Archive for year: 2015
Oct. 4 English Learners
I earned my degree and credential out of state. When I returned to California I began working as substitute teacher in the LAUSD. I was shocked when I walked into my first assignment. It was first grade, minutes from my home. When I walked in the door I learned that I would be teaching in English AND Spanish! I was not fluent in Spanish, I had taken 2 years of high school Spanish six year prior! In this particular model, I was supposed to teach everything twice, English, then Spanish. On the board when I walked in was written Mi nombre es ________ and below it was My name is _________ . As I walked around the classroom I saw many papers with Mi name es Jimmy. This was my introduction for teaching EL students. I continued to substitute in the Northeast San Fernando for 10 more years. I became familiar with about ten different models of instruction for addressing the needs of English Learners as I worked in various schools. This has been a source of questions for me over the years. Many of the schools had Spanish speaking aides and/or programs addressing students with Spanish as their first language. However, the students with other languages, Korean, Armenian, Tagalog, Persian, etc., did not get the same support. Some of the schools had high concentrations of these languages, and yet no services. I wondered why. In another school district I worked in we had 11 different languages represented. Spanish was the largest subgroup and garnered most of the attention. I was grateful that Kagan Strategies, SDAIE strategies, etc. attracted more attention because these could be used across the schools regardless of the language.
Currently, my class of 28 first graders is 100% English Learners with Spanish and Mixteco being their primary language. My instruction all day long incorporates specific strategies to help students learn rich content more easily. Even with all students being EL we incorporate leveled groups for learning English, and students have many pull-out programs for assistance. All are intended for support, yet can be disruptive to the continuity of our students’ learning. This is where I believe the teacher’s attitude and school wide attitudes are so important. There are pros and cons for for various models. Dual immersion sounds ideal, but are we offering dual immersion for students with primary languages other than Spanish? Or do they participate and then have their home language ignored as they learn 2 other languages? Is there a certain concentration percentage necessary to make a program viable?
This chapter simplifies a complicated issue. The important take away for me is a self-evaluation on my own attitude. Am I valuing the primary language aspect of my students, or am I viewing it as a problem? What is the attitude school-wide? Am I a positive influence in this regard? Am I a advocate for inclusion and/or inclusion attitudes?
Oct 4 FACULTY DIVERSITY
As I read Chapter 5 I found myself a little disinterested in the concern of having faculty members of diversity at the college level. Personally, I’ve had a fairly diverse set of instructors. Some have been great and some I felt were not high quality. The text did a good job of presenting some of the benefits of a diverse faculty, but nothing particularly outstanding. It seemed like common sense to me. I was interested in the fact that the various forms of recruitment and the wording of ads produced such different results in applications and hiring. The author highlighted some good ideas for changing recruitment approaches that I think would possibly result in more diverse hiring.
There was one point of discussion that struck me on page 159. The author cites a study that talks about the trend for candidates to be hired if they had integrated diversity into their expertise. It was troubling to me that a white male who did ‘feminist studies’ would be chosen over a women for a position when other things were similar. I was not upset because I was a women, but because it illustrated the problem more remarkably than the other commentary. Following this was a discussion about this creating a disinterest in URM candidates who then turn to fields other than education where their expertise would be more valued. Perhaps, I was a little dense in getting the point, but it’s a tragedy to be losing that pool of quality candidates. For me, this really brought the faculty diversity issue to a head for me.
Sedation Vacation…What I’ve Learned :-)
“Sedation vacation” is an interesting topic, one which I had not considered before it was recently brought up in class. I have spent two shifts in the SICU and witnessed patients on intubation and sedation, but unfortunately, in my clinical rotations I have not had the opportunity to see it during the course of a patient’s stay. It was a strong impression…seeing patients unconscious and not breathing on their own. From what I understand, many of these patients could be on ventilation and sedated indefinitely, so close monitoring and attention is important to better understand when they can be advanced to being weaned off of sedation, if possible.
Since this topic of sedation vacation was assigned after my opportunity to speak to the staff regarding the hospital protocols, I decided to take a closer look at hospital approved reading under Cottage Hospital’s “Nursing Resources”. I decided to focus my reading on the top three recommended articles available at Cottage to see what I could learn of interest…
I found that sedation vacation is also referred to as Daytime Awakening Trial (DAT), and has only recently been looked at for protocol creation in the last ten years. Interestingly, there is still limited research as to whether or not a primary nurse team or a collaborative team (respiratory therapist, physician, nurse and pharmacist) are more effective than the other. There is general agreement, however, that a dedicated ventilator bundle rounding team (VBR) in addition to the primary nurse team, is the most effective combination (Mendez et al. 2013).
Despite who performs the “bundle” of assessments, what is in agreement are the parameters checked for patients on sedation. Generally, the assessment occurs in the early morning (between 0500-0900), and five areas are performed and assessed as a bundle: sedation vacation, spontaneous breathing trial (SBT), head of the bed ≥30º, prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis, and prophylaxis of peptic ulcer disease (PUD). For ongoing assessment of sedation, the Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale was used.
Upon closer reading, I noticed that ventilator-associated pneumonia is of great concern, as it is considered the second most common hospital acquired infection in the United States and is responsible for 25% of the infections that occur in intensive care units (Vallés, 2007). In response to this phenomenon, additional practices added to the bundle may include protocols for mouth care and hand washing, head-of-bed alarms and subglottic suctioning in addition to the DAT bundle protocol.
According to the articles, the patients who were found to be the most ready for sedation weaning included those with the following parameters: hemodynamic stability, minute ventilation less than 15 L/min, not hypoxic (PaO2 > 60 mm Hg, oxygen saturation > 92%, fraction of inspired oxygen <50%, positive end-expiratory pressure <5 cm H2O), minimal secretions, rapid shallow breathing index less than 120, and respiratory rate less than 38/min.
So, although I was not able to directly apply this week’s learning objective, sedation vacation, directly to my clinical experience, I am now more enlightened and feel that I understand and am better able to assist and collaborate in the new bundle protocols. Despite this assignment coming after my SICU shifts, I feel that I am now more informed on the generally accepted protocol and bundle for sedated patients and will apply what I learned for future patients’ cases.
One last comment I would like to share, is that in the cases where the patients were sedated, I witnessed the nurses speak to them as though they were alert, hearing and comprehending. This was of course most important when performing the neuro checks, but also showed great compassion and respect. I was impressed and think they deserve some recognition for their professionalism and humanity.
REFERENCES
Makic, M., Rauen, C., Jones, K., & Fisk, A. (2015). Continuing To Challenge Practice To Be Evidence Based. Critical Care Nurse, 35(2), 39-50.
Mendez, M., Lazar, M., Digiovine, B., Schuldt, S., Behrendt, R., Peters, M., & Jennings, J. (2013). Dedicated Multidisciplinary Ventilator Bundle Team and Compliance with Sedation Vacation. American Journal of Critical Care, 22(1), 54-60.
ICU Sedation Guidelines of Care. (2009, December 1). Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.carefusion.com/pdf/The_Center/2009-ICU-sedation-toolkit-disclaimer-updated-may-30-2014.pdf
Sedwick, M., Lance-Smith, M., Reeder, S., & Nardi, J. (2012). Using Evidence-Based Practice to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia. Critical Care Nurse, 32(4), 41-51.
Vallés, J., Pobo, A., García-Esquirol, O., Mariscal, D., Real, J., & Fernández, R. (2007). Excess ICU mortality attributable to ventilator-associated pneumonia: The role of early vs late onset. Intensive Care Med Intensive Care Medicine, 33(8), 1363-1368.
Capstone Project Update 10/3/2015
I am currently working on an application for a permit from the Torrey Pines State Reserve (TPSR), as well as collecting background references for my Capstone introduction.
October 5th
The Best Way to Compliment Little Girls:
When I read this article I realized, this is the best way to inspire little girls to care more about their inner beauty not just their appearance. Growing up I didn’t really have that problem. However, I did have friends that only cared about appearance. I always thought to myself, well only if their inner beauty was a pretty as their outfit! Now as an adult I came to the realization that indeed i was right as a little girl, the pretty outfits aren’t what truly matter. Teaching little girls that one thing can expand their thinking about their place in life. Not all girls have to wear the pretty clothes to be called beautiful. For example, my little doesn’t pay to much attention to what she wears, which seems like a good start to her development.
The Poor Will Always Be With US:
The news on TV never fails to mention top stories on the weather, murders, fires, car accidents, and politics. WHAT ABOUT THE POOR? Why are stories about the poor never broadcast, and when they are they are usually about how a wealthy politician helped in a positive way. The not so pleasant realities about the poor are never on top news. Why? Could it be that the poor aren’t so attractive to our society? I think the more we avoid the topic the more it haunts reality, the poor are not going anywhere especially if they continue to be the outcast in our society.
Ronald Reagan: Just a Normal Human Being
The Ronald Reagan Library opened my eyes to the world of not only the President but a normal human being as well. The exhibits were all so well put together and the one up at the top is the Presidential plane. This was such an interesting exhibit. I was able to walk through a replica of his plane. I did think the plane was going to be bigger but it really wasnt. I then begin to realize that this was many years ago when technology was not as advanced. It was interesting to see where the president spent his time. It almost seemed like it wasnt as secure as you would want it to be, for the president that is. It was interesting to hear the story of the chocolate cake. Ronald Reagan would invite reporters on to the plane and would cleverly always choose the ones who’s birthdays were on the day. He would always have a chocolate cake and would send it to the reporter and join them. He was a normal human being.
This exhibit was one of my favorites. In this exhibit, walls, shelves and everything were covered in everything football. Jerseys from every single NFL team in the U.S. and college teams. There were also old high school uniform teams as well as old uniforms for cheerleaders. It surprised me to see some of the NFL team rings as well as the super bowl trophies. There was so much to learn about in this exhibit. I was able to see the way uniforms advanced and came to be what they are now. There was also old fashion footballs, as well as the older head gear. It really made me think about how much things change throughout the years. Everything advances so quickly but so do we. Everything becomes more complicated or much easier for us.
This exhibit made me very happy in a way. It was an exact replica of the oval office. It was interesting to learn that the president originally had a different office but he told them that he worked too hard to not have this office. One of the things that made me happy about this exhibit was the story behind how they were able to get the actual height of the oval office in the museum. Ronald Reagan himself helped to create this exhibit. When the city was told that the ceiling was too tall so due to restrictions they were not able to create the exact height of it. Therefore Ronald Reagan himself thought outside of the box and told them that if they couldnt build any higher than they should just dig underneath. That was such a great story because it was an example of the brilliant mind of Ronald Reagan. It was wonderful to see that the portrait of George Washington was hanging in the center of the room. He was the first president so therefore he holds a great place in the house.
This exhibit was a very informational and visual one. In fact they even had footage of the event itself. This exhibit was specifically about the attempted assassination of our very own President. When we first walked in there was something projected on to the side what looked to be a wall and there were two small screens on it. These two screens played the actual footage of the attempted assassination captured by a news reporter. The president himself as well as two other members of his staff were shot. This to me was such an important moment. Many times in our countries history have the Presidents been shot and killed. Amazingly this one survived. I feel maybe there were bigger reasons as to why he survived.
This exhibit was my absolute favorite. There was something about this that warmed my heart. This exhibit explained how when President Reagan was a child his family placed a penny underneath the tile by their fireplace. The purpose of that was so that they could say truthfully that they were never “penniless”. This warms my heart because it shows that even though he became President they were real people. We have this idea that the Presidents cant make a small mistake just because. In reality they came from the same place we come from. Whether living a middle class lifestyle or living in poverty. Later on Ronald Reagan went back to his old home and discovered that the penny was still beneath the tile. It was one of the greatest things ive heard.
My favorite exhibit had to be the one about the penny. It is such a sincere story with so much emotional background. As I explained before, we have this idea in our head that the President of the United States has to be perfect. He cant make one move without everyone deciding whether or not it was the right one. Everyone criticizes them for the things they do and the decisions they make. In reality, none of us really know what its like to be President. We dont know what its like to live a life where everyone judges the things you do whether its laugh or smile or even blink. We dont know what its like to make big decisions for a country even though we know some people will dislike it.
That brings me back to this exhibit. Something so small so simple with so much meaning. They put a penny under a tile because they were modest enough to know that maybe one day everything they had would be gone. Maybe one day, theyll have nothing left, and times were rough. I feel as if that one small penny gave them so much hope. That even when all their money is gone, they will still never be penniless. That is a real home, with real humans, with real American situations.
We have to take a step back sometimes and understand that the President, just like us, are human too. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Its a basic part of human life, and culture. We have to allow a little space and privacy to be held within that area for our Presidents. That is how I feel everyone should understand this exhibit. They should see it as a symbolic action which is very relevant to anyone’s life.
This really was my favorite exhibit because we never really see too much about who the President really is. We never get to see too much about where he comes from and the most emotional parts of his childhood. I think this exhibit proves that. I think the whole museum itself proved that. We need to take step back and learn to admire who the President was and who he truly is now. We cant judge them solely based off of their term in government. Not everyone is going to agree with their decisions and we all need to grow up and realize that.
Museums, libraries, stories, archives, anything these days can tell you a lot about a certain topic. How much of it is really true though? What we know is what the media wants to expose us to. What we know is the framing of a specific topic. The framing of either just the good or the bad. What we know is what we hear or what we want to believe. I feel this museum truly does cover some of the basic aspects of Ronald Reagan’s life but there was a lot of untold stories.
He was known as one of the greatest Presidents of all time. At least that is what I hear. For the most part, and from what I know as well he was a very great president. Many of the exhibits we saw in the library were personal. Some not as personal as others, but definitely breath taking. Do I feel like they show the whole truth about who he was, definitely not. The museum was framed to show the people the good things in his life. The human things in his life.
I personally believe, great president or not, good person or not there were still some dark sides to Ronald Reagan. Many people have biased opinions on others, whether they know much about them or not. Just like Reagan and what he called “The Evil Empire”. Much of biased opinion there but we really never got to see the facts on that side of him. Showing the people who someone really is means showing them every side of them. The good the bad, the happy, the sad, and everything in between. I dont believe we get the whole truth from museums or media. Its all framed to be what they want it to be.
Week 5 Posting 2
Hello, everyone! I wanted to make a separate post for the 2001 Gross article, 2015 Grinberg article, and 2015 Powers article. I found the Gross article really interesting. It was funny because at the time I was indulging in a guilty pleasure, watching Glee (I know, it’s terrible). However, there were examples of what the article was talking about even in the episode I was watching. It was interesting since this article was written in 2001, and even in some of today’s television we are still having this issue of using gay and lesbian people for comedy. I also found the author’s idea that LGBT people are not stereotyped at all, they are completely invisible. I was happy that the author mentioned “queer-baiting”. That’s something I see a lot with musicians… “Well my song /might/ be about me kissing a girl, but that’s up to interpretation” (paraphrasing Demi Lovato recently hah). Not sure if girls or guys are doing it more but I guess it doesn’t matter.
I found the articles about marketing and complimenting very intriguing. I volunteer at a children’s hospital and a big part of doing so is purchasing and distributing toys to the kids. They are definitely separated based not only on age but by gender. I know they would let a kid pick whatever they wanted (not forcing gender roles and stuff) but it’s a reminder of how much just the packaging can influence who gets to play with what toys. I thought it was interesting that it is parents and the environment that are more likely to influence a child’s ideas about gender and gender roles than what toys they are playing with. The complimenting article also made me think about the time I spend volunteering. I was reminded of how quick I am to tell a little girl that I like her hair or her shoes rather than compliment her for her choice. I do know, from doing arts and crafts with kids, that they absolutely love when you compliment them on their color choice or creativity. I hope to be able to move more in that direction when volunteering. Did these articles make you more aware of purchasing toys and how your compliments can affect girls?
Experience at the Ronald Reagan Library
If I can go back to the Ronald Reagan Library again, I would go back anytime. At first when I found out us as a class was going to this museum, I was already regretting taking this class. I do not like museum because the previous museums I have been to were the worst. They were really boring with terrible tour guides. But at this museum, I judged by a book by its cover. I have learned the significance of the museum and what amazing things Ronald Reagan did when he was in office.
This picture is a timeline of the first 70 days Reagan was in office. The first day of his presidency he began putting his ideas about government and the economy into practice. To begin controlling the growth of government, he eliminated non-essential travel and cut the number of government consultations. Moving swiftly from January 20th the Reagan administration lifted all energy price controls, began dismantling the council on wage and price stability, and ordered federal agencies to freeze pending regulations for 60 days. If I was the president of the United States, I would also begin throwing out solutions and ideas to help this economy grow and try to lead many years of economic growth.
This explanation of using energy in a positive way caught my attention us as Americans use energy everyday. In the quote above the picture Reagan said that is is a great opportunity to free America from depending on foreign oil that can be turned off at anytime by people who can use our nation for blackmail and coercion. So Reagan supported the constructions of nuclear and solar power plants so that Americans can depend on energy that is ours. I felt that this was a smart move because personally I cannot depend on anyone else but myself, and he wanted Americans to do the same.
This picture is one of the things that Ronald Reagan’s wife, Nancy, did when she was the first lady. It was a project called the “Just Say No” project. This project was a campaign across the country influencing all Americans to fight against drug abuse. The reason why this fascinated me is because she took on a big problem as the first lady and took so many actions. You know when she makes a board game against drug abuse, you know it’s serious. All the trips she took across explaining the negative affects on drug abuse I felt could have convinced anyone to stop using.
President Reagan’s unshakable lifelong opposition to communism and staunch support of human rights helped free hundred of millions of people around the globe. His “behind-the-scenes” diplomacy was crucial in securing permission for thousands of Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel. But he also reached out to foreign leaders to secure freedom for individuals held as political prisoners. President Reagan’s commitment echoes to this day in the voices of men and women seeking freedom around the world. This quote interests me because freedom is the best thing any country could have and if Reagan strove for freedom, even in another country, it is amazing.
I feel that the best exhibit for me was the football exhibit. It was so fascinating because I am a huge football fan, whether it is college or pro. I was so fascinated, that I forgot to take pictures of any of the old hall of fame players jerseys, or USC’s championship rings of winning the national title multiple times. Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Eric Dickerson , and Steve Mcnair were all mentioned in the football exhibit at the Reagan Museum. These players and many others were the greatest pro football players of all time. It was really mind blowing going into this exhibit and this place was the place I spent most of my time in. Also seeing the evolution of the actual football that was used in the games aging back all the was to the 1920’s till now was amazing.
The Ronald Reagan Library was overall really fascinating, and to be honest I would go again and take as many people as I can.
Little Girls/Gender-Neutral Marketing
The article about complimenting little girls was an eye opener for myself. I have a 3 year old daughter and I find myself complementing her on how pretty she looks in her princess dresses. As a result, all she wants to wear lately are dresses. I have even noticed her teachers at school compliment her in the same ways. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I read this article. I agree with the author that individuals should model great compliments to children, so they won’t think they have to look or act a certain way.
Moreover, I enjoyed reading the science supporting gender-neutral marketing article. I agree with Target about removing gender references, so kids will have one section of toys instead of “boys” and “girls.” Although, I found it interesting about the LEGO friends, which are purple and pink in color. I believe this is giving off subliminal messages to girls that they can play with legos, but only purple and pink legos. I agree with the author that it is basically persuading children that they are different based on their gender. I remember when I was younger I would play with the same legos as my brother and didn’t think anything of it. Today, it is immensely relevant that toy companies are gender stereotyping and programming children to think a certain way. For example, they recently came out with a “boy” easy bake oven which is blue. I think this is telling boys that they can bake, but in a masculine way since the oven is blue instead of pink. Ultimately, toys are toys and kids should be able to follow their own interests without gender labels.
