Hey cHEwY gum gums

Did you know that you have four to six dreams a night? I learnt this and many more facts at Southern Cross Uni’s Year 5 program, Unibound. It’s a wonderful initative to get kids thinking about their futures. The focus was on dreaming, from the scientist, author and musician. It was a nice mix of perspectives that got the kids buzzing about their own dreams. For some kids, it was their first time at a university. I went to the Gold Coast and Lismore campuses, and got to explore some of Lismore too, another town that I ticked off my list. But it got me thinking about my own dreams. People keep saying that my dreams have come true with my books out on shelves, but my dreams came true when I first started writing. Yes, it’s a little cliched but I would still be writing, whether I was published or not. I like going to teacher conferences, festivals and schools, talking about how I chased my dreams of being a writer, inspiring people to think about their passions and turning that into a job.

Sometimes it’s easier when you’re in a creative field.  I was a presenter at Pearson’s Teaching and Learning conference last week in Brisbane and dreams came up again. But it was about turning them into a reality. What does learning look like in 2020? How can use technology properly in classrooms, because a fool with a tool is still a fool haha. My workshops focused on humour, narratives, making classrooms fun and Thai-riffic! It was a challenge to organise all my thoughts and content into these workshops, but the hard work has paid off and now I have a template to use when I do more professional development events next year.  I was more nervous about my ‘stand up comedy’ gig during the conference dinner. I decided to turn it into one of my journey talks, mixing in some comedy and this worked a treat.

I was very lucky to be a part of this conference, not only as a presenter but also as a learner. I got to be in Hamish Curry’s ‘Life is Better in Three’s workshop, where we looked at planning and learning in groups of three. Three word sayings. Three panels. Three roles in discussion. It was pretty cool.

And I still have dreams that I want to achieve, next year will be an interesting one for cHEwY creations…I’ll finally have my next book out with Ethan in the STUFF happens series. As for my other creations, well more on that in another post hehe.

O.W