Confession:
I’m terrible at remembering anniversaries. I know that the stereotype would have you believe that because I’m a woman I get all bent out of shape when my husband forgets ours, but that’s just not the case. Every year Ravi and I both remember a week or so after the anniversary has passed, and neither of us could remember what day we officially started dating, so we just made one up together — gave it our best guess, anyway.
Now thanks to technology and social media, my phone and the various platforms I’m part of can send me push notifications which is how I realized that it’s now been two years since I created Literacy In Place. I don’t really think I had any expectations of how it would all go, I just hoped that teachers and teacher educators would find it useful.
Confession #2:
I am decidedly not a “quant person”. My research is qualitative and I fear that I have difficulty making meaning of numbers. So, with that caveat out of the way, I thought I’d share some of my numerical discoveries with you — a way to mark the milestones of this online rural community of teachers and students. I have no idea what to make of it and thus can’t tell you what to make of it, but I share it with you to make of it what you will.
Thanks for being on this journey with me and supporting this work that is so deeply connected to who I am. Thanks for going with me as I try to do better because now I know better.
Here are some numbers
In the last two years, Literacy In Place has had 13,982 total views.
Those views came from 6,181 visitors.
Who had access to 117 published posts. Many of which were episodes of Reading Rural YAL.
Of those posts, 11 came from guest contributors, and 3 were from the winners of the first ever national Rural Teen Writing contest.
In 2023 alone, 13,900 words in support of rural books, teachers, students, and communities were published.
Y’all, I’m pretty blown away by these numbers. To think that something I created has reached this many people feels surreal and outlandish, but here we are.
And we ain’t stoppin.
I’m looking forward to writing more posts, to publishing more posts from voices other than my own, to more book reviews, and to the Rural Teen Writing Contest.
So, please join us in community and:
- Submit a guest contribution about your rural experiences
- Submit a book review of a rural YA book
- Tell me what I’m missing on the book list
- Encourage the high school rural writers in your life to submit pieces to the Rural Teen Writing Contest
Confession #3:
I’m giddy with excitement. Can’t wait to see what year 3 brings, and I’m desperately hoping you’ll be part of it.
Cheers to 2 years and here’s to hopin’ for many more.
Dr. Parton's Literacy In Place 