Week 9 - Personal (Spring Break)

Well the week of Spring Break began on a very interesting note as the car we were travelling in unfortunately broke down on the interstate leaving us stranded. We had to call for help and our tow truck arrived almost 2 hours after we had called because we were so far out from any of the small towns or cities. This then resulted in our travelling time doubling and a trip that was only meant to take 7-8 hours took almost 13!

I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to go to Ava’s beach house for Spring break which is located along Gulf shores. The first few days consisted of us just relaxing and enjoying having no work to complete for school. At the beginning of the week the weather was terrible with constant rain and thunderstorms which made the beach house sway a little. Thankfully as the week went on the sun came out and on Tuesday we were able to spend the full day lying on the beach. Unfortunately for me I accidently fell asleep out in the sun and got burnt to a crisp. Needless to say I will not be making that mistake again!

One evening we all went to this restaurant called Lambert’s which has now become one of my favourite places to eat. It is not only known for the delicious food that is served but also the food that is thrown. Yes, they actually throw deliciously warm bread rolls at you when you raise and wave your hand. I was rather proud with myself for managing to catch all of mine! The waiters also enjoying pulling the odd prank as they have a pretend bottle of ketchup that squirts out a red lace and a clear jug of gravy that when tipped seems like it will cover you when in actual fact it is plastic. I also found it interesting to learn that last year they baked 520 dozen rolls per day, resulting in a grand total of 2,246,400 individual rolls being used in one year!

My friend Sarah also gave me the fantastic opportunity to visit Fort Morgan which was built in 1812. The fort was attacked repeatedly during the civil war. The main aim of the fort was to prevent enemy forces from entering Mobile Bay. I found it interesting to be standing on a site that was used not only in both World Wars but also in the Spanish American war. We toured the museum and the remains of the buildings which were once the coast artillery officer’s living headquarters, a hospital and post bakery. On Thursday, Sarah, her boyfriend and I drove to New Orleans which quickly became one of my favourite cities and this conclusion was only drawn from first impressions! Its cobbled streets are lined with beautiful paintings and buildings and I enjoyed having a look around the shops. This also included a quick glance around a Voo Doo shop which was an experience I will never forget! Sarah has been kind enough to invite me to join her when she revisits New Orleans at Easter so a more detailed description will follow in the near future of this amazing city!

Week 8 - Cultural

One of the main differences I have found here in the States is the existence of sororities and fraternities. These are Greek organisations that focus around friendship (sisterhood and brotherhood), philanthropies that are the charities that the sororities or fraternities support and help to raise money for and keeping a high overall academic achievement. Some of the names of such organisations at Ole Miss include Pi bataphi (pi phi), Alpha omicron pi (a o pi) and Delta delta delta(tri delt).

I have been fortunate to make friends with girls who belong to some of the sororities and they have given me an excellent insight to what goes on within the organisation. Firstly to even be considered for a sorority you have to go through the rushing process. This is typically held at the start of their freshman year and is a week long process. The girls get to visit all of the houses and their admittance is based on mutual selection, i.e. the girls pick their favourite house and the present members decide whether or not you are the right material for that sorority and invite you back. I was shocked to hear just how expensive it would be to join a sorority with the range from as low as $600 to as high as $2500 a semester! Some students even take out loans just to stay in a sorority!

When you are invited to join you must go through an initiation process which includes a ceremony. At this point the girls cannot divulge any more information about what is included in the ceremony as it is regarded as secret and only members know. As a new member (aka a pledge) you must sign your name in the house book and raise your right hand and swear loyalty. The President of the house stays with you for the rituals and also tells you about the foundation and history of the house. You are usually only a new member for a few months and you can continue to remain in a sorority through your sophomore year.

During the pledge ship the girls find out more about the history of the house and also begin attending weekly meetings which are called chapter meetings. The girls usually have to dress up in formal attire including dresses and heels and sometimes professors would be invited to join the meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to keep up with events as the girls maintain a high presence on campus through attending main events. The sororities also would do things like sell cookies and community service to help raise money for their chosen charity and this is all discussed at their meetings.

As mentioned earlier the sororities also have to uphold a good GPA and have appointed study hours to keep their grades up. Some of the sororities even make their members sign into the library and if they do not complete the required hours they can get fined $15.

The houses are very grand looking with the majority having big white pillars on the front porch along with the symbol of the house engraved on the front wall. Both sororities and fraternities have house mothers who help them out with their chapter meetings. The fraternities on campus even have an in house chef who cooks their three meals a day which is included in their semester fee. They have also got sweethearts who are girls chosen by the fraternities to help them get things ready for events, bake cookies etc. However to even be considered to take on the role of the sweetheart you have to have been dating one of the male members of the house for over a year.

This Greek community is very close and is a great opportunity to meet a lot of new people and make friends for life. In being in either a sorority for fraternity you are also securing a good strong social network which would benefit many members in their future when looking for jobs.

Week 7 – Professional

This week we got to teach our first lesson together which meant that we got to try out what it would be like to co-teach. This was a very useful experience as it may come up in our future career. Needless to say this was a rather interesting experience for both of us as we are both used to having our own classroom and having all the control of the content and how it would be taught. I found it helpful to have another person to share the workload with and when planning we were able to bounce ideas of each other and decide together which way was the most effective teaching strategy for learning.

We already had some background knowledge of what co-teaching would involve not only from our classes in Stranmillis but our Special Needs Class had introduced this teaching strategy as it is very popular in the States. We also discovered that there are many different types of co-teaching such as one teach, one observe, station teaching and alternative teaching. Each type of co-teaching has its own advantages and potential pitfalls. We decided to use station teaching as this is also the type that the children are familiar with and seemed to be most effective. Station teaching is when ‘the teachers divide instruction into two, three or more nonsequential components and each is addressed in a separate area of the room.’ (Friend, 2008) We decided to divide the children into their four separate groups which had already been decided by the teacher due to their different abilities. After around 10-15 minutes we would rotate the groups so that every group had the same chance at each station. Kelly and I both looked after two of the groups at one time whilst providing support and guidance.

The lesson we conducted was based around cars and began with Kelly briefly recapping on their previous lesson followed by introducing the new form of transport with the help of the story of the ‘Rattletrap Car’ by Phyllis Roots. After reading half of the story and leaving the children to predict what would happen next, she then quickly explained the objectives for the day. After that the children then divided into their groups. Each station brought something different aiding the children’s stimulation and motivation. I had expected it to be extremely difficult to keep the children’s’ attention but the majority of them seemed to concentrate very well considering they are only 3-4 years old. I believe it helped to only have short, structured stations which meant that the children always had something to do. Stations included getting the children to practice writing the letter C, making their own 2D car, playing creatively with some instruments to represent the noises of the car from the book and sorting the cars into different categories via their colour, height, number etc. The lesson then finished with me reading the last part of the story, seeing if the children were right in their predictions and discussing what they had just learnt.

In hindsight I found it was a lesson that could not have been conducted by one person and having someone to share the responsibility eased the pressure. If I was to do this lesson again I think I would substitute the instruments for another station as the noise levels tended to rise and fall making it sometimes difficult for the children at the other stations to focus. Overall the lesson did go well and the children’s end work helps to show their success as shown in the picture.

References

Friend, M. (2008) Special Education, Contemporary Perspectives for School Professionals, Pearson Education Inc, New Jersey

Week 6 - Professional

As mentioned before Kelly and I are taking a course that is about people with severe learning difficulties. The course so far has been very interesting and I am learning to be thankful for everything that I have and not taking anything for granted. As observed in one of the videos we watched in class, a young boy who has a condition that results in his skin constantly coming off has to suffer a bleach bath four times a week in order to keep his immune system and hygiene levels high. It was heart breaking to watch this but made me realise how easy it is to moan and grumble about things that we don’t have instead of concentrating on the good things we do have, like our health.

The course also included a 10 hour trip (spilt between two days) to a centre that cares for people with all kinds of severe disabilities known as the North Mississippi Regional Centre, located just 15 minutes’ drive away from our apartments. Before entering the centre I believed I had a rough idea of some of the sights I would encounter due to working in a nursing home and also having some experience with children with Special Educational Needs. But I don’t think any amount of preparation could have prepared me for what I found.

The North Mississippi Regional Centre provides a range of services to individuals with intellectual and related developmental disabilities and has done since 1973. The campus is huge and well kept, giving the residents plenty of room to walk around and enjoy the beautiful surrounding gardens. The services provided include that of its own nursing, education and dentistry department and many more which are all located on campus, making it almost a little city within a big city. One of the most shocking facts is that the centre has over 1000 members of staff just to look after 280 residents as their conditions are so severe.

On our first day there, I was put into a classroom of adults who had a wide range of different disabilities and difficulties. The residents were all very affectionate and the staff helped to provide a very positive and friendly atmosphere. As I am training to be a teacher the staff were able to share a lot of information with me about the residents and I was rather shocked to find out what each individual’s annual goals were. For example one resident by the end of the year was aiming to independently load and reload the dishwasher. It was strange to hear that such an easy task to me would be a very difficult task to someone else. On our second day, Kelly and I were in a class that had younger residents and their conditions included those who are blind, deaf, autistic and who had very little means of verbal communication. One resident, who has dementia, is prone to self-abusing and but due to their condition they doesn’t even realise how much they are hurting themselves.

This whole experience has opened my eyes to the wide range of disabilities out there and has widened my knowledge in this area. It warmed my heart to see so many people willing to help and everyone seemed to know each other making them part of one big family.

(28/02/2012)