A few CVRR pictures and some other related pictures....

[Rufus T. Firefly]

............and he called it: "depression block". Not sure how/why he came up with the name. He was too young to have experienced the depression.

Maybe it just depressed him to look at it?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Back to Shippensburg .....

[rogruth]

Buildings still extant?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Buildings still extant?

Yes! Shippensburg U. is a thriving institution.

[rogruth]

As I have said before, I am always pleased to see old buildings still standing and hopefully in use.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

As I have said before, I am always pleased to see old buildings still standing and hopefully in use.

I feel the same way about people, the older I get and see my contemporaries aging.

That's one of the reasons I accepted the responsibility of volunteer-tutoring a third, now fourth, grader at our parish school, since Sept. of last year. It's a joy and a gift (to me) to help and see him grow. Language Arts had been anathema to him, nearly paralyzing him against even trying to read aloud or to spell. He hated school, except for the social factor. So, I decided to build his confidence using the very vehicle of his disdain, language skills, as a place for him to succeed and have fun. Midway through last year, his father told me that Matthew, instead of going the other way when he was encouraged at home to read aloud, now, asks the father to hurry up and come quick so the boy can read to him. (!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

At the beginning, I used many of the models (buildings; animals; human figures) I had, as well as the vehicles (usually 1/43) to instigate word-discovery and verbalization of consonant and vowel sounds in Matthew. Then, we used gorgeous storybooks possessed of fabulous artwork illustrating them. Now, we have moved to National Geographic magazine, via a new subscription I got for the boy, to have him explore the pages at-will, with me, discovering many sights, like featured animals and landscapes that interest him, all of which get named and recorded into a hard-bound journal which has been named, "The Book of Matthew." Every sound and word out of his mouth goes into the book. (Yes,even when he laughs, we enter, "Ahahahaha!")

Just last Friday (1:00pm -2:30pm session,) as we explored the wrapper of a candy bar, for ingredients, that I had given him (for consumption after school, only), we came upon the "TM" and copyright symbols. As I sounded out the word with him, breaking it into its component parts, before we finished writing it, he said, aloud, "Oh, they copyrighted it so nobody could copy it and make money off it!" I saw that as a "Eureka Moment" ("Oh I see")and made a big fuss over his spontaneous insight. It was his idea, next, to use my i-phone to research the candy company for its founder, who turned out to be Mr. Wrigley (which afforded us a nice way into such sounds as "wr," "tr," "cr," etc.

Did I tell you, he runs down the hall to get to the little open-cubicle at the end of the hallway we use for our "Success Sessions," smiling all the way, and that when he,occasionally, sees me walking through the playground to get to our post, that he runs up, in front of everybody, and gives me a big hug hello, which of course I accept and return with joy. (No, his arms don't quite fit around my waist, but his intention and joy do manage to reach my heart.)
Murph
P.S. I don't know why I just told you all that; maybe, because you are a bunch of good guys who I knew would understand (?)

[Tom Dempsey]

As the grandfather of two autistic boys, both of whom we were able to mainstream with a lot of effort, I find your efforts highly commendable. The older one of those two is a freshman in college this year and is loving it. The effort will be well worth the final results.

[rogruth]

Murph,

You have "it".
You have done "it".
You are "it".
I know you know what the above means.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Murph's first teaching gig was at this school.....

[healey36]

Brilliant, Murph...a recap of that effort makes a lot of what we talk about here seem irrelevant.

Healey

[rogruth]

Murph and I probably know several teachers that have been doing things like this for years .
I would bet this is not the first effort like this by Murph.
Many teachers hope that they were able to be a positive influence on at least one student during their formal teaching time.
Sometimes a teacher [person] can be a major influence on a student and never realize that they were. Speaking from
experience, I have had students that I have difficulty remembering tell me how I influenced them.
I am not meaning to take anything away from Murph. On the contrary, I am trying to praise him more. His student,
Matthew, will probably never forget him. Murph has changed Matthews life.

The above is not well written but I hope the idea is there.

[sleepmac]

Murph, thanks for an inspiring story. I imagine not only Matthew's life has been changed by your efforts, your life has changed in some way as well! Then Marty, I had to laugh when seeing the photo of "Murph's first school he taught in." LOL

Dan Weinhold

[E7]

Kudos to you Murph!

Rich

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

That "Old Home Week" photo seems unusually clear for that circa in such photography.