My Wish

I've always been fascinated by those who struggle in school. Each struggling learner has his own difficulties, barriers that stand between him and achievement. Some are silent sufferers, others act out in small or destructive ways. Some become good parents, employees, and citizens. And still others turn their lives totally around to become highly successful in business, science, or the arts.

What bothers me is that too often, many children, at an early age, get written off as failures and are blamed for their learning difficulties, as if they have the ability to do something about them. In actual fact, they are often victims. Victims of poverty, hunger, neglect, child abuse, even learning disabilities.

Services

Max Tell Services Programs: I offer performances (p) and workshops (w) to the following age and interest groups : Toddlers & their Parents (p) Pre-school children (p) and teachers (w) K-2 (p) and teachers (w) Grade 3-5 (p & w) and teachers (w) Grades 6-7 (p & w) and teachers (w) Grades 8 - 12 and teachers (w) University (w)

Why This Blog

Hi, I’m Robert Stelmach, a.k.a Max Tell. Please just call me Max. All my friends do. I write MoreHappyReaders to help: struggling readers to read struggling writers to write struggling learners to learn parents, teachers, and librarians to help  strugglers in school to become lovers of language and learning

Furthermore, I would like to help as many parents, teachers, and librarians as possible to realize that play in the form of stories, songs, and poems is essential to the learning process far beyond language itself. Stories, songs, and poems are the building blocks of learning, what I like to call the Lego of Literacy.

My focus here is not only on young struggles but adult strugglers as well.


I started MoreHappyReaders in February 2012 to help those who struggle with reading and writing to overcome their difficulties and, over time, to love reading and hopefully writing too.


It is not my goal here to create professionals, but to pass on the love of reading and writing that will be useful in every day life, including in the classroom, at home, an on the job.


Prior to becoming a successful writer/performer, I spent close to thirty years battling with the fact that I have a 55-percentile short term memory capacity. My poor memory not only made it difficult for me to learn as a child, but also fostered a traumatic reaction against memorizing that haunted me for decades.


Lucky for me, I have had a few mentors along the way who helped me to get over some of my worst hurdles. Now it is my turn to pass on the gift.


I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre, studied creative writing with W.O. Mitchell, and hold a TESOL Diploma for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language.


I have close to 30 years of experiences delighting children and families with my stories, songs, and poems. I also have seven world tours and six audio CDs to my credit. In the past few years, seven of my stories, songs, and poems have received honourable mention in national and international writing competitions. 


For more information, please email me at robert@maxtell.ca.