Posts Tagged ‘Josephine Gay’

19
Mar

26 Tuesday: Hsu

dancer

If one attempts to be a writer, there is one inevitable problem to be faced: too many books. Yes, too many. I know some of my avid reader friends will cry “Foul!” at this one because they certainly believe that whoever has the most books at death wins, but the reality is that books take up a lot of space and I seldom read a book more than once. I am thankful that e-readers are going to make this an obsolete problem one day, but until then, MaryAnn needs to give her weighted down bookshelves a break.

In reading about Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung last Tuesday, I was struck by her busy schedule, including having just enrolled in a Ph.D. program. I “inherited” quite a number of educational leadership books while working at our local university and thought they would help me with that career. Life has taken me a different direction (duh) and thus, these poor books are just gathering dust on my shelves. It seems a shame when I know our university library (which has a Ph.D. program in educational leadership) could really use them. So, this past week I have packed them up and taken them to my favorite place to study master’s level psychology. It seems only fitting that the place that nurtured both my education and my career should benefit from these books. And over the years I have grown very fond of several of the staff members there. I like to think that Dawn would have liked this way of blessing other learners and colleagues, too.

So, the 26 Tuesday Acts of Kindness tally stands at 17. Please let me know, either privately or publicly, if you participated and how many acts of kindness you undertook this week. Kudos to you for participating!

This week’s honoree is Madeleine Hsu. The description of her is, honestly, too brief, but click on her name below, if only to see her darling face. That, alone, should inspire your Act of Kindness for this coming week:

Madeleine F. Hsu, 6

Sweet. Unique. Bright. Determined. Sparkling. Those are words Madeleine’s family used to describe their little girl.”She was an avid reader who loved running and dancing,” they said. “She was a born leader.”

12
Mar

26 Tuesday: Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung

smiling teacher

Last week’s honoree for 26 Tuesdays was Dylan Hockley. Dylan loved to read and if you read my Poetry post this past Saturday, you know that I have a fierce appreciation for Dr. Seuss, whose birthday was on 3/2. Our family’s Dr. Seuss books have long been donated to our local elementary school, but it’s my opinion that a school library can never have too many Dr. Seuss books.

I “polled” the members of my immediate family and asked them to tell me their favorite Dr. Seuss book while growing up. Here are the results:

PH – How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
Moi – Fox in Socks
Eldest DS – One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
DD – Hop on Pop
DSL – Green Eggs and Ham
Youngest DS – The Cat in the Hat 

I went to our local Walmart and managed to pick up Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish for free. How? I had “leftover” gift cards from Wally World that needed using up. Next, I went off to our local Hastings Entertainment store and found the rest of the books listed above. The bonus? Since it’s Dr. Seuss’ birthday month, you can buy 2 Dr. Seuss books and get the 3rd free! Now, this is the way to shop, friends!

In our little town we have several excellent private pre-school and kindergarten programs. My youngest two children attended one of these wonderful programs and started off their educational lives really well because of it. Not only that, but the program exists on a shoestring budget to try and help as many kids attend this program as possible. So, the Dr. Seuss books have now been donated to this fine program, in the hopes that more children will be exposed to how fun poetry and reading can be.

So, with the other folks also doing their 26 Acts of Kindness, the MIP Kindness count stands at 15 right now. What did you do for your act of kindness to honor Dylan? You can submit a comment below or send a private email to me via the Contact page.  As always, details are welcome, but not mandatory.

This week we honor Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung. Hochsprung was the heroic principal who raced out of her office to investigate the commotion in her school’s hallways. Tragically, doing this very thing resulted in her being shot and killed. Here is a little about Ms. Hochsprung:

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

Hochsprung, who became Sandy Hook Elementary School’s principal two years ago, was “really nice and very fun, but she was also very much a tough lady in the right sort of sense,” friend Tom Prunty said. And the students loved her. “Even little kids know when someone cares about them, and that was her,” Prunty said. “I never saw her without a smile,” said Aimee Seaver, mother of a first-grader. Hochsprung lived in Woodbury, Connecticut, with her husband, two daughters and three stepdaughters. The longtime career educator majored in special education for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the 1990s and had just entered the Ph.D. program at Esteves School of Education at the Sage Colleges in New York last summer. “My mom, Dawn Hochsprung, was taken tragically from me. But she went down in a blaze of glory that truly represents who she was,” her daughter, Cristina Hassinger, tweeted.

Tomorrow’s Post: There is nothing routine about a routine examination…
04
Mar

Word of the Week: realia

Dictionary --Word of the Week

Last week’s Word of the Week was kanban. Kanban means “just-in-time.” So, if the kangaroo convention gets canned veggies before its opening, I suppose that will  be kanban. In other words…I wasn’t even close with my definition guesses!

This week’s word is realia. As usual, no fair looking up words online or in an honest-to-goodness dictionary. Just submit your definition below in the comment section and we’ll see who gets closest.

realia (rē-ˈa-lē-ə): 1. The mania that ensues when things get too real. (Can you tell that the master’s in counseling regularly “leaks” into my definition guesses???) 2. regalia that is slightly less regal. 3. the trash that gets deposited on your real estate after a party on Saturday night, even when you weren’t the hosts of the party. (Can you tell that we have some experience with this at our “real estate”?)

So, what is your guess? Make sure you submit it kanban. 🙂

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do for the Birthday Girl?

26
Feb

26 Tuesday: Josephine Gay

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Last week’s Sandy Hook honoree was Olivia Engel. With the previous honorees, I had no difficulty thinking of something that I could do to honor each of them. But, Olivia was so involved in the short time she was on the planet, that it was difficult to choose how I could do something on her behalf. But, Olivia was “into” soccer and since all 3 of my kids were soccer players and we have quite an active soccer association in our little town, I decided to try to locate the current President of this association and send him a donation that would allow a child to play soccer for one season “on me.”  I remember that paying for 3 registration fees, 3 sets of shin guards, and soccer fund raisers used to be a rather large expense. And since we are still recovering from a recession, I’m sure there are some talented young athletes whose parents just can’t afford that fee anymore. And for those of you still doing the “soccer chauffeur runs,” don’t forget your folding chair, the water bottle, your warm blanket, and a loud, happily-cheering voice!

So, our 26 Acts of Kindness MIP count stands at 11! And here is a little bit about today’s honoree:

Josephine Gay, 7

Josephine had just celebrated her seventh birthday Tuesday (before the Sandy Hook shooting). There’s a picture of her on the Web, published in various news stories, that shows her smiling with glasses on the tip of her nose. Josephine liked to ride her bike and sell lemonade in her neighborhood in the summer, The Wall Street Journal reported. The little girl loved the color purple.

What did you do for your Act of Kindness? Remember–it’s okay to simply say you participated, but it’s also okay to elaborate if you’d like.

Tomorrow’s Post: We’re now fighting meteors…with a Death Star?