Last weekend, Jemima volunteered to give a presentation at the One Voice family network day. One Voice supports families with children using Alternative and Augmentative Communication, particularly high tech communication aids, and the annual summer weekend is one of the highlights of Jemima's year. Role model presentations raise the aspirations of children and parents by showing them what AAC users can do, and now Jemima and her friends, the first generation of One Voice children, are themselves ready to act as role models. The teenagers' workshops the previous day had focused on transition, and Jemima chose to talk about herself and one of her current ambitions:
Hello! My name is Jemima. I am seventeen. My favourite TV show is Dr. Who and my favourite movies are the Harry Potter films, Narnia and Prince Caspian, High School Musical and the Japanese animated films made by Studio Ghibli. I also like some of my parents' old films like Four Weddings and a Funderal and Sleepless in Seattle.
I'm profoundly deaf. I understand sign language. I like talking with my voice but I can speak more clearly with my Dynavox. I use scanning with a voice switch. That is slow and hard work.
I will stay at my school for one of two more years. Then I think I'll go to Northern Counties College. I want to study ICT and I hope to do some courses in a local college. I want to learn about film making. I was first interested in film making when my dad videoed holidays and family events. My first experience of how a real film is made was at the One Voice weekend in Blackpool in 2002. I loved the video. Then I made two Video Nation films for the BBC with my dad. I thought that was fun and interesting. We planned what we wanted to film and recorded me talking with my Dynavox. The first film was about me and my life. It was in a series called Voices. Then they asked me to do another one about Christmas. Last year I really enjoyed doing the One Voice DVD project. I liked working with Silverfish and seeing how they organised the filming and edited the film. I showed the DVD to my class when we made a film about our school for our Duke of Edinburgh Award. I interviewed someone who went to my school when she was a girl and has worked there for a long time.
Last month I learned about animation at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It was a workshop for teenagers to celebrate the tenth birthday of the Angel of the North. I see the Angel every day when I go to school. They showed us how to do animation with paint, sand, plasticene and cutting paper. I chose paper and talked about my idea with my Dynavox. Everyone's work was edited into one film for the Angel's birthday party. I am waiting to get my copy. I really want to do more animation.
I saved up my birthday money and last Monday I got a little video camera. Now I am going to learn to shoot and edit films. That is my dream for the future.
Showing posts with label Jemima. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jemima. Show all posts
24 July 2008
21 June 2008
The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I’ve read Little House in the Big Woods and now I’m reading Little House on the Prairie. It’s the story of when Laura was a little girl in America about 140 years ago. Laura lives with her Ma and Pa, her big sister Mary and her little sister Carrie and the good dog Jack.
They live in a little house in the Big Woods in Wisconsin. The house is made of wood, it has beds, chairs, table and stove for cooking and a wood fire. It has an attic where they keep food like pumpkins for the winter. They have a cow to give them milk, and Ma makes butter and cheese. They have horses to go to different places to see their grandparents and aunties and uncles and cousins, and once Laura goes to town, to the store where they buy sugar, coffee and material to make clothes.
Pa goes hunting for food in the Big Woods, he shoots deer and sometimes bear and once their uncle Henry kills a pig. They grow vegetables and corn and Pa finds honey and the whole family help to collect maple syrup. They keep food for the winter because it’s really snowy.
Laura and Mary don’t have lots of toys, they have rag dolls and imagine a play house under the tree. At Christmas they get mittens and a candy stick and Laura has her rag doll. They think that’s really special.
In Little House on the Prairie the family decide to move west. They go in a covered wagon for many weeks and choose a new place to live. At first it’s like camping, but Laura’s father builds a house and digs a well. That’s really hard work and they have to find food on the prairie.
I think the books are really interesting because they are about a family who lived one hundred and forty years ago, so I learn about how people lived when they had to do everything by themselves, with no electricity and no television and telephones and computers. They make their clothes and toys, and grow and catch their food, they only go to a shop once or twice a year. It’s really different from our life.
They live in a little house in the Big Woods in Wisconsin. The house is made of wood, it has beds, chairs, table and stove for cooking and a wood fire. It has an attic where they keep food like pumpkins for the winter. They have a cow to give them milk, and Ma makes butter and cheese. They have horses to go to different places to see their grandparents and aunties and uncles and cousins, and once Laura goes to town, to the store where they buy sugar, coffee and material to make clothes.
Pa goes hunting for food in the Big Woods, he shoots deer and sometimes bear and once their uncle Henry kills a pig. They grow vegetables and corn and Pa finds honey and the whole family help to collect maple syrup. They keep food for the winter because it’s really snowy.
Laura and Mary don’t have lots of toys, they have rag dolls and imagine a play house under the tree. At Christmas they get mittens and a candy stick and Laura has her rag doll. They think that’s really special.
In Little House on the Prairie the family decide to move west. They go in a covered wagon for many weeks and choose a new place to live. At first it’s like camping, but Laura’s father builds a house and digs a well. That’s really hard work and they have to find food on the prairie.
I think the books are really interesting because they are about a family who lived one hundred and forty years ago, so I learn about how people lived when they had to do everything by themselves, with no electricity and no television and telephones and computers. They make their clothes and toys, and grow and catch their food, they only go to a shop once or twice a year. It’s really different from our life.
16 March 2008
Jemima's Annual Review
Jemima's stautory Annual Review will take place at her school during the coming week. This is an opportunity both to look back over the past year, and to look forward to the coming twelve months.
Most obviously, Jemima has developed some, albeit only a little, confidence about being away both from home and from parents. This began with the residential visit to the Calvert Trust, Kielder in 2007, for which she felt motivated to accept two nights away, and was further boosted by two school “sleepovers” during the summer term. Based on these experiences, Jemima suggested that she would like to try a week in residence at summer school. Whilst she enjoyed the experience, she also reported feeling homesick. She was a little uneasy about a full five days in residence at school during the autumn term, but did eventually decide to stay for the final night. She seems happy about the next planned week, in April 2008. However, she has rejected the idea of participating in the respite weekends, saying that she wants to be at home at the weekend.
In terms of her learning, Jemima appears to be making some, albeit tentative, progress with arithmetic, which she has always found difficult, mainly in the motivating context of money. She was, with encouragement, able to add up the cheques and cash she received for her recent birthday.
Jemima remains motivated to use her Dynavox communication aid in situations where it is clearly the most effective way to communicate. This includes the regular trip from school to a cafe where she can buy a mug of hot chocolate.
She enjoyed greatly participating in the process of making a DVD with the One Voice teenagers’ group in July 2007, and worked very hard in advance to prepare her ideas and contributions on her Dynavox.
Jemima was pleased to be asked at Guides if she would go and talk to a local Brownie pack who were working towards their Disability Awareness badge. She saw it as akin to being a role model, something to which she aspires as a result of her very positive contact with the young adult role models at One Voice events. She spent some time preparing the talk in advance; she also used the Dynavox more spontaneously to respond to the Brownies’ questions.
Jemima enjoys the social aspects of school; she clearly has very positive relationships with and interacts confidently with both staff and her peers. She tells us about things they say or do and is concerned when they are ill. This year she has been interested in work on Buddhism, recycling and art, and has enjoyed the associated visits; she still says her favourite lesson is swimming. She says work-related learning and life-skills are boring, perhaps because she has grown up with a reasonable level of awareness of many of the skills involved; this does not stop her from enjoying cooking. Her desire for involvement and engagement results in her enjoyment of, and participation in, the special events and fundraising activities which are organised in school.
Jemima continues to be highly compliant in her behaviour, and shows few signs of being a ‘difficult teenager’. We have encouraged her to express herself a little more assertively, including responding with respect to her wishes and preferences. The occasions when she is less willing to be compliant is when she perceives her routine to have been overturned. It seems that she uses routine as a way of feeling as though everything is under control.
Jemima is enthusiastic to keep in touch by e-mail both with friends from One Voice and with some of her relatives. She likes using the computer for a variety of purposes, including finding things out online, visiting websites relating to programmes she watches on television, and looking for information about places she may visit. In addition to this family weblog, Sound Signs, for which she writes occasional postings, Jemima is excited to have her own simple website, although its development is at an early stage. It is obvious that Jemima understands electronic communications, and we consider this to be an area to be taken seriously in terms of future educational study.
Jemima enjoys crafts and creativity, which frequently includes designing and making greetings cards. She has a strong sense of style. She willingly participates in shopping trips to buy supplies. She ‘takes’ photographs, and more recently has expressed a focused enthusiasm for making videos using a camcorder. Jemima enjoys the arts, and is able to recognise and enjoy the work of several nineteenth and twentieth century artists, including Monet, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock.
Jemima enjoys shopping trips for clothes. She enjoys going to the cinema when the screening is subtitled; visits to the theatre, particularly when the performance is sign-supported, ballet (Rambert Dance Company) and productions on ice (High School Musical). Inevitably she spends a lot of time watching television and DVDs.
Most obviously, Jemima has developed some, albeit only a little, confidence about being away both from home and from parents. This began with the residential visit to the Calvert Trust, Kielder in 2007, for which she felt motivated to accept two nights away, and was further boosted by two school “sleepovers” during the summer term. Based on these experiences, Jemima suggested that she would like to try a week in residence at summer school. Whilst she enjoyed the experience, she also reported feeling homesick. She was a little uneasy about a full five days in residence at school during the autumn term, but did eventually decide to stay for the final night. She seems happy about the next planned week, in April 2008. However, she has rejected the idea of participating in the respite weekends, saying that she wants to be at home at the weekend.
In terms of her learning, Jemima appears to be making some, albeit tentative, progress with arithmetic, which she has always found difficult, mainly in the motivating context of money. She was, with encouragement, able to add up the cheques and cash she received for her recent birthday.
Jemima remains motivated to use her Dynavox communication aid in situations where it is clearly the most effective way to communicate. This includes the regular trip from school to a cafe where she can buy a mug of hot chocolate.
She enjoyed greatly participating in the process of making a DVD with the One Voice teenagers’ group in July 2007, and worked very hard in advance to prepare her ideas and contributions on her Dynavox.
Jemima was pleased to be asked at Guides if she would go and talk to a local Brownie pack who were working towards their Disability Awareness badge. She saw it as akin to being a role model, something to which she aspires as a result of her very positive contact with the young adult role models at One Voice events. She spent some time preparing the talk in advance; she also used the Dynavox more spontaneously to respond to the Brownies’ questions.
Jemima enjoys the social aspects of school; she clearly has very positive relationships with and interacts confidently with both staff and her peers. She tells us about things they say or do and is concerned when they are ill. This year she has been interested in work on Buddhism, recycling and art, and has enjoyed the associated visits; she still says her favourite lesson is swimming. She says work-related learning and life-skills are boring, perhaps because she has grown up with a reasonable level of awareness of many of the skills involved; this does not stop her from enjoying cooking. Her desire for involvement and engagement results in her enjoyment of, and participation in, the special events and fundraising activities which are organised in school.
Jemima continues to be highly compliant in her behaviour, and shows few signs of being a ‘difficult teenager’. We have encouraged her to express herself a little more assertively, including responding with respect to her wishes and preferences. The occasions when she is less willing to be compliant is when she perceives her routine to have been overturned. It seems that she uses routine as a way of feeling as though everything is under control.
Jemima is enthusiastic to keep in touch by e-mail both with friends from One Voice and with some of her relatives. She likes using the computer for a variety of purposes, including finding things out online, visiting websites relating to programmes she watches on television, and looking for information about places she may visit. In addition to this family weblog, Sound Signs, for which she writes occasional postings, Jemima is excited to have her own simple website, although its development is at an early stage. It is obvious that Jemima understands electronic communications, and we consider this to be an area to be taken seriously in terms of future educational study.
Jemima enjoys crafts and creativity, which frequently includes designing and making greetings cards. She has a strong sense of style. She willingly participates in shopping trips to buy supplies. She ‘takes’ photographs, and more recently has expressed a focused enthusiasm for making videos using a camcorder. Jemima enjoys the arts, and is able to recognise and enjoy the work of several nineteenth and twentieth century artists, including Monet, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock.
Jemima enjoys shopping trips for clothes. She enjoys going to the cinema when the screening is subtitled; visits to the theatre, particularly when the performance is sign-supported, ballet (Rambert Dance Company) and productions on ice (High School Musical). Inevitably she spends a lot of time watching television and DVDs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)