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Hi to everyone - at last I have found some time to write another Newsletter



Its now nearly the end of term but we have exams really soon - at least I haven't got Latin or Greek this time! In the holidays I am going skiing in France at La Plagne - I can't wait. I hope there is snow as it is a bit early but we have to go in the holidays. If anyone knows what the snow is like perhaps you could send me an email and let me know.




• TECHNOLOGY REALLY DOES MAKE THINGS MUCH EASIER
  

  I have tried lots of things to help me with my work. My laptop is the one thing that I just could not manage without. I can touch type well and I realise that absolutely no one should feel sorry for me. I am really lucky - in fact when I write my essays etc. I think I probably have an advantage. When I get to the end, if I have time left, I can put in paragraphs change the order of things put in adjectives which teachers seem to love but they never come out when I am writing my first version. I can spell check my work All this without any crossings out at all I reckon that if dyslexics can get organised we are the lucky ones in many ways!

  
  

  Reading is still annoying as I just cannot read as well as I want. But as far as books are concerned I can listen to tapes. We have got to read Northern Lights by Phillip Pulman before next term. There is absolutely no way that I could wade through it. Instead I have got the full version on tape (from Listening Books) and we will listen to the 8 tapes as we drive to France over the holidays. Years ago dyslexics did not have this option - I think we are very lucky.

  
  I find that it is difficult taking notes. I am trying to get a Sony minidisc recorder so that I can record some of my lessons particularly those when we are supposed to take notes. The recorder has, I think, markers so that I will be able to easily go to the bit I want to. Anyway this is the next thing that I would like to try out. My only prob is I haven't got one so if anyone would like me to try it out and then say how it works I would be really pleased. I have looked and I reckon that the Sony MZR900 minidisc recorder and the ECMMS907 microphone would be brill!

• EMAILS
  
  

  I still get loads of emails which is brill - I really do like getting them. I do try and reply but it is very hard. If anyone thinks they could write the email as a message to be posted on the message board it might be helpful as I am sure other people are really interested in some of them. If you want to leave a message for the message board please click here!.

  
  
  
• IMPROVEMENTS
  I have had some feedback from people who found it very annoying when they filled in the forms and when they tried to send it they got the message saying that they had missed something out. When they returned to their form to fill in the missing bit everything had gone. I have now changed this. Please do keep telling me how I can improve the site and I will do my best to solve any probs.
  
  
  
• RESEARCH - Dyslexia and hearing impaired children learning to read.
  I have had an email from Mrs Rivard from St Augustine in Florida. She works with Deaf and Blind children. She would be really interested to hear from anyone working with or who has experience with children who are deaf and who may well be dyslexic. Mrs Rivard has found the different colour backgrounds interesting but is keen to hear from other people to share her knowledge and problems. She asks
  
  
  • "Do you have any contacts that you have made in your letters or people who have talked to you about dyslexia who have worked with hearing impaired or deaf students? I know in my brain that something much more than their deafness and lack of phonics skills is preventing them from reading." If you email me I will forward your email to her.
  
  
• MESSAGE BOARD
  

  I have redone my message board. I used to have it with another server but that seem to cause lots of probs. I now run it myself which is much better. It means that I can read the messages before I upload them. Sometimes I have messages that are just from people trying to advertise or from people who want pen friends. I decided that I would not put things like this on my site. I did have a prob when I changed over and I lost some messages. I am sorry if I lost your message but do please keep leaving messages - it is really cool to get them. If you would like to leave a message you can click here!

  
  
• COURSES
  

  My Visual basic course is going really well. I can now make simple games and programmes. My sister came to stay last night. Polly is a teacher and works in a school for children with Severe Learning Difficulties. She was really keen on the programmes and she has asked me to make some simple programmes for her pupils to use. She said that she could not find programmes that suited her pupils and told me exactly what she wanted. If anyone else is interested in having an individually designed programme for their class please let me know and perhaps you could test it out for me. Polly said that it was really difficult to get the software that she really wanted and that would suit her pupils. Has anyone else found this? At the moment I am making a Pelican Crossing programme which is interactive so that Polly's pupils learn to look at the crossing light and learn to cross when it's green. I think I had better get my exams out of the way before I work on this properly! Perhaps I will be able to start in the new Year.

  
  
  
• HITS
  I am getting loads of hits at the moment which is brill. Lots of schools seem to be letting their pupils enter my quizzes. (Someone has just told me that 'QUIZZES' has got 2 'Z's in it!) It really makes it worth doing the quizzes if lots of people enter. I would like to welcome John Woodrow back - he was one of my first quiz winners and he has started entering again. I am not sure about his age but 'welcome back'!
  
  
  
• APPLE
  I have had another article put on the Apple website. If you click here you can go to it. It is brill when Apple put me on their site because I always get more hits and they are always from all over the world because Apple has translated the article into lots of different languages.
  
  If this site keeps being popular I would like to put it in different languages so that people could choose the language they wanted. I even get emails in strange languages now - I got one in German yesterday which I can't read. I will take it to school to get one of the teachers to translate it!
  
  
• MY OLD NEWSLETTERS
  I still have my last newsletters and they can be read by clicking here. Also if you remember I used to have a news page, well I have put these back on, so please click here to go to them.