A friend posted a New York Times Magazine article the other day called, “What if the secret to success is failure?” One of the points of the article, among many, is the pithy line that it ends with:  in order for students to succeed, they first need to learn how to fail. This is not an unfamiliar […]

Well, there is not too much to report except that Denver, CO is a looooong way from San Francisco, CA. On Monday the 19th (Day 5), we arrived in Winnemucca, NV. On Tuesday, we drove all day from Winnemucca, NV to Rock Springs, WY. Yesterday, we drove from Rock Springs, WY and arrived in Denver, CO […]

This morning, my mom and I dressed up as two mad scientists, called ourselves Professor Plot (Cora) and Professor Page (me), and got to talk about the Literacy Lab with 75 third-graders at a school in Los Altos, California. Before the trip began, we developed a geography Literacy Lab lesson that we’ve been using with […]

One thing we’re realizing about driving across the entire country is how big the United States is. Seriously. I recently read a fascinating book called Why Geography Matters  all about the importance of studying geography, (which is not just physical geography but human movement as well). However, sometimes it is hard to get an actual […]

The adventure has begun! So yesterday, our intended departure time was 10:30am. 2 hours later, after packing and re-packing the van (kudos to my mom) so that everything fit, we left Seattle. It felt very strange…and still sort of does, since our first story program is not until tomorrow…to have finally left after planning this […]

My mom (Cora) and I leave tomorrow on our cross-country, Washington to Florida, exciting adventure. YIKES! But also, YAY! Over the past three weeks, as pieces have been falling into place (including an awesome sponsorship from HOYA, an eyeglass manufacturer) and the schedule has been sorted, and re-sorted a dozen times, I’ve been thinking of […]

The concept, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” has been ingrained in me since childhood. I’m that type of voracious reader who will read anything thrust in my hands (note: this does not at all mean that I will like or will necessarily finish any book). Lately, I’ve read everything from a nonfiction book […]

…with all kinds of particular places to go! (My attempt to parody, badly, Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place to Go”). This week, I actually went two places in southwestern Washington on two separate days: Camp Wannaread through the Youth and Family Link program in Kelso, WA and ROOF Community Services in Rochester, WA, both connections I […]

And by a quiet storytime, I mean that there was no storytime because no kids showed up. I decided to write about it anyway because (a) personally, I got to see a dear friend who I hadn’t seen in about a year who graduated with me from my library science program and is now running (!) […]

I love small towns. While I’ve never lived in one (I would say the relatively small New Jersey suburb I grew up in *probably* does not count, ha), my mom grew up in a Minnesota small town (Long Prairie, for those of you Minnesotans out there) and I love visiting them. Especially ones where a friend […]