Genius hour is one hour where you search/ create different things and ideas. In our tech
class our teacher decided to do so and later do a presentation on our discoveries. I decided to do my presentation on Autism and the misconceptions that come with it. I decided to chose this topic as personally I have an autistic cousin and I feel like he is misunderstood in this world. That is why I started researching about it and I ended up learning a lot.
Before telling you what I learned let me first give you the official definition of autism which has been defined by oxford dictionary: It is a developmental disorder of variable severity that is characterized by difficulty in social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behavior.
The 4 main misconceptions which I learned about are:
- The thought that an autistic kid is not smart as this is not true many of them are geniuses. In fact the computer you are looking at right now would have not been here if it was not because of many autistic brilliant people who work in the field. There are many geniuses in the world who were and are autistic.
- Another thing is that autistic people are often said to be scary. Once again its not true they are like you and me except nicer and in there own better world. So we should be the ones who are scary.
- Another thing that some people say is that autism is contagious. Again not true it is a genetic disorder not an disease.
- They are not capable of love. That is totally untrue they just have another way to show it.
Not only did I learn a lot about the subject but it also helped me grow as a person. I was able to deepen two new skills. The first one was compassion as for my project I had to look at various documentary on autistic children. I had to feel compassion in order to understanding all that some where facing in this misunderstanding world. Another thing that I learned was not to judge so easily as part of this investigation was having to read and think about all these people who were them judging autistic people too quickly. I had to try and understand as they thought differently then me. These both skills will help me for future projects and for everyday life.
I acquired new skills however this was not the goal of my presentation I was hopping that this will impact my community. First of all this presentation impacted my classmates as they directly were told the information. With this information they can do whatever they want but some of them might continue on and tell someone the right thing when a misconception is said on autistic children. As well as they can pass on knowledge this will be vital as then the misinformed will be informed and so on and so forth. This will hopefully reduce the risk of hostility towards autistic people.
In my next presentation I will focus on Autism in Senegal. I will take it up a notch by going and helping out with children who have autism. Understanding what happens in early ages of autism and how to distinguish it will be my main focus. This time however I will directly impact the autistic children by helping them and talking with parents. I hope that by doing this I will show that I care about them.
Interesting things and links attached to visit about: Autism and Myths on Autism as well as check out my presentation if you have time: Genius Hour Presentation.
I advice you to do the same have fun and be creative!
hehaden via Compfight
Miwok via Compfight
Mla citations
Sina. Dog Young Puppy Dog. May 17 2013. Pixabay. January 20 2017. https://pixabay.com/en/dog-young-dog-puppy-280332/.
Karenwarfel. Puppy Dog Animal Cute White adorable Canine. October 17 2013. Pixabay. January 20 2017. https://pixabay.com/en/puppy-dog-pet-animal-cute-white-1903313/
Twitter Expert Connect
This twitter connect expert consisted of us trying to use our new-fond skills to interact with
other people on a particular subject. I chose to connect with people on autism. To do this I connected with various people these included:
1.@dutcharc she is an Neuropsychologist and is an expert on autism. I chose to follow her because she posted various articles on autism as well as since she is an expert I hoped she could help me with my genius hour project as she seemed interested in autism just like I am. Not only that but she seemed passionate about what she wrote in her twitter posts. I interacted with her by saying that I liked her post that she had shared and she had replied by saying that she was glad I liked it. Since she posted so many different articles I asked her what kind of websites she would advice me to check so that I will know more on my area of interest which is autism. To this she responded by giving me a very interesting websites which gave me a wide range of perspective on autism. This website would help me for my genius hour project as it will help me understand the different feelings that autism brings up to people. Finally we have not communicated since because I had all the answers I needed from her. She also liked numerous of my tweets.
2.@apreshill she is an researcher in autism. I chose to follow her as when looking at her feed I saw she sometimes shared research on autism. I also saw that she related to my genius hour project as she was interested I started of by saying that I liked how she posted many things to this I did not get a response. Later on I continued on by sharing one post of hers and I even went on to ask her what kind of research she did but she did not respond either. I would have liked to see what kind of research she did as it would have helped me to understand autism better as well as I could refer to certain researches in my genius hour project.
3. @dropkea he is a clinical psychologist and he is interested in autism and just like him I was that is why I decided to follow him. Not only that but he had a relation to my genius hour project as he kept posting different post about the acceptance in autism. I shared two of his posts as well as I said I liked what he shared on autism however I did not get any responses from him. Neither did he follow me back. However I continued on to ask a question hopping that he would answer I told him that I was researching on the misconception on autism and was wondering if he had any advice as to how I can conduct my research. I was hoping that his answer could help me because then I could be able too use his advice when doing my genius hour research. I was unable to get an answer out of him.
4. @AlexaPohl is a researcher on autism at the university of Cambridge. I decided to follow her as she posted a research she did on autism. I found that it was well done and so followed her. Just like her I did was doing a research on autism for my genius hour and so I followed her. I started of by saying I liked the research she did and shared one or two post of hers. Later on I asked her for some more researches she did. In the hope that these would help me in my genius hour project as I could understand some new discoveries on autism. I ended up nor having no interactions or responses to my tweet.
5. @KateEReynolds1 she is a writer on autism. I decided to follow her as she writes about autism and she is a mom of an autistic kid. So she must really be informed on the subject. I started of by thanking her for sharing a post to which she responded by liking my post. Later on I shared a tweet. Finally I asked her if she had any other writing works that I would like to read. To this she sent me a site with her written works. It turned out to be really interesting. I again communicated with her by saying I loved what she wrote and she sent me a message saying she was glad to hear that I liked it.
6. @ChildClinPsych she is an researcher in autism. I decided to follow her as she posted many interesting posts as well as she seemed passionate on what she did. She personally related to my genius hour as she just like me was interested in autism. I first started off by saying I liked one of her posts she had tweeted. Of which she responded by saying that it was very moving. Later on I asked her if she knew the person who wrote the post and did the pictures as well as wrote he article. She responded that she did no know who that person was. I reposted some of her posts before asking her if she had any websites she thought I could use for my research. She advised me two sites who could help me because they had much information on autism.
7.@bhismadev he is working on autism. I decided to follow him as he always reposted different posts on autism. Also he related with my genius hour project as he posted many things on the misconception on autism. I started of by thanking him for writing a lot on autism. Later on I shared his posts and he liked my thank you. However when I asked what kind of work he did on autism he did not respond. I was hoping that by finding out what kind of work he did I would be able to research different jobs that are working around the field of autism.
8. @cathy2079 she is an researcher in autism. I chose to follow her as she seemed very interested in autism as she kept posting different and various post, including some very moving posts. She personally related to my genius hour research because she was an expert in this domain. I communicated with her by first telling her that I was interested in what she had posted and that it revealed something to me. I also reposted a post of hers. Finally I asked her what kind of researches she she conducted. Like all the other people of whom I asked the question too, I was hoping that her researches could be mentioned in my genius hour presentation. As well as I asked this questions many times as like that I would have access to a lot of different researches done recently.
9.@amanda_roestorf she is an expert in Ageing and Psychological Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Just the fact that she was an expert in psychological functioning in autism spectrum disorder made me want to follow her. I wanted to know so much on what her expertise was. She also obviously had relations to my genius hour as she is an expert in what I am researching on: autism. I started by thanking for sharing interesting things. Later on I reposted one of her posts. Finally I asked her what kind of research she did on psychological functioning. I was unable to get any information or interactions with her.
10.@MiltonBroom he teaches and researches about autism. I decided to follow him because since he was a teacher on autism. I came to the conclusion that he must know a lot on it. He also related to my genius hour as he researched on autism just like I did. I thanked him for sharing a post as it will help on doing my research on autism. I then reposted another post of his. He then started following me. Finally I asked him if since he was a teacher if he had any sites that he thought I could use for my research. It would have helped me for my genius hour as I would be able to use them and be sure that they are good quality source. I was unable to get a response on that one.
Overall I think if I were to re-do this I would have made more precise questions as well as all my questions would be different for each person. This twitter expert connect will help me in the future as I can use it for further studies on an area of interests. As I could use the information given to me by the experts n my researches. Finally if I just want to learn something knew I can learn so much from these experts. There is so much information out there so I advice you to go for it!
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Honestly my favorite thing to do is watching TV. In winter I watch movies with the hot fire crackling, usually sad ones that make people cry. Things like Schindler list, The Boy in Stripped Pajamas and If I Stay. Usually I will watch till I am nearly falling asleep. The best thing however is when my best friend and I start screaming saying things like “Why is that happening or how is that possible. Each time we start screaming we then fall in a fit of giggles and when the movie ends we will talk all night. That is why I laugh every time I see her because I know that this is what we are going to do.
I also watch movies with another friend. Her favorite genera is romantic movies so that is what we usually end up looking at. We have watched so may movies but her favorite is Titanic. She usually end’s up crying and I laughing. We will watch the movie on a couch and eat some popcorn that are still hot. She likes the sugary ones and I like the salty one. So we then usually fight over which popcorn we should pop.
Usually for scary/action movies I watch with a group of friends and that is the worse thing ever if my family wants to watch the movie too. As we will laugh/scream so much that it will end up annoying them. On top of that we will usually talk about what is going to happen next n the movie as there is always one of us who already knows the movie and so we end up ruining the whole movie.
These sites have a list of movies you could watch:
https://goodmovieslist.com/
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls053420126/
As you might have read by the title 
my family is my community. We might look like each other however if you want to see people who have totally different personalities then in that case welcome to my family. Although we each have one common thing and that is the love for cooking. From pasta to sushi my aunt can cook whatever you want perfectly. My dad and my mom both make some new recipes that nobody have ever heard of. Then there are my grand-mothers who if you went to their house will never go out with an empty stomach.
In our community we each have a role.It really depends on our age and our gender. Usually the little ones from 0-5 make us laugh as well as make a lot of noise. From 10-18 us both gender do the dishes on weekends, make the table, sometimes cook, go grocery shopping with our parents as well as take care of the little one’s when needed. When you are a parent adult you usually cook and do the laundries as well as do the shopping and taking care of the little ones (do this harder then the 10-18 kids). The elderly women usually cooks, do the table, go take the groceries, and if nobody is available to take care of the little one’s then they relay. My grand-fathers are in poor condition and so are unable to do much.
We also have traditions for example every Christmas from our dad’s side we go bowling.This is so much fun as usually it ends up with us all drinking some ice-tea while laughing at the stupidest things. As well as if it snows we might go outside and have a fight. Other times it ends up with us children tumbling down the stairs on our stomach. This is why I love my community!
Here are links to websites where you can read about families:
http://www.moralstories.org/family/
http://www.asparkstarts.com/stories-about-family/
My dream for later on is have an impact on the world positively. I don’t know how yet but what I do know is that I want to do this throughout my job. Their are simple steps that the school has and will help me with into achieving my goal:
- They provide service learning activities.
- They teach me and have taught me how to be open minded.
- They teach us how to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes.
- Our school has multi- nationalities so we are open to the world.
- Our classes help us direct us for our future
- We are taught different principals we call it core values.
- Excellent is key in our school however we are taught that mistakes and learning learning our mistakes are the key to success.
- Our school also provides us with after school activities such as volleyball,movie making and other things like that.
- Our school values all subjects where not one subject is more important then the other.
- Finally they prepare us for the best for our future.
For week 6 I decided to comment on Alisha, Karah and Aya.
Alisha’s blog was a debate about junk food. It was really informative and the title told you exactly what the blog post was about. I also really liked it because it made me wonder how much I ate junk food per week and rather I think it was okay to eat some.
Karah’s blog post was about her home country and how she was proud of it. I absolutely loved the video she made because it made me want to go to the Philippines. I also loved her title which drew me in to her reading. Overall it was so nice!
Finally I commented on Thanumi’s blog.She talked about Sri Lanka. It was super well done as she talked with such adoration of this country. I also congratulate her as she wrote perfectly with no spelling errors! It was so nice to read about Sri Lanka.
Hello World,
This is someone who lived most of her life differently then most people who are reading this. Here is her story:
Ella loved to look at herself in the mirror and she loved to make funny faces. Ella loved to read in her bed especially when read diary of the wimpy kid. Above all she loved to look up at the sky and wonder how it was like to be a bird and fly. What she did not like was the smell of the city or the medicine that the doctors gave to her. Ella was very pale and had barley no hair anymore but she still sang everyday with all her heart. She still laughed when people made jokes and she still dreamed of the things she would do. She was the smallest kid in her class yet she had the biggest and most beautiful soul.
One day she fell of the swing her favorite swing. At school they quickly contacted the hospital as she lost consciousness. While going to the hospital all she could dream off was going high in the air with the swing and back down and high again. She felt nothing but pure happiness as she was going high very high. When they finally got her to the Hospital and after a lot of stress the doctors got her to wake up. When she woke up she smiled at her mom standing over her and at her brother. She smiled to the doctors who looked like they had not slept for the last 24 hours. She said one thing before going back to sleep. “Thank You.”
Then the dream came back. This time she was not on a swing but on a bird and together they were flying. Up in the sky she went further and further. The farther she went the more she felt like she was the one flying and not the bird. She then looked down and saw that she had transformed into a bird. A beautiful one the type she always had wanted to be. She looked down one last time to see her family to say bye and before she knew it she had arrived somewhere in the clouds where there was light everywhere.
Note: This is an fictional character and here is the swing I had imagined while writing the story. Here are some stories that have a similar topic that are filled with sadness and beauty. https://www.shortstories101.com/story/hospital-
http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2015/03/the-18-saddest-short-stories-youll-ever-read-and-theyre-only-two-sentences-each/
What topic did you research in Genius Hour? 
In Genius Hour I researched about the Titanic. I especially concentrated on what was inside the Titanic as well. I also researched how it was like to be a passenger and crew on the Titanic. Finally I focused on what happened on the night of the sinking.
Why did you choose it? Titanic Image
I chose this topic for numerous of reasons the first one is that I have always had an interest in the Titanic and had researched about it before however I felt like my research was not good enough and I really wanted to know a lot more. Second of all this is very cheesy but I loved the movie Titanic and as well as my favorite book that I have read and reread since 4th grade is called Dear America A voyage on the great Titanic. 3rd of all was that I loved History and so I found something that had to do with the past. Finally I like learning about events that ended badly because I feel like these events all have a lesson to learn.
What did you learn?
During Genius hour I learned so much including what date the Titanic sank, why and how. I also learned random facts such as there was only 20 lifeboats on the Titanic . However what I learned that surprised me the most was that 1503 people died and before that I had thought that 200 people died. What I thought the most interesting thing to learn about was how it felt like to be on the Titanic for a first, second, and third class passenger because I got to see documentaries. What I learned the most about that was the mistakes done by the people who made and the people who were on board the Titanic.
How did that help you grow as a person?
This experience helped me grow as a person because I got to put myself in people’s shoes. Especially those who lost someone or who died that day. By doing that I was able to grow my empathy. It also helped me grow as a person because before presenting in front of the class I practice my presentation skills and for that I had to persevere in doing so and that was hard because I tend to distract myself very quickly. This project also helped me grow as a person because I was able to impact the community around me because I thought them something so that they can pass it on and on.
How did what you learn help (the world, community, yourself, animals, etc.) in some way? Explain. What I learned helped the community because I taught them an important message by learning them about the Titanic. That message is that sometimes when we are to sure about something it sometimes lead to problems. In this case the people were persuaded the Titanic was unsinkable and so they did not put enough lifeboats and that led to the loss of more then one thousand people. By teaching them about the Titanic this will make them less likely to make the same mistake.
How will what you learn in the next Genius Hour help the world, community, yourself, animals, etc. in some way? Explain.
In my next genius hour I want to learn more about Post Traumatic stress disorder because I want to spread my learning and I feel like it will help people around me because rarely people talk about it resulting for people who suffer from this to even suffer more. Finally it will help people around me to know how people that suffer from this feel and to possibly help them in some way.
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Hey this a new day and sometimes you need to smile! Try it out smile to someone who is having a hard day. It’s not hard and a smile is cost less.
class our teacher decided to do so and later do a presentation on our discoveries. I decided to do my presentation on Autism and the misconceptions that come with it. I decided to chose this topic as personally I have an autistic cousin and I feel like he is misunderstood in this world. That is why I started researching about it and I ended up learning a lot. 
