The End :(

This course has done so much for my personal learning this year, right from the first class it was made very clear what kind of learning we would be getting from the beggining. Everything was layed out in a way that was easy to look back on and know what you needed to do and how it was expected to be done. the text book and the handouts were also very helpful throughout the course, I looked back on the handouts very often and found a lot of the text book to be really interesting. There were times where I was reading not because there was a reading that needed to be done it was because I was really interested in going further with my learning. It isn't too often that a course affects me the way that this course has. Througout the course I found the evaluation process to be very fair it honestly didn't feel like the marks were relying on a paper or an assignment. The outcome of how we were evaluated depended on how we as students opend up our minds to learning something different and taking in the expereince.I thought that how I was evaluated in this course really depended on me and how much I showed that I wanted to learn, and that is very fair to me. For me doing the elements of my culture, beyond my cultural comfort zone projects, and the guest speakers played such a huge part in my learning. The elements of my culture assignment was a really big deal for me because I really did not have a lot of knowledge about where my family stemmed from. After doing this assignment I was amazed to learn great things about my anscestors, and was really able to put who I am into perspective when I broke down how and where I was raised as a child. beyond my cultural comfort zone was also a huge assignment for me because I would have never have done anything like that before this assignment. After it was all over I was so thankful for this assignment and what kind of new things and ways of thinking that it opened me up to. Finally and possibly the most affective to me were the guest speakers that we had the privilege of meeting and listening to. They had so much knowledge and tons of stuff to teach us it was very overwhelming in a good way, I really loved listenign to their stories of what they have had to overcome and what they have learned over the years. listening to all of them really made me feel like I cannot wait to get out there and start my own story that I can share with peopel some day, they all really inspired me.Along with the course being great Sarah made sure that her door was always open for whatever we might have needed. my emails were always answered really quickly and if there were any miss communications she was always willing to meet with me to figure things out. It was also always a joy to come to class because Sarah was really excited to see us all the time ans teach us something new each day. But she was also always really excited and open to learning things from us as well. to me this course was one of my favourites and I would not want anything to be different if I had to do it over again. I completed all of the assignments and was able to had them in and present them very proudly. As for how I feel like I did in this course out of 1 to 10 I would give myslef a 10. I was really open to the learning, I was appropriate in class, and did not miss many classes and if I did I always let Sarah know. This course to me was a really amazing way to finish off my first semster 3rd year before I go off to placement and start my life. I have such an open mind and am so excited to start learning new things from different people I am going to come across in the future and I know that I have this class to thank.

In today's class we had an amazing guest speaker; Erin from Sir James Whitney and he came to talk to us about the deaf community. It was amazing to see him talk to us because he was so enthusiastic about everything he was saying and had such a great sence of humor, I was engaged from beggingin to end. I loved hearing all of the accomplishments that he has made in his life and certain things that he has had to overcome over the years. The whole time I was listening to him talk abou the recourcces for people today who are deaf i couldn't help but wish it had been like this much longer ago. My mom is deaf and when she was younger it was so uncommon that the teachers and parents said she was stupid and didn't listen, they didn't take her seriously when she was telling them that she could not hear. My mother does not know any sign language, she had to learn to lip read her entire life because there was nothing available to her. She does have some hearing today because she has had titanium ear drums put in, so it is a lot easier for her to do everyday things now. I just really connected to this topic and thought the entire time how much my mom would have benefited from having a resources, a school like Sir James Whitney and someone like Erin. After todays class I am seriously thinking about looking into learning sign because it will only better prepare myself for the future; if I want to possibly work at a place like Sir James Whitney, or if I have clients who are deaf themselves who have parents/siblings who are. Having Erin as a guest speaker has made  avery strong impact on my learning in the best way and has really made me want to better myself so I can reach out to different communities.

DSW Guest Speaker

In class on Monday we had a really great guest speaker Colleen from the DSW program, and she was talking to us about being pollitically correct, and people using offensive launguage without really understand how hurtful the words can be. I personally did not realize how often these words were used in every day conversation until I started to really pay attention to it. When I was younger I went to school with a boy named Joey and he was born with Down's Syndrome. Joey is such a great person and is a huge part of the community, he works at Soybe's, and has a lot to do with the triple A hockey community as well. I have known Joey my entire life and find myself greatful to know a person like him. While I was listening to Colleen speak and the stories she toled I was shocked at how people can be so rude and careless, because for mr growing up nothing like that was ever an issue. After this presentation I was feeling a little down about how careless and rude people are and then we were able to watch those amazing videos. I cried while watching the videos that were shown in class because I just could not have imagined a better way for others to see that although a person has a disability there are still people with feelings, hopes, and dreams..