Once upon a time, a group of graduate students from Malawi, Africa, came to study early grade reading instruction at Lakeland University, a small liberal arts institution nestled in the corn fields of Wisconsin.
They were all teachers of teachers in Malawi, and they worked hard at their graduate studies, learning new strategies to support those who are charged with teaching the youngest of the young to read.
The graduate students learned about phonemic awareness, scaffolding, differentiated instruction, ongoing assessment, and more.
Malawi is famous for being recognized as the warm heart of Africa.
It is also a very poor country with per capita earnings of the equivalent of $800 a year.
In Malawi, there are often more than 100 children sitting under a tree waiting to learn.
The beleaguered teacher, full of hope and good intention, has few practical strategies to engage such a large group of learners and no print resources to share.
The teacher may have nothing more than a piece of chalk, a wall, and the sound of his or her own voice.
And so, the graduate students dreamed of text-rich learning environments.
They dreamed of incorporating reading across the curriculum, in all subject areas.
They dreamed of older students writing stories that younger students could read.
They dreamed of developing ways to engage parents in children's learning.
They were determined to return home and put their M.Ed. degrees to good use.
They were determined to be agents of change.
One day, early in their time in Wisconsin, they visited a place called Bookworm Gardens.
Bookworm Gardens is an inspiring outdoor learning-scape where children's literature is brought to life through interactive, multi-themed displays presented in a magical garden setting.
Upon experiencing Bookworm Gardens, the graduate students said, We wish someday we might have a place like this in Malawi.
They had a friend at Lakeland, a poet. Her name, Lisa.
It was part of Lisa's job in the Advancement Office to write a blog about the graduate students to report on their activities in Wisconsin.
She overheard them talk about how much they admired Bookworm Gardens.
She filed this knowledge away in the back of her head.
One day, Lisa woke up and discovered she no longer worked at the University.
She was cast into the world to find a job that would earn her keep. But she didn't want just any job. She wanted to do a job that would make the world a better place.
Lisa had the good fortune to be reminded by an old friend of an opportunity offered annually through her undergraduate alma mater, Vassar College.
The opportunity is called the Time-Out Grant. Each year, one alumnus or alumna of Vassar is chosen to work on a project that takes the person outside of his or her comfort zone, to do something risky and amazing, something that could not happen without the support of the grant.
Lisa had applied for this grant 15 years earlier, asking for time-out to write a novel. Her project was not terribly risky, and you are correct, she did not get the grant.
Before she could even dream of writing a proposal to build a reading garden on the other side of the world, she knew she needed to ensure that her idea had legs.
She thought maybe her friends would say, Oh, what a lovely idea, Lisa, but it could never happen.
Instead, her faculty colleague who had been to Malawi many times said YES!
Her Malawian friends who knew they would be responsible to care for the garden over time said YES!
With all their help and guidance, she devised a proposal to build a place like Bookworm Gardens in Malawi, in the capital city of Lilongwe.
The exact location for the garden is the Lilongwe Teacher Training College and demonstration school.
Every day, many children and adults come to this location to learn.
Lisa did her research, wrote her proposal, and got two letters of recommendation.
She sent her idea to the Time-Out Grant committee.
Three and a half months later, the call came.
You, Lisa, are the 2016 recipient of the Vassar College Time-Out Grant! Congratulations!
And so, soon enough, Lisa will make her first reconnaissance trip to Lilongwe in order to begin the Malawi Children's Reading Garden.
At this point, a good storyteller would normally say, the end.
But in this instance, as you can understand, the storyteller can only say,
the beginning
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