Monday, October 6, 2008

Blogging

I have really enjoyed blogging and I am going to try and start a blog at school. I thought a book blog would be nice.

I hated being frustrated about this project (the end product, I mean) and not being able to get it to look or sound the way I wanted it to. I hate my voice, even though my allergies are in full swing. I would like any suggestions on how I could make it better. I can't imagine what it must be like to have a child like Kenadie or did not know why dwarfs walked the way they do because of their bone structure. And I also learned that there are more than 200 medical reasons that a person could be born with dwarfism as shown in the different celebrities that I focused on. I think it is sad that Herve Villachaise shot himself because of his medical health problems. Although, I can definitely identify with him over being sick and tired of being sick and tired, never feeling well or 100%. Depression can make people do ugly things and become selfish. Suicide is never an answer. One should always take into account those people you would leave behind and what it would do to them.

Final Reflection

I could not get the music split even though I downloaded splitwav. There were no directions as to how to do this. The expert did not give me detailed information as I had asked. So, I guess the project will go as is.

I really enjoyed searching for all the information I could on dwarfism and people of short stature. I suppose being short myself, I had always felt a connection with other short people. We used to have this Greek woman who was my height working at the high school in a counseling compacity and when we would see each other, we would both smile and give each other a hug, because it is so nice to look someone in the eye when you talk with them.

I looked at information from sources I knew to be credible first, such as Medline Plus. When I was looking for information on celebrity dwarfs, I chose the ones that I knew from my past. I remembered watching Wild, Wild, West and Fantasy Island.

I found out how to download youtube and switch it to a file that would be supported on this blog as well as my Power Point. Thanks to Annette for introducing me to zamzar.com I have already mentioned this site to our school technician.

I then looked at the information I had obtained. While I was looking at different things and reading different things, I thought of Randy Newman's song "Short People". Even though so many short people thought it offensive, I thought it was a catchy tune and in the middle where he sings "Short people are just the same as you and I. All men are brothers until the day they die," it spoke to me of his message not to stereotype people based on their looks. This reminds me of Scott Westerfeld's series Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras. That is the message I hope my power point conveys. There is too much prejudice in this world and people need to always look at the specialness of each person and their unique qualities before casting the first stone.

I believe a project that concentrates on differences could be used in sociology or in primary grades. One could have an exploration of gender differences, cultural differences, physical differences, racial differences.