A Word About Giveaways.

After having several emails in regards to our decision to give away “prizes” to our well-loved Slicers, I feel the need to make a public post about our rationale.   The long and the short of the matter:

We thought it would be fun.

In no way did we imagine it would be at odds to our philosophy of being a writer, simply for the richness it brings to one’s life.  In no way did we consider it to be in contrast to the best practice philosophy of teaching writing that we study and attempt to implement each day of our teaching lives.  Even more so, we are shocked at the negative response we have had due to the giveaways.

Last March, when we started Slice of Life, we offered a giveaway, Ali Edwards’ book Life Artist, to one person, randomly chosen from all who completed the challenge.  Since the response was favorable a year ago, we followed the same procedures for this year.  The fact that we are supporting artists who make handcrafted items for teachers or writers is exciting, as well.

In our classrooms, we celebrate writing.  We gather together as a community of writers over cookies and punch and rejoice over the work we are doing.  We simply wanted to recreate that feeling with our on-line community of writers.  Inspired by the numerous blogs that offer giveaways, we decided to do the same . . .  simply for the fun of it.