Hello all :) I thought I'd share my portion of my assessment which dealt with my blog:
​Before this blog assignment, I was not at all familiar with what a blog was, more less what the purpose of a blog was. Now, ten weeks later, I feel as if I may now use blogging to help gain insight about different questions I have by posting my thoughts, my findings, and my perspectives as others share their thoughts as well.   I began my blog with an introduction about the new family I had met thanks to my daughter, Mollie. Mollie described her friend and their family as a very kind and involved family. When the time came to meet the family, I remembered seeing the family down at the community soccer fields. All members of the family, with exception of the mother and Mollie’s friend, were all little people. I had no idea that this was the family Mollie was referring to, but I was excited to know that Mollie described the family as being just the same as any other family, and that was the key! My blog explored equality among the rights that the family had, just as every other citizen has, and after talking to the mother of the family, my attention focused on an issue they were having which was the stress their oldest daughter was experiencing due to the transition from elementary school to junior high. I wanted to help the family by finding as many resources as possible, but soon found that their family was probably more help to me than I had been to them. The inquiry process played a big part in discovering many interesting points as I researched and posed questions about some of the concerns the mom had. Her main focus was trying to find ways to help her daughter feel more at ease about the transition. Though this was not initially the road I planned to take, I am very glad I did both as a responsible citizen, as well as a responsible teacher. I started by choosing my topic, generating ideas and then hypothesizing about the ideas and resources I had come across. I found that the LPA (Little People of America) was an amazing support group to help families work through some of the challenges they may face in life. As I blogged and researched even more, I found that the dad of the family I was writing about is actually the district chairperson in the area for the LPA group! There, on the website under area resources, was my daughter’s friend and her family! How exciting! I then called and talked to the mother about how excited I was to find this out, and she said, “Oh yes! We are very involved with LPA!” At the next soccer game, she told me about some of the activities her and her family participated in with other members of the group as well. She told me where I could find additional resources for families, but then she asked me a question…”How well prepared do you think the district is for my daughter’s transition into junior high?” I now had a new direction that I felt I needed to explore even more! I needed to find a way to find out how prepared the junior high was, BUT I needed to do it without drawing attention to the daughter; her mother said she was very insecure in discussing the transition. I decided to interview a current student within the junior high just to see what challenges the mother may need to address to help her daughter be more comfortable on that first day of school. I found that the desks, lockers, water fountains, and bathroom mirrors, were all things the student felt would be a challenge for a student under four feet tall. He said they had both top and bottom lockers, so I suggested to the mother that she may want to email or meet with someone just to make sure these things are figured out before her daughter would figure out the hard way. All of these things are things that I wouldn’t have even thought about, so I know choosing to interview this little boy was a good idea; I gained answers to my questions without drawing more attention to the little girl. The mother thanked me for all the help, but as I mentioned, her resources helped me a lot as well. She vowed to keep me updated, and said she was going to blog as the transition took place just to help other families. Though there are a lot of videos and statements in regards to little people, we both talked about how neither one of us could find information in the form of a diary, to document the experiences children had with the transition. Insight from the mother may definitely help other children, and she feels as if her daughter would feel empowered knowing she is helping others! The blog will continue so feel free to check back!