Well, well, well, I guess I really did make an impression at that Singapore American School!

I just received an email from one of the “Malaysian” Instructional aides I mentioned in one of my other blog posts!

And I made a serious faux pas! I called them Malaysian! They’re born and bred and in Singapore! They are Singaporean Muslims!

Ooh, it makes me cringe inside! That would be like someone calling me ‘American!’

Just because Canada is right next door!

Nothing wrong with being American, if you’re American that is, but geez, we Canadians pride ourselves in NOT being American! (Otherwise there’d be very little difference between us! *g*)

I was reading her heart felt email telling me how much she’d enjoyed my visit when I came across the part where she said that many authors came and went in the Singapore American School. (It’s probably the wealthiest private school in Singapore. I do know that it’s got the most expensive tuition!) And this aid told me that sometimes the presentations were so dull she actually fell asleep during them!

LOL.

Now thing is, I don’t actually take it personally if someone falls asleep in the audience. I remember the first time it happened.

I was at a school up north and this grade five or six kid’s eyes slowly began drooping and pretty soon, he was swaying slightly side to side, and I could tell he was sleeping.

Know what I told myself? “Maybe he needs the sleep more than he needs to hear me.”

Hey, he wasn’t disturbing anyone. It’s not like he was being disruptive, or even distracting me, so I just ploughed ahead without his attention. Content with the rest of the group who were VERY much awake and ENGAGED!

(Now if all the kids were sleeping that would have been a different story! It was only the one!)

Even during that librarian presentation I did on Thursday night, don’t you know I saw some of the librarians nodding off.

But knowing their frenetic schedules, and it was way past the end of the day, could I blame them! Funny thing is though, they ALL woke up when I started telling Big Red Lollipop! And at the end, I knew I had them.

Thing is, I don’t ‘act’ like most authors.

Most authors are ‘dignified’, ‘austere’, ”SERIOUS’. Even one of the girls said that they mostly talk about their characters.

My daughters told me that any authors that presented to them in school were positively BORING!

And one other girl I met said to me, “Oh you’re so not like other authors! They all talk about themselves, ‘Oh I met so and so and you didn’t!’ Stuff like that!”

I just can’t imagine!

A presentation has got to be about conveying as much information as possible, I should correct that, as much RELEVANT and INTERESTING information as possible!

Even disruptive kids will listen if they find something truly interesting!

You just have to leave your ego at the door! Make it about the story, make it about the learning!

Tittilate their curiosity! And how can you NOT have them?