Day One of Thirty-Day Challenge
I've started a thirty day journal challenge. Usually I try to stay away from prompts offered as part of someone else's pre-determined plan, but just having moved and the beginning of a new year I found myself reined in by the theme of daring.
It's daring after thirty-two years of living in a condo to purchase a stand alone home. Now that's daring--beginning a new chapter without any real sense of how to take care of a house.
The first prompt asked the writer to list achievements. At first I sought out synonyms and those were absolutely of no value.
Take the plunge—publishing a small press journal with Michaeline. We received a Cultural Council grant and the magazine was accepted by the Journal of Small Press Magazines.But the real coup was when the Boston Public Library ordered a subscription. Maybe some friends asked for the magazine. Several years after that the postal service increased their rates and we tired of an all volunteer magazine so we disbanded the magazine after six issues.
Later on we published two stand alone journals —Friends drew submissions from thirty-eight states and about ten countries. I loved the stories and the stories behind the stories we published.
Perhaps the achievement—although I find that word overbearing—happened in school. I taught middle school learning disabled students for thirty-three years. Most of them came into my program reading three years below level and unable to write a proper sentence— let alone a paragraph. I ran a separate Language Arts program for those students. Occasionally a student needed a private school placement, but those placements were few. Everyone learned to read.
And we read what was of interest. One group read agricultural manuals and recipes because two boys wanted to be chefs. One of those boys received a full scholarship to The Culinary Institute of America. He's a pastry chef at a major New York hotel. We also read magazines devoted to snowboarding and skateboarding—whatever motivated you to learn. And the boys, they were mostly boys, also devoted hours to learning to read using the Gillingham method which relies on a strict application of the rules of phonics. At the end of the year their accomplishment was celebrated with the PPP— Phonics Pizza Party.
"Order whatever kind of pizza you want." I'd say. "You guys earned it."
Then in the order of achievement—keeping up this daily blog.
The next prompt asked me to connect the dots. The thread that runs through has to do with writing and reading.
It's daring after thirty-two years of living in a condo to purchase a stand alone home. Now that's daring--beginning a new chapter without any real sense of how to take care of a house.
The first prompt asked the writer to list achievements. At first I sought out synonyms and those were absolutely of no value.
Take the plunge—publishing a small press journal with Michaeline. We received a Cultural Council grant and the magazine was accepted by the Journal of Small Press Magazines.But the real coup was when the Boston Public Library ordered a subscription. Maybe some friends asked for the magazine. Several years after that the postal service increased their rates and we tired of an all volunteer magazine so we disbanded the magazine after six issues.
Later on we published two stand alone journals —Friends drew submissions from thirty-eight states and about ten countries. I loved the stories and the stories behind the stories we published.
Perhaps the achievement—although I find that word overbearing—happened in school. I taught middle school learning disabled students for thirty-three years. Most of them came into my program reading three years below level and unable to write a proper sentence— let alone a paragraph. I ran a separate Language Arts program for those students. Occasionally a student needed a private school placement, but those placements were few. Everyone learned to read.
And we read what was of interest. One group read agricultural manuals and recipes because two boys wanted to be chefs. One of those boys received a full scholarship to The Culinary Institute of America. He's a pastry chef at a major New York hotel. We also read magazines devoted to snowboarding and skateboarding—whatever motivated you to learn. And the boys, they were mostly boys, also devoted hours to learning to read using the Gillingham method which relies on a strict application of the rules of phonics. At the end of the year their accomplishment was celebrated with the PPP— Phonics Pizza Party.
"Order whatever kind of pizza you want." I'd say. "You guys earned it."
Then in the order of achievement—keeping up this daily blog.
The next prompt asked me to connect the dots. The thread that runs through has to do with writing and reading.
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