Each Saturday Ruth Ayres invites us to share and celebrate events, big or small, from our week. Looking for celebrations has certainly improved my outlook on my week. For that, I am certainly grateful to Ruth and to all of you who choose to celebrate with me.
This was not my original celebration post, but in light of some Twitter happenings this week, things changed!
Today I celebrate standing up for what you believe in, perseverance, and persistence. Or in other words, I celebrate Donalyn Miller.
Many of us are faced with challenges or attacks on what "belongs" to us (and I use that word very loosely here) or on our character. This is not an easy situation to be in. Many times this takes perseverance and persistence.
If you were on Twitter at all this week, you may have seen where a publishing company is using the hashtag #bookaday. For those of you who "know" Donalyn, you know this hashtag is associated with a reading movement she started many years ago and was published in her book, Reading in the Wild. You can read more about the Book-a-Day Challenge here on the The Nerdy Book Club.
I started tweeting at the end of 2013 and was looking forward to my first book-a-day challenge this summer. Now, this anticipated experience has been tainted. To quote a tweet, Donalyn says, "...because of you, an event for teachers and librarians is getting spammed with garbage." This is so true. I looked forward to reading and sharing books this summer with teachers, readers, and librarians and challenging myself to a book-a-day. Now the hashtag leads me to junk I have to sift through.
I have never met Donalyn, but I do believe that she will prevail due to her persistence, her perseverance and the way she stands up for what she believes in. I look forward to meeting her in a couple of week at All Write, but until then, I will continue to celebrate what she does and what she stands for. And I will continue to celebrate and support #book-a-day.
According to another tweet, I believe she has a plan. I hope you will join her in her quest for persistence, perseverance and standing up for what you believe in. I know I will.
*UPDATE - Donalyn announced today that The Borough Press has changed their hashtag to #bookadayUK, therefore leaving the real #bookaday for teachers, readers, and librarians, which is where is should be.
This is a celebration of persistence and perseverance!
Leigh Anne,
ReplyDeleteI haven't been on twitter this week to see what happened. I guess that is the down side of social media, anyone can get to it and potentially mess with it. Thanks for this post. I'll be on the look out for Donalyn's plan!
I am also disappointed at the things that are cluttering up the hashtag, but am more determined than ever to read a lot of books and keep tagging. I don't want to give up this wonderful part of our reading community.
ReplyDeleteAmen! This is so wrong. #bookaday was started years ago. I got my badge yesterday for my Twitter page. I have been fortunate to meet Donalyn a few times and she is lovely. I hope if we continue to speak out, something will change. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea, Leigh Anne! Thanks for the heads-up. I will keep an eye out for her plan because I have been posting my #bookaday for a few days now, and would like to keep participating.
ReplyDeleteAwesome celebration! I'm with you - new to this idea and excited to join in. I looked up the hashtag and you have to sort through a bunch of non choice posts to find a true Nerdy one :(
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we should meet up at some point! I imagine we could find enough conversation to fill up breakfast, lunch and dinner :)
Wow! You are going to meet Donalyn Miller in a couple of weeks!
ReplyDeleteJoining you in your celebration. I missed out on the Twitter situation. I hope it will have a positive solution.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that this became your celebration. I treasure #bookaday and have been upset with all of these other tweets. Well done highlighting it here!
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