QWF StoryScaping Workshop at Centre Greene

I've often told students about my favourite Staples Singers' song "I'll Take You There." In fact, when I taught at Marianopolis College, I sometimes played the music video in class. But today -- at Centre Greene -- was the first time I ever danced and sang along to the song in front of a group of students! (I should explain that I'm neither a very good dancer or singer!!)

It probably helped that it was a very small class! I was at Centre Greene to do a StoryScaping workshop sponsored by the Quebec Writers' Federation. I believe six or eight local seniors were supposed to have signed up, but in the end, I only had two students, so it was pretty much a private lesson! 

But I will say I covered a lot of material, we did a lot a lot of writing exercises, and perhaps most importantly, we had FUN!

My two students were Renée and Mary. Renée is a pseudonym for a lovely woman who has had several careers, including a stint as a pre-school teacher. That's her profile only in today's pic! My other students was Mary, who grew up in the States, and whose working life included a period as a cab driver in New York City!

What these two women had in common was a great sense of humour -- and a way with words. When I asked Renée if she had walked over to the centre, she answered, "I hobbled." See! That's when I knew she was good with words! And Mary demonstrated her own playful use of language when she said, "I'm allergic to social media!" That could mean, however, that Mary will not be reading this blog entry!

Oh, another thing Renée and Mary have in common is they're both knitters. Renée even brought along a knitting project, but she had no time for knitting once we got into the exercises.

When I told them I had been a CEGEP teacher, we chatted about homework. Renée made an excellent point -- she said, "At this point in life we call it home play." I LOVE that expression! Much better than homework -- and no correcting for the teacher!

Mary explained her goal in attending the workshop was "not to be afraid of writing anymore." That led me to change my exercises up a bit so that we focused more on loosening up our writing muscles. And I don't want to claim that I succeeded, but in one writing exercise Mary wrote, "Monique wants us to learn that we can do this." YES YES and DID I ALREADY SAY YES?!!

We ended with a memory exercise and Renée wrote about a lovely memory of being at the family cottage when she was five years old. Here's a line that Mary and I both loved from Renée's piece: "My nanny is inside baking small chicken vegi pot pies for our picnic at the beach later." I don't know about you, but now I'm craving chicken vegi pot pie!!

I had many many happy moments with my students this afternoon. I'll share one last one that happened towards the end of class. Renée commented that, "the memory exercise took me there!" SO NOW YOU KNOW WHY I SANG AND DANCED TO THAT STAPLES SINGERS' SONG!

I'll be back at Centre Greene for Part 2 of our StoryScaping workshop next Wednesday. The organizers promised I'll have a full house. Mary and Renée, I'm going to  plan some accelerated exercises just for you for when I'm playing catch-up with the others. Thanks to the QWF for including me in the StoryScaping program, and thanks to Centre Greene for organizing -- and for serving us tea in beautiful cups and saucers!