Hi, Jackie and all

I know of at least one place where student success stories appear on a regular basis. TCALL - the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning regularly publishes Student Success Stories in their Quarterly Journal - the latest issue features a number of student-written experiences with learning English and developing literacy skills.

I'm cc'ing Harriet Smith, the interim director of TCALL who might be able to provide insights into the process by which stories are collected and then selected for publication

Best

Heide

Heide Spruck Wrigley
Mesilla, NM





From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor, Jackie
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 3:56 PM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2418] Re: This I Believe - NPR - Do Over's

Hi All,
Just a quick question:

What are the avenues available to students to publish their own success stories? Is there a Wiki link where they could put stories on the Web, are there other, more formal mechanisms on Web sites or with newsletters?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks~! Best, Jackie

Jackie Taylor, PD List Moderator, jataylor at utk.edu<mailto:jataylor at utk.edu>


________________________________
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Kathy Tyndall
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 4:20 PM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2414] Re: This I Believe - NPR - Do Over's

I have already printed off this "Do over" story to share with my developmental English students. Thank you for sharing it.
K. Tyndall
Wake Tech Community College
Raleigh, NC
----- Original Message -----
From: Sandra (Sandy) Jensen<mailto:SJensen at hawkeyecollege.edu>
To: virginia at nmcl.org<mailto:virginia at nmcl.org> ; The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List<mailto:professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 2:28 PM
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2413] Re: This I Believe - NPR - Do Over's

Thank you so much for passing on something positive!!
Sandy Jensen, Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, Iowa
Adult Basic Education, GED, ELL
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov<mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov> [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Virginia Pulver
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 11:18 AM
To: Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2412] This I Believe - NPR - Do Over's
Good Monday Morning to Each of YOU!
I heard an essay on National Public Radio (NPR)  yesterday and wanted to share it with you (see below) since we all share a passion for this topic . It is a success story about adult literacy.  Though this man did not seem to find a mentor in the adult literacy community, he did manage to set significant goals and reach them.  It is a nice testimony about literacy, motivation and success...It is these personal "love" stories that we share with people that remind us that what we do is important - that there is a need...
 If you would like to hear this man tell his tale, there is an audio link on the NPR website under the Weekend Edition program aired on  Saturday, 20 July.  The segment is called: "This I Believe" and the title of the piece is "Do Over's."
Happy reading!
Life is good....
Virginia J. Pulver, AmeriCorps*VISTA
Recruiting Consultant, NM Coalition for Literacy
3209-B Mercantile Court, Santa Fe NM    87507
virginia at nmcl.org<mailto:virginia at nmcl.org>
YOU can become a volunteer adult literacy tutor or
refer adult learners for FREE 1-1 tutoring!
1-800-233-7587
Visit our Website: www.nmcl.org<http://www.nmcl.org/>

Weekend Edition Sunday</templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=10>, July 20, 2008 * I don't know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the choice at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I stopped trying. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was your typical degenerate: lazy, rebellious, disrespectful. I had lost all social graces. I was terminally hip and fatally cool.

It wasn't long after that I dropped out of school and continued my downward spiral. Hard physical labor was the consequence for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of 21, I was hopelessly lost, and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I was illiterate and stuck in a dead-end job carrying roof shingles up a ladder all day.

But now I believe in do-overs, in the chance to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right motivation. Mine came from a surprising source.

It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It's funny that after a life of avoiding responsibility, now I was in charge of something so fragile. Over the years, as I grew into the title of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. In a way, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work and play for the first time. I began my do-over.

It took me almost three years to learn how to read. I started with my son's books. Over and over, I practiced reading books to him until I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it were possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role model, so after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I passed my GED test on my son's fourth birthday. This may not sound like much, and I'm surely not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done in the first place, but all things considered it was one of the best days in my life. Today, I'm a full-time college student, studying to become a sociologist.

It's funny, growing up I always heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they applied to me. Now I believe it's a choice anyone can make: to do it all over again.

Independently produced for Weekend Edition Sunday by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.
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