My sister came on some crazy October night.
The stars were bright and several shooting stars were seen as we camped out on the hill in San Bruno.
My sister Kelly was born this night many moons ago. I was at a camp out for the Robin Hood archery club that I belonged to. I found out the next morning that I was a "big brother" again. My sister Mikie is only three years younger than I.. Kelly is 9 years younger than me.
She is always supportive of my endeavors. She has later told me that I was a major reason that she went to school to become a speech and language specialist. Then again she also said that I could sell refrigerators to Eskimos.. ha
She is a bit of a promoter too. I like that. She can get people to do what they need to do. It is wonderful that she is pursuing a Phd in education. We need promotional leaders like her.
She truly brightens the world around which she treads..
Love ya Sis
Pat
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Leave the Drama for your Mama
The kids and I had a great time with the scenarios. I picked the two students at time to go through them. (See the previous post)
I would tell them the words to say and they would say them. and then try to remember them for the rewind. One would pick a number and then I would read the scenario and they would say the words that go with it. Everyone but one really shy guy participated. Most of the students wanted a second try at it and wanted us to do it again Friday. No such luck..I will put it on the shelf and we will do it more than one time this semester. It was a good experience.. it took a lot of energy. They learned and they were expressing.. Dosen't get much better than that. I even did it with my pull out students. It was hard for them.
Have a great evening
Pat
I would tell them the words to say and they would say them. and then try to remember them for the rewind. One would pick a number and then I would read the scenario and they would say the words that go with it. Everyone but one really shy guy participated. Most of the students wanted a second try at it and wanted us to do it again Friday. No such luck..I will put it on the shelf and we will do it more than one time this semester. It was a good experience.. it took a lot of energy. They learned and they were expressing.. Dosen't get much better than that. I even did it with my pull out students. It was hard for them.
Have a great evening
Pat
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Work for Thursday: Ritualistic Language
From Daily Communication by Linda Schwartz and Nancy McKinley
Ritualizing Function:
We are going to do a little role playing: Primarily for older students in speech..
1. Your new neighbors want you to feed the dog while they’re gone. You go over to meet them and the dog . What will you say?
2. Your grandfather sent you a gift for your birthday and you see him for the first time since opening the present. What do you say to him?
3. You just slipped into your desk in first period. You realize there is a new student sitting across from you. What could you say?
4. You answer the door and there stands a friend of you mother’s, However, your mother is not home right now. What will you say?
5. You friend has started talking with you after school about how awful the day was. However, you are concerned about getting to the after-school job on time. You politely want to get out of the conversation. What will you say?
6. You accidentally hit a ball through a window in a nearby house while playing with your friends. You go up to the house and to talk with the people inside. What will you say?
7. Your brother’s new friend comes over and you are in the same room together for a minute until your brother gets there. The friend is a year older than you, and you have never met. What will you say?
8. Your friend helped you finish a lot of homework last night. You see the friend the first thing today. And still feel grateful. What will you say?
9. You mother is talking with you about your chores that need to get done on the coming weekend, but you want to leave now to see your friends, What will you say?
10. You borrowed your friend’s jacket and ripped the elbow out. You friend is coming down the hallway toward you now. What will you say?
11. You parents made a tentative promise that you would baby sit children of old family friends. You need to call them to confirm the arrangement. What will you say?
12. There is a caller on the phone wondering if you or someone else in your family wants to buy magazines. You have just listened to the whole sales pitch and now want to say “no.” What will you say?
13. You helped a young child who fell off his bike. The bike is broken. Call the child’s parents. What will you say?
14. Your mother asked you to phone the doctor’s office to let them know that she is late, but on her way. She will be there in 10 minutes. What will you say?
15. You answer the phone and it is your dad’s friend. Your father is sleeping and does not want to be disturbed. What will you say?
16. Someone calls you and asks for Donna. You think it must be a wrong number. They call back a second time. What will you say?
17. You decide to call in a local radio station to request your favorite song and dedicate it to a friend. What will you say?
18. You wake up feeling terribly ill and decide to phone the school and let them know you will not be in today. What will you say?
19. You and your hungry friends are sitting at your house. You have just finished dialing the nearest pizza restaurant. What will you say?
20. Your friend is leaving on a trip tomorrow and you want to call him and wish him a good time. What will you say?
Ritual: greeting, leaving, thanking, apologizing
Ritualizing Function:
We are going to do a little role playing: Primarily for older students in speech..
1. Your new neighbors want you to feed the dog while they’re gone. You go over to meet them and the dog . What will you say?
2. Your grandfather sent you a gift for your birthday and you see him for the first time since opening the present. What do you say to him?
3. You just slipped into your desk in first period. You realize there is a new student sitting across from you. What could you say?
4. You answer the door and there stands a friend of you mother’s, However, your mother is not home right now. What will you say?
5. You friend has started talking with you after school about how awful the day was. However, you are concerned about getting to the after-school job on time. You politely want to get out of the conversation. What will you say?
6. You accidentally hit a ball through a window in a nearby house while playing with your friends. You go up to the house and to talk with the people inside. What will you say?
7. Your brother’s new friend comes over and you are in the same room together for a minute until your brother gets there. The friend is a year older than you, and you have never met. What will you say?
8. Your friend helped you finish a lot of homework last night. You see the friend the first thing today. And still feel grateful. What will you say?
9. You mother is talking with you about your chores that need to get done on the coming weekend, but you want to leave now to see your friends, What will you say?
10. You borrowed your friend’s jacket and ripped the elbow out. You friend is coming down the hallway toward you now. What will you say?
11. You parents made a tentative promise that you would baby sit children of old family friends. You need to call them to confirm the arrangement. What will you say?
12. There is a caller on the phone wondering if you or someone else in your family wants to buy magazines. You have just listened to the whole sales pitch and now want to say “no.” What will you say?
13. You helped a young child who fell off his bike. The bike is broken. Call the child’s parents. What will you say?
14. Your mother asked you to phone the doctor’s office to let them know that she is late, but on her way. She will be there in 10 minutes. What will you say?
15. You answer the phone and it is your dad’s friend. Your father is sleeping and does not want to be disturbed. What will you say?
16. Someone calls you and asks for Donna. You think it must be a wrong number. They call back a second time. What will you say?
17. You decide to call in a local radio station to request your favorite song and dedicate it to a friend. What will you say?
18. You wake up feeling terribly ill and decide to phone the school and let them know you will not be in today. What will you say?
19. You and your hungry friends are sitting at your house. You have just finished dialing the nearest pizza restaurant. What will you say?
20. Your friend is leaving on a trip tomorrow and you want to call him and wish him a good time. What will you say?
Ritual: greeting, leaving, thanking, apologizing
Word for the Day: dyspeptic
adjective: of or having indigestion or consequent irritabilty or depression.
Noun: a person who suffers from indegestion or irritabilty
Interest in this word came from the political arena where describing Mrs. Palin's chances in the VP debate on Thursday:
She'll have to confront Biden much more directly, and the Delaware senator may not be as easy to bait as her dyspeptic primary opponents.
Noun: a person who suffers from indegestion or irritabilty
Interest in this word came from the political arena where describing Mrs. Palin's chances in the VP debate on Thursday:
She'll have to confront Biden much more directly, and the Delaware senator may not be as easy to bait as her dyspeptic primary opponents.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wildlife Watching
Sunday afternoon instead of watching those Raiders give the game away.. which of course they did .. 20 something points in the fourth quarter.. we decided to take a little drive.
Sue loves to get out and try to spot some wildlife living along the road. The foothills are really really dry this year. We had a great trip up. We headed up to Snelling. It s a little hydro gold mine town pretty close to us. We decided to go up to Hornitos. Hornitos has an annual pilgrimage of the day of the dead to the top of their hill. Every year people put luminaries up and they walk to honor the dead that used to be buried above ground in oven like arrangements. Hornitos was a big town in the gold rush with nearly 15,000 inhabitants. Today there may be about 35 people that live there.
We drove through town and decided to continue on that road. It is a nice paved road and it was going in the right direction so up we went. It climbed and dipped and everywhere there were the stone fences of the post gold rush era. At the top of one of the hills Sue spotted three deer congregating under the trees. and little further along she said she saw some big birds. I backed up the car and I saw a beautiful wild turkey hen. She claimed that there was another just ahead of that one. What a sight!
We drove into the little way stations of Bear Valley and Mt. Bullion. This was the home base of Murietta. The bandit that robbed the stages full of gold as they headed out of the mills. We were on the big high way..still two lanes Hwy 49.
Our final stop along the way was to the town of Mariposa. There were many businesses not making it since the highway to Yosemite was under construction. We stopped and got a little bit of gas to make sure that we could get home.
The last bit of wildlife Sue noted was a coyote that she spotted on the plains headed in the Central valley from Planada. It looked like it had something in its mouth. Dinner for sure.
Have a great day.
Pat
Sue loves to get out and try to spot some wildlife living along the road. The foothills are really really dry this year. We had a great trip up. We headed up to Snelling. It s a little hydro gold mine town pretty close to us. We decided to go up to Hornitos. Hornitos has an annual pilgrimage of the day of the dead to the top of their hill. Every year people put luminaries up and they walk to honor the dead that used to be buried above ground in oven like arrangements. Hornitos was a big town in the gold rush with nearly 15,000 inhabitants. Today there may be about 35 people that live there.
We drove through town and decided to continue on that road. It is a nice paved road and it was going in the right direction so up we went. It climbed and dipped and everywhere there were the stone fences of the post gold rush era. At the top of one of the hills Sue spotted three deer congregating under the trees. and little further along she said she saw some big birds. I backed up the car and I saw a beautiful wild turkey hen. She claimed that there was another just ahead of that one. What a sight!
We drove into the little way stations of Bear Valley and Mt. Bullion. This was the home base of Murietta. The bandit that robbed the stages full of gold as they headed out of the mills. We were on the big high way..still two lanes Hwy 49.
Our final stop along the way was to the town of Mariposa. There were many businesses not making it since the highway to Yosemite was under construction. We stopped and got a little bit of gas to make sure that we could get home.
The last bit of wildlife Sue noted was a coyote that she spotted on the plains headed in the Central valley from Planada. It looked like it had something in its mouth. Dinner for sure.
Have a great day.
Pat
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Growing up without TV
For most of my childhood days we did not have a TV at home.
The first TV that I remember was at a neighbor's house in Grand Junction when I was under 5. It was a neighborhood phenomenon. It was black and white and owned by a neighbor who was considerably richer than us. They had a set of twins that was about my age.. Deany and Danny. We had a great time in a little yard preschool pool that has square sides and was probably made of Rubber.. not much plastic at the time.
My goal at that time was to take a long enough nap so that I could join the parents group that met on the nights that Milton Berle was broadcast. The neighbor's hosted TV viewing parties. Sadly I never made it, and knowing now about those shows and its content it is clear to figure out that it was a good thing that I was not a napper. Milton was always flirting with the gender issue, and to see a man dressed up in dress was truly funny in that era.
I remember Winky Dink however. You sent in a couple of dollars and got back a kit that you could interact with the TV by coloring on the screen with crayons and a screen protector.
There was brother Buzz with his rules for being a good kid. This was all pre.. teach Pat to read.
In the first grade I was not reading. Dad and mom made the monumental decision that they would forgo their entertainment to insure that I would read. The Tv was discarded and disabled.
I learned to read.. and the rest is history.. as they say. More later on what this did to peer interaction.
Love
Pat
The first TV that I remember was at a neighbor's house in Grand Junction when I was under 5. It was a neighborhood phenomenon. It was black and white and owned by a neighbor who was considerably richer than us. They had a set of twins that was about my age.. Deany and Danny. We had a great time in a little yard preschool pool that has square sides and was probably made of Rubber.. not much plastic at the time.
My goal at that time was to take a long enough nap so that I could join the parents group that met on the nights that Milton Berle was broadcast. The neighbor's hosted TV viewing parties. Sadly I never made it, and knowing now about those shows and its content it is clear to figure out that it was a good thing that I was not a napper. Milton was always flirting with the gender issue, and to see a man dressed up in dress was truly funny in that era.
I remember Winky Dink however. You sent in a couple of dollars and got back a kit that you could interact with the TV by coloring on the screen with crayons and a screen protector.
There was brother Buzz with his rules for being a good kid. This was all pre.. teach Pat to read.
In the first grade I was not reading. Dad and mom made the monumental decision that they would forgo their entertainment to insure that I would read. The Tv was discarded and disabled.
I learned to read.. and the rest is history.. as they say. More later on what this did to peer interaction.
Love
Pat
Thursday, September 25, 2008
More Percy and the Addition Description
Percy could live on a pretty strange diet.
when he was sitting me we would eat candy bars and pepsi. This was a guy that got up every morning and did 20 minutes of pushups and sit ups.
When he moved out of our house, he moved to the apartments on old El Camino Drive on the way to El Camino High School. One of the really cool things that he had in his apartment was a heated swimming pool. It was admittedly very tiny but it was fun to dunk and get dunked in it.
When Percy was at out house, we shared the first bedroom up the stairs. He got the bed and I slept on the aluminum cot on the other side of the bedroom. I think that as I was getting taller it became evident that they needed another bedroom added to the house. We worked on the bedroom that became part of the addition. It was a very skinny room, and it was a long way from the bathroom. The house had two bathrooms one was connected to the master bedroom the other one was end the hall from the bedrooms. To reach the bathroom I needed to go through the addition,the kitchen, up the stairs and to the end of the hall. I really didn't need a bathroom close by.
What was great about the new addition and the bathroom was that it had a deck and the bedroom had its own door that connected to the deck. The walls were the classic Philippine mahogany paneling, and it had a very nice window to the backyard and a set of "jealousy" window strips that were at the end of the bedroom across from the closet.
The flooring was vinyl tile over plywood. This tile was throughout the addition. The addition had its own heater, and eventually it had a wood stove. The addition became the center of the family community. The dinner table served as s conversation area and provided a casual place to meet and greet with our friends.
The ceiling to the addition had 8 cantilevered 8x18inch beams stained cabot blackish brown. The area between the beams was 2x6 tongue and groove planks stained grey. A large sliding glass window opened from the dining room section of the addition to the small deck which also was cantilevered.
I think that Dad was pretty happy that we were able to build such as structure for around 3 thousand dollars. Can you imagine what the cost would be today?
Have a great day
Pat
when he was sitting me we would eat candy bars and pepsi. This was a guy that got up every morning and did 20 minutes of pushups and sit ups.
When he moved out of our house, he moved to the apartments on old El Camino Drive on the way to El Camino High School. One of the really cool things that he had in his apartment was a heated swimming pool. It was admittedly very tiny but it was fun to dunk and get dunked in it.
When Percy was at out house, we shared the first bedroom up the stairs. He got the bed and I slept on the aluminum cot on the other side of the bedroom. I think that as I was getting taller it became evident that they needed another bedroom added to the house. We worked on the bedroom that became part of the addition. It was a very skinny room, and it was a long way from the bathroom. The house had two bathrooms one was connected to the master bedroom the other one was end the hall from the bedrooms. To reach the bathroom I needed to go through the addition,the kitchen, up the stairs and to the end of the hall. I really didn't need a bathroom close by.
What was great about the new addition and the bathroom was that it had a deck and the bedroom had its own door that connected to the deck. The walls were the classic Philippine mahogany paneling, and it had a very nice window to the backyard and a set of "jealousy" window strips that were at the end of the bedroom across from the closet.
The flooring was vinyl tile over plywood. This tile was throughout the addition. The addition had its own heater, and eventually it had a wood stove. The addition became the center of the family community. The dinner table served as s conversation area and provided a casual place to meet and greet with our friends.
The ceiling to the addition had 8 cantilevered 8x18inch beams stained cabot blackish brown. The area between the beams was 2x6 tongue and groove planks stained grey. A large sliding glass window opened from the dining room section of the addition to the small deck which also was cantilevered.
I think that Dad was pretty happy that we were able to build such as structure for around 3 thousand dollars. Can you imagine what the cost would be today?
Have a great day
Pat
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