Smartwork Creative

Have you ever brought a kitchen utensil that you know will be a time and energy saver but it sits in the back of the cupboard and you forget to use it? It might be one of those wire cheese graters or a bean cutter.

You know that it’s the right tool for the job but because you haven’t embedded it into your practice you just keep forgetting it’s there. It’s the same with learning solutions and tools. You have access to them but if you don’t put energy into implementing them into your context and keeping them relevant then they go into the back of the draw and don’t really have much use.

We can help you get your implementation right with a fit for purpose learning strategy. Let us partner with you to fully utilise all of the tools in your draw!

Check out Smartskills.

Who nominated us?

Was it you?

From the email I received from the 2 degrees business awards people:

Being nominated is a testament to the hard work and dedication you have put into your business, and it means that someone (who wishes to remain anonymous) values what you do and believes in you.

I want to personally congratulate you on the nomination - it's a huge achievement in and of itself. It takes time and effort for someone to submit a nomination, and it shows that they hold you in high regard. Now, it's time to take the next step and enter the awards!

So we did! Enter the awards that is.

And I got invited in for an interview. Not sure what happens next, but we are very grateful for the time and energy our mystery admirer took in nominating us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

How cool is this. You just never know where a title you have designed might end up. Big congrats Sarah Johnson, children's writer and Deborah Hinde

Lots of overseas news in the past week, starting with this cover from the Turkish edition of The Bold Ship Phenomenal - now called Mucizeler Gemisi, which thanks to Google Translate I have now discovered means Ship of Miracles (a lovely title).
As you can see, they've retained Deborah Hinde's fabulous cover and internal artworks, which I'm very pleased about.
This is the third of my books that the Turkish publisher, Yeni Insan Yayınevi (New Human Publishing), has published, thanks to the Creative New Zealand Translation Fund scheme, administered by the Publishers Association of New Zealand.
The publishers are very organised, and send me a proof for the translation to check, where I am no use whatsoever, other than to check that Deb and my names are spelt correctly!

A bit of short notice but it’s worth a go. Good luck.

⏰ We are five hours away from the start of our 2023 'Share the Love' of reading, writing and storytelling Valentine's Day opportunity with Scholastic.

For more information go to
https://scholastic.co.nz/about/submissions-to-scholastic/

We welcome the submission of your picture book manuscript on February 14th. A reminder that we will get in touch with you by 31 May if your manuscript is successful in moving through to the next stage of the publishing journey.

Thank you for your stories.

Good luck!

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Pictured: The E Oma, Rāpeti series 🐇 by Norah Wilson, whose 2022 ‘Share the Love’ submission is being published in February 2023, as not one, not two, but three adorable and bouncy bilingual books, translated by Pānia Papa and charmingly illustrated by Kimberly Andrews.

There's warm bubbles everywhere.

"... as soon as it arrived we surprised her. Thankyou so so much for the work you did as it has just made the Book just so special. Isabella was just delighted "

We went all out to get this project through for Xmas and it's little rewards like this that make it all worthwhile.

Everyone is shouting that 2023 is going to be tricky. But maybe if we can just sit back a bit and remember the bits that make us really happy then it will be ok.

Good luck everyone.

I was scrolling my feed thinking that cover looks familiar 🤣 nice job Erin.

It’s been a real pleasure to work with the team at NZCER Press for many, many years now.

How do educators journey from living in a New Zealand context to an Aotearoa context? And how do they enact Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the classroom, equitably supporting mātauranga, kaupapa and tikanga Māori alongside their Pākehā equivalents?

Ki te hoe! Education for Aotearoa, the latest book from NZCER Press, sets out to address these questions with research-based resources for practical implementation in the classroom.

Edited by Pania Te Maro (Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehoa— Massey University) and Robin Averill (Te Herenga Waka—Wellington Uni), Ki te hoe is a vital resource across early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary educational contexts.

Now available below!

https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/ki-te-hoe-education-aotearoa

Before I sign off for the year I have to share our amazing team day.

We visited Katie Blundell Artist at her amazing studio in Clevedon. I highly recommend this as a fabulous team building activity.

You get 3 gals into their creative space and great things happen - which are all so totally different don't you think?

Then we had to recover with a winery lunch.

It's been a magnificent year

and once we sat down and reflected. It was way busier than we remembered!

Here's a reflection of some the books we've created, which is only a fraction of the work that goes into making a great title.

There's so many others that we are very grateful to be working with in this publishing world.

Here's a roundup of the year and much, much more.
https://bit.ly/3VcxoD8

Research is so important in what we do.

Once upon a time we used to get out regularly to bookshops and have a coffee and just enjoy touching and smelling. Now not so much.

Why, well it's one of the downsides of working from home.

But then there is also awesome lists of books that come out like The Storyline Notable Books List and this one is goodie.

https://www.storylines.org.nz/awards/storylines-notable-book-awards/storylines-notable-book-lists-2022/

There's a couple of titles in here that we are proud to have produced with Scholastic NZ and so many gorgeous covers to enjoy visually feasting on.

Storylines Notable Book Lists 2022 - Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust The 2022 Storylines Notable Books List, for the highest quality books in five genres published between August 2021 and November 2022, is compiled from more

WE WON! It was an amazing night at the NZATD awards last night.
Great people, great conversation, great music - and it was such fun to dance.
With big thanks to our amazing team and wonderful clients.
Best Compliance Learning Programme
Best Skills Based Learning Project