{"id":27,"date":"2016-05-17T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?p=27"},"modified":"2016-06-10T21:42:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T21:42:36","slug":"teaching-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/teaching-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"j1\"\u201cWe spent so much time trying to save his life in the beginning that we missed crucial moments for learning and development. There\u2019s a good chance Jordan will fall behind in class because of his vision and hearing loss, so I want him to be ahead of his peers when he starts school this fall. I want him to have every advantage and opportunity despite his cancer experience and Laura is helping make this possible. We are so grateful to her.\u201d ~ Michelle Heglin<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a single mother, Michelle and her five-year-old son Jordan are always busy. They\u2019ve been on the run since Jordan was four months old and diagnosed with an aggressive eye cancer\u2014regularly travelling to and from Toronto for specialized cancer treatments and close monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Kids Cancer Care started offering at-home tutoring services, getting Jordan to his weekly tutoring session after work was one less thing for Mom to worry about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe could never afford to pay for a tutor and the fact that Laura comes to our home is huge,\u201d says Michelle. \u201cIt means we don\u2019t have to rush around for a change. Jordan can have a tutoring session in the living room, while I make dinner from the kitchen. I can even listen in and help implement some of the lessons Laura is teaching him throughout the week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to you, Kids Cancer Care is now offering at-hom<\/span>e tutoring<\/a> services to children disadvantaged by cancer at no cost to families. Offered through our<\/span> Education Support Program<\/a>, the tutoring service would not be possible without a team of dedicated volunteers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"j2\"
Jordan Heglin suffered significant vision and hearing loss due to an aggressive eye cancer and high-dose chemotherapy he received as an infant. Laura Edmonds, an elementary school teacher and Kids Cancer Care volunteer, is helping Jordan to get a head start in education during weekly tutoring sessions.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Laura Edmonds is one of the dedicated<\/span> volunteers<\/a> giving her time and talents to help kids like Jordan get a head start in life by ensuring they have a strong foundation in education.<\/span><\/p>\n

A grade one and two teacher by day, Laura meets with Jordan every Monday evening for one-hour tutoring sessions. Together, they are working on his fine motor skills, math and reading skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura teaches by building trust and making sure the child has a sense of ownership in the learning. She also regularly encourages her students. \u201cIt\u2019s important to build their self-confidence with lots of positive reinforcement. Making sure they have success in their day, is really important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Laura begins by discovering the child\u2019s interests and strengths and builds from there, approaching each child as a unique individual. \u201cEach child comes to learning from a different entry point because they each have different experiences and contexts,\u201d says Laura. \u201cMy job is to understand and honour this and build from there, while also helping the child to be okay with where they\u2019re at.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s specific entry point and biggest learning struggle at this point is his vision. As an infant, he lost his right eye to cancer and now wears a prosthetic eye. Although Jordan\u2019s mom fought to save his left eye, the vision in this eye is sadly limited. The central vision in his left eye is blurred and the visual acuity is only 20\/80, which is below the basic requisite for driving. Still, it\u2019s the only eye he has, so Jordan wears non-prescription safety glasses to protect it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan loves playing with mini-racing cars, so they build racing cars into his learning by creating a racetrack of Wikistix\u2014colourful strips of yarn dipped in non-toxic wax\u2014on a large sheet of paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incorporating counting, addition, spelling and reading into their play, Laura says, \u201cHow many Wikistix are here Jordan? Write it down.\u201d Jordan promptly answers aloud and carefully prints the number on the paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The best thing about it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJordan has no idea we\u2019re learning!” Laura says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, that doesn\u2019t stop Jordan from throwing in a few learning moments of his own. Laying down a Wikistix, Jordan suddenly looks up: \u201cLaura, let\u2019s put letters beside the racetrack and when you come to that letter with your car you have to say it out loud!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a great idea Jordan,\u201d says Laura, happy to add more literacy into the racetrack game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jordan is clearly pleased with himself, proud to bring his ideas to the game. Together, they have met all the learning objectives of the day. They\u2019ve boosted his self-esteem, given him a sense of ownership in the learning and offered him a sweet piece of success at the end of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you Laura and 300+ volunteers who give kids disadvantaged by cancer a fighting chance through our Camp, Outreach and Education Support programs.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe spent so much time trying to save his life in the beginning that we missed crucial moments for learning and development. There\u2019s a good chance Jordan will fall behind in class because of his vision and hearing loss, so I want him to be ahead of his peers when he starts school this fall. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}