Professional Development

The poem is not a line,
but a net.
Woven with strands,
written in sand,
carried by the wind.

~ excerpt from 'Dream merchants' by Dr Tamryn Bennett

Professional Development for Teachers with Red Room Poetry

Our NESA endorsed Professional Development program provides in-depth workshops that enhance teaching methodologies to better engage students with poetry, creative writing, critical thinking, and imaginative investigation while enriching curriculum outcomes.

Method and Format

Our aim is to make poetry a meaningful and useful part of every class. Immersive workshops are lead by practicing poets and leading arts educators who guide teachers through innovative writing processes to support the development of their own creative, critical and poetic writing and teaching skills strategies in the classroom.  

Designed with and for teachers, we provide accessible learning resources to support activities in and beyond the workshop. Our professional development workshops coincide with two of our projects, Red Room Poetry Object, and The Disappearing:

Red Room Poetry Object - inspire, create, publish!

Inspired by our national student poetry-writing competition, Red Room Poetry Object, this practical workshop shares creative strategies and free resources for nurturing student writing, encouraging poetic exploration, creation, editing and publishing of poetry for authentic audiences locally and internationally. This workshop can be delivered live at your school or via digital technology.

The Disappearing - mapping memory and place

This workshop explores ways teachers can explore memory and place through poetry and technologies that address multimodal requirements of the Australian Curriculum: English. The Disappearing is a free mobile-optimised site that geo-locates poems to place. It offers students an authentic publication mode for both poetry and descriptive writing that explores and maps ideas and memories of place.
This workshop can be delivered live at your school or via digital technology.

Workshops can also be tailored to specific school, community and university requirements. 

How much does a workshop cost?
Free Teaching Resources
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NESA Scope of Endorsement

The period of endorsement for Red Room Poetry is for five years from 2 September 2015 to 1 September 2020

Career Stage - Proficient Teacher
Standard descriptor - 2.1.2

Courses - 

• Red Room Poetry Object - inspire, create, publish! will contribute to 1 hour of QTC Registered PD addressing Standard Descriptor 2.5.2
• Red Room Poetry Object - inspire, create, publish! (Digital PD) will contribute to 1 hour of QTC Registered PD addressing Standard Descriptor 2.5.2
• The Disappearing - mapping memory and place will contribute to 1 hour of QTC Registered PD addressing Standard Descriptor 3.4.2
• The Disappearing - mapping memory and place (Digital PD) will contribute to 1 hour of QTC Registered PD addressing Standard Descriptor 3.4.2

For other educational organisations, we provide a certificate of participation, which can be used for self-arranged professional development with the Australian Standards of Teaching.

Red Room Poetry's workshops in your school help bring poetry to life. For more information contact education@redroomcompany.org or phone 02 9319 5090.