A Million Page Views

Nov 29 2011

When I first put a collection of drama games onto the internet back in 1996 it seemed a great way to get my work published for free. It wasn’t until ten years later that I discovered how popular the site had become when I started to check it with Google. It made me realise what a great resource it could become and that’s when I really started to develop it as www.dramaresource.com.

I just checked the web stats and was amazed when I worked out that the site has had well over a million page views in the last twelve months. It currently gets over a thousand visitors per day, each visiting about four pages on average. The site is consistently number one on Google for several search terms, such as ‘drama games’, ‘drama teaching’ and many others.
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Why my ebook costs £137.99

Nov 05 2011

Now my paperback is finished and published, the next step is get it onto Kindle, like my previous book. 101 Drama Games and Activities was relatively simple – I found an html template and pasted in the text. There was a bit of tweaking to sort out bold and italic, but that was it. However with Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years it is proving to be much harder. The layout is much more complex, with illustrations, special bullet points and so on. I tried various tools to do this, including Sigil, Calibre, Word, Mac Pages – in different combinations. I managed to upload a version but the Table of Contents and navigation weren’t working as they should.

However I discovered that once you have published your Kindle book, it is not a good idea to unpublish (apparently) as if you upload another version it can leave two versions hanging around in the ether. So I took the advice of someone on the Kindle forums and raised the price to the highest that Amazon allows, so that (hopefully) no-one will buy it. In the meantime I am commissioning someone else to do the coding. My girlfriend said I’d gone much balder in the last few weeks. I hope my hair may grow back now. And when I get the new version finished, I’ll upload it and lower the price to a sensible amount!

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Review in Teaching Drama Magazine

Oct 19 2011

My book just got its first printed review – and it’s a corker! It appeared in Teaching Drama magazine in October 2011.

Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years

A clear, well laid-out book ideal for teachers seeking to use drama in the classroom, particularly useful for those teaching KS1 and 2 pupils *****

David Farmer’s new book will prove useful to all those wishing to extend their drama teaching repertoire; from complete novices approaching the subject for the first time, through to those who have been teaching drama for many years. He suggests on the back and inside cover that the book will be valuable to newcomers and to those wishing to expand their skills. However, I would go further than this, and assert that even the well-practiced and creative drama teacher will find something in this book that serves as a refresher, reminder or quite simply a new idea.

The book is well laid out, with a clear introduction, and various games and exercises separated into categorised strategies (helpful in allowing you to dip in and out of the book if you want to). Each section has useful examples and diagrams, along with tips on preparation and even on effectively managing the lessons. There are extremely useful examples of how to drop drama into various areas of the curriculum, and some sample lesson plans at the end of the book that will prove invaluable to those newer to using drama in the classroom.

Those with more experience will find the detail with which David Farmer explains the uses and outcomes of the various strategies both insightful and revealing, so the book will be an ideal tool for those wishing to fine tune their drama teaching practice. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, which I am sure will become a must-have publication for those serious about the teaching of drama in primary school settings.

Reviewed by Helen Day

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Boxes of books have arrived

Aug 16 2011

Unbelievably, I have finished writing my book and just taken delivery of the first 100 copies. As an experiment I offered people the opportunity to pre-order signed copies and within a week had taken 70 orders. It was a great incentive to put the finishing touches to the book – indexing, cross-references and so on. As this is print on demand I can make corrections if I find any glitches – or if any eagle-eyed readers spot any overlooked typos.

I had no idea how long it would take me to write – I started thinking about it four years ago, made some initial plans and have been researching and writing more frequently over the past couple of years. Conclusion? I’m either a slow writer or a perfectionist. A bit of both, perhaps. It has to be said that I’m very pleased with the result and can’t wait to hear what readers think. Over the next month or two I will sell it through www.lulu.com as well as taking orders at home. That will give me a chance to make those final tweaks, then I’ll get an ISBN assigned and wait patiently for it to appear on Amazon. That waiting time will give me a chance to get the Kindle version sorted, to seek out reviews and continue with marketing.

Now I’ve got a lot of stamps to lick. After that I might do something other than writing for a change!

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Poplar Parents

Jul 27 2011

Last week I ran a whole-day workshop for parents of children from various schools in Poplar, East London. The brief was to introduce them to a range of storytelling activities. This is the first time I have run such a course and I didn’t quite know what to expect. What I found was a group of parents who were genuinely concerned about their children’s reading – to the extent that one of them had recently unplugged the television his children were watching and thrown it in the bin.

Hopefully I gave them some alternative ways of developing an interest in reading through a range of drama games and techniques including creating stories through soundscapes, identifying stories through catchphrases and playing word tennis. After lunch we spent a quiet hour sitting in the local library (the Idea Store, Chrisp Street) looking through story books before finishing with some still image and thought-tracking exercises for bringing stories alive.

I had a great time, the parents enjoyed it too (see comments below) but sadly the funding for this project has just ended. Hey, but I’m up for doing more of this! If parents can learn about some of the creative techniques available to them, the lives of children – and their learning in schools – can only benefit.

  • The session was brilliant. The bit I appreciated greatly was David’s emphasis on people being the resource, and the stories being within ourselves. It wasn’t about how a storyteller tells stories but helping parents be creative. 
  • I found learning very interesting, informative. I can tell stories to children in a more interesting way. It has developed me to be more creative and fun. I think parents should take this course so the children will be better learners and build bonding between parents and children. This course is brilliant.
  • The session was very helpful. It gave me ideas of how to tell a story. Learned new drama games and activities. Bringing books alive through drama was very interesting. I’m glad I’ve come. Really enjoyed myself. Learned lots of new ideas. 
  • I found story telling with David one of the best learning courses I have been on.

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Talk to me

Jul 14 2011

Reading a book is like having the author speak directly to you. What would it be like if you could speak back? What about if you could suggest new ideas to include in the book (with an acknowledgment)?

This is what I’m thinking of doing with Learning Through Drama in the Primary Years – which will be published in August. The book already has its own dedicated web page at www.LearningThroughDrama.com. This will contain extra resources and direct links to any website mentioned in the book. In addition it will give the reader an opportunity to feed back comments to the author (that’s me). I’ll read all the comments I get and reply to all the emails. If you spot a typo or suggest something that I like, you will be acknowledged in the next edition. And you may not have long to wait. With print on demand it is easy to update a book and publish the revised version.

The way we read books and access information is changing very quickly. This is an attempt to unite the twin media of the web and books. And ebooks. Because the book will also be published on Kindle, iBooks, Kobo and so on.

This experiment has been inspired by Cory Doctorow’s experiment with With A Little Help. You can find out what he has been trying to achieve at Publishers’ Weekly.

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