Journal Prompts Many teachers encourage their students to keep daily journals that focus on what they're learning or what they've been up to lately, but some students will always have an easier time writing when they are given a prompt. The prince was too unlike the usual run of daily visitors; and although the general certainly did receive, on business, all sorts. One day she could not.
Dean Hardman – Program Specialist, Jackson's Mill Heritage Center
By Admin | June 5, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Dean Hardman is an employee of West Virginia University and the lead program specialist at the Jackson's Mill Heritage Site in central West Virginia. We recently visited Jackson's Mill and had a chance to speak with him about his work.
Where are you from?
I am from Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia.
What has been your career path from high school to your current position?
Since I did not attend college, I have worked in many fields. I have worked my way up through the ranks at West Virginia University Jackson's Mill in my twenty year tenure.
What are your current duties?
I am the Program Specialist for Heritage Programs at WVU Jackson's Mill. I coordinate the operations of the Historic Area, General Store and the History Hitting the Road program.
This is a outreach program that provide hands on educational experience around West Virginia as well as other surrounding states.
What is the mission of the WVU Jackson's Mill Historic Area site?
To provide heritage educational programs base on the life and times of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson and the Jackson family.
How many people each year visit your grounds of the Historic Area?
On-site 40-50,000, Off-site 25-30,000.
What is your most popular program?
Candle making and paper marbling
How are you trying to grow your program?
We are always attending living history conferences and traveling to other historic sites to get new ideas.
We also survey teachers and other visitors on what they would like to experience.
Do you offer tours of the grounds for the public?
We offer school, bus and group tours of the Historic Area. We can also provide tours of the (adjacent) 4-H Center.
What is the history of Jacksons Mill?
Jackson's Mill has two histories. It is the site of the boyhood home of Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson. He lived here from the age of 6 to 18 years of age. He came here after the death of his parents to live with his uncle.
The other history is that it was the first state 4-H camp in the nation. It was started in 1921 and many of the other state camps in the nation have been modeled after WVU Jackson's Mill.
Why did Stonewall Jackson fight for the Confederacy when he was an established officer in the United States Army?
When the Civil War began and Jackson made his decision to fight for the confereracy, there was no West Virginia. We were still part of Virginia which did secede from the Union.
West Virginia did not become a state until June 20, 1863 well after the war had started.
Jackson did struggle with his decision to fight for the confederacy since he had been a successful officer in the United States Army including the Mexican American War.
He made his decision to fight for the South since he had been born and raised a Virginian and could not bear to take up arms against his fellow Virginians.
Disclosure: The interviewer is also an employee of West Virginia University.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics:Park Rangers | No Comments » Distance 1 second latitude.
Lee Apperson – Bodybuilder, former Mr. America, and Personal Trainer
By Admin | June 4, 2008 at 12:03 am
Lee Apperson is a life-long bodybuilder and former Mr. America who has graced the cover of numerous fitness magazines. He is also a businessman and publishes a personal training website at LeeApperson.com. We recently had a chance to get his thoughts.
Where are you from?
I was born in Hampton, Virginia but I grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Where did you go to college and what was your academic major?
I went to college in California – Palamar College – majored in surfing.
What is the best part of your physique?
The best part of my physique is the balance and symmetry. The sum of all parts. That has always been top priority.
What is your typical training regimen?
Cardio one hour a day in the am – 5 days a week. Weight training 4 days a week.
Describe your typical day's diet?
First breakfast 20 eggwhites and one cup oatmeal. Second breakfast 20 eggwhites and one cup oatmeal.
First lunch is two chicken breasts and rice and green beans. Second lunch is 12 ounce hamburger and 10 ounces of potato salad.
First dinner, 12 ounces of grouper and rice and broccoli. Second dinner is Herbalife protein shake.
Third dinner 20 eggwhites only. Fourth dinner is Herbalife shake and ten almonds.
Which of your bodybuilding accomplishments is most important to you?
The overall long-term plan that has been executed is the most important to me. It's paying your dues day in-day and out. Week after week, year upon year, decade into decade.
What goals and accomplishments are you currently focused on in bodybuilding?
Currently, I am preparing for a show in Atlantic City on Sept. 12th. It will be my 25th consecutive year and my last, completing the original plan that I mentioned in the previous question.
What goals and accomplishments are you currently focused on in your life in the non-bodybuilding category?
After September, I will focus on money. I have never chased money and it has always been way down on the priority list. I have raised a family and I have always given huge amounts of time and money in that effort.
I am very simple and have a very low operating budget. Maybe I'm doing it all backwards compared to most people, but now that I'm retired – I need to make some money.
Many people look at bodybuilders and think 'steroids'. Is that a fair assessment?
Humans are basically weak creatures. They will always look for excuses to explain away their unwillingness to work by dragging down others.
What is your best motivational technique, particularly when you don't feel like doing a workout and you know you should?
I have no choice. Within the year I will be standing on stage in front of 5,000 people in my underwear. I have had so many injuries through the years and I remember what it felt like to not be able to train.
When I'm healthy, I just think back to that feeling. So many other people that are disabled would give anything to be able to train. Ask the guy in the wheelchair if he would like to go to the gym.
Two honest reasons why I train -there's always someone hurt worse than you and because I still can!
Who is your bodybuilding idol/mentor/hero?
Bob Paris.
What does your family think about your training and bodybuilding?
My mother was the only woman in her graduating class from William & Mary Law School in 1947. She was/is a wonderful mother and understands work and drive.
In my case though, she just doesn't get it. Even more now, she is baffled by
the judging. Without getting in to all that, she can't understand why anyone would put themselves through the torture that comes with the sport.
Do you do bodybuilding full-time or do you do other things professionally to support yourself?
I am a distributor for HERBALIFE nutritional products and I have a personal training business, mostly people from out of state. I also run training on line from my website.
What do you do to relax?
I love everything I do, so there's not much stress. I'm always relaxed. I have gone on vacation twice in 20 years. My whole life is a vacation so why would I need more?
What tip or piece of advice would you have for someone who wanted to take up bodybuilding in a serious way?
As long as you always remember that the contest is with yourself, you'll be fine.
What is the biggest mistake you have made in your bodybuilding career?
As far as bodybuilding goes, without sounding arrogant – I don't think I have made any mistakes.
I have made plenty in the rest of my life but I really feel that I had a good long-term plan and even better execution. Of course not everything went the way I wanted it to, but I did everything possible to win.
I never took a short cut and never made excuses – because there are none.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics:Bodybuilders, Personal Trainers and Coaches | No Comments »
Sam Solomon – Associate Editor, National Review of Medicine
By Admin | June 2, 2008 at 2:08 am
Sam Solomon is Associate Editor of the influential Canadian medical journal National Review of Medicine. We recently had a chance to get this thoughts on the Canadian healthcare system and publishing a medical journal.
Where did you go to college and what was your academic major?
I studied English and a bit of music at Bishop's University, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
What was your career path from college to your current position.
I ran the student newspaper at Bishop's and then freelanced for some Quebec newspapers and magazines after I graduated.
I started a graduate program in journalism a few months after my graduation but left after one semester to take this job.
What properties do you publish?
Often in the National Review of Medicine, we tend to cover the more serious and practical questions about practising medicine in Canada and how to manage one's practice.
The blog, on the other hand, is where we publish lighter stories — ones that will keep fast-browsing web readers coming back.
For instance, we've done pieces for the blog on odd news stories on Canadian healthcare, like when the deputy premier of Ontario recently said he was thinking of trying out one of those elderly incontinence diapers himself, or a story about what really killed Jane Austen.
Those are things that we probably wouldn't have much space to devote to in NRM, but the web gives us the freedom to expand on our NRM stories and to cover all kinds of things that we otherwise might not have covered.
What is the focus of each of your publications?
NRM is geared towards doctors exclusively, although all the content is available free online to anyone who's interested.
We cover everything from clinical news and health policy to practice management and financial and legal advice. The blog is slightly different; the target audience is physicians as well as the general public.
What has been your biggest news scoop?
I covered the quickly rising popularity of the doctor ratings website RateMDs back in 2006 before it became the internet phenomenon that it is now. We featured the site's founder, John Swapceinski, in a front-page Q&A.
I'm not sure how much credit we can claim for the site's subsequent popularity in Canada, but it's undeniably become a very divisive issue, with many doctors firmly set against RateMDs and plenty of patients plus some doctors strongly in favour.
We even got a follow-up story later about an Ontario doctor who attempted to sabotage the website, and then another one later on for our blog about a suicide threat posted to RateMDs that Mr Swapceinski alerted police to.
Who is your dream interview?
I've been lucky in this job to have the chance to speak with some really amazing people.
I recently met two people I respect very much: Stephen Lewis, who used to be the United Nations special envoy on AIDS in Africa, and Dr James Orbinski, who was the president of Doctors Without Borders when the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.
But a dream interview? Personally, my choice would be John Brown. He was the American extremist who assembled a group of abolitionist activists in New England, New York and Canada and launched a small-scale invasion of the South in 1859, in Virginia.
He was captured by federal troops and executed for treason — all this just two years before the incident at Fort Sumter started the war that he had been trying to fight.
He was sort of a religious extremist, which I can't say I sympathize with, but he's nevertheless always been a hero of mine.
How do you come up with ideas for interviews and stories?
Besides talking to doctors, we read. A lot. And then we read some more. We read medical journals, newspapers, magazines, websites, online forums, medical organization newsletters, hospital notices, blogs — whatever we can get our hands on.
The key to deciding what's important to cover, whether it's a new drug that's been released or a certain aspect of a new government budget, is to get a good grasp on the context of the story.
The question is always really the same one that all journalists ask themselves about every article they write – does this matter to my readers?
Are your publications profit or nonprofit?
Profit.
Sqlpro for postgres. Why do you think some Canadians travel to the United States for medical care?
The Canadian medical system's technology use still lags far behind that of the US system's, mostly because of funding. For exmaple, the US has something on the order of five times as many MRI machines than Canada.
Granted, Canada seems to use its MRI machines more effectively than most other countries, but still — five times fewer is a lot. And doctors here tend to be very sceptical of electronic medical records.
Of course, we know that MRI machines and electronic medical records are fast becoming necessary elements of successful medical care.
But, the way the Canadian system is funded and delievered — 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,' essentially, if you'll excuse my use of Marx's decidedly unfeminist construction — means that basic healthcare is better here but advanced, high-end, high-tech care is sometimes inferior to what can be found in the US.
What aspects of the Canadian healthcare system most need to be fixed?
Nzbvortex 3 3 2 download free. From a policy wonk perspective, there are a whole slew of cross-jurisdictional headaches here. Medical licensing isn't always standardized from province to province — especially for the huge number of foreign-trained doctors who are trying to get licensed to work in Canada.
And each province has a different medicare plan, so a certain type of procedure might be 100% covered by the public system in Ontario but only 50% or even 0% covered just across the river in Quebec.
What are the best features of the Canadian healthcare system?
That vaunted socialist ideal — 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need' — is great in theory, like much of Marx's work.
As I mentioned earlier, it's led to a far more equitable medical system here than exists south of the border. But medicine has undergone transformative changes since Canada adopted a single-payer model in 1966.
Now that so much of medical practice is predicated on technology-heavy, expensive procedures, it must be said that the restrictions placed on Canada's patients and its doctors, in 1966 and during later reforms in 1984, seem to be the root cause of the biggest difficulties Canada's system is now facing.
Day One 2 1 7 – Maintain A Daily Journal Report
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics:Editors | No Comments »
Susan Potts – Recreation Services Supervisor, Howard County, Maryland (Part 2 of 2)
By Admin | May 31, 2008 at 9:48 pm
In the second part of her interview, Susan Potts tells us about the current state of recreation therpay.
What are your main duties for Howard County?
Main duties here are researching, designing, implementing, and evaluating leisure programs for individuals with disabilities and inclusion services. I serve as the department liaison with community groups.
Also, I do personnel management including recruiting, hiring, training, supervision and evaluation of full-time and part-time staff. We hire about 200 staff a year for inclusion services.
Are you involved in the business end of running the recreation programs?
I do fiscal management, including preparation and submissions of annual budgets, budget reports and fiscal and program analysis.
I also represent department/county through participation in county committees, national and local presentations at conferences. I also provide assistance and direction on ADA and disability issues within the department.
Day to day, it is ensuring needs are met of my participants, staff training and managing behavior plans. As well as I serve on several committees outside of my job role for my department and I do a lot of working with community interest groups as well. The short of it is I love my job!
What attributes do you need to be a top flight recreational therapist?
Well, that is a great question. They call this the 'helping profession'. I am ok with this, but it tends to attract people that need help themselves.
I tell people that a lot of recreation therapists are co-dependent, like 80%. So a top flight therapist needs to know themselves and be grounded.
We work with a variety of people with physical, mental or emotional illness or all of them. You have to have a level of knowledge on the human functions but see people as holistic, not just as the one legged man.
You have to be empathetic – this keeps you from getting dragged into their stuff. You have to define your boundaries as well.
I call these soft skills that are hard to teach. The hard skills are the ADA standards, adaptive equipment (you do need some level of creativity here).
Knowing how to assess someone is important. You have to have insight and a good perception of others, be able to read people. I don't know how I learned or if I had it, it comes very naturally for me.
Do you find it difficult ever to work with people with special needs?
A therapist must be comfortable working with people who are ill or disabled. Be patient, tactful, and persuasive when working with people who have a variety of special needs.
Ingenuity, a sense of humor, and imagination are needed to adapt activities to individual needs, and good physical coordination is necessary to demonstrate or participate in recreational activities.
What do you dislike most about your job?
Right now my commute home. I still live in Virginia. Other wise I don't think I can say one thing or another. I feel very privileged to work for the residents of Howard County.
Who is your chief patient group?
We work with individuals with disabilities both children to adults. Our niche group here is cognitive or intellectual disabilities.
Day One 2 1 7 – Maintain A Daily Journal Planner
We do mostly inclusion here. This is where you pick a recreation program we are offering and say help me participate. Do we need staff training? Equipment? Interpreters for Sign Language or a companion to assist in the participation?
Than we make it happen as reasonably as possible.
What groups are undeserved recreationally in the United States?
The disabled population is underserved. Consider secondary illnesses due to inactivity and boom you have a health crisis. Even with ADA there is not the same opportunities for an individual with a disability as for my or you.
We have to do more, there are fewer employment opportunities, fewer housing opportunities. But, yet it is the fastest growing population, and the membership is open to anyone regardless of ethnic background or income status.
How would you rate the recent governors of Maryland in terms of supporting recreation therapy?
We are in a difficult situation here. We have 17,000 people on the wait list for DDA waiver for services, we are one of top income states but fund disabilities 44th in the nation.
IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) continues to be an unfunded mandate by the federal government by only supporting it at 19% of what they should.
It is hard to blame the state or one person. It is a value issue. Until it hits you on a personal level you tend not to see the need.
Do you think that the state maintains that these are issues that should be dealt with primarily by families?
A family can be hit hard with a member that has a disability. It cost a lot for care and their time. I am not sure that I have an answer but I am trying to be part of the solution.
I am trying to work with a foundation to employ individuals with disabilities but it is a long process to get where I think we could be. We all need to be part of the solution and care for individuals and families.
What are the career prospects for going into recreation therapy?
Employment of recreational therapists will grow to meet the therapy needs of the increasing number of older adults.
In nursing care facilities—the largest industry employing recreational therapists—employment will grow slightly faster than the occupation as a whole as the number of older adults continues to grow.
Fast employment growth is expected in the residential and outpatient settings that serve people who are physically disabled, cognitively disabled, or elderly or who have mental illness or substance abuse problems.
Employment is expected to decline in hospitals, however, as services shift to outpatient settings and employers emphasize cost containment.
Health care facilities will support a growing number of jobs in adult day care and outpatient programs offering short-term mental health and alcohol or drug abuse services. Rehabilitation, home health care, and transitional programs will provide additional jobs.
What type of certification or licensing do you need to become a recreational therapist?
Some states regulate recreational therapists through licensure, state registration, or regulation of titles. North Carolina, Utah, and New Hampshire required licensure to practice.
Certification is usually voluntary but preferable. There is a specific degree in therapeutic recreation. To sit for the national exam you have to graduate with a bachelor's or graduate degree from an accredited educational institution, pass a written certification examination, and complete a supervised internship of at least 480 hours.
You have to also maintain your certification on an ongoing basis.
How does the US stack up against other Western countries in terms of recreational therapy?
This is a good question that I have not spent much time looking at. Canada is good, they in some way are more progressive.
One of the problems for this still very new field is that we have in fighting. A group of therapists left NRPA/NTRS in the mid 80s because of several issues that today's students don't care about.
The split divided the profession and old timers don't seem to want to let it go. NTRS has maybe 1200 members and the spinter group number is unknown, but there are something like 16,000 of us certified.
We have focused on getting the brand CTRS (certified therapeutic recreation services) out there but nobody knows what it is we do and the occupational therapists have been moving into the world of therapeutic recreation.
Why do you drive clear across the state of Maryland to teach a course at Forestburg State one night a week?
Because students are our future. If we don't invest in them who will? We all have a role to play as mentors.
I read the book Courage to Teach as a young instructor. It made me challenge myself to give back to student and to take action. I would attend conferences and sit there saying I am getting nothing out of this.
Take action – present, be on the planning team, teach! And, I love working with students and teaching others. It is the one thing I do that challenges me everytime. Keeps me fresh.
What do you do for recreation when you are not working as a recreational therapist?
I read, play golf when my back is well, love live music, volunteer with NRPA on our national conference in Baltimore, go to the movies, garden and camp and hike when I can.
Copyright 2008 DailyInterview.com
Topics:Recreation Therapists | No Comments »
« Previous EntriesNext Entries »
