The three main objectives of Invisible No More are to raise awareness, effect political and cultural change, and serve as a means of healing for survivors of Military Sexual Assault.
We watched The Invisible War as part of the annual SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention) training requirement. The other requirement is to complete the FY13 SHARP training via the Army Learning Management System (ALMS).
While technically not a unique ed techie gadget or tool, I am doing a post to to share the resources, connect with others, and raise awareness using technology. This impacts all of us, it isn't something that happens in the military but because the military is a subset of society, they are easy targets and tend to get stereotyped by the media, bottom line up front (BLUF) we are all human beings.
What? Check myself?
This post is not necessarily ed techie related...but a reminder to take a day or two to check your self...your basic health stats, a tune up for your body, a self reality check...so you can continue to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us. In the military, birth month checks were the reminder to make all of your required medical appointments in your birth month. So every January I make those appointments required to do the basic checks...except for last January because I was in transition. This year I picked it back up again...everything is good except for that annual head to toe skin review.
I understand that health care has the attention of many people this year, but in reality, everyone has a personal responsibility to their own health. In the long run, it is better to be proactive and educated about yourself, your family history, and lifestyle changes.
I have just had my 10th mole removed from my body. I have had this type of procedure in 4 different states, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina. I will patiently await the results that will hopefully come back negative and return in 6 months for a follow up to review the annotated areas tagged for review. There is nothing like the question, "How long have you had this one?", when someone is looking at your backside from the top of your head to between your toes and you wonder when have I even looked for a mole there. So take the time to check yourself, if needed, take a picture and conduct a monthly check.
While we associate melanoma with skin checks, it can occur in the eye. This happened to the father of a friend of mine, who recovered with radiation.
Here is the ABCD reminder when checking your skin for possible features that might be symptoms of melanoma:
Asymmetry: One half of the abnormal area is different from the other half.
Borders: The lesion or growth has irregular edges.
Color: Changes from one area to another, with shades of tan, brown, or black or sometimes white, red, or blue. A mixture of colors may appear within one spot.
Diameter: The trouble spot is usually, but not always, larger than 6 mm in diameter-about the size of a pencil eraser.
So take a moment for yourself...for your health...and check yourself and your family history. Without your health...your unique ed technieness will depart before you have the time to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us.
As always, comments and recommendations are welcome or you can click on one of the reaction buttons below this post.
Links of interest:
Google Health: Melanoma
US National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute - Melanoma
Mayo Clinic - Melanoma
I am one of many subscribers of Will Richardson's weblogg-ed and even had his blog as a required reading assignment during one of my grad classes. The title of his blog post tonight caught my attention. There are some interesting comments to the post and I shared through Facebook and del.icio.us. I always end up with a delayed response to comments I post to those using Wordpress. Later I receive a message that the comment appears as spam even though I fill out name, email, website. So I thought I would post my response here and encourage everyone to check out Will's post, It's the Parents' fault. Not.
Will Richardson's post tonight is based on a conversation with a principal. The blog post is titled, "It's the parents' fault. Not". The blog starts out, " Recently, during a Q & A after a presentation, I had an interesting exchange with a high school principal that went something like this:". Read Will Richardson's post, It's the parents' fault. Not.My response:Will,
Thanks for this post. I agree that this is a shared responsibility. The students do not think their principal, teacher, administrator....or anyone else would see their information because everything is blocked and no one wants to discuss Facebook, MySpace, Twitter with students unless it ends up in a legal issue. The students are aware when their teachers, principals, and any other adult figure in their life is active on the net. The information spreads fast in the student networked "out of school" grapevine.
I begin many of my computer workshops having everyone Google themselves and a family member, then review the results for the web, images, news, and maps, and then search again using http://cvgadget.com . Everyone is surprised by something they find out about themselves (or a family member or friend) on the net whether it is professional, personal, authored, or referenced.
Personal awareness and sharing knowledge strengthens the community connections, on and off line. Some first graders are learning to blog, some first graders will be embarrassed when they discover mom and dad have archived every baby picture since birth on a public photo site.
At least you have principals that are aware. We still have principals and teachers that have never been connected through the net, even if their employer provides the email and net access. The superintendent and the mayor both have Facebook pages and the Augusta Chronicle did an article on Copenhaver ventures into the online world .
I like sites like What Kids Can Do and Do Something (Not the only ones, just 2 of many that I reference in my assignments). Sites like these work with our youth and the sites provide tools and resources for them to convert ideas and energy into positive action.Glad to see people taking more than the first step of a long journey. Keep on blogging!!! and sharing knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned.Thanks again for an interesting post.
