Senior Project- Day 3 and 4

Day #3 – Please comment on your own strengths and weakness with this project.  At what are you excelling and what is the most challenging?


While working at litzinger I have found I have many strengths but also some weaknesses as well. Some of my strengths include working with technology, staying focused and on task, getting work done, being productive, and being willing to do anything I am asked to do in the classroom or anything that I think needs to be done. I have worked with technology like Microsoft word and Comic life so far to make binders of “helpful reminders” for students which include images and comics that I have made using comic life. I am very good with technology and the teacher in the classroom was so impressed when I had finished the comics and images to fill the binders. She even said that they looked so professional that they should be published. I was able to spend a lot of time and use a lot of effort to work on this project. I got a lot of work done and was very productive which are strengths. I also am very good at writing, and reading comprehension so it is very easy for me to help the kids with that. I am good at helping them understand what they read and write as well.


I do have some weaknesses that I have discovered though. I have trouble being strict with the students and using my authority to get them to behave. I find it hard to tell the kids what not to do and tell them when they are being too loud or that they are misbehaving. I am reluctant to do this mostly because I know how angry these kids can get and I don’t want to be the cause of a major meltdown or have physical or verbal attacks directed at me. Although the kids are so sweet most of the time, in a second they can completely change and have a major meltdown and need to be brought to another room to calm down. I am getting better at being strict with the kids and letting them know when they are misbehaving, but this aspect is one of my weaknesses and I still have reluctance surrounding this.


Day #4 – Answer all Random Questions. (Random Qs doc file)


Random Short Response Questions:


1.) Who did you sit next to most today?
I sat next to a boy who I will call P today. P needs to be supervised by an adult at all times because he has aspergers and depression and when he gets upset he tends to run off. He has to be supervised so that he 
doesn’t run off.


2.) Write one adjective to describe your performance on this project.
Productive


3.) What type of music is played at work or when people are on “hold” if applicable?
No music is played because it would be disruptive for the students. They watched a movie though today which was  called “The Game Plan”.


4.) On a scale of 1-5, how good was your day today?
Today I would rate my day as a 5!


5.) Would you ever really work here or do this for a living?
No, I don’t think I would ever work at a speical-ed school. The teachers have to really discipline the children and when the children get worked up and very angry they can punch, kick, and spit at teachers. Truthfully, I don’t want to work at a place where my safety is in danger. While doing my senior project I have had no problems with this because I am not the one disciplining the students.


6.) What did you wear to work yesterday?
I wore orange caprees and a teal shirt. I also brought a black jacket because it tends to be cold in the building.


7.) Who is the most challenging person/concept in the workplace?
The most challenging people are the students because sometimes they don’t want to do their work or get into an argument with the teacher or another student that will trigger a full blown violent melt down.


8.) Who/What is the least challenging?
The teacher of the classroom Ms. Ralson is the least challenging because she always gives me something to do to help out with in the classroom and always makes sure I am comfortable and respected by the students.


9.) What is the most important thing you’ve learned so far?
The most important thing I’ve learned so far is more patience. I have learned to be more patient with students who don’t want to do work or who are immature for their age and want to talk about things like Yugioh, angry birds, or talking orange toys.


10.) Who would win in an arm wrestling match?  You or your mentor/partner/co-worker (choose the one that is applicable)
The students would win in an arm wrestling match, particular some of the bigger students. Most of the students in the class are in 5th or 6th grade and some of the boys are very bit and strong compared to me or even the teachers. This is what can make their melt downs so difficult to deal with.


11.) What time do you have to wake up each morning in order to be at work on time or in order to be productive?
I wake up at 7:30 every day to be on time for work. The students arrive at around 9:00 and I like to get their early to talk with the teacher, get some paperwork or computer work done, and just show that I am willing to show up early.


12.) Write the title of your location and create acronym that describes it.
Lively
Important
Thoughtful
Zealous
Inquisitive
Noisy
Guarded
Exciting
Rambunctious

Senior Project Post- Day 2

Day #2 – After two days working on your project, do you still believe this project is the right fit for you? Justify your response with examples and explanations.


After two days of working on my senior project, I still think the project is right for me. I had a great day today working on creating two “teaching moments” binders with images and comics made from comic life. I also ate lunch with the kids, went to art with the kids, and walked them to various rooms. I think it’s the right fit for me because I love working with kids and I am very good with technology. My technology skills helped me create the comic life and book pages for the “teaching moments” binders that I prepared for some of the kids.


Another reason it is a good fit for me is because I am very patient. Many of the children have anger problems, or have trouble responding when spoken too. Many people would be frustrated with the kids, but after two days I am still finding that I have the patience to work with them. I have seen first hand how difficult it is for the teachers to deal with the kids every day and how frustrated they do get with them, but so far I have been able to be very patient.


I am able to get the kids talking and socializing when they are in good moods and I have been able to engage with them in productive ways. I think the project is the right project for me because of my skills working with kids, my skills working with technology, and my patience. I also don’t mind doing paperwork or packing up school materials which I will soon also be helping with since the school is getting ready to close for the summer.


Also this is the part I did not include in my post for school, the Tourette's and OCD part. Many of the kids have tics since tics tend to come with aspergers and these kinds of disorders. One of the little boys in the class has both Tourette's and Aspergers and he is adorable. I have been enjoying spending time with him and talking with him. He's very quiet so i've been trying to get him to talk more. 

Senior Project Post- Day 1

Hey guys! So, sorry but this post is not about Tourette's. I started my senior project today! Yay! And every day of our senior project, my school requires that I write up a blog post based on the daily prompt and post it on the school blog. I figured that I would post the posts I write about my senior project here on this blog too because it's a part of my life right now and this blog is about my life. I also won't have a whole lot of energy to write TS based posts this week because of the senior project posts I have to write so I figured posting those here is better than posting nothing at all for two weeks! The posts sort of relate to TS/OCD/various neurological disorders though because I am working in a speical-ed school primarily with kids who have Aspergers Syndrome. So enjoy!


Day #1 – Describe how your first day began.  How welcoming was your mentor?  What was your first impression and what questions remained at the end of the day?
My first day working at Litzinger for my senior project started off very well. I arrived early so the teacher of the classroom would have the opportunity to give me any updates or let me know what she wanted me to help out with for the day. Ms. Rolston was very welcoming. I have worked with Ms. Rolston before and she is always very welcoming, warm, clear, and good at delegating work and leadership.
I started off the day by having a child read his self selected reading out loud to me and grading some reading comprehension worksheets for Ms. Rolston. Ms. Rolston then asked me to go work with a boy named Blake with a reading comprehension activity. She then spoke to me outside the room to let me know what Blake’s needs were so that I could do my best to help him. She let me know that repetition is always helpful for Blake and that although he sometimes isn’t as mature as he should be, he is very intelligent. Blake and I worked on reading comprehension for a long time and he was almost always able to get the right answer on his own or be helped towards the right answer with the use of repetition of ideas in the story we had read together.
Some therapy dogs came to visit with the children and while the kids were playing with the dogs “Pepsi” and “Kenzie”, Ms. Rollston told me that Blake had not been able to get that much work done in a long time. I was so glad I was able to help Blake stay on task longer than he usually would and that I was able to help him understand the reading as well.
After the therapy dogs came, the kids and I ate lunch together. The kids got a special pizza, soda, and cookie lunch because it’s near the end of the year and they had just finished preforming a play about Autism. During lunch I helped the kids engage in conversation by asking them about their special lunch, their play, and their favorite things to do in school.
After lunch I went to computer class with the kids and engaged in computer based activities with them. Unfortunately, after computer class I had to go to a doctor’s appointment that could not be rescheduled, but I really wished I could have stayed for the rest of the day because I was really enjoying getting to know the kids and getting to help them with their work.
Overall, my first day of my senior project was a great day. I got the impression that Litzinger is really a wonderful place for these kids and that the teachers are so dedicated in helping them improve on all aspects of their life, not just academics. Although the kids sometimes have a hard time getting to work, I think a new and friendly face in the classroom was something that helped some of the kids stay engaged and interested in the school work. I was so glad that I could be this new and friendly face and that I get to help the kids out for the next two weeks. I have a lot of questions though going forward. Will the kids be as co-operative with me as they get to know me better and as I become less new and exciting? Will I have to deal with the difficult situation of when a student that I am working with looses their temper? Will I deal with this situation well? Will the kids who were more shy around me become more comfortable with me over the next two weeks?
Today I think I learned and grew. I learned more of how to help the kids stay on task and how to let them take a little break if they really needed to in order to avoid meltdowns and frustration. I learned that progress and success at this school is not necessarily measured by how well they compare to other students, but instead how they have improved according to their own personal goals.

I think I have found my perfect college match!

Yesterday I had a really awesome awesome day!! I went over for an admitted information session, a  N writing scholarship interview, a personal meeting with the head of the film school, and a freshman writing seminar for the N Scholars. I felt like I was a real college student! My Scholarship interview went fantastically! I was interviewed by the head of the program and throughout the interview she told me how fantastic my short stories and poems were and how much they reminded her of famous authors and poets like Sylvia Plath of Jumpa Lahiri.

 At the end of the interview she told me that today alone she has interviewed 20 students, and she only has 8 places in the program. She then told me that out of all those students I was probably the most qualified for the program and that once in a blue moon she is able to offer a scholarship right on the spot and she wanted to offer it to me right then and there! I was so honored and excited and just knew this program was right for me! I thanked her, told her how honored I was, and told her how wonderful the program sounded and how much I wanted to be in the program.

Not only does the program give you some scholarship money, but it also puts you in the N scholarship program with the 8 other students from your grade. I will be with 8 other freshman who love writing as much as I do and will take writing classes and seminars with them all 4 years of college. Most of the time, the group bonds so well and they all become great friends. The program sounds like it was made for me and I can't even express how much I want to go to the University and be a N scholar.

I then attended the Freshman writing seminar with the 8 current Freshman N scholars which was absolutely fanatastic! I felt right at home with the incredibly intelligent students, and the amazing poetry and prose we were reading. We spent the entire time mainly on Billy Collins (whose poetry I am discovered that I love!) and we watched animations of the poetry on youtube. There was tons of yummy food, the students and teacher were all so nice and welcoming, and the school and program felt so right.

I truly hope I can go to the school and be a N Scholar next year. My parents and even grandparents are so excited about this accomplishment and seem to be taking the University and scholarship program very seriously as an option for me. My grandpa even said that he secretly hopes I don't get into any of the Ivy's that I applied to. I secretly hope this too. I think I have found my match and my home for the next four years.

Going to be part of a Tourette's Research Study! :)

Okay, I am now ready to start blogging again! I took a little break from blogging this past week because my parents were out of town, my dog is sick, and I'm on spring break so there is really not much going on to blog about. Now things are starting to get back to normal, except for my dog who is sick. We originally thought she had a urinary tract infection but now we know it's  more than that. She is acting just fine, but there is tissue and blood in her urine and the vet doesn't know what is wrong just yet. He is going to send out the sample for testing and give her an ultrasound and hopefully we will know more then. I really hope she is okay because I love her so much and all of my family does too. My grandma's dog has cancer and only has about 2-8 months to live which is hard enough to deal with, It would be just awful for something serious to be wrong with my dog too. My poodle is a part of my family and I am so attached to her. We will get her ultrasound done on Monday and will get the test results back then too, so I hope to know what is going on by then.

Besides that I wanted to blog about something more Tourette's related, lol. When I went to interview the Tourette experts for my documentary, the Doctoral Fellow who both has Tourette's and researches it mentioned to me that she was going to be starting a research study for people with Tourette's ages 18 and older. She asked me if I was interested and if I would be willing to be a part of the research study when it was all ready and of course I said yes! So last week she got back to me and told me that the study was all ready to go and I let her know that I was still interested. So....I am all signed up to be part of the study! There are two parts of the study, the behavioral testing and the MRI scan. I am set up to do the behavioral testing part on April 4th and the MRI scan part on April 7th. During the behavioral testing part there will be pencil and paper tests, verbal response tests, and questionnaires. I am a bit worried for the MRI scan because I am not sure how long I will be able to stay still. I'm sure they will be understanding though considering this is is Tourette's study, lol.

Anyway, besides a bit of apprehension about the MRI scan, I am excited to spend more time with the doctoral fellow who has TS (because she is just the kind of person who is really awesome and intelligent and who you want to get to know better) and I am also excited to get pictures of my brain! I've always wanted to see my brain. And of course I am excited to be helping neurologists and researchers to learn more about Tourette's. The more that is known about TS, the more tolerance and acceptance there will be for those with TS.

So, I will definitively blog about how both parts of the study go in the next week or two! In the mean time, I have one more week of spring break and I am going to take advantage of the extra sleeping and relaxing time!

My Experience with Sensory Processing Disorder (Another Co-Morbid Condition Associated with Tourette's)

So last week I wrote about my experience with Dysgraphia (a co-morbid condition associated with Tourette's), and this week I figured I would write about my experience with Sensory Processing Disorder. Below are two short paragraphs that help to define and describe SPD that I found on the SPD Foundation's Website.

"Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as "sensory integration dysfunction") is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly." 
-SPD Foundation


"Sensory Processing Disorder can affect people in only one sense–for example, just touch or just sight or justmovement–or in multiple senses. One person with SPD may over-respond to sensation and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound, food, or other sensory input to be unbearable. Another might under-respond and show little or no reaction to stimulation, even pain or extreme hot and cold." 
-SPD Foundation 


The first signs of SPD showed up for me right around the same time as my first tics showed up, when I was 5 years old. I very very sensitive to any type of touch. I didn't like people to play with my hair, brush my hair, or touch me on certain parts of my body. When people tried to touch me too much, I would always protest and shake them off me the best I could. Sometimes I threw fits about this! For me my main sensitivity is touch. Another thing I could not stand was wearing tights! My legs were very sensitive and I refused to wear tights or pantie hoes. When my mom put tights on me, it felt like my skin was crawling and I just felt overwhelmed all over. I also never played with chalk because the sensation bothered me too much, and I never touched paper or anything dry after my hands had been wet because of the sensation. 


Some other things that bothered me as a young child due to my SPD were the sensation of touching dirty cars, walking on garage floors either barefoot or with shoes, Styrofoam, the sound of chalk, the sound of department stores and the high pitched lights that only kids can here, the sound or feeling of hangers scooting on racks, metal rubbing together, having my fingernails or toe nails clipped, and the sound or feel of mechanical pencils. I am sure there was much more than just these things, but at the moment these are what I am remembering.  



When I went to see my Occupational Therapist for my Dysgraphia, my mom told her about my sensory difficulties and she started treating me for SPD vid Sensory Integration Therapy. She had me rub a little plastic brush all over my legs, which I absolutely hated! And she had me play with certain toys or play on structures in her room in ways that were supposed to help increase my threshold of sensory tolerance. Even though I absolutely hated when she forced me to rub the plastic brush on my legs or when she did it herself, it was all therapy for the SPD that I needed at the time.    



Today my SPD is much improved and I can tolerate a lot more sensory input and information than I used to be able to. I can now put up with wearing tights and being touched even though at times I really don't like it! I still cannot stand the feeling or sound of chalk, the feeling of touching paper after my hands have been wet, the feeling or sound of Styrofoam, the feeling of walking barefoot on the garage floor or basement floors, the sound of squeaking tennis shoes, the sound of mechanical pencils, and loud noises, and much more.


So that is my SPD in a net shell! Right now a fire alarm in my house is malfunctioning and is making a high pitched sound every minute or so. It is driving my SPD crazy nuts and my ears hurt from it! My head feels like it is very sensitive right now and overwhelmed by the noise. Hopefully it will stop soon, but my parents say they can't get someone out to fix it until tomorrow. I am trying my best to ignore it, but it is just so darn painful to listen to.


Some Video's about SPD: 

Sometimes I am Thankful for OCD

Someone close to me made a very stupid choice last night. I can't go into much detail, but I really thought he was smarter than that. Guess everyone does things you don't expect. People have the amazing ability to hide things, and just when you think you know them so well, they do something that you would never have thought they would do. Thank god he is physically alright. I am thankful for that, but I know it could have gone the other way. It's times like this that I am actually kind of thankful to have OCD. OCD keeps me from making stupid decisions like that. Although I really hate having OCD some days, other days I realize the good things it gives me. I am an excellent student, I am precise and have the need to finish everything, and I never put myself in situations or do anything that may harm me or do any kind of damage to by body. OCD makes me careful, precise, and wary of the things around me and sometimes this can be a good thing. My boat is a little rocked from last night, but ultimately with time everything will go back to normal.

My Experience with Dysgraphia (Another Co-Morbid Condition Associated with Tourette)

So today I figured I would write about my experience with dysgraphia, another co-morbid condition associated with Tourette. I recently watched the new Tourette Syndrome Association program Tourette Syndrome in the school, classroom and community,  which you can watch online for free.

This is a great resource for parents with children with TS, teachers with students with TS and for students with TS. Although a lot of it focused on the actual tics themselves, there was a lot of focus on co-morbid conditions associated with Tourette.

I have a fair amount of co-morbid conditions that have effected me a lot over the years, so I could really relate. I have OCD and anxiety, which affect me every day and which are two very common co-morbid conditions associated with Tourette’s. But I also have another co-morbid condition associated with Tourette’s that is not as well known even though it is a very common co-morbid condition with Tourette’s.

I have been dealing with dysgraphia since I was first able to write. Dysgraphia is the deficiency and extreme difficulty associated with the ability to write, primarily in terms of handwriting. It is technically classified as a learning disability referring to extremely poor handwriting.

Some of the characteristics of dysgraphia (all of which I have) include:

• Slow and laborious handwriting
• Hand and finger cramping
• Sloppy handwriting
• Uneven spacing
• Irregular margins
• Inconsistent lettering
• Inability to copy correctly from board to paper.

As many of you know, I am a very good writer in terms of content. I can express myself clearly, get across what I want to say and do so in a very advanced way. I am a published poet, have been published many times and I have won many awards for my poetry and short stories.

But dysgraphia isn’t about that. Regardless of how good or clear my ideas are, my handwriting remains a complete mess.

When I was in second or third grade, my handwriting was so illegible that my teachers suggested that my parents take me to an occupational therapist (OT) to be evaluated for dysgraphia and receive therapy for it. I worked with an OT for a long time in hope of improving my handwriting skills to a point where my handwriting might actually be legible.

My handwriting improved to a certain extent, but when my parents realized that we had gotten to a point where progress was at a stand still, my parents decided to stop the therapy and just accept the dysgraphia.

My parents enrolled me in intensive keyboarding and computer classes in hopes that when I was older I would have the skills to never have to hand-write anything important. As my mom says, if I ever need to write something important “never hand-write it, because it doesn’t show your intelligence, and it doesn’t match up with the sophistication of the content of what you have to say.”

I learned so much from my keyboarding classes that my mom enrolled me in during elementary school, and since I have had my laptop since seventh grade, I am an expert keyboarder. I can type much faster than I can write at this point, and on top of being more efficient, typing is a way for me to get around the dysgraphia.

So yes, today my handwriting is just about as bad as it was in third or fourth grade because well … I have dysgraphia. But I am lucky because my entire school functions on a laptop system, and I have the skills and means to type everything that I would need to write. Today, I hardly ever hand-write anything. All my assignments, essays and papers are typed up.

A lot of students with Tourette have dysgraphia, so my suggestion is that if you are a kid with Tourette who has dysgraphia (or are the parent of a kid with dysgraphia), you should really look into what can be done to help the condition. Get evaluated by an OT first and see if occupational therapy or other therapies may be beneficial.

If these therapies don’t help, FOCUS on what you CAN DO rather than what you can’t. Don’t keep harping on handwriting improvement if you have gotten to a point where progress is limited. Instead, focus on improving typing skills and computer skills.

Think about what accommodations in school might help. Will having a scribe help for handwritten tests or assessments? If notes are provided ahead of time, will this help? Will a laptop help?

If a laptop is out of your price range, a great tool is an Alpha Smart. Alpha Smarts are very inexpensive and can be used in class or outside of the home for typing up work, and then later can be hooked up to a desktop computer at home and the word document will transfer right to the computer and can be printed. The key is to teach keyboarding early on! That is what made all the difference for me!

How I've spent my 5 day weekend! And starting a new trimester Tuesday!

It's been a nice, long, and relaxing weekend after finals! I so needed these 5 days to recover from all that stress that comes along with finals week. I spent all day Thursday procrastinating and avoiding writing the 6-8 page paper that was due for my Satire class Friday at midnight, then spent all day Friday really sitting down and writing it. It took all day Friday pretty much and was soooo draining but I got in done and think I actually did a pretty decent job on it. Then I've spent all day Saturday and Sunday relaxing and having fun! Yesterday I went out to lunch with Speed Racer and we hit the science center for an hour or two. He gave me the LARGEST chocolate bar that I have ever seen for valentines day! So sweet of him! It was in a gold box with a red ribbon wrapped around it. I hadn't had any time to get him a present because I was so busy studying and dealing with finals but I went out today and bought him a present (artisan chocolates!). Then Saturday night I went out to eat Mexican food with my Grandpa. He insisted that I pick him up, drive to dinner, and pay with my new credit card that he had set up for me with a nice cushion of money inside of it. I ate so much food; it was ridiculous!!! The best part was the desert which was a chocolate tacco with mint chocolate chip ice cream and strawberries inside. So today I've been relaxing even more. It's sooo nice not to have homework! I slept late, played around on the computer, gave in and watched Breaking Dawn (which was mushy and cheesy but still kind of good),visited my grandma in her new assisted living home with my mom, bought valentines day chocolates for my boyfriend, and bought some cookies for my dog. Yep that's been pretty much it!

I have Tomorrow off as well, and supposedly Tuesday is supposed to be senior skip day, but I don't know if I'm actually going to skip. It's kind of silly to have senior skip day right after you've had a 5 day weekend! So my tics have calmed a bit since exams with all the relaxing and I start my new trimester Tuesday or Wednesday depending on if I skip Tuesday or not. I have two new classes with new teachers though, joy. I hate having new classes and new teachers. It means more explaining of Tourette's to both the teachers and the students. I will try to send my new teachers an e-mail about Tourette's either today or tomorrow. The e-mail always helps me feel a little bit better knowing that my new teachers know and hopefully understand. This is the e-mail I usually send so I will send this or a variation of this to them before class on Tuesday:

"I've been e-mailing my new teachers to briefly mention something. To avoid any possible confusion on the first day I just wanted to mention that I have Tourette's Syndrome. It does mention this in my personalized school plan, but I have found that teachers are not always able to get to all the plans before the first day of the new trimester and it makes me feel much more comfortable knowing that I have informed my teachers personally about this. I have both motor and vocal tics which include involuntary movements and sounds, but I don't swear or say offensive words. Usually my tics aren't disruptive to the class, but sometimes it helps me to get up and walk around for a bit if they get particularly bad. If you have any questions feel free to ask me or talk to the learning specialist. You can also visit http://www.tsa-usa.org/ for more information about Tourette's."

So that's what I will send! I sent it last trimester to my new teachers and got very good responses from them.  It helped me feel a whole lot better on the first day in their classes knowing they were aware of this. My tics usually are worse than usual on the first few days of a new class. It's kind of like Tourette's need to make a disclaimer right off the bat. Well we'll see how it goes. I think I will feel better about the new classes this trimester than I ever really have before. The reason for this is because of something I haven't talked about on my blog yet, but will blog about soon. 

A Smile As Big As the Moon

Last night my mom and I sat down on the couch to watch "A Smile As Big As the Moon" together. If you haven't heard of it, A Smile As Big As the Moon is a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie that premiered last night on ABC. The movie is based on a book and a true story about a special-ed class that was the first group of special needs students to go to Space Camp.

One of students in the class has Tourette's so I was very excited to watch the movie! My mom is a Speech Pathologist who works in a special-ed school and is the mother of a daughter with Tourette's and OCD (me!) so she was excited to see the movie too.

When we sat down to watch it though, my brother was doing his homework in the other room and only let us watch it at a very quiet volume. My mom and I tried to fight him on it, but we  lost and still had to keep it the volume down.

My mom fell asleep half way through, and by 10:00 I was pretty worn out so I decided to turn it off and watch the rest later at a higher volume. Even though I only watched half of it at a low volume I enjoyed it a lot.

The portrayal of Tourette's in the movie was very very accurate which I greatly appreciated. The boy who had Tourette's had other problems as well such as ADHD and learning difficulties which is why he was in the special-ed class, but in terms of the Tourette's and tics it was portrayed very accurately without any stereotypes like outbursts of profanities.

Of course I didn't expect any less from Hallmark, the same people who produced Front of the Class (Brad Cohen's story of becoming a teacher with Tourette's) very accurately and beautifully. 


Anyway I plan to watch the rest of the movie sometime this week or weekend which I am sure will be fantastic! I would definitely recommend watching the movie or reading the book to any educator, or anyone else especially those who who have Tourette's, OCD, disabilities, or special needs.

Thank goodness! A day off!

I get to stay home from school today thank goodness! All classes are canceled at my school because the whole school is going to a basketball game. I actually should be at the basketball game but because of my sensory processing disorder (another one of my associated conditions that go along with TS) I am very sensitive to loud noise and the squeaking of shoes on a basketball court. Plus if we really aren't doing anything productive my parents agree that there is really no point in going. I could be much more productive at home. So today I'm taking it easy. I slept until 9am, ate some chocolate donuts, received my last video for the documentary, and have been watching TV/ working on my documentary. After this post I will start doing homework. Also my trailer for the documentary just passed 500 views! Yay!

My Weighted Blanket Came!

So my weighted blanket was just delivered tonight! I was so happy to see the big package outside of my door when I came home from school! I took some pictures of it for my blog. It's pink and both my mom and I think its very pretty.

My mom says that when I take it to college she thinks everyone will be jealous of it and want there own. Haha, I don't know about that, but so far I am liking it. It's more of a throw over blanket for the bed and less of a comforter, but none the less I still think it will do its job.

I set it down on the couch and climbed under it to test it out and it was soooo comfy!!! It is now on my bed and I am really hoping that besides been a really pretty and comfy blanket in itself that it will also help reduce my tics at night and thus make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep! I sure need the sleep tonight because last night after taking a full hour or more to fall asleep I was woken up at 1:30 am by a giant thunder and hail storm! It sounded like we were being attacked. My dad was afraid that it would break the windows.

So after being kept up until 2 am by the storm, the tornado siren went off and my dad insisted that everyone go down to the basement where we stayed until my dad was sure everything was safe. We stayed down there till 2:45 am and then when I got back up to my bed I found it hard to fall back asleep.

Luckily I did eventually fall asleep, but I need my rest tonight and hopefully my new blanket will help. My mom's night last night was 1000 times worse than mine so I really shouldn't be complaining. My mom was with my grandma in the ER until 5:30 AM! Crazyness! My grandma is okay really, she just has a slight case of pneumonia and some really bad anxiety which made everything worse. They had to admit her to the Psych ward and give her some kind of sedative. And this isn't even on the side of the family where my ocd and TS comes from. That's all on my dad's side. So on my mom's side we have severe anxiety and panic attacks and on my dad's side we have OCD and Tourette's. Lots of disorders, heh. Well it could be worse.

My weighted blanket on the couch!

A close up!

Hanukkah Party!! Happy Holidays!

Hey guys! So last night was my Hanukkah party and I have lots to tell! I can't believe its already over. I had so much fun and I wish it wasn't over. Anyway so my cousin Kitty and her mom came over at about 2:00 to help us get ready for the party. My mom just had shoulder surgery so she needed help with a lot of the cooking and such. We also had a party helper so that helped a lot too. Kitty and I didn't end up doing much helping really, because everyone seemed to have it under control. We did end up wrapping some presents at one point though. We went up to my room and hung out for like 5 hours. Lol, the party didn't start until 7:00. We played with her new phone, the iphone 4GS and Cerie, which I'm going to get as one of my Hannukkah presents later. We talked about a lot of stuff and we also watched a very bad movie about a church cult that killed homosexuals. We didn't feel the need to finish the movie so we turned it off, lol. We knew it would be a different scene when my other cousins Lipstick and Twitch showed up though. Lipstick and Twitch hadn't talked or even been in the same room for 6 months because they got into a giant fight about a boyfriend that Twitch started dating after Lipstick had broken up with him after dating him for 3 years. I thought they would at least be civil to each other, but nope I was wrong.

Twitch showed up about 10 minutes before Lipstick did and immediately came up to my room to hide. It took me about 10 minutes after Lipstick showed up to convince Twitch to go downstairs and that if she did Lipstick wouldn't attack her. Well I was right, she didn't attack her, but Twitch and Lipstick didn't say a word to each other the whole night! They avoided each other like the plague but from what I heard that was a better alternative than Lipstick actually approaching her because boy did she have some nasty things to say. Drama, Drama, Drama.

We all still had fun and Twitch and I actually spent a lot of time talking and hanging out one on one. I felt closer to her last night than I really ever have. When it started getting late I mentioned that I was getting tired, but only because i've been waking up at like 5 in the morning not able to go back to sleep for over an hour. Twitch seemed concerned and asked me why that was happening and when I told her I didn't know but my body just told me it was time to wake up she gave me some advice and told me the same thing was happening to her a little while ago and that I should ask my doctor about it. You know you're at my family's gathering when people can relate to waking up at 5am ticcing with your body telling you its time to wake up. You also know you're at my family's gathering when passing through the crowd you head "Oh yeah, I have lots of twitches, like I have to raise my hand a 5 times before I go in a room". So this is how I found out that my older 22 year old cousin also has some sort of TS/OCD combo. And you also know you're at one of my family gatherings when the presents consist of car vacume cleaners, my grandmothers nuts, and ice scrapers for wind shields.

Anyway, all in all it was a very fun night! I ate lots of Latkas and Brisket, talked lots about college, and got some good presents. A really cute key chain for a key to my moms car was my favorite present. Hope everyone else had a good Hanukkah/Christmas/ Holiday season!


Daily Video's:

Happy Hanukkah! Dogs Celebrate Hanukkah Tooo!! 
My Doggie is having fun too! Although I haven't taken a 
video of it. Lol! 

Aspergers Syndrome: Awareness For My Volunteering Classroom!

I work with children who have more severe cases of Aspergers and Autism at the special-ed school that I volunteer at and will be doing my senior project. Because of this, I thought I would spread some Aspergers awareness for my special little friends at the special-ed school.

Here are some of my favorite Aspergers awareness videos:

     

What is Aspergers Syndrome?

Children and adults with Asperger’s Syndrome have an intellectual capacity within the normal range or even above the normal range, but have a distinct profile of abilities that has been apparent since early childhood. The profile of abilities includes the following characteristics:

A qualitative impairment in social interaction:

• Failure to develop friendships that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
• Impaired use of non-verbal behaviour such as eye gaze, facial expression and body language to regulate a social interaction.
• Lack of social and emotional reciprocity and empathy.
• Impaired ability to identify social cues and conventions.

A qualitative impairment in subtle communication skills:

• Fluent speech but difficulties with conversation skills and a tendency to be pedantic, have an unusual prosody and to make a literal interpretation.

Restrictive Interests:

• The development of special interests that is unusual in their intensity and focus.
• Preference for routine and consistency.

May also include: 

•  motor clumsiness 
•  problems with handwriting 
• being hypersensitive to specific auditory and tactile experiences
• impulsiveness 
• tics 
• self-stimulation behaviors 

Senior Project- First Blog Post!

At my high school all seniors are required to do a senior project before graduation. Students do various things outside of school for the senior project such as work in bakeries, shadow doctors, record their own music, or work in women's shelters. The options for what you can do as a senior project are pretty much endless. During the process of our senior project each student keeps their own senior project blog. Today was my first blog post! We don't actually do the senior project until the end of the year, but today we posted on the senior project blog about what he were planning on doing and how it was going to be a new experience for us. I figured that I would post what I'm posting on my senior project blog on my own personal blog as well! Here was what I wrote!


For my senior project, I want to help out in an English classroom at a special-ed school.  The kids who come through the classroom are in middle school and at that grade level the school runs on a middle school model so students go to different classrooms for different subjects.  The teacher in the classroom I would be helping out in teaches grammer, reading comprehension, and writing skills.  English and Literature is one of my strengths and during the few days in the summer that I spent in the classroom I was really able to help the students. I have a personally connection with this project not only because of my strength in English but also because the students who have classes in the English classroom all mostly have High Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome. Although I know a lot about English and Aspergers Syndrome, this project will still be a new experience for me because I will be working with the students on a more regular basis. I don’t really know a lot about the inner day to day workings of a special-ed classroom so being in the classroom more regularly will be a new experience for me. Also some of the kids have Behavioral Disorders or other disorders besides Aspergers, so working with those children will be a new experience for me as well.

So that was my first senior project blog post! I'm really excited for my senior project and I just wanted to share my enthusiasm! Also I didn't mention this in the blog for school but many of the kids at the school also have Tourettes which is obviously exciting for me. The kids who are at the special-ed school who have Tourettes usually aren't there because of their Tourettes but rather because they also have Aspergers or a behavioral disorder along with their TS. I already met two kids with TS in the classroom over the summer and I'm excited to work with them again! I will continue to post about the progress of my senior project and my senior project blog over the process of the school year and will certainly blog about it when I start the project at the end of the year! :)

Is there a Spot for Tourettes on College Applications?

One of the awesome things about this type of blog is that you can see exactly how people get to your blog! If they use google and just happen to find my blog, I can see exactly what the person typed in to get to my blog.

Recently I saw that someone found my blog by typing in the question that is the title of this post: "Is there as spot for tourettes on college applications?". So I thought I would do a post answering this exact question.

The answer is YES! There are so many opportunities for you to indicate that you have Tourette's on your college application. No, there isn't a spot that says "If you have Tourettes check this box" or "List any diagnoses that you have here", but that doesn't mean that there isn't a spot for it if you want to indicate to colleges that you have TS before they accept you.

For m,  this was something that I thought was really important. I wanted my colleges to know, before they accepted me, that I have Tourette's Syndrome. I didn't want it to be a surprise to them, and I certainly didn't want to get into a college and then just keep on thinking "well would they have accepted me if they knew about my TS before hand?".

Colleges want and need diversity and students with disabilities or differences. If anything, disclosing that you have Tourette's or another disorder will help you in terms of your changes for acceptance into a college. This is what I have been told by my parents and college advisers. For me, it was easy to work my TS into my college application because I wrote my entire college essay for the common app on my experience with TS. This is a really neat place to for Tourettes because it really makes for a unique and original college essay! 


College admissions officers really do get bored of "My trip to community service trip to Peru caused me to grow as a person". If you don't want to write your entire essay about TS, you can work it into the essay in your own way without making TS the focus of the essay. 


Another place were I indicated that I have TS is on my list of activities. Since I'm involved with my state's TSA chapter it was easy to put this under the list of activities section as community service. Some of the college's I applied to though didn't want the common app or the common app essay, but there was still a spot on their separate applications for me to write about TS. There's usually supplemental questions for each colleges and if TS fits you can put it right in there! Also sometimes there's a "is there anything else you'd like to say?" section where you can talk about TS and when applying for scholarships there's lots of opportunities to work TS into supplemental writing and essays.

What if Everything was Voluntary?

Today in the hallway I heard a snip-it of a conversation.

Boy 1: That was voluntary
Boy 2: Well it's always voluntary

What would it be like to be able to say this?  What a different world it would be if everything was voluntary!