During the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to talk with elementary and middle school students and impress upon them the connection between literacy skills and life success. First I had a great experience viewing the talented art work of sixth grade students at Barrientes Middle School in Edinburg. Twenty-five students participated in a youth art contest sponsored by the South Texas Literacy Coalition. The contest was inspired by a reading of the children's book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. Peter is a creative, sensitive, and awesome writer with the knack for getting at the heart of the matter with simple but powerful words and illustrations. Students at Barrientes Middle School were read The Dot and then went to work creating their art which they would donate to the STLC as a community service project. The art work was sold at the 3rd Annual Historias de la Vida/Stories of Our Life Gala held on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at the beautiful Shary-Shivers Estate. The first four place winners were placed in a silent auction and the entire collection brought the STLC over $1100 which the STLC will use to buy books for their book distribution events. At a school awards ceremony, I had the opportunity to read The Dot to the students in the contest and their parents. The message in the book is simple: help someone find the creative talent within, raise their self-esteem, encourage, motivate, and praise. For the person on the receiving end of the motivation, the message is: have the courage to risk it all and show your talent. One of the greatest lines in the book is: "Just make a mark and see where it takes you." The reaction from parents was amazing. You know when you see in someone's eyes that "they got it". That's the looks that I saw...a friendly reminder that parents are a child's first teacher and that they must be involved in their child's education, motivate, encourage, challenge, and praise. Kudos to Mrs. Eva Torres and staff at Barrientes who promote excellence and work hard every day to start the day with a smile and applause for each and every student! They are living the message of The Dot - in living color! Oh yes, every student received a copy of The Dot!.
The second opportunity I had to read The Dot was at Freddy Gonzalez Elementary in Edinburg to the 4th grade classes. Spearheaded by teacher Marissa Huerta, the fourth grade students studied college readiness, going to college, and became familiar with various flagship universities. Mrs. Huerta took the career exploration experience a step further and submitted a proposal to the STLC for a book distribution promoting reading and literacy. The STLC board approved and over 200 books were delivered and Dr. Dahlia Guerra, STLC president and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and myself talked with the students about career planning and "connected the dots" between literacy and college readiness. I read The Dot to the students and the look in their eyes was - "I get it!" We promoted HESTEC Community Day and FESTIBA in the spring and, of course, UTPA! Congratulations to all the fourth grade teachers at Freddy Gonzalez and kudos to them for promoting literacy skills.
Just make your mark...and see where it takes you!
Literacy for Life.
