This one is a broad overview of the ideas I want to include in my book with some details, it is sort of me just spitting my thoughts and having Ryan take notes and give me some feedback.
I want to warn you guys though, I think I dropped the F-bomb in there somewhere, I was getting worked up and just want to apologize ahead of time. I'm working on watching that when I am blogging.
Also, if you guys have feedback for me, think I missed something or should add something, please feel free to comment publicly or privately.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Goals and Themes
Welcome to the first pre-writing session on my book-in-progress. Today I hashed out the really important underlying issues I have come to feel really strongly about since I have been involved in working with people having difficulty learning.
You are welcome to listen to the pen cast of Ryan and I discussing the ideas:
You are welcome to listen to the pen cast of Ryan and I discussing the ideas:
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Pencast: 1
Some John Dewey Quotes:
“The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worth while. The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity.”
“Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis.”
“Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.”
“The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.”
“The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worth while. The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity.”
“Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis.”
“Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning.”
“The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education ... (and) the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.”
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Gettin set up during finals season... good idea?
Welcome, the lucky few of you who get around to reading my first post. I appreciate your show of loyalty to me. I hope this will pan out into a valuable resource for people who have learning challenges, people who are family/friends/coworkers of people with learning disabilities, teachers, psychology and education professionals.
My vision for this blog is to begin to open up the little box that we are packing learning disabilities into. I want to open a cross discipline and cross community discussion about all students who have difficulty learning in the American "mainstream" classroom.
To lay it all out, this is a discussion about any aspect of learning and education in the context of my experiences and discussions with members of my community.
Inspiration comes from a variety of experiences:
My experiences as an adult with a recently diagnosed learning disability, have changed who I am, who I want to be and what is most important to me.
Growing up undiagnosed irreparably damaged me in some aspects, and provides me an endless sea of determination in improving myself and in making all my resources available for others.
I have seen my abilities and my sense of self grow more in the recent year than it has in my whole life and I want to share that.
I spend much of my time discussing my learning disability, NLD (Nonverbal Learning Disorder), with the online community on face book. The individuals I have met through the group forums are constantly challenging me to synthesize and research more information about learning and the human mind as a whole, and it is an endeavor which I take great pride and enjoyment from.
I frequently have to branch out of my NLD in my research and problem solving because my fiance (who I hope will become a co-author to this blog in the future) has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and we are regularly challenged to accommodate both of our neurological problems at the same time.
If I look around at my closest friends, I have found that I have surrounded myself with people who have other neurological deficits, who all provide me with a rich source of experience that allows me to put a firm context to the often convoluted academic information that I get from my research.
And education is likely to be a frequent theme in this blog, because both my fiance and I are students in a university setting and aspiring teachers. He has one more semester of courses before his student teaching in secondary physics education, and I am pursuing a degree in special education with an emphasis on learning disabilities.
Generally you can expect hot political ideas to surface relatively frequently because we are immersed in the battles of the day. Some examples off the top of my head, English as a Second Language, School/Public policy, Standardized Education, Curriculum Development, Progressive vs. Traditional Pedagogy Practices, the list goes on.
I want to encourage my readers to comment and message me, whether you have a question, you are upset about something, you just want to say hi, or you want to chat. Typically, my best ideas and inspirations comes from the questions and comments I get from other people.
For those interested, here are some links to the discussion forums I regularly participate in.
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=83530935976
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=5817612058
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=2237450434
My vision for this blog is to begin to open up the little box that we are packing learning disabilities into. I want to open a cross discipline and cross community discussion about all students who have difficulty learning in the American "mainstream" classroom.
To lay it all out, this is a discussion about any aspect of learning and education in the context of my experiences and discussions with members of my community.
Inspiration comes from a variety of experiences:
My experiences as an adult with a recently diagnosed learning disability, have changed who I am, who I want to be and what is most important to me.
Growing up undiagnosed irreparably damaged me in some aspects, and provides me an endless sea of determination in improving myself and in making all my resources available for others.
I have seen my abilities and my sense of self grow more in the recent year than it has in my whole life and I want to share that.
I spend much of my time discussing my learning disability, NLD (Nonverbal Learning Disorder), with the online community on face book. The individuals I have met through the group forums are constantly challenging me to synthesize and research more information about learning and the human mind as a whole, and it is an endeavor which I take great pride and enjoyment from.
I frequently have to branch out of my NLD in my research and problem solving because my fiance (who I hope will become a co-author to this blog in the future) has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and we are regularly challenged to accommodate both of our neurological problems at the same time.
If I look around at my closest friends, I have found that I have surrounded myself with people who have other neurological deficits, who all provide me with a rich source of experience that allows me to put a firm context to the often convoluted academic information that I get from my research.
And education is likely to be a frequent theme in this blog, because both my fiance and I are students in a university setting and aspiring teachers. He has one more semester of courses before his student teaching in secondary physics education, and I am pursuing a degree in special education with an emphasis on learning disabilities.
Generally you can expect hot political ideas to surface relatively frequently because we are immersed in the battles of the day. Some examples off the top of my head, English as a Second Language, School/Public policy, Standardized Education, Curriculum Development, Progressive vs. Traditional Pedagogy Practices, the list goes on.
I want to encourage my readers to comment and message me, whether you have a question, you are upset about something, you just want to say hi, or you want to chat. Typically, my best ideas and inspirations comes from the questions and comments I get from other people.
For those interested, here are some links to the discussion forums I regularly participate in.
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=83530935976
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=5817612058
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?imported#/group.php?gid=2237450434
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