Cut versus Cute, an excerpt

    Below is an excerpt from a passage I am working on from my book (rough draft). I decided I would share a little of the type of experiences I will be sharing in my memoir. This exert is about spelling. I talk a lot about spelling in my memoir, since it has been a ongoing struggle to this day. The memoir will talk about the experiences that lead to this point. The names in this passage have been changed.

Cut versus Cute

    How much difficulty could the words cut and cute give a fifth grader? Well, a fifth grader with a reading disability, a lot. Being able to recall spelling words from memory became a challenge for me. I many times mistook words for similar words. Sometimes they were common errors, such as there and their, but sometimes less common. In fifth grade, I had the hardest time telling the difference between the words cut and cute. I kept mixing them up. I would want to write a sentence like, “The dog looked cute sleeping under the Christmas tree,” and I would write, “The dog looked cut slipping under the Christmas tree.” This of course would get many laughs out of my classmates sitting near me.

    Today telling the difference between these two words seems obvious. I only need to understand the spelling pattern, but in fifth grade I could not recognize patterns in words, nor did I know that English had rules. This was the unfortunate product of learning to read and spell through memorizing lists of words. I hadn’t made any connections. To me English made no sense.

    In fifth grade, we sat in groups of four to five students. I sat in the back corner group of students near the windows. There was a boy named Danny who sat next to me for the first three to four months during fifth grade. I distinctly remember that he loved bull dogs. He would draw them every day on his notebooks and so on. He noticed one day that I wrote the word cut instead of cute.

    He leaned over and told me, “Do you think bull dogs are cute?”

    I thought for a few moments and said, “I think dogs are cute, so yes.”

    “Well, every time you think of writing cute think of a bull dog and how the bull dog is cute. Make a mental image in your head of what that sentence would look like,” he replied.

    He wrote the sentence out on a piece of paper next to a drawing he made of a bull dog. All of a sudden I was making sense of the words. From that day onward, I thought of a bull dog every time I wrote the word cute. After years it became automatic, but still from time and time I think of bull dog when I write cute.

    I think that was my first experience with multi-sensory instruction as well, from my fifth grade classmate. He used audio, visual, and a mnemonic to teach me the word cute. He would make a great special education teacher.

    After that day, I never mixed up cut and cute again.

A Decision Made About Student Teaching

    I am very happy to announce that I have made a decision related to student teaching. My special education license covers mild to moderate disabilities from kindergarten to twelfth grade, so a large span of selection. I am very excited about teaching, since I will be able to work with children with learning disabilities and ADHD, which is an area that I am very interested in and very passionate about.

    At first, I wanted to student teach in a high school. I have always wanted to teach high school, and I had so much difficulty in high school that I felt this is where I really wanted to provide the extra support these students need. I also don't have much experience with young children, so I wasn't sure how I would be around younger kids. At one point I said I never wanted to teach elementary school. I would have been happy to skip over my field experience in elementary school, but it was required. Meredith College requires field experience for special education in high school, middle school, and elementary school. As nervous as I was about working with the elementary school kids, and even though I wasn't overly interested in that age, I am really glad I did it. I was able to experience what it is like to work with younger kids and what it was like to work with emerging literacy skills, which I find very rewarding. I really enjoy going in for field experience this semester at the elementary school.

    Originally, I had told my advisor I was going to student teach at a high school. Then, I started spending more time at the elementary school and tutoring this student in reading, which I am really enjoying. The more time I spend with the elementary school students, the more I am enjoying working with them.

    After I completed my math methods homework today, I was thinking about my student teaching. I was thinking about the large amount of math required in high school, and math isn't my favorite subject. I enjoy English. I bet everyone knew that, since I am writing a blog and a book. I love to write. I always have, and I always will. I also know how important it is to provide appropriate literacy education in elementary school, and I know I could make an impact with elementary school students. Due to these factors and after many hours of consideration, I decided to change my student teaching from high school to elementary school. My student teaching will start in August 2010, so only a few months from now. Even if I don't end up teaching elementary school, it will still be a good experience to have a strong foundation in teaching basic reading, writing, and math skills.

    Since the semester is nearing an end (36 days left), things are getting very busy. I have multiple assignments to work on for the end of the week. I do have some extra days off though for Easter, so I don't actually have another physical class to attend until next Tuesday. I am trying to stay sane when possible.

    On another note, I just heard that Stephenie Myer is releasing a novella related to the Twilight series entitled, “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.” It will be available on June 5, so during my summer semester. Good thing it is only 192 pages.

    Thanks for reading and check back soon for more updates.

A Traveling List, etc.

    Many of you know that I love to travel. I have already mentioned some of my travels on this blog. One of my favorite books is "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" (and "1,000 Places to See Before You Die U.S. and Canada Edition"). Whenever I travel anywhere's, I always check to see what places are listed in those two books. When I see a new place, I check it off in the books. I have been known to call these books the travel bible.


    As much as I love "1,000 Places to See Before You Die," there are some places that I have been to which I have loved that are not in this book or books. No one has seen every place on this planet and even if both Patricia Schultz and I had visited all the same places, we might differ as to which places we really love and think everyone should see. Everyone's travel interests are different.

    Joe and I went to Mt. Airy, North Carolina yesterday. Just a day trip, but we wanted to get out for the day. Mt. Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith and has many Mayberry attractions. It had the cutest downtown, with lots of shops, a winery, a museum to the history of the area, and the world's largest open-face granite quarry. We drove by the home that Andy Griffith grew up in, which we found out that you can rent for a getaway. We ate at Snappy's for lunch. We had to stand in a line outside to get in. It was the place to be. We had the most expensive sandwich on the menu, which was $4.00, the Pork Chop sandwich. It's Snappy's signature sandwich. There is plenty of other stuff to do in the area as well. It would be a nice weekend getaway in a bed and breakfast. We had a great time.

    On the way home I commented to Joe that I should start a list of places I have visited that I think everyone should visit in their lifetimes (some places that are obvious and some places that are not so well known). Sometimes the places you would never have thought of visiting end up being a great destination. I don't know if it is a book idea or not, but it would be fun to put together such a list.

    My memoir is coming along slowly. At this point I am calling it "Struggling with Words." It is almost the end of March, so I guess there is no way of me having a rough draft done by the end of the month. I have been so busy with school; I haven't even worked on it in the past week. There is still a good amount of work before I could say I have a first draft done. It will take me at least another two or three months to get the first draft done. I am hoping I can have the first draft done by the end of June, but that all depends on how crazy school gets.

    Now, I think I should get to my homework. I added a list of my favorite nonfiction books to my blog page.  I will update my blog again soon. 

Links:
Mount Airy, NC
The Website for "1,000 Places to See Before You Die"

White Images of New Hampshire

I wanted to share the following poem entitled "White Images" that was published in the "2008 Poets' Guide to New Hampshire." 

White Images
By:  Amy Donnelly

The snow-covered peak of Mt. Washington
The foamy waves crashing against the rocks of Rye Beach

Snow-covered highways
Powdered sugar on fried dough
Empty ice cream cups at Golden Rod
White hair on an Annalee Doll
Popcorn at the Deerifield Fair

The Inn at Mills Falls
Ice Skating at Dorrs Pond
A warm cup of white hot-chocolate
A snow angel

White, a relaxing afternoon
Church on Easter Sunday
A seagull at Hampton Beach
Skiing at Cannon Mountain, Waterville Valley, or Gunstock

White, a long walk home on a blistering winter’s day
To a warm house
Where I sit in the company of family
With a white knitted throw
And new white socks
White headlights sweep the street
And I slowly fall sleep.

*For more information about the Poets' Guide check our the following link:  Poetry Society of New Hampshire

Tired...

    Have you ever had one of those days when you get in your car and you just wish you could press a magic button and be at home? Well, I had one of those experiences last night leaving class. I enjoy going to school, I love to learn, and I am very interested in the material presented in my classes, but sometimes it just gets hard to sit through classes. My classes are about 3 hours long, and since they don’t start until 5, it makes for a long night.


    I had a great time over spring break visiting friends and family in New Hampshire. Everyone kept me very busy. My brother and I explored the Harvard University Campus and Harvard Square in Cambridge. We also visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the MIT Campus, and generally walked around Cambridge. We left the Boston area at 5, which meant heavy traffic on the way home, but we made it back in time to go out for dinner with the family. It had been a long time since the four of us had dinner together, so it was nice. My brother left the next day. Of course I have already told you about my trip with my mom to Concord, Massachusetts on Friday.

    By the time I got home Sunday, I was tired. Something about traveling by air is exhausting. Plus, my flight left at 8:40, so that was somewhat early. Security was tight at the airport, so my carry-on ended up getting searched.

    Since I was so busy over spring break, I didn’t have much time to do homework. When I got home I had to spend time on my homework for my Monday night diverse learners class. That ended up taking me up until when I left for class on Monday to finish (including waking up at 6), so the entire day was homework and class. The next day was the same. I spent the day on an assignment that was due that night and went to class afterwards. I also had homework due for Thursday night, so I had a busy week. This is why I was so exhausted when I got in my car after class last night. I was just so ready to go home.

Above:   Harvard Museum of Natural History

Concord, Massachusetts

    Those who have visited my blog before may notice I added a quote from Emerson, "The man who can make the hard things easy in the educator." I came across this quote while reading for reading and writing methods class today. I thought it was a fitting quote seeing that I am a fellow writer, I am studying to be a teacher, and I recently saw Emerson's house when I was in Concord, Massachusetts last week. I did not get to go inside Emerson's house, since it was closed for the season (it will reopen in April), but I did take a photo, which is above. I also went to the Concord Museum, which is across the road from his house, and the museum had his study there for an exhibit.


    There are many great writers who lived in Concord, Massachusetts. Henry David Thoreau lived there and he wrote about Walden Pond located in Concord, Massachusetts. Louisa May Alcott also lived in Concord, Massachusetts. My mom and I toured her house. She was the author of "Little Women."

    After we toured Louisa May Alcott's house, my mom and I went down to the Old North Bridge. The area had some heavy rain the weekend before, so there was some flooding in the area. There was a sign that was almost completely emerged by water. Afterwards, we had dinner at the Colonial Inn, which was built in 1716. I felt like I was sitting in history.

    I love visiting historic places and eating at historic restaurants. It makes me feel like I are part of history. On my first blog post, I mentioned one of my favorite restaurants is the Salem Tavern in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That building is not quite as old as the Colonial Inn, but it was built in the early 1800's (and the food is great). Some of the buildings in the area are from the late 1700's though.

    Thanks for reading my blog. I have posted a new poll question as well. Check back soon for more updates.

Visit New England

Many of you know I used to to live in New Hampshire and I just got back from a trip from New England to visit friends and family.  New England is a great place to visit and has a lot of history.  For those who have not been there, I thought I would recommend some places to see for my blog post today.  These are just a few locations of many places to see. 

1.  Boston including the Freedom Trail, Boston Commons, Museum of Fine Arts, Cheers, and Beacon Hill
2.  Cambridge, MA including Harvard Square
3.  Salem, MA location of the Salem Witch Trials
4.  Lexington/Concord, MA
5.  Stowe, Vermont
6.  Newport, RI (the Newport Mansions)
7.  Meredith, NH and the lakes region
8.  The lighthouse trail of Southern Maine

Check back on my blog soon for more updates.

Our trip to Charleston, SC

    In May 2009, Joe and I took a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. We left on Wednesday and came back on Sunday. We hadn't taken a trip for a while, since I had been out of work for about six months the year before and we have also moved down to North Carolina in 2008.

    The first day was memorable. We started our day by jumping on the trolley and heading to South Battery Street, where we walked along the roads and roads of beautiful, expensive homes. We then headed uptown to The Old Exchange building, which is built on the site of the old Charleston wall. We took the tour, which allowed us to see a portion of the old wall and learned the history of the area. Later, we browsed some art galleries and went to the Nathanial Russell House for a tour.

    That evening we had a reservation at The Charleston Grill, which is an AAA four diamond restaurant in the Charleston Place Hotel. We had made reservations about a week before. The service was unbelievable, and we ate like we hadn't eaten in days. To be honest, we barely ate all day, so we wouldn't over do it with calories. Joe had a pork dish, and I had red snapper with grits. For dessert Joe had homemade ice cream, and I had the best crème bruelle I had ever tasted. The food was top rate.

    When we left, we both felt a little bloated, and Joe was complaining that he was having a hard time digesting his food and he felt somewhat gassy. In the middle of the night he woke up, saying he didn't feel well and he was in severe pain. We thought he needed something to help digest his food, so we headed down to a 24 hour grocery store and got some Gas-X and a few other things.

     The next morning he still felt somewhat bad, but he seemed to be doing better than the day before, so we decided to head down to Savannah for the day. We spent the good part of the day there. We took a trolley tour, looked around at some shops, and spent a few hours at the Riverwalk area. Then, we started to head back. Joe slept most of the way back. He was tired, since he had not slept the night before. He woke up about a half hour before we were back to Charleston, and said he was in a lot of pain and he needed to head to a hospital. As fate would have it, our hotel room was right next to a hospital, so we both spent all Friday night, from around 6 until midnight, in the ER. The doctor said he would be admitting Joe to the hospital, so I went back to sleep in our hotel room.

    In the morning, I went back to visit Joe at the hospital and they were running some tests, which took forever. I guess they needed to call in someone to perform the ultra sounds, but they had forgotten to do that. Around 3 or so, Joe was getting really anxious to get out. He said he didn't feel much better, but he didn't want to just sit around in a hospital bed.

    They told us Joe needed his gallbladder removed. The doctor informed us that there was a stone lodged, which was causing the pain. We had two options: we could have it removed there or wait until we got back to Raleigh. Joe decided he wanted to get out of the hospital, and he would just have it taken out when he got back home in a few days.  The doctors released Joe and we got copies of his tests, so we could bring it to a surgeon back home.

    Once we started to head back to Raleigh, we were both exhausted from the ordeal, and couldn't wait to get home. I drove all the way home, which was about 4.5 hours, since Joe was on pain medication. I was so tired. I had to stop to take a couple of power naps on the way back. The second stop I made was at a rest stop. I pulled over for about 20 minutes and shut off my car. I took a nap and headed to the rest room. When I came back to the car it was starting to rain pretty hard. I turned the car and the car wouldn't start. I turned the key again, the car still wouldn't start. I could get the radio to run and so forth, but the engine did not want to start.

    Joe and I sat there or a few minutes. We figured we would just try to start the car in about five or 10 minutes. We tried it again and the car just wouldn’t start. We called AAA to have someone came jump start our car. We didn't even know where we were, just that we were on a rest stop of 95, so it was hard to give the telephone representative directions to where we were. I was so tired when I was driving, I had not paid attention to the exit signs.

    After about an hour, AAA showed up and started out car and we were off. We were so afraid to stop the car again, so we did not stop the car again until we got home.

    Joe had his gallbladder removed later that week and he was out of work for about three weeks. As for the car, I didn't drive it for about a week, since I was afraid I would have more issues, but when I eventually started driving it again it was fine. I had the battery tested at a garage and they said it still had full battery life. Joe and I have no idea why the car wouldn't start at that rest stop. It doesn't make much sense to us, but one thing is for sure, we'll always remember Charleston.

Links:
The Old Exchange

The Charleston Grill

Update

    Well, it has been a busy week. I am now on spring break from school. Wednesday night I went to a writing workshop called writing the photograph with Alice Osborn at a photography studio in Wake Forest, North Carolina that featured work from Bruce Johnson and others. Alice Osborn's website is http://aliceosborn.com/.   I was able to write a few new poems from the session. Above is a photo from the session. I've also written about five more pages in my book.

    I am currently researching documents from my childhood, education resources, and other memoirs written about dyslexia and reading learning disabilities. If anyone has any recommendations about memoirs that have been written about growing up with a reading disability, please let me know. I recently picked up one book called "Reversals" by Eileen Simpson, which I plan to read over break.

    I'll be making updates to my blog over the next few days. I just wanted to stop in and let everyone know what is doing on. I have time this weekend set aside for some writing. I am hoping to have a rough draft done by sometime this month or possibly in April. We'll see how the writing goes.

Reading Aloud to Children

    Reading, reading education, and reading aloud to children is something that is very close to my heart, because of my reading disability and my own difficulties learning to read in my life. Literacy is a child’s gateway to life. The ability to read opens up more jobs and makes it possible to graduate from high school and continue on for further education. Reading empowers kids.

    Children need to be read to starting at a young age. Early exposure to reading allows children to make connections with words and letters before they even start school.

    Reading aloud to children needs to continue far past elementary school. Unfortunately, reading aloud to children is not common in middle and high school. The focus on reading by this point is having the children read aloud or to have the children read silently to themselves.

    Reading aloud to students gets children interested in reading and can improve their self esteem. It can also be used as a way to teach reading comprehension. Children who struggle with basic reading skills will most likely struggle comprehending the passage, since so much energy is put into just figuring out the words in the passage (of course there are exceptions to this). When a student hears something read to them, he or she can focus on the story being read. The student can focus on picking up the details, the characters, and the main idea.

    The link below is a campaign on reading aloud to students from birth to high school for 20 minutes a day. Though this article talks a lot about reading to children in lower socioeconomic levels, reading aloud to students is important for all students.  Launch a National "Read To Kids" Campaign

    I have posted a survey question that will be up for the next five days, so don't forget to answer the survey. I'll be talking more about reading, reading disabilities, and my book in future posts. I haven't had a lot of time the past few weeks to work on writing my book, but I have scheduled time this weekend for writing and also next week during spring break. Stay tuned for more updates.

My Memoir

    I am currently writing a memoir about my struggles growing up with a reading disability in the 1990's, the emotional toll of my learning disability, and how I was misunderstood by teachers and others. Ironically, I have shared my experiences in this book with few people, and I have told few people about my learning disability.

    I think that it is important for me to tell my story, because it provides insight into how children with learning disabilities were treated in the 1990's, the misunderstandings people have about learning disabilities, and how I ended up overcoming my disability. My experiences growing up with a learning disability and in special education are what prompted my interest in becoming a special education teacher, which is why I am currently studying special education. I hope this book will provide awareness to the true nature of learning disabilities. As a society we must reduce the stigma attached to having a learning disability.

    Throughout the course of this blog, I will provide information and statistics related to learning disabilities, and on the status of my book.

    Many people experience struggles in school for a variety of different reasons. I am open to hearing about your experiences in school. Do you have a painful experience you would like to share? Do you feel you were misunderstood or mistreated by teachers when you were a child?

Our Move to North Carolina

    You'll begin to notice throughout this blog that difficult circumstances seem to like to follow me.  This past weekend my husband Joe and I helped our friends move. This got me thinking about our experience moving from New Hampshire to North Carolina, which was--to put it lightly--an undertaking and not the best of experiences.

    First, everything we owned needed to be boxed. We had to make the move in one trip. There was no running back and forth to pick up more things for our new place. Almost everything had to fit in the trailer with the exception of what could be put into our two cars, which we were driving down. We packed our luggage with clothes for the upcoming week, brought all our cat stuff and our cat Kitsy (at the time we only had one cat) with us, a small television, my laptop, a couple of folding chairs, some bedding and towels, an air mattress, some bathroom stuff, and cleaning aids. That was about it. That was all we would have to live on for the next few days, or that is what we thought.

    The movers we hired ended up being a disaster. First, they never bothered to ask us when we were available to except the move (if I were a mover I would ask that). We were closing on a place, so we couldn't move in until after we closed, which was only one business day after when they came to get out stuff in New Hampshire (we moved Memorial Day weekend). We had the weekend to get down to North Carolina. I did tell them when we would be available, but I guess they didn't listen to me. They called me to try to deliver our stuff on Memorial Day (We were told that they would not be making deliveries on the holiday weekend.). I told them we didn't close until the next day, so the truck driver said he would have to continue on the Florida and stop on the way back, which ended up being many days later. They didn't show up until two weeks later. For two weeks we were sleeping on an air mattress, had limited clothes, no couch, nothing of anything to sit on other than a folding chair, no plates or pots and pans, nothing. We had to go out and buy Joe new clothes for work.

    Once the trailer arrived you would think the nightmare would be coming to an end, but you would be wrong. First, I had to meet the truck driver out on the main bypass, since he did not have a GPS. Second, he didn't have professional movers with him. He picked up workers from Labor Ready (day labor). The two men he hired knew nothing about moving. I don't think they had ever moved before. They were so sloppy. When moving the bed upstairs they dinged our ceiling. They broke the glass backing to our china cabinet, because they had not bothered to tie ropes around the china cabinet before they moved it. All they did was complain about the work and the heat. It was 98 degree that day. They didn't even bother to put the nails in our bed fame. We had to secure the bed before we went to bed that night.

    Over the two to three weeks that I dealt with this situation, I called the movers multiple times to complain. I tried everything I could to get the move there quicker and to get a discount off the move. The company seemed very unconcerned and told me that this was just as much a pain for them as it was for us. They made me feel like the situation was all my fault.

    The drive down to North Carolina was at least less difficult.  We stopped overnight in Maryland, so we could allow Kitsy to get out of his carrier and walk around a little.  The hotel in Maryland was not the best. There was no begging on our bed when we got there. By the time 5 came around I just requested bedding and we made the bed ourselves. At least they didn't charge us the fee for having Kitsy in our room. The traffic wasn't bad.  Even the George Washington Bridge coming out of New York City into New Jersey wasn't that crowded.  We probably paid $20 or more dollars in tolls. 

    We were able to unpack our stuff much quicker than we had packed our stuff. That's good since my husband had to work that week. We hadn't planned it to take this long to get our stuff of course. He was home for the move at least, which is why when the truck driver saw Joe he asked if he could help move the washer and dryer into our house. Of course he didn't.


    I don't know what I would have done differently. If I had a time machine I could go back and hire a different mover, but that was all that could be done. I'm not looking forward to moving again. At least not as far.

    Maybe next time I'll tell you about planning for our wedding.

Second Semester Graduate Student

   So, I should be going to bed right now, but I decided I wanted to make another blog post instead. At first these blog posts might seem a bit random, but eventually they will seem to have more of a pattern. Just hang in there.

   I wanted to tell you a little about my educational situation at the moment.  In addition to my writing endeavors, I am a second semester graduate student at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am studying special education. I am not currently a teacher, though I have thought about teaching for many years. At least since I was in high school and probably earlier. I used to play school with my friends, my cousin Chris, and my brother when I was a kid. Sometimes I was the teacher, and sometimes I was the student.

   Graduate school is nothing like I thought it would be. The last couple of weeks during fall semester I spent entire days working on papers and presentations. I would get up in the morning around 8 and work on homework until I went to bed around 10 or so at night. Good thing I don't currently have a job.

   This week is the last week before spring break, so I have a busy week. There are multiple projects due. I have a lesson plan that I will be teaching tomorrow night in class on weather. It is still not done. Part of being a graduate student is learning to work on tight deadlines.

   I'll let you know how my semester is going in future posts. Thank you for those who commented on my first blog post and are now following my blog. I plan to make a few more updates to my blog throughout the week. Good night.