Week #3 : Meet Tyler and "Learn to Read"

In this weeks class it was truly remarkable to watch Tyler progress through his life and meet the challenges of everyday with a smile on his face.  Quite frankly it hard to believe that he has severe cerbral palsy because of the many challenges he has successfully undertaken and continues to do so by entering the french immersion program.  While watching the videos on Tyler I was really interested in learning about his participation in physical education class.  As a physical education teacher I have had limited experience working with students with challenging needs and wonder what opportunities I can provide for students when they enter my gymnasium.  As this course continues I will try my best to add peices of AT that will be beneficial to students in physical education class.

When it comes to the reading process, I never really thought about the many details and steps involved in actually reading an article or even a simple phrase.  As someone who does not have difficulty reading, I guess I just take for granted how lucky I am to be able to pick up a book and sit down and read and understand the words that are on the page.  Just thinking about picking up a book then sitting down and reading the words and allowing yourself to become involved in the story is something very special.  I could not imagine not being able to do read, it certainly gives me a greater appreciation of the simplier things in life.

Lastly, I made a connection with my biology ties as we explored the parts of the eye, ear and the brain and how the relate to the reading process.  With not a lot of experience in breaking down the reading process and its many elements (word patterns, phonics, encoding, etc) I was glad that I could relate to how we see words, hear words and process words in the brain.  The many scientific terms from neurotransmitters, synapses and parts of the brain, eye and ear made me re-think my university lab days. 
Looking forward to days ahead.