PODD Book Report

For this weeks journal I am reading "Harris and Me" by Gary Paulson. This excellent book starts off explaining the narrators (who goes by "me") situation. He has been raised by an angry, drunk mother and father. Finally CPS steps in and he is bounced back and forth from his relatives homes. The next relative he goes to live with is his distant cousins, the Larson's. The Larson's are what some people would call full blooded rednecks. The Larson's have a little bit of everything on their farm. Chickens, horses, cows, pigs are just to name a few. His cousin Harris is one of the messiest, craziest people he has ever met. Every time Harris lets a cuss word roll out of his mouth his fourteen year old sister Glennis gives him a licking for it. On the first morning he is on the farm Harris wakes him up before the sun has even risen and he's awful upset until he realizes that that's how things work on the farm. On his second day on the Larson farm he meets the dirty farm hand, Louie. Louie is the headrest working man he has ever seen. At dinner that night Louie had his food engulfed before the narrator could say "let's eat." The narrator and Harris are always getting into mischief. One day they got attacked by a rooster named Ernie. Ernie was the meanest thing you'd ever meet. Harris blamed his cousin that they got jumped. Harris said he would have he rooster had he not been distracted. Another day the narrator gets knocked out by Vivian the cow. After he woke from

Most students also have access to the Internet at home and the media center is open before or after school for those who need extra time or assistance. Academically, there is quite a range of diversity among learners. There are three students in the classroom that are identified as exceptional leaners in need of extra reading support. Two are identified regarding written expression. Five are identified as having attention deficit disorder. To make the lesson comparable for all I made sure to use a variety of tools from print sources, to digital tools and I allowed for small group and whole group instruction. Students were encouraged to communicate via print methods on day one, but not required to sign their names. This took away a level of intimidation that may have prevented students from sharing. This makes the content of the lesson equitable for each

When Catherine goes to her brother's occupational therapy meeting, she meets another young man there, Jason, who is about her age. He is confined to a wheelchair, but additionally he cannot speak. He must communicate with words on cards. As someone who is writing all the time, Catherine is struck by how difficult it must be for someone to...

Communication is easy and mothers can talk with their children and they can connect with them. Some people who have this benefit are unaware that some families do not have this advantage in their homes. Lee Thomas and Linh Cao understand that some families have language change through each generation. Cao herself lived in house where her relatives used several different languages and learned first hand that there are many losses when a family doesn’t share a common language.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) encompasses those forms of communication excluding oral speech which enable an individual to express themselves (Bondy & Frost, 1994). It replicates non-functional speech for those individuals with verbal or language difficulties through augmentative aides (Light & Drager, 2007). Recent technological advances have resulted in the availability of electronic devices which can convert text and picture and communication boards, to generate voice output. As a consequence, individuals with communication challenges accessing alternative means with which to express themselves, and in effect improve their social interaction, academic achievements, whilst gaining increased self-determination (Light & Drager, 2007).

He focuses on how technology is supposed to significantly impact a student’s performance and completely forgets to mention how important technology may be for someone who cannot learn well without responsive instruction; for example, technology in the classroom can be beneficial to students that are physically or mentally impaired. On the contrary, the article ‘Technology and Literacy for Adolescents with disabilities’ describes how technology “can be universally beneficial for all students as a vehicle for learner engagement or conveyance of instructional content, and it can also promote participation, learning, and performance by students with disabilities”(King-Sears, Swanson, Mainzer, 569). The article then illustrates an example of how technology can specifically facilitate classroom learning by stating “For example, an electronic picture board with voice output might be considered assistive technology for a student whose disability included significant oral language deficits” (King-Sears, Swanson, Mainzer, 569). In this sense, technology does have a significant role in students’ life, not only making it important, but necessary. Also as mentioned above, the performance of these students have been affected in a significant way. Throughout the article, they describe how these new assistive technologies have changed the two specific students, Brian and Michelle. Brian has dysgraphia which prevents him from being able to transfer his thoughts onto paper and Michelle has Asperger’s Syndrome, which gives Michelle “genius-level intelligence” (King-Sears et al.). The technologically advanced tools that they have both been given are not only specialized to assist them, but also help them do tasks that

Journalist Christopher Leonard spent more than a decade covering the country's biggest meat companies, including four years as the national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press. This what have led him to do what he is doing now.  Christopher Leonard is know an investigative journalist who goes around covering the world's biggest meat companies. Leonard in the book “ The Meat Racket “ shows how companies have seized the nation's meat supply. We also see that the system has also put farmers on the edge of bankruptcy and they are charging consumers high prices. You'll learn how the food industry got to where it is today.  You'll also discover how these companies are able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price

“Washington… was a ‘promised land’ to many a freeman… it was the capital of the nation– that is, of the North that had set them free.”

The book Nineteen Minutes ended with an shocking conclusion. In the scene Peter Houghton had just finished shooting his way through the school, when he encountered his old best friend Josie Cormier and his long-time bully Matt Royston in the locker room of the high school gym.When Peter held up his gun to shoot Matt, Josie screamed which startled Peter, and made him drop his backpack which caused another gun to fall out of his bag. The gun skittered across the floor and Josie grabbed the gun and pointed it at Peter while Matt cowered behind her. In this moment Josie had the decision to either shoot Peter or let him kill Matt and possibly her. Shocking the two boys and herself Josie turns around and shoots Matt in th stomach instead.As

Reading: Due to Kiara’s difficulty with reading and reading comprehension, reading to be challenging. She stated she reads at a slow rate and tends to wander off and not pay attention to what she had read. However, she went on to explain she understands the material better if it is read to her. Kiara had tried the Read and Write Gold program at Holyoke Community College. She liked having the videos she can look back on to remind her how to use the programs. The ATS would like to maintain continuity with the assistive technology at Holyoke Community College; having continuity with the Assistive Technology Department at Holyoke Community College will be significant to Jennifer’s success. The ATS is recommending Kiara use the Read and Write Gold program provided by Holyoke Community College. Since the ATS has the license to Holyoke Community College’s Read and Write Gold program the ATS installed the program into Kiara’s laptop for immediate use. The ATS advised Kiara to make an appointment with the AT department at Holyoke Community College to receive proper training. Kiara will need an All in One Printer; this will allow her to scan material into her computer when a digital format is not provided. Kiara should does not have adequate storage on her phone to download audio books. Kiara will need an iPod Touch in order to upload her audio books into an MP3 file for access when she is not at the computer. The ATS is recommending Kiara is provided with a 32GB iPod and

Bob is finally made president of the Asian Society. This is all that he had ever wanted,

The school team in the case study indicated that they would like to implement more visual prompts and other visual strategies while fading verbal prompting and verbal direction. A strategy that can be implemented to assist Lucia is additional visual supports. Visual cues will work for Lucia, especially because she uses an augmentative communication device. This device is already a form of visual cues and Lucia should be able to adapt to further illustrations, text labels and first and then cards. I think including more pictures in the device would also be helpful. The case study indicates that her device has pictures of her two favorite toys, one friend, her mother, food items and the bathroom. Taking into consideration that Lucia is also an ESL student, she may be using basic words because she is unfamiliar with other words. Adding additional pictures in her device, will help her understand the words and use them and increase her communication. An Edutopia article once stated, “Using photos with English-Language Learners (ELLs) can be enormously effective in helping them learn far more than a thousand words” (Ferlazzo, 2012). Since Lucia is learning to write letters, creating a culturally responsive alphabet for her will also be useful because it will have pictures of items she is familiar with that correlate to each letter. In the book called “Teaching Early Reading and Phonics:

The book A.D.H.D. Nation by Alan Schwarz takes us through the history of A.D.H.D. and shows us through stories and facts, the dangers of misdiagnosis and the abuse of A.D.H.D. medication. The book starts out with the start of medication for children with A.D.H.D. in Dr. Charles Bradley’s children’s hospital. Opened in 1931 the Emma Pendleton Bradley Home located in Providence, Rhode Island, opened their doors to the children that nobody wanted. The hospital was full of toddlers and teens who drove their parents mad with their uncontrollable behavior. It was here that Dr. Bradley created the first form of A.D.H.D. medication. He a created a small, ten milligram tablet in an attempt to ease the children’s headaches. He gave thirty children these

Speech and language disorders, as with any learning disability, can cause embarrassment and social hindrance for students along with the educational setbacks. Unfortunately there is yet to be a cure discovered, but luckily there are many ways in which individuals with learning disabilities can seek treatment and aide. For example a child could receive therapy from a speech pathologist to help them articulate more clearly. There is also assistive technology available for all types of disorders. Assistive technology can help motivate students to overcome the barriers in learning that they face by compensating in the area that they lack. When choosing which type of device that a student should use, it is very important that it is one that will accommodate to the specific disability of the student (Fleming, 1999). For individuals with speech and language disorders, either an electronic communication device or a personal FM listening system would be appropriate. An electronic communication device allows one to type their ideas into a machine so they

During this summer, my friends recommended that I watch a season of Warehouse 13 since I’m fond of science fiction movies, television shows, and books. I thought it was well made therefore I watched all of the episodes and I love most of the seasons. The fifth season seemed rushed and was only six episodes. Other shows I enjoy watching are Doctor Who, Supernatural, and The X-Files but there’s an overabundance of episodes. Warehouse 13 is distinctive by seeing that it won’t take up much time. This show has five seasons and around sixty episodes. They last around forty minutes each so I finished the series in two weeks. I normally don’t binge watch; however, after seeing the Indiana Jones based episode I finished fairly quickly.