Wiggling and Weaving and venting

I guess I am trying to do this at the same time.
I have a lot of good information.
I really want more people to have a better understanding of short people.

When I was 16, I worked at Ponderosa. Then, they had a cafeteria like line. Everyone wanted to be behind the line serving customers, me included. Otherwise, we had to bus tables. I kept noticing other people who were hired after me getting put on the line. Finally, I asked the manager why I did not get to serve customers behind the line? He told me because I was too short. He had already decided I couldn't handle it. Well, I gave my two week notice and quit. I went to a lower paying job. I did not like it one bit being discriminated against and not given a chance.

I thank God everyday I am the height I am and yet I wonder how difficult it must be for those shorter than me who are adults. Being prejudice against short people is the same as being prejudice against race, gender, obese and yes, even skinny people. I have a friend who I work with who has said she gets tired of people remarking on how skinny she is and how lucky she doesn't gain any weight (great metabolism). Anyway, we need to understand that people are special no matter what shape or size or color or nationality they are.

I really could have used Kuhlthau's zone of intervention with my graphic organizer. How frustrating trying to get it just right and then, not being able to upload it on my blogger. I tried several different ways. I did it with a free trial from Smart Draw, which was probably my first mistake. Because everytime I looked at what the printed version would be, it had "copy of Smart Draw" over part of my organizer. They wanted me to pay to get rid of the words. Why does it say I have a free trial and free printings if they are not going to give me my 7 days worth? Anyway, I ended up putting it in paint and saving it as a .bmp. I tried putting it in Word first, scanning it, and still had trouble uploading. What a mess! Where is my zone of intervention? I need some person to magically appear and help.

Now I know what students must feel like!

Putting it all together

As June Brown stated in Twenty-first Century Literacy and Technology in K-8 Classrooms, I thought I would facilitate visualize thinking by organizing what I know into a chart and maybe dividing it into topics. Here is my chart:

I hope you can see it all right. I worked on it a long time. I am not too good at making graphic organizers, but as was stated it does put things in perspective.

Wiggling

Where do I go from here? Let's see what I have found and what do I want to do with it?

Still webbing

As Annette says, I am locating, searching, and connecting ideas and information. So, I suppose I am still webbing. It is fascinating though. I have come across popular actors that I had forgotten completely about that are short people. Billy Barty wasn't who played in Wild Wild West. It was Michael Dunn. Herve Villachaise of Fantasy Island fame committed suicide. Emanuel Luis of Webster owns his own entertainment company. There is so much information. I found a link called Short Person's Support Organization. It has a list of many famous short people. However, they list people up to 5'5 1/2" which I don't think is that short. But there are a lot of resources on there.

It indicates most famous short people are actors, musicians, writers, etc. A short person can do whatever they set their mind to. It reminds me of when my son was littler and just barely in high school. We wanted him to start cutting the grass. I tried to show him that just because you are small doesn't mean you have to be small. You need to think like you are a tall person. Overcome the lawnmower. It was the same height as him at the time or he may have been a little taller. Now he cuts grass just fine. Of course, he is 5'8" now. Still not as tall as he would like.