Peer Reviews...

     So, this week in school, we are looking into peer reviewing. Me personally, I like getting peer reviewed information! I like taking advantage of free help! I know that when I am working on something, day in and day out, my mind is familiar with information that I am learning and reading. This is a good thing as far as memory, but when it comes to writing out a paper, I can see how this can be a problem. When I go back and read my paper, my mind can put in place what I am wanting my paper to say, but not pick up on what is actually written! That is why I love for someone to read my paper and find mistakes or give me some suggestions on how to make it better or make more sense. My experiences with this have been pretty much the same. I can take criticism and even if it sounds like they may be hurtful, I always keep in mind that this is written and they don't know me personally so, more than likely they are just having a hard time writing helpful tips. But when I go to help, I am so scared that I am going to hurt someones feelings! So, when I go back to read what I wrote them, it is like a book in itself! I make a point to say I am only helping and I am not wanting to hurt your feelings. Which is true! I want my classmates to get out of my post what I take out of theirs!
     One of the topics we are asked to discuss,"Ah-ha moments", yes, I have had some! When I read a peer's paper about epilepsy, I read that 70% of people with this disorder can live normally as well as reading that a large amount can actually overcome it! Which was great news for me since my sister has just been diagnosed! Also, in my research, as I have said in other blog posts. There is so much information that is out ready to be found on ADHD! One of the more resent Ah-Ha moments was when I did my post-outline of my paper. I didn't realize how my information was not the way I wanted it! My paper had the information I wanted it to have, but I actually left a lot of it out and I did not see until I made an outline of what was in my paper! There hasn't really been anything shocking or intriguing yet, but I am sure I will see in the future some amazing things! Something that I am not understanding is how this blog works. I am not sure if I just haven't looked at enough peers blogs, but I could not find where any one else has posted for our class yet! What's up with that people! I need to see what is going on and how you feel about peer reviews!LOL! I know it is probably the holidays that has everyone messed up and "running late" just like me!
    

What I have been facing the last six weeks-for school!

     Well, my life has been very busy here in the last six weeks! I am currently enrolled in school, for those of you who don't know, and I am really enjoying what I am doing in class! I am working on a paper about children with ADHD. I am interested in this because my eight year old daughter is diagnosed with it. I am learning so much from reading different articles and visiting web sites. I have so much information I have gained that there is no way to put all of it in my paper! I have learned that there are emotional challenges that these children deal with everyday. I also learned that there are many things that are just being found about this disorder. For instance, that the recent studies show that long term medicine has less effect as time goes on, which actually helped me understand why it seems that my daughter may be needing her medication upped because her grades are falling and I am having a hard time getting her to sit still long enough to do long enough to finish it!
     As far as how I feel my ideas may help about my topic for my school paper in later reasearch, I do believe that readers may see all different aspects of the disorder. I believe that there are still so much more research to be done on the disorder also. My ideas are mainly that I know that there are people that think that parents of children with ADHD medicate their children because they act like child, but this is not true. The diagnosis of the child has to be within two different surroundings or environments. For instance school and at home. I also want people to read my paper and have some compassion for the child and the parents also. Dealing with children with ADHD requires an extreme amount of patients. So, when you are somewhere and ther is a child that appears normal and is just "out of control" remember that they could have ADHD, which is what makes them act that way. It is not their fault. Most want to do what they are told, but simply cannot do it. I want other parents to read and maybe see what they need to see about their children. Personally, I feel like I failed my daugter because I did not know that she had ADHD until it was too late. She failed the first grade because I did not know that she could not focus during class. She use to scream and pull her hair out when she did her homework! Basically, I have hopes of educating people about the disorder.
     Six weeks is a long time, so here are some personal happenings I have delt with in the past two weeks! My son had to go get his fifteen month check up. I asked about why his ears were always having this funky wax in them and if it was normal. The doctor looked in his ears and everything looked good. She said that he just had ears that drained well. He had a clear, runny nose and she gave him some allergy medicine because I have allergies and so do both of my daughters. This doctor visit happened on a Thursday. The following Friday, he started having a green, runny nose and fever. I took him back on Saturday. He had an ear infection. I thought that was interesting because only days ago, I had the doctor look in his ears and she said they looked great! Doesn't stop there! My daughter comes home from here dads house and she can barely talk and starts running a fever. I take her to the doctor on Monday, and she has strep throat! Wonderful! A couple days later, I have strep throat and so does my other daughter! Oh yeah! Not to mention the last time I took my eight year old to her three month visit for ADHD, the lady at the front told me to just call in for an apptointment and guess what, I forgot! I had to call and explain what had happen and my daugther ran out of her medicine, which is like the worst thing to happen for an ADHD child. She was every where all at one time and I was very sick and could not keep up with her. She got to playing with my son and pushed him too hard on his toy tracter thingy and nearly broke his nose! Anyway!
     That was the week before last! You won't believe what happened this week! Everything was going pretty smoothly (by the way, I'm skipping all the way to Friday because what you are about to read scared me so bad, I have forgotten what happened prior!). I picked the kids up from school and I went home and started making spaghetti. I had it done and turned on the oven to broil the garlic bread. I was stirring the spaghetti and smelt smoke. I turned around and seen where it was coming from the oven. I opened the door, because I hadn't put anything in there yet, and my husband had left a pizza box in there and it was totally on fire!!!!! I was so scared! I turned the oven off and shut the door. I called 911 and told them that I had a fire in my oven and I did't know how to put it out. The whole time, I was grabbing my baby and telling my daughter to go, run over to our neighbors. I left the house even before the alarms went off. I told my neighbor I had a fire and my daughter started crying about the cat. He ran over to our house and looked for him and when he opened the door, smoke rolled out of the door. My daughter started screaming and crying harder. He came back and said he couldn't find him. So, firefighters show up. The fire put itself out! When it burnt all the way up, since I had shut the oven off and shut the door, it suffocated itself. However, there was so much smoke, I had to let my babies stay at my mom's house for the night. I spent nearly 4 days cleaning everything in my house! It still smells a little- like when you burn popcorn. Everyone was and still is okay! Please tell everyone you know first, don't put things like pizza boxes in your oven, and second if you don't have a fire extinguisher, you can use flour or meal to put it out. I asked the firefighter what to do to put it out IF it ever happens again! Thanks for reading! Hope everyone has happy SAFE holidays! ;-)

Especially for school!

This week I have read about different writing processes and have tried some of them out! My favorites were the listing and informal outlining. I liked them because I was able to keep my ideas organized in a way that they made sense to me. My absolute favorite was the informal outline. This is because I was able to see in a quick glance what my ideas were. A better way of saying that is after I had written down what I needed to, I didn't have to really think about what I had written. I don't know if that makes any sense to readers, but it makes sense to me. Leave me a comment if I confuse you! I also want to acknowledge some of my academic challenges. I never thought I would have a problem with too many references for a paper, but I have found so many! I am having to go over and read these articles about my topic, which is ADHD in children ( attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). I do realize that this is actually a good thing because I have in mind so many good ideas from other authors that back up what I want to persuade my audience to see. The other idea that I want to stress this week is that school is influencing my life in so many ways right now! I am researching this topic and reading articles and I am learning so much! I am truly inspired by this topic! Not only am I learning more to further my education, I am also learning more about my daughters disability and things that I can do as a parent to help her! I know that may sound corny, but it is the absolute truth! I am so happy that I took this opportunity when I did, because what I am learning now is some of the most valuable information I have ever attained! Thank you Kaplan University!

Alright, this past week...

This week was not fun for me at all! All three of my children were sick and had to miss school, which in turn made me miss out on a lot of my studying! Any way, come to find out at their school, the teachers are having them use germx. Now, that is good for them, but if you don't wash your hands before using germzx you really aren't getting your hands clean. Let me just ask this question, what happens when you squirt germx on or in dirt? You get mud made out of alcohol! Yup! I work in the health area where we are required to take these follow up training classes. The nurse that teaches these classes always reminds us that it is not the soap or the germx that gets rid of the germs. It is the friction and the warm water that are the main germ killers! So, a big part of why I am posting this is so that other parents can be aware or maybe know to ask about hand washing habbits that their children are using while at school or where ever. I have had two cases of strep throat this week and let me tell you it was not fun! My son had an ear infection which led to fevers and what not, but my girls got sick from poor hand washing habbits at school! Thanks for reading!

My daughter

So, I was thinking that I will take advantage of this blog site! I have two girls that are 8 and 6. They fight all the time! I know it is sibling rivalry, but it gets crazy around my house after school! Aftan has been diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and depression. I am writing a paper about children with ADHD and I am learning so much! ADHD is one of the most individualized disabilities I have read about. My daughter was diagnosed at the end of her first grade year! Her report card grades were between 35 and 68. I had no idea what was wrong with her. In the evening when she would get home from school, I would let her play outside first, because she was wound so tight. I just thought it was because at school, children have to sit still and be quiet for so long, that when she got home she just needed to run. You know like a horse being let out into pasture after beind cooped up in a stall all day. But even after three or four hours of running around out side, she would come in and not be able to sit and do her homework. I know some think, " you should make her do it" , but they did not understand! My daughter was literally "melting" out of her chair, screaming, and pulling her hair out. Now, at first, she could do like the first couple of questions on a paper, but only a few minutes later, she could not be still! My cousin and I were talking at a family reunion and she told me that her daughter was the same way. She took her to the pediatric clinic and they gave her two work books. One for her to fill out and one for the teacher to fill out. It took about three weeks, but her daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. At this time in my life, I had heard the term, but did not know any details or what to look for. I made my little girl an appointment the following Monday. My mom went with us and we talked with the doctor. I then found out that she did more than likely have not only ADHD, but also anxiety and depression. My 6 year old little girl told the doctor herself that when she gets really upset, she cannot breath. I cried so much for her. I gave the teacher the book, filled out mine and had them turned into the doctor within a week. My daughter did in fact have this disability! She was held back in first grade, had all her friends leave her behind, even after the doctor explained to the school that it was not good for her. She had learned all the material, but simply could not complete work sheets until she was prescribed medicine. However, I am extremely happy to say that today, Aftan is a straight A student and is doing very well with making new friends. Thanks for reading!

I don't know...

So, I was looking at my followers, and I just realized that I am following myself!!! I don't know what Idid! I just want to let my other followers know that I am not vein! And I don't know how to stop following myself!!! How crazy does this sound! Ha ha! I love you guys for reading!

Plagiarism! What do I think!

"What would you do if someone used something you created without giving you credit?". This is a question that I was asked for educational purposes. If I created a work, either writing or even a piece of art work, I would feel hurt if someone claimed it as his or her own. I also believe that others would feel the same way! Especially in the "written" world! There are writers that have sat and thought out some of the most amazing stories! Take for example J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. It took a long time and a very unique imagination for her to think up that plot, spells, and not to mention all the characters! If someone were to have taken her idea, today it would be like robbing a ton of banks! Look at the publicity, not to mention the money she has made! So, when I think of my ideas or any one who has put in the time and effort into a project, I want to remember that it is not my work. I also want to have my readers recognize that my work is backed by different authors and be able to search and find them. This will help me as a writer by showing I give credit to other authors as well as found credible sources to support my work.