[stylist] Back from Turkey, (not sure my first message went through)

[James Canaday M.A. N6YR]

congratulations Robert!
good job to you and all!  many in Turkey will benefit from this!

now, there's the matter of:
And so yes, we all worked hard, though we had some time to play, like a
couple of late nights of wild Turkish music and dancing.



At 04:43 AM 10/21/2008, you wrote:
>My oh my! Wasn't there a lot of traffic on the stylist list while I was out
>of country! Much about the book and movie Blindness, health being off topic,
>city of lawrence proclamation, poets wanted, and much more.
>
>And as for my trip to Turkey, I did go as a member of Blind Corps (BC). I
>was one of 9 instructors. BC was started by Mike and Fatos Floyd (I am on
>the board). This was our second trip to work with both the professionals in
>blindness education and rehabilitation, as well as blind individuals in need
>of training. BC has a mission to bring to third world countries what we know
>here in the US about providing training to the blind. The blind and the
>government in Turkey are wanting to make changes in services to the blind of
>their country. They are aware of the positive results of Structured
>Discovery Learning (SDL) that more and more training centers in the US are
>going to. Here in Nebraska we've been using it for over 30 years. And so has
>several other states and our own NFB centers. (Nebraska modeled ours after
>what doctor Jernigan established in Iowa back in the early 1970's). We
>provided materials to study on SDL and basically setup and ran a two week
>training center with the same basic classes found in most training centers
>using SDL. We had all students using sleep shades and long canes. We had
>classes in philosophical discussion, cane travel and Braille. There was one
>in home management covering skills like cooking, sowing, cleaning. A class
>in computers. A class in home maintenance covering skills like measurement,
>general carpentry, etc.  A class in techniques of daily living covering
>skills like hand writing, making writing guides, labeling, organizing your
>clothing, grooming, etc. We had daily seminars in which we had topics of
>discussion ranging from employment, to what is reasonable help, attitudes,
>parenting as a blind parent, the importance of expectations, why use sleep
>shades in training, and more. For many of these discussions we used my
>THOUGHT PROVOKERS; I and Fatos were the two staffers who handled these
>discussion times. In the main, we all taught in all skill areas. We went in
>knowing we'd have something like 48 to 54 students to deal with. We ended up
>at the end of the two weeks having served 64. People started arriving on
>Saturday the 4th, with the training officially starting on Monday the 7th.
>We had a day and a half off from the 7th to Friday the 17th. Most evenings
>we had classes up to 10:00 PM; classes started at 9:00 AM. Students wanting
>a certification for credit for attending the training had to complete 120
>hours during the time of the two weeks. We all got along very well; students
>were mostly very eager to learn. Many of our students knew basic English.
>And so yes, we all worked hard, though we had some time to play, like a
>couple of late nights of wild Turkish music and dancing.
>
>So as for a telephone meeting for interested parties? I'm planning to hold a
>Division board meeting on Sunday the 26th during the timeframe we've
>normally had the Stylist telephone conference. So what I am thinking is, if
>you all wished to have a gathering with out me on the 26th, that would be
>fine; you know, not all of us can make each meeting and they really
>shouldn't hinge around me. So on list, discuss if you all wish to meet this
>coming Sunday (not saying we are locked into Sunday nights.) And yes, I'm
>open after this coming Sunday.
>
>And as for my thoughts on the book and movie Blindness, I'm happy we are
>making a public protest. The movie is not a super big block buster that will
>change the lives and minds of our nation, (though it should not be allowed
>to happen without our comment), but I'm not wanting to make it a super big
>deal about knocking it down or around. (I don't think it will get an academy
>award.)
>
>President NFB Writers' Division
>Robert Leslie Newman
>Email- newmanrl at cox.net
>Division Website-
>Http://www.nfb-writers-division.org
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>stylist mailing list
>stylist at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for stylist:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist/n6yr%40sunflower.com