Education Of Dyslexic Children

This article primarily talks about what dyslexia is, diagnosis, and treatment. I personally do not have any experience with this reading disability. For that reason I found the article interesting for myself to gain a little better insight into what it really is and how to help students with this problem. I certainly feel as if I have quite a bit more research to do before I could even think about getting involved with aiding a student and look forward to further discussion in the course.

I found an interesting ted talk on youtube about dyslexia. This is only a piece of the entire talk which can be found in a link from this video.

How The Special Needs Brain Works

I found this article very interesting. The first quite that spoke to me was “Reading is probably the most difficult task for the young brain to do.” If you connect this with the image found later in the reading, it makes sense.

Reading involves three central processes working together to see, hear, and process the words. If there is a problem with any of these processes, reading can be affected. The article goes on to talk about physical and social/cultural problems that affect an individual’s ability to read. I find it very interesting that difference cultural groups have a higher chance of having an issue with reading then others. I can however understand that reading can be hindered when a child is not exposed to much reading outside of school.

The paper finishes by looking at what teachers should do to help identify reading difficulties and to also help teach reading to students. I look forward to investigating this deeper as the course continues. 

The video I am sharing looks at an individual who had a stroke and was no longer able to read. This led to an MRI and a study as to how the brain interprets reading.

Scanning A Patient With An Acquired Reading Disorder

Tuesday July 8th

Today we completed our app smash activity and will be presenting tomorrow. My partner and I had the opportunity to use many different apps including wordfoto, cloudart, kidsdoodle, tellagami, kidsart, picplaypost, union, and tooncamera. After using these programs I can certainly see the appeal for education. For example, tooncamera provides students with the ability to record video presentations while personifying themselves as a cartoon. This would help reduce the stress students would undertake when doing a presentation. In the creation of a cartoon, students viewing the presentation should be less judgmental as the sincerity of the message is still present but the image is not quite as serious.

All of these applications allow students to present information in a non-standard form. Each is fairly straightforward and can be easily used by individuals with a wide range of skill/knowledge.

I came across this video on Facebook about kids reacting to receiving "the GameBoy". I found this interesting and thought I would share. Interesting to see how far we have come.....

About Me

I figured this would be a good way to introduce myself, let you all know a little about me, post some pictures, and link to youtube. :)

My name is Jonathan Ettinger and I just finished my 5^th year of teaching. I was born and raised in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and graduated from Glace Bay High School in 2004. After graduation, I attended Cape Breton University to obtain my B.Sc. (Honors) in Mathematics and Chemistry followed by my B.Ed. through Memorial University. Upon graduation, I spent my first year at home in Cape Breton working as a substitute teacher for the Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board. At the end of the year, I was told that due to the lack of job opportunities for teachers, the CBVRSB would not be hiring for an unforeseeable amount of time. That same night, I looked at the job openings for all of the other school boards in Nova Scotia. Tri-County Regional School Board was the only one that had a vacancy at this time. I applied for the job, was interviewed later in the week, and was lucky enough to be hired as a permanent teacher later that night. At the end of the summer I moved to Digby, Nova Scotia to start my new position teaching mathematics and science at the adult high school. After two years of teaching at the adult high, I began working on my M.Ed. in leadership through Acadia University. I then spent the next year working at the adult high and completing courses toward my degree. This year I obtained a new position as the Community Based Learning Consultant for the Tri-County Regional School Board. I am now spending my time working in this new position and completing the last few courses necessary to finish my degree.

Outside of school and work, I am a big fan of movies and music, and DisneyWorld (heading down on August 1st). I am a professional musician and have been lucky enough to play a lot of places with a lot of great people. Here is a picture from stage at Cavendish Beach Music Fest opening for Rascal Flatts.

My wife, Aselin, is also a professional musician, and quite a bit better then me I must add J, and uses her talent to make a living. It is great being able to share the stage together. 

You may even recognize some of her music yourselves as she has been played quite extensively on the radio, television, and Much Music back in the day. If you are interested in hearing some of her stuff, you can just do a quick search on youtube or visit her website to hear her latest album, which I helped produce. 

www.AselinDebison.com

Here is the link to her Facebook fan page where you can find some pictures and performance videos. You may recognize her latest single "Close To You" from one of the videos. 

Aselin Debison Facebook Page

ECMA Fan Performance Videos

I also linked the youtube video from her single "Life". Please ignore the lovely introduction as it was a fan who put the video up and added that piece all on their own.

Touching the Virtual, Touching the Real

I found the article “Touching the virtual, touching the real: iPads and enabling literacy for students experiencing disability” very interesting to read. I am not surprised to see that students with disabilities are using the iPad in the classroom to promote literacy. The idea that the iPad allows students to access things they would not normally be able to makes sense. I found the idea of the three types of touch interesting. I would myself think that students would obtain a better understanding of things if they were able to apply physical or virtual touch rather then vicarious touch. Clearly this is not always the case. I do however see the benefit of vicarious touch. I would also think that vicarious touch could lead to physical/virtual touch for some students who are not quite confident enough to try it right away.

I did like that the teacher mentioned that they had reservations about young children over using new media at the expense of their social development. I think it is important to realize, as this teacher did, that the iPad is a tool to aid in the learning process. It is not meant to take over the entire process and the need for social development is still high. The key is proper-targeted use that allows students to expand their learning experiences and complete activities they may not have been able to do in the past.

I happen to be taking another course this summer with a music cohort as well as staying in the same section in residence with them. Some of their ideas seem to be rubbing off. As a musician myself, I know that reading, writing, and playing music is sort of a literacy event on its own. I found the following article that talks about one music education using iPads with students to allow them to be part of the band. I thought you may find it interesting.

iPads & Music

Friday July 4th - Conference Day

Today there were no classes as all students attended a conference. There were several sessions that were interesting but the one that spoke to me the most was by Martin Morrison on race and identity. It was very clear that Martin is passionate about his field of study and is happy to share his experiences with others. This passion was infectious and made for a very interesting talk. I never really thought of myself as privileged before this day. Don’t get me wrong, I am greatly for what I have and have always been thankful. What I mean to say is that I never really considered myself privileged because of my race. I am aware of racism and some of the things that minorities have to deal with. What I never really considered was that in order to combat this I must first look at and understand myself. I need to understand my own identity and what it means to be a white male. Martin explained that it is only thought this realization that we can begin to understand and combat the real issue that is taking place.

When I was in a classroom, I was one of those teachers that believed I treated all students fairly no matter their race. To me this meant that students who I perceived to possess similar backgrounds would essentially receive the same consequences when certain tasks were not completed. I now realize that by doing this, I am making certain assumptions that I am not capable of understanding due to racial differences. What I perceived to be fair was probably in fact not fair in every situation. The session today will help me in my future by reminding me to obtain a better understanding of my students before I decide what is or is not “fair”.

A Breakthrough for Josh

After reading through the article “How Use of an iPad Facilitated Reading Improvement”, I felt that the results obtained made sense. This particular student needed intervention to assist him with reading. The school determined that this intervention needed to be “one-on-one” but was incapable of providing the support. When Kristen tutored the child, she was able to provide the one-on-one experience needed. This in itself would help with the intervention. Kristen then used the iPad, a device that the child was familiar with and used in class, to provide the student with lessons to develop stronger reading and comprehension levels. Using technology that interests students often has positive results. In order for a student to progress, they have to care and want to do so. Using materials that are current and interesting to the student help increase the interest level and provide the student with a meaningful learning experience. The fact that this was successful does not surprise me. Assistive technology, when used properly, can create huge improvements in student activity. Kristen was able to not only make learning meaningful for Josh, but also fun. If you can show students that learning can be fun and get them invested, positive results are bound to follow.