While travelling around Australia with my family I presented in lots of schools both big and small. Here is a list of ten things that made me smile.

• The teacher who bought the books for the class reading corner herself because she didn’t like the stale reading program her school chose to rely on.
• The siren-less schools that play music whenever it’s time to go inside.
• The country principal who phoned me the night before my visit to introduce himself because he would be out of the school the next day.
• Another country principal who ran into to car park after school to apologise for having been too tied up during the day to join in a session.
• The teacher with sixty children filing into her class for the author session who still took the time to kneel and listen to an upset child and then gave the child a gentle squeeze around the shoulders and told  them how brave they were.
• The class of children who came in after lunch bursting to tell their teacher about what they’d been reading because she listened with such a genuine interest.
• The librarian who rearranged the school library on her own so that the picture books were facing out because little students need to be able to make their own selections freely.
• The teacher who crouched down next to the student who was finding it difficult to ask their question so that the child could whisper it into her ear.
• The teacher who was so excited by her students’ own writing that she asked if part of the visit could be dedicated to them reading their work to me in celebration.
• The teachers who smile fondly, rather than frown, when their five year old students ask very off the wall questions. (My favourite ‘question’ so far this year has been, “Um. I’m a little bit sweaty.”)

Thanks for having me everyone. I hope to be back soon.