sol25 Tiny But Mighty

 

The "vintage" Casablanca version dangled above my head like a giant albatross for years. I did turn it on once, in the early days, when the temperature in my bedroom was unbearable; however, it bobbled and swayed like an aging dancer attempting a late night fox trot on the ceiling! Since then, it just "hung around" awaiting extrication. 

"Could you just cap it?" I asked the electrician after he did the required electrical updates celebrating my home's centennial birthday. 

"Why not a little fan," he suggested whipping out a couple of photos. 

That is how the tiny, but mighty fan found its way onto my ceiling reminding me that you can be tiny, but mighty.

June 12 Have You Ever Wondered?

Have you ever felt your heart in your throat? 

Have you ever wondered what you really saw? 

I live in an area that was once heavily influenced by Italian immigrants as noted by streets named for saints and shops still filled with cuccidati. In recent times, immigrants from Central and South America have filed in thanks again to jobs and access to NYC. Their contributions, as well as their empanadas, are important to the ever changing fabric of America.

As I headed to the bank, I saw what I first thought was a funeral procession with large black Suburbans, but parked in from of a row of restaurants? There were also vans and sedans, some double parked. The people in black clothing, some in masks, made me think a hold-up was in process, for a moment, but there was no secrecy to this operation and I adjusted my thinking. Unlike on TV, no one had an ICE label emblazoned on their chest and rather than guns drawn, some were holding large coffee cups? There were no identifiable police cars around.  Yet, in this er of immigration crackdown?

As I got closer, my heart was in my throat and I wondered if this could really be, in my small town, in the early morning hours, in broad daylight, what I thought it was?  Should I stop and protest the deportation of people making empanadas in my community?   Or, was this an early morning food run before the days' arrests?  

I circled around the block again, wondering, worrying, with my heart in my throat, because it would seem as if someone, somewhere would not be going home tonight. 

I suspect I am not alone in wondering what is going on and why?

sol25 June 10 Slices of News

 

I remember (augmented by pictures) sitting on the couch, reading a newspaper with my father.  It is possible the memory is cemented by images of him reading the newspaper no matter where we lived! There was of discussion of news at the dinner table and sports, morning and night, even more when my brother discovered the sports page!

Memories of major news moments, Vietnam Protests, 9-11, are framed by words, pictures and opinion columns about the events. 

For many busy years, my daily reading was the local headlines, but the weekend papers were embraced extra coffee and news abandon.   

Lately, I glance over my weekly local paper with updates about fires and politics for about 45 seconds IF the 4 pages do not get drenched in rain before I see it. There is little of substance; yet, I read it out of habit.

These days, I start with the NY Times Online in the early morning and catch updates with coffee. This morning, again, the headlines and the subheads were brutally disheartening. My heart beat faster and my angst grew exponentially as I tried to make sense of the many fights, feuds, and frays along with the threats, lies, and theatrics.  

These days, I no longer look forward to the news. 

These days, I am afraid.

SOL25 The Great Debate Rages Onward

 Thanks to The Two Writing Teachers Site for

supporting this Tuesday Slice of Life share.

"Everything we were doing was wrong," the former colleague said proudly sharing her real Orton Gillingham training and disregard of anything else. I acknowledged her enthusiasm while thinking about asking how she is addressing vocabulary and comprehension.  "Once they can decode, reading just takes care of itself," she grinned. 

I cringed and thought about whether or not to engage, but my voice was not to be quieted. "I like the way Orton provides a solid phonics framework, but what I feel the deja-vu of the Great Debate (Chall, 1967). The Science of Reading research clearly states that the most effective way is to teach reading is decoding and language comprehension. You might want to check out Scarborough's reading rope idea (1990) to understand some of the balancing perspective."

"It's OK," she smiled, "this time we have it right!"

I thought about all those old textbooks from the early 1900's I collected over the years each proclaiming either vocabulary rich or phonetic approaches to reading depending on the year of publication.

I thought about the millions of phonetic readers and now leveled texts relegated to landfills on the way home.