The children are very special

Friday was another day of teaching in Special Education.  It was a great day, with a class of 9-11 year olds which I taught a last week for a day.  This time it was just the Teacher Aide and me. 

At the end of the school day, we realised that we had not covered Father’s Day cards.  We did manage to fit in a session on different types of families, though, so I think that helped for the children with no fathers.

For my lunch supervision, J. from a different class remembered me and asked me to take him through the gym.  These students love their PE classes and often practice on the outdoors gym on the day of their lesson. 

Thursday night I saw the video about Jacob Barnett, who is at college at 14 years of age.  He started in Special Education and says his education stopped there, but he learned to think and create. 

I think it helps the image of any country immensely to have students like Jacob achieve so much from such humble beginnings.  Every country should really focus on helping these children as much as possible.  It will do wonders for the reputation of the Education system in any country that does.

T. and the accident

Today I was with a new class for supply teaching.  The lovely teacher aide, T., was out on playground duty when she hugged someone the wrong way or something and put her neck out.  It was quite painful and the other teachers had to bring ice and call the ambulance.

Poor B., the student who hugged her, was distraught.  He sat with the school chaplain and made a lovely picture for T., but was not consoled for long.  “Where is T.?” he demanded.  “How is she?”.

We had to combine two classes because T. was away for the afternoon.  Quite a few eventful things made the day interesting, like playing Duck, Duck, Goose and reading “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”.

I hope that T. will be OK soon.  She will probably be bruised for a few days and might be taking some time off.  One of the mothers was volunteering with the bigger students, so she might be called on to help out tomorrow.

It was just that morning the B. was telling me about Alex the lion in “Madagascar” and how he chased his friend, Marty.  He seemed in awe of Alex and Marty.  I hope it didn’t make him feel worse when poor T. had the accident.

 

Finalising the thesis

Yesterday I did some research in the area of education as an social structure and found some very interesting information.  Sociologists seem to have been arguing about this for a while, as if formal education has many roles, the least of which is to help students to think independently as contributors to the betterment of the human condition.

The effects of the virus that I have had for the last 2-3 weeks seems to be abating, and I am able to think more clearly about my writing, at last.  I had a blood test for my doctor to see how my rhubella and other immunity is going.  Apparently, there is an outbreak of measles in Melbourne at present.   Doing work experience in child care is helping me to build immunity.

I somehow think that education and health care are linked at the basic level of why they are funded by governments, so I will have to think on that and see if it is relevant to my thesis.

 

Sally, Marie and Sheree

Today I had some awesome helpers with a class of 8-11 year olds.  The room itself was packed to the rafters with activity boxes and all types of books and learning equipment.  It was the most comprehensively equipped room I have ever seen.

The children were very friendly and calm today, thanks to my three helpers.  Only Sally stayed to the end of the day, but they had worked their magic by that time.  We had a morning routine, some writing, play, a story and maths.  How excellent is that, to have a great maths program for children in Special Education!  I was very impressed.

I must say that I really like that school and hope that I have the opportunity to work there again soon.  I think I will have to include Special Education in my studies if I convert my Graduate Certificate in Education to a Master’s degree.

Rheumatoid Arthritis research

Yesterday I spent the day preparing a report and presentation on injury prevention in clients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  The topic is very interesting, as I had not realised that women in their first pregnancy are one of the main groups at risk of developing symptoms.

To my surprise, I found an Australian article, a website and the text book article to be very helpful.  What remains a mystery is the effect of all the medications on exercise response, although there are some general guidelines. 

I’m guessing that if you can’t grasp with your hands or flex your feet much, that limits a lot of the gym-based exercises that require equipment, dumb bells, bikes, treadmills and the like.  Thank goodness for water aerobics and swiss balls!

I also have another topic to sort out in the next couple of days and hope to fit that in with my work at a local Special School today.  I was at the school last week with some delightful children and their therapists.  Hopefully it will go well today.

Strawberry runners

This is what was in the strawberry bed this morning, when I picked some strawberries!  I have never seen how strawberries make runners before.  The little seeds on the outside have turned into leaf-like protuberances.  The head of the strawberry was burrowing into the loose straw and topsoil.  All around it are the little green flutter bits.

It is just so cute!

I went for a run in the morning with Max.  Nothing as dramatic as the strawberry runners, but lots of fun just the same.

 

Studying, wherefore art thou?

Day four of my adudlt reaction to minor childhood diseases, and I am now much more mentally alert and ablt to think of sorting out my reading and assignments for the next few weeks.

A friend sent a link to a radio interview that she recently broadcast, which starts at around 41 minutes.  It’s an interesting interview, but the journalists seemed a bit concerned about whether there was a clash of values that enabled Crystal to achieve what she has.  I had never thought of radio journalists as gate keepers of social value systems, but they clearly seem to be very aware of that side of their work.

http://www.anitafinlay.com/Blog/2013/08/13/crystal-nichols-football-referee-and-princess-warrior/

I think in Australia it is teachers who act as gate keepers and journalists are more independent and risk-taking.  In any case, my friend seemed able to hold her own with the journalists and they did support her really well.

 

 

 

 

Child care and its ailments

I’ve had fun for my first 16.5 hours of work experience in child care.  They put me in with the babies on the first day and most of the second day with the last few hours in the playground.

The structures and routines for child care are amazing.  They have great A3 posters for a summary of each day’s activites with coloured photographs printed on the paper.  There is a dedicated cook who prepares all the purees, fruit, lunches and drinks.  It is just incredible how far the industry has come in the last few years!

One of the essential parts of childcare is building immunity to the childhood diseases.  This week, I have been working on hand, foot and mouth disease.  It’s not something I have heard of before, but it is very common as a mild infectious disease among children.  Apparently, I can lead to complications, so care is needed.

As an adult, I seem to have a good base for immunity and now have cold and flu-like symptoms.  This seems to be a sign of fighting off the virus. 

I look forward to going back, perhaps in a couple of days, so that I can find out about the older age groups and their carers.  If not this week, I expect I will be fine next week.

The children all seem to bright and happy in their child care centre, so I am sure it will be a great experience as I continue with my practical hours and assessment.

Mentor found!

This week my e-mail from the university arrived saying that I have a mentor match.  Finally!  He is an information technology person in New South Wales who studied at my university up to 2012.

At present, he is travelling overseas, but will be in town once a month when he returns.  At least it seems as though we can meet face-to-face at some stage.  He sent an e-mail with aon overview of his background in IT which shows he is eminently qualified to be an excellent mentor for me.

This week I have been busy at a child care centre doing some practical hours for my qualification in Early Childhood.  We also started our gym work for the DIploma in Fitness.  The hands-on part was a lot of fun and the teachers have been really great.  It has been a real privilege working with the little children who have so much fun at child care that they try to fit in as much play as possible before they are collected by their parents.

I also went to a coffee break and short seminar session in the CBD after the gym session and met some great post graduate students, including teachers.  Uma from India is studying human resources, so we swapped details in case she can help me with my careers counselling interview.

It has been a great week, all up and I hope to take a break on the weekend and also finish some assignments and thesis work.

 

Red Cross Ladies

This morning I met the Red Cross ladies when I went in for my blood donation.  I was only five minutes late, which is not unusual there, they tell me.

My blood pressure was 97/65 which seemed lower than normal and my haemoglobin was 139, apparently also fine.  This last week or two for some reason the air seems full of oxygen.  I’m not sure whether it’s moisture in the air from the snow down South or something else.  Maybe it’s the salads I’ve been making, or the vegetables Peter brought us these last few weeks.

In any event, the procedure went fine and fairly quickly.  There were two lovely volunteers in the main building who chatted with us.  One had been a worker with Red Cross and now she has been a volunteer for 25 years!  That’s amazing community spirit.

I stayed for a cup of tea and date and ginger biscuit, where were very nice.  Another lady there had both arms wrapped in shrink bandage even though she could not actually give blook.  Perhaps her blook pressure was not strong enough? 

They made my next appointment for November.  Apparently donating plasma can occur more frequently, but I have to work that one out first, to see how I feel about it all.