FunDza was invited to present workshops at the Durban Business Women’s Association’s “Winning in the Workplace” event for 500 matric girls and their teachers. Dorothy Dyer travelled off to Durban to spread the word… This is her reflection on the event.

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I’d be speaking to both the girls and the teachers – each in their own rooms with their own programmes. I was told that it would be a mixture of teachers – not just language teachers – and quite a few of them too!

So, I prepared an hour-long workshop on how every teacher is a language teacher. I had never done it before, so I was a bit apprehensive, but also quite proud of it. I hoped it was useful.  I wasn’t worried about speaking to the girls. I was going to give them a tour of the FunDza library. That would be easy.

And was I wrong…!

I got to the fancy hotel with soft carpets and white tablecloths where everything was being held, and I could see immediately that my planned presentations were not going to work. The learners were crying as they listened to Jess Foord, and then some brave girls shared how they too were suffering as rape survivors – and we were all in tears. Next a fabulous singer got the girls to join in and we all sang “All of me, loves all of you…” as we swayed together.

How could a little tour of the FunDza library compete with that?

I have to say, it didn’t compete terribly well. The girls listened politely – some of them seemed interested, but some were also whispering and looking at their cellphones. No-one asked a question. (Or cried. Or sang.)

I went through to the teachers’ room. And there it was again. The teachers were dancing around the tables to the sounds of a singer’s voice belting through the mike. They weren’t here for an academic workshop. They were here to replenish their souls, not take away techniques for teaching language in subject classrooms.

The organisers took one look at my neatly prepared powerpoint presentation and agreed.

So, I gave a much shorter presentation – but at least I got the teachers to express themselves through a biography poem, and some braver teachers read theirs out loud. That always works well (i.e. goosebump material), as the poem structure gives space for us to learn about each other’s fears and loves in just a few words.

And then I whizzed through the presentation on how teachers can teach language in their subject classrooms. I could see that there were teachers who were engaged. And many teachers also were very interested in our lovely library on a cellphone that I showed them. So it wasn’t a total disaster! No, they didn’t dance. But they did listen. And some came up to me afterwards to chat.

However, it made us think hard at FunDza. We are promoting reading for pleasure. And so we need to have presentations that excite our audiences, not only workshops that engage them –  we need to reach their hearts and their minds, to demonstrate the power of words, not just tell them about it.

We decided we need a FunDza jingle! So the idea for our ‘Say it in a Song – Rap it in a Rhyme’ Competition was born. We’re inviting our readers to write lyrics (and send us an audio) for a FunDza theme tune. Click here for the details. Share them. Spread the word. We need the help!

From this, we’ve learned that advocacy is a different skill from teaching… We need advocates with a little more street-cred than me, a middle-aged white woman who talks like a teacher.

And so this September I am NOT on the National Book Week bus, going all around the country. For that we’ve got Ndibulele Sotondoshe, a writer, speaker, and, as we learnt recently, a rapper! And we’ve got Zimkhitha Mlanzeli, who’s at the Jozi Book Fair and who could – if she ever wants to change jobs – become a TV presenter. And, we have Sonja Kruse, who is expert at engaging and involving an audience as well as performing for them.

And as for me? I’ll see you at the next workshop. One that will involve pen and paper. But maybe we can do a bit of singing, just in the last five minutes…