A book to consider

During Dr. Perry's class that I took last semester, we had to participate in book shares.  One of the books I shared with the class I would like to share with you.  It relates to Social Studies and Diversity and Acceptance in the classroom by teacher and students alike.  This is a childlren's book I happened to come across by chance in the public library one day, and haven't forgottten about it.  I don't remember it word for word or anything, it has been a while since i've read it, but the story line is still in my head.

The reason I bring this up out of the blue is because of an experience I had during one of my placement days at Happy Valley.

Anywaysssss ....

The book is called Looking After Louis.  It is told from the perspective of a student in a classroom, and she (I think it was a girl) is talking about a boy, Louis, in the classroom who gets treated differently from the other students.  Throughout the book she talks about the different ways Louis gets treated and how she sometimes thinks it is unfair.  It is not until the end of the book you learn that Louis has autism, which is why he gets treated differently sometimes, and it has a short explanation of autism that you could read to the students to help them understand what is happening.

It is a great book, and I am not giving it the praise it needs in my brief description.  I just wanted to let you guys know about it.  In the case you might happen to be in the library one day and feel like looking it up :)  I really enjoyed this book.  It is one of my favorites.  I hope you enjoy it as well!

Lilly

The video we watched in class a few days ago was absolutely unbelievable!!  How a child, almost 2 was it?, can retain that information is incredible!  I can guarntee I couldn't locate even half of the places she was locating on a map!  There are children her age who have never set eyes on a map before, and this little girl has not only seen one but can point the places out to you!

I wonder ... could she still do it if it was just some random person, such as someone from our class, asking her to point these places out, or is it different coming from her parents?

GeoCaching

I won't lie ... when we first started talking about this geocaching business, I wasn't impressed.  Frankly, I was a little confused.  The idea of random things hidden all over the world was a little, well, strange to me.  However, once I figured it out .. i loved it!  Things are always different when you actually participate and DO something as opposed to hearing about it.  Once we went outside and discovered the geocache near warf-pickel, I knew I was going to have to tell my mom about this! (She's a big hiker)

I also really enjoyed the idea of the little airplanes and such that classrooms were sending around for people to transport from one location to another.  What a fun activity to incorporate this type of real life geography into you classroom!