Andrea Blake

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Author Bio

Name

Andrea Blake

Bio

My background – and foreground really – is in Education as I have been a teacher (and a learner) for over 30 years! My career started as a primary school teacher and over the last decade I have specialised in Gifted Education (above average and high ability learners), working in a range of roles within and beyond schools. For many years I have enjoyed a fabulous job designing and delivering workshops for G.A.T.E.WAYS Education in schools all over Melbourne and interstate, pivoting of course to on-line once Covid started sabotaging our face-to-face endeavours! My workshops focus on creative writing, language and literature, and creative thinking. To research and write these programs is so much fun as we go well beyond the kinds of topics and tasks offered in the regular curriculum. It never ceases to amaze me what imaginative ideas young learners come up wth in response to suitably complex and challenging learning activities! In terms of my own creative writing, well that’s been a work-in-progress for most of my life and I have done countless courses to learn more as I hone my skills and craft. One of my favourite parts of teaching is providing feedback to young writers, personalised so that it really does help each person to progress and nurture their talents. I probably need to take a risk with my own creative writing and share that out in the wider world so I too can make progress towards my goals!

Genre

General Fiction, YA, Kids Books, Poetry, Non Fiction

Why Do You Write?

Because I love words – discovering curious ones, arranging and editing them, reading and writing them, buying books about them and finding ways to express my imaginative ideas using them!

Have you been published before?

Yes

If yes, where have you been published?

In the Education sphere

What are your long term goals?

To be published in the Children's Literature world and to run workshops locally for passionate young readers and writers

What is your writing regime?

Write every day – at least 30 mins on my own projects, and usually all day on new materials for workshops!