The Mentor Kit has been written by authors and poets, Lorraine Marwood and Claire Saxby who judged the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards in 2006 and 2005.
The Mentor Kit is a guide for young poets. It provides creative writing strategies and how to develop inspiration by keeping a journal.
To download the full document in PDF format please click here.
Primary and Secondary students across Australia are being urged to go outdoors to find inspirations for the 2008 Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards.
"Forests, Feathers, Fins and Fur" is this year's theme for the country's largest poetry writing competition for students, which celebrates the work of well-known Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar.
Supported by the Australian government, the poetry awards, now in their 28th year, are an activity associated with National Literacy and Numeracy Week(NLNW).
Last year, more than 15,000 poems were written by students from nearly 1000 schools nationally. Students and schools can share in more than $5000 worth of prizes including cash, trophies, books and a trip to Gunnedah in North-West NSW - home of the awards and Dorothea Mackellar's family owned several properties.
This year, the poetry awards take on an environmental theme with the Namoi Catchment Management Authority (CMA) also throwing its support behind the event.
"It's hoped the environmental theme will encourage students to research biodiversity by studying their local environments and help them to learn about the diversity of native plants and animals. This event gives students the chance to express their thoughts and concerns about the environment in a creative manner," said General Manager Namoi CMA Bruce Brown.
Entries in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards close 2 June 2008. Authors Sue Gough and Prue Mason are the judges, and winners will be notified during NLNW (1-7 September).
A National Presentation Ceremony will be held in Gunnedah on 5 September 2008.
Award entry forms and information on poetry writing, resource notes for teachers and judges' reports are available at www.dorothea.com.au.
It is inexpensive, instantly ready, and almost weightless. It sits comfortably in the pocket. It needs no power supply, it never leaks, and its marks can be erased. Children learn to write with it, accomplished artists create masterpieces with it , and most of us keep one handy for jotting down notes. Yes, the humble pencil is one of the most affordable and widely used writing instruments in the world. The amazing story of its invention and development begins with a chance discovery in rural England.
In the 16th century, lumps of a strange black substance were found beneath the hillside of Borrowdale, a valley in the Lake District of northern England. Although the mineral looked like coal, it did not burn; and it left a shiny, black easily erased mark on a writing surface. Initially, the substance had a variety of names - black lead, wad, and plumbago, meaning "that which acts like lead". Because it had a greasy texture, people wrapped chunks of it with sheepskin or short sticks of with string. No one knows who first thought of putting black lead into wooden holders, but by the 1560's, primitive pencils had reached the European continent.
Soon black lead was being mined and exported to meet the demands of artists; and in the 17th century, it was being used practically everywhere. At the same time, pencil makers experimented with black lead to produce a better writing instrument. Pure and easily extracted, the Borrowdale product became a target of thieves and black marketers. In response, the British Parliament passed a law in 1752 making the theft of the material punishable by imprisonment or banishment to a penal colony.
In 1779, Swedish chemist Carl W Scheele made the surprising discovery that black lead was not lead at all but a soft form of pure carbon. Ten years later German geologist Abraham G Werner named it graphite, from the Greek graphein, "to write". Yes, contrary to their name, lead pencils actually contain no lead at all!
For many years English graphite cornered the pencil-making industry because it was pure enough to use without further processing. Since European graphite was inferior, pencil manufacturers there experimented with ways to improve pencil leads. French engineer Nicolas-Jacques Conté mixed powdered graphite and clay, shaped the mixture into sticks, and fired them in a kiln. by varying the ratio of graphite to clay, he was able to make leads that produced different shades of black - a process still in use. Conté patented his discovery in 1975.
In the 19th century, pencil making became big business. Graphite was discovered in a number of places, including Siberia, Germany and what is now the Czech Republic. In Germany and then the United States, a number of factories opened up. Mechanisation and mass production drove prices down, and by the start of the 20th century, even school children were using pencils - unpainted "penny pencils" as they were called in the US.
With many billions manufactured world-wide each year, the pencil has become a sophisticated, versatile writing and drawing instrument. A typical wooden pencil can draw a line 56 kilometres long and write 45,000 words. Made of metal or plastic, mechanical (or, propelling) pencils hold thin leads that never need sharpening. In the place of graphite, coloured pencils use dyes and pigments that come in dozens of colours.
Versatile, robust, simple, and efficient, the lowly pencil shows no signs of obsolescence. Hence, for years to come, whether at home or at work, you may still hear someone ask, "Does anyone have a pencil?"
How does the lead get into the pencil? A solution of finely ground graphite, clay and water is forced through a narrow metal tube and comes out looking like a long string of spaghetti. After being dried, cut and fired in a kiln, the lead is immersed in hot oil and wax. The wood, usually cedar, which is easily sharpened, is sawed into slats - planed and grooved pieces of wood - half a pencil thick. The leads are inserted into the grooves on one slat, and a second slat is glued and pressed on top of the first. When the glue dries, the individual pencils are cut apart. After shaping, sand-papering, painting and stamping with the manufacturer's trademark and other details, the now seamless pencil is ready for use. Sometimes an eraser is attached to one end.
Which pencil should I use? To select the pencil you need, note the letters or numbers printed on the side of the pencil. These indicate the degree of hardness or softness. Softer leads leave a darker mark.
HB is a versatile, medium-grade lead.
B denotes softer leads. A number such as 2B or 6B denotes the degree of softness - the higher the number, the softer the lead.
H denotes harder leads. The higher the number 2H, 4H, 6H, and so on - the harder the lead.
F stands for fine point.
The keyboard has taken over from the humble typewriter since the computer came along, but did you know....
"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb".
Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase... "goodnight, sleep tight."
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
And though this is not about English, or words, it will make you think about the next statue you see of a person on a horse!
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
A lexophile is a lover of words. See if you can find the word humour in these statements:
A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
A will is a dead giveaway.
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
A backward poet writes inverse.
In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.
He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
A calendar's days are numbered.
A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
A boiled egg is hard to beat.
He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
A plateau is a high form of flattery.
The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
Acupuncture: a jab well done.
Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.
