Jenna

I am really glad we had a guest speaker tonight. It helped me to better understand what it is like to be deaf-which of course I know I will never completely understand. But, nevertheless, Jenna being in our classroom tonight truly made deaf individuals communication and language more clear to me.

I am familiar with ASL and Cochlear implants but I have only been exposed to them (including people who are deaf) very rarely in my life. When I was in elementary and highschool I didn't have any classmates that were deaf. When I came to EKU, it was the first time I had really been around it at all. It was very beneficial to me.

So- Jenna, if you read this, thank you for coming!

The Language Rich Article

I just finished typing out my article review, and I thought the article was a cool one to read. I had never thought about using a collaborative process like that in a classroom to enhance language aquisition. The article had some great ideas that I think would be a very effective and fun way for students to aquire different aspects of language. It's always great to broaden the horizon when it comes to education.

Article!

I'm really glad someone pointed out that the article had missing pages. I skimmed through it the other day and realized some things didn't quite make sense, but I figured it was because I didn't fully read it. So thanks to whoever figured out the whole page thing and I'm off to work on it now! :]
See everyone monday!

Spring Break!

I cant believe our spring break is almost over :( I have done some home work, but I feel like I havent done anything....which is good :) I havent done the test or article yet...but there both not due until the 19th, so I will do them this weekend!! I look forward to class on Monday, but I really wish this spring break wouldnt end!!

Seven Weeks

I hope everyone is enjoying their break! :)

I didn't get to vacation this spring break, but I am enjoying the time off-nevertheless! I just looked at my calendar for the rest of the semester and there will be only SEVEN WEEKS of this semester left (not including finals) after we come back from SB~ Yay!

Also, thank you very much Mrs. White for allowing the extension on our exam and article summary/critique. You are one of the most caring professors I've had throughout my college career! I love that I'm able to finish my exam on my own time... instead of while I was bombarded with a million other things to do during midterm week.

Thanks again- I hope everyone is getting plenty of R&R!

Question about observational report

I forgot to ask this. So we can go into a regular education room or does it need to special education room? I just wanted to clarify this. Thanks

Article - Reading Response

If you were NOT in class on Monday, your article - reading response IS STILL DUE in two weeks, March 19th. I would suggest you contact a classmate and make a copy of the article. It does not scan well in order for me to transmit it (email) electronically.

The Test

Mrs. White, I just wanted to thank you again for extending the date on our test and article!!! Im one of those people who does not deal with pressure well, and the fact that we can open our test up more than once and have after Spring break to finish is GREAT! However, I also love getting things finished so Im trying to get everything resolved before I leave Friday. ANYWAY thanks soo soo much..it helps my anxiety tons!

Family Emergency

I have not quit the Monday night class, last week I attended the Wed. class. My mother went for what was supposed to be a small routine surgery last Friday evening for a bowel obstruction, but it turned out to be much more than that. I was scheduled for military training and was already at the training site taht night, when my sister called to tell me I had to get to Somerset as fast as possible because the nurses had came out to tell them my mother was not going to live through the surgery. She did pull through, but she is in intensive care at Somerset Hospitle. There is no certainty that is going to make it just yet, but things are slowly looking better. I am taking turns with my father staying by her side all through the nights. I am going to do my best to be in class tommorrow night, but I am still curious as to what we went over?

test 2!

i just wanted to confirm that we did NOT [do not?] have a test today! for some reason, i have it written in my planner that we do, but i thought we did not....if someone could help clarify for me, id really appreciate it!
thanks everyone!

Class Monday

I agree that class was helpful. But it also made me start my child search over! And then I thought I would use a 4 year old my cousin babysits, but apparently she is a child genious and has perfectly developed speech!

Monday Night's Class

I really needed monday night's class! I was definitely confused about the language sample project and had NO idea where to start. But last class really helped me out! I think I'll be doing mine over form instead of the other two. I seemed to grasp it more than semantics or pragmatics. I'm pretty good with sentences and I think that would really show that I know what I'm doing. :)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

Language Project - Make Up - Help Session

I am willing to do a Make Up session and go over each section of the project for ANY ONE who is interested - IF THERE IS AN INTEREST. I'll do this for ONE student or ten. Numbers do not matter. One is important.

Because of my full time work load the only time I could do it would be a Thursday evening or a weekend (most likely a Sunday afternoon). However, depending on IF and WHO responds I'll make the decision at that time.

If you are interested in attending a "How to Do My Conduct & Analyze My Language Project"

Nice Flair!!

I love the way some of you - at least there are some in this class and/or the other...have included their picture with their post! I think it personalizes the posts not to mention helps me put faces with names.

Feel free to upload photos to the blog, post your picture, etc. I encourage your creativity!

Language Sample

I now have a greater understanding of our language sample, I know that we all discussed that pragmatics seems to be the easier of the three, but after Monday night I feel that Form would be the one thats less in depth. We didn't hit on semantics but it would seem to be pretty difficult. Just for the sake of discussion, does anyone else have some thoughts about this or anything else to do with the Language Sample?

Hey everyone!

I'm at work at the EKU library and it's still snowing outside! I hope everyone has a safe and warm commute in the morning! :)

(BTW- if you're ever in the library when I'm working at the main circulation desk feel free to stop by and say 'Hi')

Tonight's class!

I enjoyed tonights class because it clarified a lot of questions that I had about the project!! Brainstorming really helped me to get an idea as to how I was going to do my project, and what child I was going to use as well! However, I'm very concerned about my test score!! Is there going to be anything that we can do for extra credit? It wasn't that bad, but for a perfectionist like myself it was heart stopping!! haha!

Establishing & Maintaining the Topic

It is good to see the various ideas that are being shared on the blog. As we are now used to logging on and posting to the blog it is time to take our online communication "to the next level." How can we create a place that fosters more effective communication, interaction and discussion of ideas in one place on the blog?

Pragmatics - how we USE language effectively is one of the components of language we are addressing throughout this semester. Online pragmatics are different than face to face. Establishing and maintaining the topic on a BLOG is a bit different than face to face.

One of the skills that would promote having ONE conversation about ONE topic is to post all comments about a topic in ONE place. This means prior to creating a NEW post please scroll through the recent posts and see what has been posted recently. Often times the idea or topic you are getting ready to post regarding is ALREADY in a another place with a current THREAD of discussion. Please post to THAT discussion MAINTAINING THAT TOPIC in that one location. Before you create a new post think about your idea and see if/how it might fit into another topic that has been submitted in the past week or so. If no posts/discussions on THAT TOPIC have already been started then "establish a new topic/create a new post."

You receive points for posts or comments that you contribute to the blog.

Welcome to Holland

Since everyone is talking about inspirational children I wanted to share one of my favorite poems written by a lady about her son who has Down Syndrome. It really puts handicaps into a new perspective.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
byEmily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Class Monday

I was also very moved by the stories shared in class. It has me thinking about my own dreams and what I want to do with my life and it's pretty overwhelming.

I also like looking at the books in class and hearing other people's ideas on how to incorporate them into classroom use.