Cartoon Saturday - Fun with Calvin and Hobbes

Freaky Friday Fun! The Truth of Lies & IPODS

Watch Macro Tempest use 3 IPods to teach us about truth, lies and deception.  This is a short video that you will want to watch a few times - very fun!  Happy Freaky Friday my Dragonfly friends!  

Cartoon Saturday - Graduation

Feature Friday - Sharing my story - Jill Lam

Hi Dragonfly Friends!  I would like to say thanks for following me and all my adventures.  I sometimes share some personal information but sometimes my blog is a place I can share insights into what it is like to be a person with a disability.  I am in many school districts all over the state of Ohio and so I hear comments that I find shocking, frustrating, and down right sad.  When this happens I tend to write a blog post to enlighten others to the reality of what is going on. 

Today, I wrote a different blog post for one of the other things that I volunteer my time to- Decoding Dyslexia Ohio.  I have started a new blog so people with dyslexia can share their own stories & the stories of what it is like to be a parent of a child with dyslexia.  Please feel free to email me if you are interested in sharing a story at 4DecodingDyslexiaOhio@gmail.com.  

Here's my first blog post which is all about ME!  So please check it out and share it with others so I can start posting the stories of others.  If you do not have dyslexia and want to share your story please email me (TheDragonflyForest@gmail.com) that information too because I am willing to share it here on a future Feature Friday post!  

http://decodingdyslexiaoh.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-journey-with-dyslexia-dysgraphia-add.html

Cartoon Saturday - Baby Blues

Words from Parents and Dragonflies Wednesday - Stories about the impact of one teacher

For Words from Parents and Dragonflies Wednesday I will be sharing information about teachers who impacted the lives of students. 

As a teacher you may have an idea of what life is like for your students but you probably have no idea what is really happening in their private life.   

The student may be performing poorly for a variety of reasons without your knowledge.  

• The student may have a learning disability which makes learning VERY hard and therefore they may avoid all types of academic work.  

• The student may have an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol because they got caught up with the wrong group of kids.  

• The student may have one or both parents addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.  

• The student may come from a family that is on the verge of bankruptcy or eviction and therefore the student may have to work long hours on just has to live with the stress of never having enough money.

• The student may be living in a physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abusive environment.

• The student may have a family member that is sick (cancer, depression, MS...).

As a teacher you really don't know exactly what the student is dealing with outside of your classroom, especially if the student appears to have a "perfect" home environment.  If you assume that a student is NOT participating or studying because they are LAZY you are wrong.  Students avoid the work for a reason- it's hard, they are overwhelmed, they have more pressing things on their minds, they don't see the value in academic work, or they are experiencing so much shame trying hide what is really happening in their lives. 

The list above are just some of the reasons why students may not be performing up to their potential in school.  Most of the time it takes just one teacher to make a positive impact on the life of a student.  This one teacher can help the student know they are valued and worth saving.  This teacher can see beyond the bad grades and poor performances and make sure the student does not fail. Here is a clip from one of my favorite movies: Freedom Writers that shows what it would be like to have a teacher care.  Think how this interaction from one teacher could change the life of a student no matter what they were dealing with in his/her personal life.  I pray we have more teachers like this and less teachers who shame, blame, and assume a student is LAZY!

5 Qualities a parent appreciates in a teacher

Today for National Teacher Appreciation Day I wanted to touch on 5 qualities a parent appreciates in a teacher. 

There is nothing better than a teacher that really cares for your child because all parents want their child to learn with their self-esteem intact.   

I often here these comments from parents of children with special needs when they talk about what they appreciate about their child's teacher.

To my child's teacher - Thank you for...

• Never giving up on my child.  Learning is not easy for my child and he can give up quickly but you have always been there to encourage him and motivate him to persevere.   

• Leaning about my child's disabilities.  I can't tell you how much it means to me that you are willing to spend your extra time researching the most current information about my child's disabilities so you can empathize and teach her based on her own individual needs!

• Having the courage to stand up for my child.  Because of my child's disabilities he cannot advocate for himself and needs adults around him to be his voice.  

• Not letting my child fail.  My child's brain does not process learning like the brains of other children and it takes her much longer to learn.  Thanks so much for being patient with her and using all your tricks and techniques to assure that she is learning the curriculum.

• Communicating with me!  I love my child and want him to learn and be successful.  I cannot be at school with him to know what he is learning and what he is not learning so thanks for keeping me informed.  There is nothing worse for a parent than thinking your child is fine and learning only to discover that they have been failing for weeks and you didn't know.  Those are weeks that are now lost and causes me, as a parent, to panic. Thanks for keeping me updated.  It makes me feel more secure.

Teachers have a lot of impact on the lives of our children so I'd like to leave you with a video and some pictures I posted today on all the different Facebook pages I admin.

This video I posted on my Forest Alliance Coaching FB page is a collection of clips from the Movie "Temple Grandin." Temple is a hero of mine and someone you should know no matter what disability you and/or your child has!