Cell Phones in schools? Absolutely!

For the jpast few months, I’ve been allowing my students to use their cell phones and other electronic devices  in my high school English classes.   My students use them for lot of things. They take notes, keep track of homework,  conducting web-based research, and have been able to pull up  public-domain novels, such as The Great Gatsby, for classroom use.  If students need individual help on something, instead of staying afterschool, they text their question to my email and  I send them a response later in the school day.  Allowing the students to use their phones has also  enabled my students to text responses to web-based programs like Wiffiti which is a great way to hold classroom discussions.  You can also use Wiffiti Because my students enjoy using the phones for schoolwork, they willingly follow rules of etiquette (which I taught them!) such as no texting or – picture-taking without permission.

Cell phone use is voluntary so my lessons are not geared around the use of phones. But it has reduced the number of laptops or computers that I need to use in my classroom. For example, if I wanted to do a Wiffiti activity with laptops, I might need to reserve about 30 of them for a whole class. If I do the same activity and allow students that have them to use cell phones, I might only need 5 laptops to cover those students who don’t have phones.  It’s a great way to stretch technology resources.

Since most students are now carrying cell phones and other electronic devices with them everyday, we might as well put them to good use in the classroom.  It’s also fun for me. I’m no longe a “cell phone cop”. Instead, I’m the teacher who says, “OK, folks, take out your cell phones and get ready for today’s discussion!” And they do!

Unclutter in 10 minutes a day?

I can’t believe it! My kitchen counter has almost NOTHING on it – and it’s been that way since WEDNESDAY!!!

How did this happen? Well, Wednesday afternoon at 4pm, I decided to do something that I never do in the afternoon – watch the Oprah Show. It’s not that the TV isn’t on at 4. It’s always on a 4, but my son usually has control of the TV at that time – and Oprah’s not his thing. Anyway, i turned on the show just in time to watch this guy Peter Walsh clean out someone’s messy house. Actually, he cleaned up a couple of messy houses – and redecorated one. I was so interested that I went to Oprah’s website so I could read more about Peter Walsh and his de-cluttering techniques.

I don’t know how it happened, but I was inspired! I went to my kitchen and spent 10 minutes cleaning stuff off the counter. I threw out a lot of stuff, and found a place to put stuff that didn’t get thrown out. It looked great! And it still does!!

On Thursday, I decided to clean off an old fashioned sewing machine in my foyer that had become a place to dump papers and what not. I threw stuff away, put stuff away. It looked great!! And it still does!!

Yesterday, I decided to attack the area around the TV where a large number of videotapes and DVDs were piled up. I asked my son to take 10 minutes and go through all of the VHS tapes and DVDs and decide which ones he wanted to keep and which ones he didn’t want anymore. In 10 minutes flat, he piled up 53 of his little kid tapes and DVDs and gave me the OK to get rid of them.

I guess I could have set up a yard sale or tried to sell some of them on Ebay, but I wanted them gone!

So. . . . . I sent a quick email to all of my friends, announced that I was getting rid of the tapes and DVDs, and that they would be going to Goodwill the next day unless I heard from someone. 15 minutes later, I got a call from a friend who said she would take them and pass them around her neighborhood. I put them in green garbage bags and took them to her house. She and her neighbors were happy. They got stuff their kids can use. I’m happy. The area around my TV looks very neat and uncluttered!

My kitchen counter is cleaned off and neat! My kitchen table is cleaned off and neat! The foyer in my house is cleaned up and neat! And the area around the TV looks cleaned up and neat, too!! Today when the mail came, I put it on the kitchen table, opened it, threw out the junk mail and put the bills away. I did not leave anything on the table to clutter it up again.

I can’t believe that I actually saw something on TV that is making a difference this quickly – and I didn’t have to send a check or money order for $19.95 plus shipping and handling! Focusing on cleaning something up for 10 minutes is so easy to do! .. . . . . . I wonder how long I can keep this up?

Tomorrow could be more difficult. Tomorrow’s target is the dining room table. The one that is a depository for all kinds of books, bills, papers, and forms. It ’s a big job. . . Can I do it in 10 minutes? I think I can. . . . . .

Universal Insurance Coverage for Autistic Spectrum Disorders?

Recently, I took my son to see one of his doctors. The office informed us, prior to the visit, that my insurance was no longer accepted. If I wanted my son to be seen by the doctor, I had to pay $150 up front and submit the bill to my insurance company myself. They might pay it; they might not.

My son’s doctors are great, and they’ve been there for him for years. The continuity and history is so important to my son’s success that changing doctors isn’t an option. I’m sure that they have a good reason for not taking the insurance so I’m not blaming them. Who knows, maybe the insurance companies weren’t sending the payments quick enough. . . . I don’t know. What I do know is that since I didn’t have the money, I had no choice but to pull out my credit card and charge it. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

But. . . . . . I can’t help feeling a little victimized. We are not only the family of a child with an autistic spectrum disorder who is paying through the nose. I haven’t met one family with a kid on the autistic spectrum who has not paid exorbitant amounts of money for doctors, therapists, social skills programs, and other treatments.

It would be nice if we could put off the social skills program or the sensory integration therapy or the doctors’ visit for a year or two until we had the money to pay for it, but we just don’t have that kind of time. Early intervention is so important that we have no choice, but to shell out the money ourselves and hope for the best.

Parents with kids on the autistic spectrum spend hours in research, discussion, investigation, networking, and negotiation in order to find the find the right path for their kids. All of this is done on top of the playdates, activities, school, and family functions that typical families engage in. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy just to find the right path – and it can be exhausting! You would think that insurance coverage would be the least of our worries – but that’s not the way things are!

That this issue needs some real attention is outlined in a recent CNN article “Parents Press for Autism Coverage”.

Perhaps with a new President and a new Congress, this issue can be looked at closely and a solution can be crafted. I really hope so!

Oprah’s Gift Revisited

In a post called Oprah’s Gift , I suggested that it would be Oprah and Obama who would have the last laugh at the end of the presidential campaign season. At that time, it looked as if Obama was a long shot, with no chance of beating Hillary Clinton for the nomination or winning the White House.

However, as the year has progressed, Americans from all segments of our country united to bring about change – and their efforts have paid off! There isn’t much else to say except that maybe no one is having the last laugh, but it sure feels good to think about the future of this country with President Obama at the helm and to be happy about it.

Sarah Palin: An authority on Autism?

Did John McCain really say that Sara Palin was an authority on Autism? And that she knows about the challenges that special needs families face better than anyone? Did he really SAY that?.

How could Sarah Palin know what it’s like to RAISE a child with an autistic spectrum disorder? Her son is what? 6 months, 7 months old? The news has reported that he has Downs Syndrome, not autism. I’m sure that she is beginning to learn about the special needs of a Downs Syndrome child, but I don’t see how that makes her an expert on autism.

Has Sarah taken her kid to therapy and had to figure out if insurance will pay for it? Has she had to have her kid tested? Has she had to find a school for him to attend? Has she had to negotiate with her school district about appropriate placement? Has she had to set up social skills groups, and play groups, and support systems, and expert witnesses, and doctors appointments? Has she had to change her career or give one up in order to make sure her kid gets everything he needs? Has she had to make any sacrifices in order to raise her child? Unless I’m missing something, the answer to ALL those questions is “NO.”

I’m sorry folks, but after living the life of a special needs parent for over 10 years, I find it hard to accept Sarah Palin as a special needs expert. She’s a rookie at best – with no autism experience. As hard as I try not to be insulted by the assertion that Sarah knows more about the challenges of autism than anyone, I just can’t help it.

Sarah has not said one thing that she has done that allows her, or John McCain, for that matter, to presume that she has walked in my shoes and understands my family’s challenges. Maybe in 10 years, when Sarah tells her story about how she and her family addressed her son’s needs, she may have enough experience to say she understands. .. . . but not now. All I see is John McCain and Sarah Palin trying to use my family’s challenges to try to get a soundbite. I can’t help it. I am insulted!

If McCain-Palin think that by simply mentioning the word “Autism” in a speech, I will vote for them, they are badly mistaken. There is no way that I will vote for them now!

Cell Phones in Schools?

For the past few years, there has been a constant battle going on in schools over cell phones. Kids want to carry them to school and use them for texting and talking during the school day. The adults for a number of very good reasons (distraction, cyberbullying, cheating. . . . ) don’t want that to happen. As a result, there is a continuing cat-and-mouse game going on in schools in which kids pretend that they don’t have cell phones, and adults pretend not to notice that kids have them. Every now and then the game gets ugly when a kid takes out a cell phone, uses it in front of a teacher or administrator and then has to be disciplined for use of the phone.

Recently, I’ve been trying to find ways other than Power Point (computerized version of 1980’s filmstrips) to use technology in my classroom. I’m looking at streaming video, hypertext, blogging, interactive email, and some other cool tech tools, but the cell phone, at least for now, is off limits. I can help but wonder about how great it would be if we could figure out a way for students to use their cell phones in class? Wouldn’t it be cool if instead of texting their friends, students texted their teachers with questions, ideas, criticisms? Wouldn’t it be cool if students could access teacher websites from their phones? I know it is an idea fraught with LOTS of problems, but still it seems ashame not be able to put such an available technology to good use.

This morning on MSNBC, my curiosity about using cell phones in the classroom was peaked again when I found this article “Cell Phones Welcome in Some Classrooms”.

I’d love to hear what other people think about this.

Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley

While looking for educational resources for special needs kids in the state of Florida, I came across this a Power Point presentation of the essay written by Emily Kingsley entitled “WELCOME TO HOLLAND.”

The essay was so inspiring that I wanted to share it in this post, but I didn’t copy down the link so I tried to find it again. I was able to do that, but I also found this You Tube presentation of the same essay that I liked a lot too! Check it out!

Holland did seem strange at first, but after living there for almost 10 years, it’s turned out to be a pretty nice place!

Thanks to Emily Perl Kingsley for her insight – and her beautiful essay!

Mercury in Light Bulbs?

A Fox News story a few weeks ago discussed problems with compact fluorescent light bulbs. When these light bulbs were advertised, I went out and bought a few of them and put them to use. I was told that they would save money and be good for the environment – and according to a number of experts they are! I’ve been using them for a few months now, and they do seem to have saved me money on my electric bill.

But. . . . . . what happens when one of these bulbs breaks has me more than a little concerned. Luckily for us, it hasn’t happened, but what if it does?

I didn’t know that if one of these bulbs breaks, you can’t simply sweep up the pieces with a broom or vacuum them up. Apparently, you have to evacuate the room for at least 15 minutes to make sure that the toxic mercury has completely escaped, and THEN turn off the ventilation system, and THEN you have to find two pieces of cardboard to scoop of the pieces in, (you can’t touch the glass or any part of the bulb with your hand, and you can’t use a dustpan or vacuum cleaner either), and THEN if the bulb broke on a carpet, you have to use duct tape to get the pieces out of your carpet, and THEN you have to take the broken pieces in a plastic bag to a hazardous waste facility to dispose of them. This seems like an awful lot of work just to clean up a broken light bulb!

If you live in a home where they are no kids or pets and nothing every breaks, the bulbs might be great. But I don’t live in a house like that. As a parent and pet owner, I never know when a kid or a pet will knock something over. And as the parent of a child on the autistic spectrum, I’m really concerned about the possibility of mercury, even in tiny amounts, oozing into my home as a result of a broken light bulb.

As much as I like the bulbs, I’m not comfortable with my home being the possible site of a hazardous waste accident, even if it is a very tiny one. For me, it’s just easier to remove the bulbs from my home and take them to the hazardous waste facility before an accident happens. I’ll miss the savings on my electric bill, but it’s just not worth the worry.

Silver fillings: Is there a link to autism?

Check out this story Silver fillings may be harmful reported today on Yahoo! Is the government moving closer to the link between mercury and autism?

Ernie Els discusses how autism changes the lives of parents

Check out a recent CNN story on golfer Ernie Els who talked with CNN about how Autism changes life.