GED Classes in August, Route 66, and Thailand

GED Prep Classes

Okay! It’s time to quit obsessing about capitalism, credit card companies, and test publishers and get on with my own business, Live and Learn New Mexico! August approaches and I need to start at least one GED prep class when the school semester starts. I will do that at A New Awakening, a counseling service in Rio Rancho. I worked with one of the counselors, Erick Pacheco, before and we had started up a good partnership to provide GED prep classes when leadership at UNM-Los Alamos told me to drop them. I won't elaborate on that but I should thank UNM-Los Alamos for inspiring me to start my own nonprofit. 

Bringing Route 66 Back

However, as I try to concentrate on starting up a GED class, all of the stuff I’ve been learning about New Mexico this year is swimming in my head. Yesterday I attended a workshop offered by the Rt. 66 Road Ahead Initiative and learned there’s a lot going on all over this state and the other seven states the route meanders through. The legislation that supports the efforts of this group sunsets in 2019 and probably won’t be reauthorized a second time so they are trying to find ways to keep it going beyond that date.

Their proposal is to make Rt. 66 a national historic trail, and that sounds like a great idea to me. I read the FAQ sheet they gave us and the funding issue can be a little hard to understand but basically, if the route were made an historic trail, it would fall under the National Parks Service, and the prospects for sustainable financial support are better. Hope I got that right.

I learned a lot more than that, though, from other attendees. One man, who owns a hotel on the east end of Abq, told me that the route swings down to Los Lunas at one point. I didn’t know that! How interesting. 

I’m making some connections…the route was a road to a better life back in the Depression. President Roosevelt started the New Deal/Work Projects Administration (WPA) program to alleviate the effects of the Depression by providing work through projects designed to highlight the qualities of each state that make it unique and vital. He even supported the arts through the New Deal.

Bosque Farms was a WPA project. Route 66 swings down to that area. Why? Did the route bring farmers to BF to work the 42 land grants? And do any of the many WPA murals and other artwork done in the state connect to Rt. 66? Something to learn more about!

In fact, I think I will make the Rt. 66/WPA history into projects for my GED prep classes. Students really get into stuff like this, and they often know quite a bit themselves. We can build projects around it that will target skills/knowledge needed to pass the GED.

Thailand readers

On a totally ‘nother note, I check my Blog Spot page often. My favorite thing to look at, besides how many people have clicked on my blog, is the Stats page, which includes data about my audience. I love looking at where people who are reading my blog live. This last week has shown that 14 people in Thailand have clicked on my blog. Suddenly and without warning, 14 people in one week from the same country. What does this mean? Or does it mean anything at all?

I can’t remember specific students from Thailand in my ESL program at UNM-LA. I guess I should just be happy to have reached them, and I am. I hope they continue to read my blog as this last week was not what I would call my best work. It was mostly whining. J

Needless to say, this week I will be googling Thailand to get to know the country and to see if they think about learning the way I do. I do have a friend from Myanmar…maybe she can enlighten me a little about her country’s neighbor.

That’s it for today. Go out and learn something!