What do pirates have to do with writing skills? Everything, if you’re an organization known as 826 Valencia. Founded by author Dave Eggers (one of my favorites) and educator Nínive Calegari in 2002, 826 Valencia is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps advance kids’ literacy skills by providing after school tutoring, workshops and writing-based field trips.
826 Valencia’s writing lab is located, appropriately enough, at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco, and here’s where the pirates get involved: to access the lab, you enter through a pirate supply store. What does one find in such a store? Everything you’d need to be a working pirate, of course, like peg legs, ropes, ... Read more »
After a restful holiday break, everyone is back to work (hooray, I think). With that in mind, doesn’t it sometimes seem like Friday is taking forever to arrive? Here’s a little something that we usually do on Fridays to inspire you to finish the week strong – a bunch of our favorite words. As always, don’t hesitate to send us some of your favorite words in the comments section below. And don’t worry; Friday will be here before you know it!
@janni10
braggadocious – overly proud, bragging in excess
taciturn – inclined to silence
voluble – characterized by a ready and continuous flow of words, talkative
mephitic – offensive to the smell
vim ... Read more »
| Date: January 13, 2010 | Author: Janice Smith Collins | Category: Our Favorites |
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” – T.S. Eliot
Happy Friday and Happy New Year, y’all! Here’s to the words, language and voices of 2010.
@lizkelly
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Happy 2010! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season as much as I did. I got a few cool “word nerd” gifts for the holidays this year, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you. This probably would have been more helpful before the holidays, but maybe they can inspire some future gift ideas for your favorite word nerds (or just entertain you for a few minutes).
Poetry for Your Table
This desk toy lets you create “poems” by using blocks printed with various words. Check out one of my very first tabletop poems above – and yes, I know it’s not very good. There’s a reason I’m not ... Read more »
