ETAQ E-pistle 30-09
Posted by Garry Collins on December 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Perth National Conference – July 2010
1. Proposals to present sessions at next year’s AATE/ALEA Joint National Conference are due by 26 February 2010. Perhaps this could be a project for the vacation. I’ve recently submitted my proposal.
2. The conference is to be held at the Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth over the period 4-7 July, conveniently in the winter vacation for Queensland schools. If you’ve never been to a national conference you are urged to consider making Perth 10 your first.
3. Full details on the conference can be found at http://www.englishliteracyconference.com.au
A new film about poet John Keats – and some 2-for-1 passes available
4. Here’s some information on the forthcoming release of a film that could be useful to English teachers.
Bright Star. A Jane Campion film (The Piano, Angel at My Table); Starring Abbie Cornish & Ben Whishaw
London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year-old English poet, John Keats (Ben Whishaw), and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an out-spoken student of high fashion. This unlikely pair begin at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only by his poetry but also by literature in general. However, when Fanny heard that Keats was nursing his seriously ill younger brother, her efforts to help touched Keats and when she asked him to teach her about poetry he agreed. The poetry soon became a romantic remedy that worked not only to sort their differences, but also to fuel an impassioned love affair. When Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’ best friend finally awoke to their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept deeply into powerful new sensations, “I have the feeling as if we’re dissolving,” Keats wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that only deepened as their troubles mounted. When Keats fell ill a year later, the two young lovers faced not marriage but separation. In Keats’ own poignant words, “forever panting and forever young”.
Bright Star opens in cinemas Boxing Day (Dec 26th). Sneak preview screenings Fri 18, Sat 19 & Sun 20th. Check your newspaper for screening details.
The official study guide can be found on: www.metromagazine.com.au or www.theeducationshop.com.au
5. If you’d like a jpg file of a poster for the film, and your email system can handle a large attachment (3MB), just email me and I’ll send it to you separately.
6. The distributors of the film have offered to make some 2-for-1 passes available to ETAQ members. These are for the season proper rather than for the previews and are valid from 11 January (Mon to Fri). If you’d like one (some?), send me an email (gazco48@bigpond.net.au ) with your full name, school and snail mail address for distribution of the passes. Replies are required by Wednesday 9 December and recipients will be decided on a first come, first served basis.
7. The film is to be screened at the following cinemas in Brisbane: Dendy Portside, Palace Centro, BCC Indooroopilly, BCC Chermside, AMC Stafford.
English in Australia themed issue on the National Curriculum – Call for Papers
8. Here’s a message from Karen Moni, Editor of AATE’s national journal English in Australia.
A national curriculum: Local concerns
The second edition of English in Australia in 2010 will be a themed edition of the journal focusing on classroom, school and state implications of teaching English as we move towards a national curriculum in English. We are interested in manuscripts dealing with any aspect of teaching English in this new national context.
Through English in Australia, AATE has a strong commitment to supporting and publishing quality educational articles that are rigorous and evidence based. Teachers find such articles most valuable when they enable them to extend and strengthen their professional knowledge and skills, and when they also assist in bringing about improved learning for students, therefore any manuscripts should be linked to implications for professional learning and classroom practice.
International perspectives are welcomed.
All manuscripts will be subject to the usual review processes. Please refer to English in Australia for authorial guidelines or contact the Editor, Karen Moni.
Editorial deadlines: Abstracts March 30; Manuscript to Editor for reviewing April 30
For further information, please contact the Editor,
Associate Professor Karen Moni
The Editor, English in Australia
c/o School of Education
University of Queensland
St Lucia QLD 4072
e-mail: k.moni@uq.edu.au