fin.

This semester I learned a lot about digital writing.  I’ve never blogged before, but now I understand why it can really appeal to people.  It serves as a great way to get ideas out and to process thoughts.  Blogging can also serve a number of purposes in the classroom.  I think students can get a lot out of reading their peers’ writing and they can learn from the comments they receive.  It acts as a way to share opinions and start deeper discussions.

I learned a lot about myself as a writer throughout this class.  I definitely get into the writing more if the topic is something I care about.  That can be useful in the classroom because we always want the students to be doing meaningful writing.  I also learned that if I had my own blog I would really have to make a conscious effort to update it consistently.  With so many things always going on, it can be difficult to find the time to jot down my thoughts.

Overall, I enjoyed the digital writing I did in this course and there are a number of strategies that I will be incorporating into my own Language Arts classroom.

Argument Writing

I like that classes are really stressing the importance of argument writing in the classroom.  I imagine that when students think about arguments they think of heated discussions that might devolve into name-calling or hurt feelings.  When we teach argument writing we are able to make the students understand that differing opinions are a huge part of the learning process.

I am a big believer in learning through discussion.  We are shaped by our backgrounds and our experiences, and by learning about the worldviews of others we grow as students and as human beings.  Argument writing is about expressing opinions and backing up those opinions with evidence.  It forces us to examine the things that we believe and it makes us consider others’ arguments as valid and enlightening.  And the best thing about argument writing is its real world applicability.  Students learn to defend their opinions and show cause for the things that they believe.  In the real world we constantly asked to defend the things we say and do, and having the ability to rationally and methodically defend ourselves is a big part of being an adult and being a professional.

Create Post

This week I created a word map using the site Tagul.  This site picks out the words in a piece of writing that are used the most frequently.  I used the poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.  The class that I am interning in is doing a unit on Poe and I taught a lesson on one of his other poems Annabel Lee.  I tried doing the map for Annabel Lee but I didn’t like the way it looked as compared to The Raven.  This is a tool I can see using in the classroom.  It can help identify themes and can also make great posters.

Day 1: Glasgow

This week I’m going to post a draft of an essay I’ve been working on for another class  The only guidelines were that it had to be a personal experience and had to be 800 words.  I wrote about the first day of a European backpacking trip I took with a friend.  We talked about the trip a lot, saved money for it, but didn’t plan it as thoroughly as we probably should have.  Give me any suggestions or comments; it can only help the next draft.  Thanks.

Day 1: Glasgow

We land in Scotland and I realize almost immediately that we should have planned things better.  Garett and I are waiting in the customs line when we get sorted to different passport-stampers.  The man I’m now standing in front of has a bored expression and he asks to see my itinerary.  I don’t have an itinerary. 

Yes, Garett and I have talked about this trip for the last five years, but the conversations never really got into logistics.  We bought plane tickets to Glasgow because it was the cheapest city to fly into, and we purchased our Eurail passes that would let us ride the trains to all the major cities we wanted to hit.  But that was as far as we’d gotten.  I had a dog-eared and highlighted copy of Europe for Dummies, but I don’t think it’ll pass for an Itinerary.

“Excuse me?” I ask, trying to think.

“Your Itinerary… Can I see Your Itinerary?”

“Well I don’t have anything written down, but I know we want to see the Louvre”

The Man looks from my passport up to me and says very flatly, “The Louvre’s in France.”

I let out a nervous chuckle, still trying to think, “Oh, you just want the Scotland itinerary.”

What are we going to see in Scotland?  Man, I can’t think.  Castles… Braveheart… Highlander… the moors… LOCH NESS!!

“We’ll probably head over to Loch Ness.  You know… See if we can’t spot Nessy.” I say the words and regret them immediately.  This guy must think I’m a complete idiot.  Another American idiot. 

Luckily, visiting Loch Ness is a good enough reason to cross the Atlantic so I get my passport’s first stamp.  I meet back up with Garett, who got no itinerary questions from his stamper and is probably still under the impression that planning is overrated and unnecessary.  We change some dollars to pounds, and hop on a bus to the city center.  First thing we need to do is find a hostel and drop off these backpacks.

The guidebook says that most cities have some kind of tourist information kiosk and that you should check them out to learn about deals and special events.  They can also point you in the direction of a good hostel.

Lady at kiosk: “Unfortunately, all the hostels we normally recommend are all booked up.”

Apparently there’s some kind of convention in town as well as a cheerleading competition.  Hostels have been filling up fast.  Garett and I look at each other, then back to the smiling face behind the counter.  She really is trying to help, and seeing that we’re a little worried suggests we go to the internet café above the chip shop.  It’s just around the corner, and there we can look up a larger list of hostels.

We do what the nice lady suggests and come out of the café with a list of 5 hostels and 5 phone numbers.  Garett gets the honor of making the calls, and he does this from one of those red phone booths that I always associate with Europe.

The calls are stressful.  The fist hostel is booked.  Second: booked.  Third: no answer.  Forth: booked. And finally: booked, but you can sleep in our lounge if you have sleeping bags.  We have sleeping bags, we’ll take it.

We hoof it to the hostel and meet the man on the phone.  He’s a nice guy and a very proud Scotsman.  He shows us to the lounge, which is a large basement room with couches and loveseats set up everywhere.  We pick some couches in the corner, none big enough for me to fully stretch out on, but at least we’re not under a bridge for our first night in Europe.

That evening the lounge fills up with a few more people that also couldn’t book a room.  After meeting some of them, we decide to hit the hay.

At some point in the night I wake up to what sounds like water being poured onto the floor.  It’s not water being poured onto the floor.  Someone is standing up in the middle of the room and is peeing on the carpet.  I try not to laugh and then I hear:

“Hey man, what are you doing?”

No response, just incoherent mumbles.  The man that spoke goes upstairs and grabs the jolly Scotsman who runs the place, only now he isn’t jolly.

“Oi… Oi, if you need to use the bathroom, you use the bloody toilet!”  He grabs the rug-pisser and drags him upstairs, never to be seen again.

 I’m laughing to myself and shaking my head in the dark, trying to fall back to sleep.  This is only day one, and we’re gonna be in Europe for a month.

Tech Trek

One of the most interesting things about teaching is its development alongside the evolution of technology.  Education is constantly changing because technology is always improving and giving teachers new tools that can be put to use in the classroom.  Smart educators embrace the ever-changing nature of education, and look for ways to improve their lesson plans with new and fun technology that students can really get into.  Just in my own experiences in education I have seen teachers go from overhead projectors to PowerPoint to Prezi to YouTube. The landscape has become more interactive and students respond much better to these new forms of learning.

Recourses, with the help of the Internet, have become nearly infinite, and looking over some of them provided in the Tech Trek a lot of them are really fun and interesting.

From a teaching perspective sites like Pinterest can be great for new and veteran teachers.  Teachers want their colleagues to do well and are therefore more than happy to share their experiences, their lesson plans, and dos and don’ts with each other.  A quick search on Pinterest can give you great ideas for lessons, examples of graphic organizers and worksheets, and hands on activities for tactile learners.

There are also great resources for students.  Sites like Shelfari are great for students that love to read and for students that might need help getting into reading.  They can share their reading lists and talk about books the liked and ones they might not recommend for a friend.  We don’t always have a lot of time to read, so Shelfari is a great way to research a book and make sure you pick one you are certain to enjoy.

Another resource that really caught my eye was Comic Master.  This site allows students to create their own short graphic novels.  I love the fact that graphic novels are working their way into the Language Arts curriculum and I think they can be a tremendous asset to visual learners.  Some of us need pictures to learn, and this is fact is not always addressed.  Comic Master allows students to create characters, actions, and situations that can really hammer home new concepts.  I think it would be interesting to see if students could create a visual essay using a site like this.  Graphic novels are a way to reach artistic students, and ones that aren’t all that fond of reading and writing.

It’s will be interesting to see how much farther technology in the classroom gets pushed by the time I’m 10 and 20 years into my career.  It’s both fascinating and bewildering to think about.  In 20 years the classroom might look nothing like it does today, but I like that.  When things don’t change they become boring and stale, and teaching should never be either of those things.

For my part I will continue to explore new technology for the classroom and implement it wherever possible.  I didn’t go through all of the suggested links, just the ones that jumped out at me; and so my Tech Trek continues.

SERVICE DOGS

This summer my mother received Hawking.  Hawking is a golden retriever and he is trained as a service animal.  My Mother suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and she has been on a waiting list for 2 years trying to get a service dog.  Hawking has been an enormous help to her; he performs many tasks and makes everyday life much easier.  This week I’m going to talk about service animals, and about New Horizons Service Dogs, a great organization that changes the lives of disabled people every day.

If you have ever been out eating at a restaurant or running errands and you’ve seen a dog that is wearing a vest and staying very close to their owner you have more than likely seen a service dog.

The ADA, which is the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, defines a service dog as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability.  This means that emotional support animals are not considered service animals; the dog has to be trained to perform specific tasks.

So how does a dog become a service animal?  

I’m going to focus on how New Horizons Service Dogs trains their animals.  They are a nonprofit training and placement organization that is located in Orange City and provide dogs to Florida residents that have a need for a service animal.

According to New Horizons the first thing to consider for a service dog is the breed.  The most common service dogs are Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and German Sheppards.  These dogs are considered the most ideal because of their size, temperament, and intelligence.  You want a dog that is going to be big enough to help balance a disabled person and help them sit and stand.  You want a dog that is friendly and can go out in public and not have any issues coming in contact with strangers or other animals.  And you want a dog that is smart enough to learn and remember the over 80 commands that they need to learn.

For the first 4 to 6 months the dog is trained by a puppy raiser, learning basic obedience and skills.

Then the puppy is sent to prison.  New Horizons started its first Prison Pup Program in 2009 and the Florida Department of Corrections was so pleased with the results that there are now programs in 4 different prisons in Florida.  At the Prisons the puppies are further trained in socialization and basic to intermediate skills and tasks.

Following their prison sentence the puppies are taken to advanced trainers which finish they training of the dogs and get them ready to be placed with a disabled person to become their helper dog.

So how does someone get a service dog?  

People with disabilities apply and are interviewed to determine if a service dog is a good fit for their situation.  There is a high demand for service dogs and the waiting list can be as long as 2 to 4 years.

What are the most common disabilities that New Horizons trains for?

When most people think of service dogs they are probably picturing a Seeing Eye dog.  A dog that guides the seeing impaired or the blind.  But New Horizons doesn’t train these dogs.

The first type of person that New Horizons serves is those with neurological diseases and those with spinal injuries.  My mother has MS which is Multiple Sclerosis and that is a neurological disease that affects a person’s balance, causes them to get exhausted very easily and really weakens the hands and feet.  It usually ends with the person being confined to a wheelchair.  Spinal injuries can paralyze arms and legs and can also confine the person to a wheelchair.  For these types of disabilities service dogs are immensely helpful.  They can retrieve dropped items. Turn on light switches, open doors, and hand items to other people.

The next 2 disorders that New Horizons helps most often are ones that I would never have guessed.  The first is PTSD, which is post traumatic stress disorder.  PTSD is a result of trauma and can occur when being exposed to life threatening situations.  For people suffering from PTSD service dogs provide a calming and consistent presence wherever the person goes.  Sometimes Veterans have a hard time assimilating back into everyday life.  The dog will position itself between its owner and strangers, and will literally watch their back when commanded.  Veterans sometimes can’t deal with having people behind them and position themselves with their backs against a wall so they can see everything in front of them.  With the command ‘cover’ the dog will watch the opposite direction and notify the owner of anyone else’s presence.  These dogs give their owners tremendous piece of mind.

The third disability that New Horizons focuses on is children with autism. Through companionship, comfort, and unconditional love, service dogs help provide a calming sense of consistency and stability in the child’s life.  Many of the young recipients have been able to develop a relationship with their dog unlike any that one is able to have with humans.

What happens next? 

Once you’ve been selected to receive a service dog you must complete a 2 week training program.  When you arrive the woman that runs New Horizons has already selected a dog for you based on your needs and the dogs strengths and weaknesses.  She is generally very accurate with her assessments and doesn’t have to switch dogs very often.

For the 2 week training the people are tested with examinations as well as hands on handling of the dogs.  Finally they are taken into the real world on field trips to practice practical skills that will be used in their everyday life.  For the next year New Horizons checks in on the dogs and their owners to make sure everything is running smoothly.

How to act around a service dog:

Ignore them – don’t pet, call, or whistle at service dogs.  They are working and don’t need any distractions.

If you must pet the dog ask first.  The dogs know a ‘make a friend’ command and that is the only time they should pay attention to people other than their masters.

Teach children never to pet a strange dog.  This is good advice for anyone.  Always ask permission, and go by whatever the owner says.