By: Diane Tuttle on January 15, 2024
In Mining for Gold, Tom Comacho explores ways for individuals to recognize their spiritual and personal gifts, their gold. The process for doing this can be for personal use or to assist others to find what inspires and energizes them through coaching. Reading this book brought a flood of thoughts that initially seemed independent of…
By: Jeff Styer on January 15, 2024
No pressure here folks. Our second blog post, not fully confident in our reading and writing abilities and we are assigned Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold [1]. I picked up the book and read the comments on the back, I read a blog post I found online and then I read the reviews inside the…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 12, 2024
I have made multiple attempts to pen this premier blog. As a champion overthinker, I visited numerous rabbit holes to critically consider what a self-assessment means and what standard I compare. Framing my evaluation in humility may sound disingenuous, and efforts to incorporate humor did not seem as funny the next day. So, the cycle…
By: Noel Liemam on January 11, 2024
As I try to give an assessment or an evaluation to the levels of reading, note taking and writing capacity, I come to terms with the thought there are correlations between my reading, note-taking, and writing essays abilities. Generally speaking, we could say that writing skills would improve by not only writing, but the practice…
By: Erica Briggs on January 11, 2024
I was not a reader in early elementary, didn’t become one until I discovered the fantasy section at the local library. Battles between angels and demons. Tolkein’s orcs and elves. Legends of dwarves and fairies. When I discovered Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, I was hooked on the written word – at least in the third way words…
By: Julie O'Hara on January 11, 2024
About 10 years ago it seemed that everyone I knew was obsessed with “Strengths Finder” as a self-assessment tool. It never excited me the same way that Enneagram or Extended Disc has done, but I still remember three of my top strengths were Responsibility, Learner, and Strategic. Those strengths, and their corresponding shadow sides provide…
By: Chad Warren on January 11, 2024
Literacy equals access. Access to what? According to the ancients, freedom. In “The Republic,” Plato first introduced the seven liberal arts, those arts which would set a human free, and he began with reading and grammar. In your first few years in elementary school, the goal is to learn to read so that, eventually, you…
By: Chris Blackman on January 11, 2024
Writing was and is my biggest concern in this program and was actually one of the things that prevented me from starting earlier. There are two things against me. Firstly, I am a self-professed standard writer, certainly not an academic writer. The second is that I have always been a slow word-for-word reader, and as…
By: Daren Jaime on January 11, 2024
Growing up as a child I was introduced to the popular saying, reading is fundamental. This simple but complex saying stayed etched in my mind throughout my life’s journey. It speaks to a highly valued skill that is essential for a person’s growth and lifelong learning. What I took from this saying is reading…
By: Kari on January 11, 2024
Bold, wise, and courageous while being a minority are some of Daniel’s admirable traits in the Old Testament. Until this week, I never correlated his actions with his “learning and skill in all literature” as seen in Daniel 1:17 [1]. Perhaps it seemed more obvious as I have focused my own on reading, writing, and…
By: Elysse Burns on January 11, 2024
I remember watching films in which the main character, in a flash of inspiration, writes a literary masterpiece or reads all the resources on a given topic in a very short time, usually overnight. I don’t know why, but throughout my early studies I thought this method was a worthy practice. I think some people…
By: Akwese on January 11, 2024
To be honest, I was struggling to sit down and do this first assignment. The mere thought of delving into reading and writing with the knowledge that public eyes and comments awaited me was paralyzing. Although imposter syndrome had been discussed by others, it wasn’t something I truly connected with until now. That’s because when…
By: Nancy Blackman on January 11, 2024
Image created with Jasper AI Art As a lifelong reader and writer, it’s not the reading I’m concerned with, but my ability to retain the amount of information, not just for one semester but for the entire three years and beyond. When I was a kid I used to deep dive into books as my…
By: Joel Zantingh on January 11, 2024
I was a late bloomer when it comes to reading. I did not take to reading very well or very much until middle school, and didn’t take to writing very well until my Undergrad. But it seems that the techniques of linear writing processes were at odds with the way my brain is wired. In…
By: Christy Liner on January 10, 2024
Entering into this semester, I have certainly felt a level of trepidation that has prompted doubts on my decision to enter into a doctoral program. My affinity for learning has always thrived, but as an oral learner and verbal processor, reading and writing are not my first choices for knowledge acquisition and expression. As reading…
By: Debbie Owen on January 10, 2024
When I was a school librarian and first started teaching middle and high school students how to do research in 2004, the information landscape was drastically different than it is now. Yes, they were using the internet, but Wikipedia was considered an unreliable, forbidden resource for any purpose at all (now, depending on your topic,…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 9, 2024
Originating from Malaysia, English stands as my third language. Fortunately, I come from an English-speaking family. My first English story book was Little Red Riding Hood. I was captivated by Little Red Riding Hood’s bravery as she walked all alone into the forest to visit her grandmother with a basket of bread. Subsequently, my academic…
By: Diane Tuttle on January 9, 2024
I grew up in a chaotic home. To survive I needed to find coping mechanisms. Mine was escaping into a book. I could get lost in a story that took me to faraway places and adventures where my imagination let loose. Reading all kinds of books continues to bring enjoyment. As this semester began, I…
By: Adam Cheney on January 9, 2024
Over the course of the last year as I have been thinking of starting Seminary, I decided that I was going to increase the veracity of my reading. Last year, I read about eighty books. This year I set a goal to read one hundred and twenty. Some of these were academic, some a bit…
By: Jeff Styer on January 9, 2024
Fortunately, I was raised in a family that encouraged reading at a young age. I can still recall some of my favorite childhood books that I would return to over and over again such as More Spaghetti, I Say and The Biggest Sandwich Ever, both written by Rita G. Gelman and Mort Gerberg. Upon entering primary…
