Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Free Rice

Quote of the Day:

"Each act of procrastination can become a time of planning and preparation [when writing]. The writer can say with conviction to the skeptical parent, teacher, or editor: 'I am not procrastinating, Minion, I am rehearsing.'"
~ from Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark, Chapter 41 "Turn procrastination into rehearsal," page 202

Above quote is an excerpt from one of the writing books my opinion writing class has read this term. Great book, I highly recommend it. One thing that I'm passionate about is that everyone can learn how to write. Seriously. It's true, if they would just believe that they can. Clark agrees, and does a great job about making writing accessible. I might just use his book when I teach writing in my future classroom. ;)

The quote is also a great response to all critcism regarding the fact that I have not posted here for two months. And it's just funny.

Ok, so the real point of this post is that I found the coolest thing today, www.freerice.com. It was launched on Oct. 7 as a way to boost vocabulary and combat world hunger. It's a game that tests your vocabulary with quite challenging words (GRE anyone?) and for every word you get right, the company donates 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to developing nations.

It may not sound like much, but it adds up. My sister and I donated around 4000 grains combined today. ;) Go forth, rehearse, build your vocabulary, and feed the hungry!