Mario Gomez: Out of my mind so far
Out of my mind is a rather sad and frustrating book to start. You are put into the shoes of a girl named Melody who has cerebral palsy and you really feel the struggle of what this girl is going through.
I think this is a really good book because most of us really have no clue what is like to be handicapped and how we may even take being “normal” for granted. In the classroom, this book can bring a good majority of disscussion and activites. For starters, we could maybe do an activity where we are blind folded and have to navigate through a small obstacle. Funny to watch at first but then immediately bring it to a serious note of how fortuante we are that we indeed have 2 good working eyes. Another topic could maybe even be on the effects alcohol or drugs have and tie it in with driving. Once at high school, this program called “Every 15 minutes” came and actually played out a scene of a drunk driving accident and how being impared led to death. Another lesson could even be on bullying. Again, this book brings up a lot of good life lesson topics and I would totally look forward to using it in my classroom for the students to be able to understand what it’s like to be, out of their mind.
2 Replies to “Mario Gomez: Out of my mind so far”
I love that you talked about Every 15 Minutes, because we had that at my highschool too and I remember it so vividly. I think you’re spot on, with that no one espicially that age knows about handicaps and if they do they don’t really understand it. I think the blindfold lesson is a good idea to show what we take advantage of ! Just be careful with people nowadays may get offended for who knows what, so just be cautious, but I for one, love that activity.
I’m going to have to add this to my reading list! I also love the message this book sends. I was also in that program every 15 minutes and it was truly an eye opening experience, there are many things we take for granted without even noticing that we do sometimes. Appreciating the life you have and making the best of it is a really important life lesson to be learned.