of things. But then I read about the impact of the Great War on school communities, and realised that Stanley could be a teacher, which would connect him with children back home. When I wondered who could be teaching his old students, I decided it could be his sister. This again would strengthen his links with the home front, which was a side of the war I really wanted to explore.
What role do they play?
Stanley is the book’s main character, and Elizabeth plays a strong supporting role. Stanley has left his teaching job behind to enlist in Word War 1 (also called the Great War), and Elizabeth is now teaching his former class. Stanley writes letters and poems for his students, and Elizabeth has them write back, helping them to understand what is happening at Gallipoli. Both show great compassion to their students, even at times when their own lives are difficult.
What did I learn writing about them?
1915 is my longest published novel, and so I learnt a lot about character development as I put myself into Stanley’s shoes, and then Elizabeth’s. I also learnt about the impact that having a teacher at war could have on the children back home, and on the whole school community. And, as a teacher, I was reminded that stuff that happens outside the classroom can have a big impact on what happens inside the classroom. I wish as a teacher that I could be as intuitive as this pair.
Favourite Stanley moment?
Spoiler alert. One of Stanley’s friends, Miles, is also the father of two of his students. When Miles is killed, Stanley takes the time to write to the boys and let them know their dad was a hero.
Do you have a favourite teacher character in a book you’ve read? I’d love to hear about him or her. And I’ll be back in a few days to talk about another of my teacher characters, Miss Bruff.
Australia’s Great War: 1915, published by Scholastic Australia, is available in all good bookstores.
A Photo Haiku
This spider gave me a fright today, as I tried to hang out the washing. It’s a golden orb. Harmless, but still scared me. Later, though, it inspired a haiku.
Got a minute? Social Media in less than 60 seconds
If you’re a writer or illustrator, you have probably heard that you need to use social media to promote yourself and your books. But if you’re anything like me, you are balancing your creative work with promotion, with raising a family, with reading, with day jobs and author talks and maybe some exercise or some housework or… My point is, you may well feel that social media is just one thing too many. And it can, if you let it, sap a lot of your time. There is no limit to how much time you could spend on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram (have I missed some? I’m sure I have!)
But we’re living in a digital world, and the fact is, the things you do on social media can and will attract readers and purchasers, as well as getting your name known for potential speaking gigs.
The good news is, that once you have set up accounts on your chosen social media platforms, there are lots of things you can do in a minute or less that keep your feed ticking over.
- Take a photo. Your desk, your bookshelf, a cloud or a bird you saw on your morning walk, your
cat, your dog, your book cover, you. Add a sentence or two and you have a perfect post for twitter, Instagram or facebook. - Share a link. Anything you find interesting online, someone else will find interesting too. Again, add a line or two explaining what the link is for, and pop it on twitter or facebook. If you struggle to find interesting stuff, set up a Google alert, or check out Feedly.
- Share someone else’s content. Retweet a clever tweet, share a facebook post, repin a pin. Again, adding a sentence or two of your own shows why it’s significant to you.
- Interact by liking or commenting on someone else’s status. Start a conversation on twitter, facebook or Instagram.
- Join in a challenge or meme. There are lots of such challenges on both Twitter and Fecbook that challenge you to post something every day for a set period (such as the #postitnotepoetry challenge on Twitter in February). Joining up gives you one topic to post about every day for that time. Some ask for a photo each day, others a poem or piece of writing.
You’ll notice that most of these are not about directly promoting yourself. Rather, you are building relationships, with the two fold benefit that when you do promote it becomes more meaningful and effective, and at the same time you are having fun and making new friends. Perhaps that’s the topic for another blog post.
A minute is not a lot of time, and these five things can each be done in less than a minute. Social media doesn’t have to be an all-day every day proposition. In less than the time it’s taken you to read this post, you can tick promotion off your to-do list each day.
(PS. If you want to see what I’m doing on Social Media, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram ),
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