An unsuccessful learning experience I can remember being sent on a day of training by an educator I was working for and thinking the entire day that I hadn't learnt anything, even though it was a day ABOUT training and teaching more effectively. Normally when I reflect on that kind of thing, I can remember a few take--homes that stayed permanently with me, but that day, it was just a lot of meaningless jargon and nothing concrete I could really use. A successful learning experience I went to an hour-long talk during Oxford Literary Festival where some children's illustrators taught all the children in the room how to draw a fish, then a bigger fish's mouth around that fish, and then add another fish. They managed to slip in a lot of information about expressive eyebrows, movement lines and other details that make cartoons 'work'. It was a wonderful session and the children all went home so happy.