Saturday, May 7, 2011
Resume
Kimberly Rittenhouse
5 Lower Glen Drive Lewistown, Pa. 17044 Krittenhouse@hughes.net 717-994-5603
Professional Profile |
[Briefly describe your professional background an education relevant to this position]
· Skilled Nursing · Vent Patients · Track Patients · Wound Vacs · Wound Care | · IV Insertion · IV Medication · Medication Administration · Computer Charting · Written Charting · Foley Care,Insertion/ Gtube Care, Insertion, NGTube Care, Insertion, ECT. |
Professional Experience |
MSN Medical Staffing Inc. Lewistown, Pa.17044 2004-Present LPN Achievements: Traveling from Facility to Facility Geriatric Patients Hospice Patients Responsibilities: Medication administration IV Therapy/IV Insertion wound/TX care Computer Charting/ Free Hand Charting/Documentation |
PRN Medical Staffing Network, Lewistown, Pa. 17044 2006-present LPN Achievements: Long Term Care Facility Hospice Patients Rehabilitation Responsibilities: Medication Administration IV Therapy/IV Insertion Wound/TX Care Charting/Documentation |
Lewistown Hospital, Lewistown, Pa. 17044 1999-2006 LPN Achievements: Hospital Settings Pediatric Patients Med Surg. Patients Orthopedics Patients Cardiac Patients Responsibilities: Medication Administration IV Therapy/IV Insertion Wound/TX Care Computer Charting/ Documentation |
Education |
Mifflin/Juniata Vocational Tech, Lewistown, Pa. LPN Degree Graduated 2004 CPR Certification |
References |
Tracy Banks 814-644-8173 Tina Ryan 717-463-251
Tara Campbell 717-734-3080 Joyce Durst 717-513-0327
Classes & Projects
Classes Completed
- English 003
- English 05
- Brocure for "Tuesday with Morrie"
- Brosure for "The Secret Life of Bees"
- A poster for "The Secret Life of Bees"
- Tutoring in good test taking skills
- Good studing skills
- CPR
- CNA
- LPN
- Record Keeping
- Computer skills
- Critical thinking skills
Education & Career goals
Education
- CNA (Certified Nurses Aid) certification
- CPR (Certified Pulmonary Resusitation) certification
- LPN (License Practical Nursing) License
- To get my RN (Register Nursing) Liscense
- Go on for my BSN (batchlers degree)
- To work for the state as an RN
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Eportfolio self-assessment
Professor Woodring
English 051
May 3, 2011
Eportfolio Self-Assessment
English 051 was one of the requirements that I had to take for the beginning of my nursing carrier. It was a challenging course for me. We were expected to do several different essays by the end of the term. The expository essay was the first one we did. I did mine on Respiratory issues. I enjoyed doing this paper because it is what I do for a living. I am a nurse and work with respiratory issues every day. This subject was a little easy for me to research. The format of the essay was the hardest for me but once I got going it was not too bad. I received a 97% out of 100%. Professor Woodring was very helpful. Narrative or cause/effect was the second essay we did. Mine was on Anxiety and Teens. I had to keep doing my essay over until my final draft was due. I just had to learn how to do a narrative or cause/effect essay. Mine was more on the narrative side. I had received a 94% out of 100%. Argumentative/persuasive essay was my third and final one that was due. I did mine on Euthanasia. The topic was very interesting to me. I received an 89% out of 100%.
Different subjects we were working on we could go on an internet site called exercise central to practice and take pre-quizzes on those subjects. That was very useful. If the answer was wrong, it showed everyone what the right answer was, and how they got it. We also had to work on our very own Blog. It is interesting to me with putting my stuff out there for everyone to see. I am not sure if I will use this in the future. We can use this blog to build a resume. That part of it would be helpful in the future.
Kimberly Rittenhouse 2
Throughout the course we were expected to do quizzes on subjects we were studying and the best part of them is that we could take them on our own computer and had about a week to take them. The only bad thing about that is that if you have a question then there was no one there to ask. There were good points and bad points as far as my opinion with on line quizzes. I feel I would have better benefited with the quiz in front of me on paper to visualize it better. I felt that with the online testing that I was being rushed to get finished. I went over the last quiz on editing with Professor Woodring and do feel I know more now than I did when I took the quiz.
Overall English 051 was an excellent class for me. I feel it is good start for my nursing career. The eportfolio we are working on right now is a good experience for me. It is teaching me to start a project and work on it until it is finished. We can continue to work on it forever and keep up a resume as part of it. This was a very good idea for future jobs. For my future classes in my college career, I will remember from this course how to use my skills from all the different essays, the different vocabulary we did with the right and wrong wording, capitalizing and punctuations and put all of what I learned into my future classes.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Professor Woodring
English 051
April 19, 2011
Euthanasia
Respecting and promoting patient control has been one of the driving forces behind the Hospice movement and right-to-die issues that range from honoring living wills to promote euthanasia (mercy killing). These issues can create and conflict between a patient’s desire for control and a physician’s duty to promote health. These are issues of law, ethics, medicine, and philosophy. Some physicians may favor strong pain control and approve the right of patients to refuse life-support, but do not favor euthanasia or assisted suicide. Often patients who ask for physician-assisted suicide can be treated by increasing the patient’s comfort and relieving symptoms, thereby reducing the patient’s need for drastic measures.
Physicians have as one of their special moral duties an unconditional obligation never to kill, and that is for this reason that they may not participate in euthanasia. Physicians by their professional commitments may never directly and intentionally cause the death of a patient, and therefore administering euthanasia, even where a patient has competently requested it, is forbidden to anyone who practices medicine.1 there are duties of physicians that are special moral duties that arise in the nature of the physician’s professional role. They are: duties to patients, duties to the profession, duties to patients’ families, duties to colleagues, duties to other health-care providers, duties to institutions (hospitals, medical schools), and duties to society. 2 (Seay Pg.517)
Nurses and physicians should provide pain relief as needed. They are afraid of a malpractice suit that can result in a fine, prison time or even both. As long as the medication for pain relief is therapeutic and does not result in the patient being unconscious and causing respiratory depression rather than pain relief this could be considered euthanasia .3 If that happened and result in imprisonment. “Angel of Death” involves a single health care provider who commits multiple murders within a health care facility.4 These kind of health care professionals usually act on patients that are critically ill and want to end their lives. This is also considered euthanasia. Those professionals could also do imprisonment. They cannot make that judgment of whether or not to end a life just because the patient asks them to help them. Those professional in health care also takes the oath of caring for the living, not in provoking the dead. (Fiesta Pg.10)
There are some cases that could be of good with euthanasia with the Terri Schiavo case that happened in 1990. Terri Schiavo was 26 years old and had collapsed in the hall way of her apartment and experienced hypoxia for several minutes.5 She had no living will or a power of attorney. Four months after her injury her husband had a court claimed her as incompetent. She was in a vegetable state after her accident and became unable to swallow so her husband had given the ok to place a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube. 6 Michael Schiavo (Terri’s husband) worked on getting her regular and aggressive physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Despite their best efforts and explorations of all potentially viable treatments, her condition failed to improve. In the year 2000 there was a trial to resolve the dispute over the extent of Terri Schiavo’s neurologic devastation and to determine how she would exercise her right of privacy, or liberty interest to forgo life supporting medical treatment, if she were able to communicate.7 Mr. Schiavo and the Schindlers (Terri’s parents) were not on the same wave length with making the decision on ending life. After presenting all the evident and having the witnesses testify the court found that she met the statutory definition of the persistent vegetative state and that there was no hope of her regaining consciousness or the ability to communicate. After the judge herd all the testimonies he ordered for the PEG tube to be removed. The Shindlers were upset that them being the parents they had no choice in the decision so they appealed the Judge’s decision. At the appeal the decision was still to remove the PEG tube. 8 The tube feeding was turned off in 2001. Two days later the treatment was resumed when the Schindlers was presented with a different trial court Judge. After going through again several testimonies the court found that Terri Schiavo remained in a persistent vegetative state and again ordered the withdrawal of the feeding tube. Her life was ended in March 2005.9 There are two things to consider with euthanasia with Terri Schiavo’s case. 1. What were her medical condition and the outcome of it? 2. In such a condition, what would she choose to do? Several argue that the central question of the Teri Schiavo case is a struggle between sanctity of life versus quality of life. Others felt passionately that discontinuing Terri’s artificial nutrition and hydration would initiate a cascading disregard for disabled persons or others who are judged to have poor quality of life.10 The whole entire family including the immediate family should have a say in the care of their love on. One of the main reasons the Schindlers had argued that Michael Schiavo should not be allowed a voice in the decisions concerning his wife’s treatment is because for over the 15 year period of caring for her, he had a relationship with another women. (Perry, Churchill, and Kirshner Pg. 744-747)
Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. In situations that someone has a life threatening illness that cannot be cured then euthanasia might be there choice. If a physician would tell me that I had cancer and only had six months to live and the cancer would get out of control with pain then I would consider euthanasia just not to be in any kind of pain anymore. Some people would be against this because of family and friends but personally I would not want to put my friends and family through seeing me in pain and discomfort that way. Euthanasia can be a peaceful and mindful event. It is all in what your beliefs are.
Work Cited
1. Fiesta, Janine. "Do No Harm: When Caregivers Violate Our Golden Rule, Part 1." Nursing Management 30.8 (1999): 10-11. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
2. Seay, Gary. "Euthanasia and physicians' moral duties." The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30.5 (2005): 517-533. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
3. Perry, Joshua E, Larry R Churchill, and Howard S Kirshner. "The Terri Schiavo case: legal, ethical, and medical perspectives." Annals of Internal Medicine 143.10 (2005): 744-748. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
Euthanasia
Professor Woodring
English 051
April 19, 2011
Euthanasia
Respecting and promoting patient control has been one of the driving forces behind the Hospice movement and right-to-die issues that range from honoring living wills to promote euthanasia (mercy killing). These issues can create and conflict between a patient’s desire for control and a physician’s duty to promote health. These are issues of law, ethics, medicine, and philosophy. Some physicians may favor strong pain control and approve the right of patients to refuse life-support, but do not favor euthanasia or assisted suicide. Often patients who ask for physician-assisted suicide can be treated by increasing the patient’s comfort and relieving symptoms, thereby reducing the patient’s need for drastic measures.
Physicians have as one of their special moral duties an unconditional obligation never to kill, and that is for this reason that they may not participate in euthanasia. Physicians by their professional commitments may never directly and intentionally cause the death of a patient, and therefore administering euthanasia, even where a patient has competently requested it, is forbidden to anyone who practices medicine.1 there are duties of physicians that are special moral duties that arise in the nature of the physician’s professional role. They are: duties to patients, duties to the profession, duties to patients’ families, duties to colleagues, duties to other health-care providers, duties to institutions (hospitals, medical schools), and duties to society. 2 (Seay Pg.517)
Nurses and physicians should provide pain relief as needed. They are afraid of a malpractice suit that can result in a fine, prison time or even both. As long as the medication for pain relief is therapeutic and does not result in the patient being unconscious and causing respiratory depression rather than pain relief this could be considered euthanasia .3 If that happened and result in imprisonment. “Angel of Death” involves a single health care provider who commits multiple murders within a health care facility.4 These kind of health care professionals usually act on patients that are critically ill and want to end their lives. This is also considered euthanasia. Those professionals could also do imprisonment. They cannot make that judgment of whether or not to end a life just because the patient asks them to help them. Those professional in health care also takes the oath of caring for the living, not in provoking the dead. (Fiesta Pg.10)
There are some cases that could be of good with euthanasia with the Terri Schiavo case that happened in 1990. Terri Schiavo was 26 years old and had collapsed in the hall way of her apartment and experienced hypoxia for several minutes.5 She had no living will or a power of attorney. Four months after her injury her husband had a court claimed her as incompetent. She was in a vegetable state after her accident and became unable to swallow so her husband had given the ok to place a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube. 6 Michael Schiavo (Terri’s husband) worked on getting her regular and aggressive physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Despite their best efforts and explorations of all potentially viable treatments, her condition failed to improve. In the year 2000 there was a trial to resolve the dispute over the extent of Terri Schiavo’s neurologic devastation and to determine how she would exercise her right of privacy, or liberty interest to forgo life supporting medical treatment, if she were able to communicate.7 Mr. Schiavo and the Schindlers (Terri’s parents) were not on the same wave length with making the decision on ending life. After presenting all the evident and having the witnesses testify the court found that she met the statutory definition of the persistent vegetative state and that there was no hope of her regaining consciousness or the ability to communicate. After the judge herd all the testimonies he ordered for the PEG tube to be removed. The Shindlers were upset that them being the parents they had no choice in the decision so they appealed the Judge’s decision. At the appeal the decision was still to remove the PEG tube. 8 The tube feeding was turned off in 2001. Two days later the treatment was resumed when the Schindlers was presented with a different trial court Judge. After going through again several testimonies the court found that Terri Schiavo remained in a persistent vegetative state and again ordered the withdrawal of the feeding tube. Her life was ended in March 2005.9 There are two things to consider with euthanasia with Terri Schiavo’s case. 1. What were her medical condition and the outcome of it? 2. In such a condition, what would she choose to do? Several argue that the central question of the Teri Schiavo case is a struggle between sanctity of life versus quality of life. Others felt passionately that discontinuing Terri’s artificial nutrition and hydration would initiate a cascading disregard for disabled persons or others who are judged to have poor quality of life.10 The whole entire family including the immediate family should have a say in the care of their love on. One of the main reasons the Schindlers had argued that Michael Schiavo should not be allowed a voice in the decisions concerning his wife’s treatment is because for over the 15 year period of caring for her, he had a relationship with another women. (Perry, Churchill, and Kirshner Pg. 744-747)
Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. In situations that someone has a life threatening illness that cannot be cured then euthanasia might be there choice. If a physician would tell me that I had cancer and only had six months to live and the cancer would get out of control with pain then I would consider euthanasia just not to be in any kind of pain anymore. Some people would be against this because of family and friends but personally I would not want to put my friends and family through seeing me in pain and discomfort that way. Euthanasia can be a peaceful and mindful event. It is all in what your beliefs are.
Work Cited
1. Fiesta, Janine. "Do No Harm: When Caregivers Violate Our Golden Rule, Part 1." Nursing Management 30.8 (1999): 10-11. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
2. Seay, Gary. "Euthanasia and physicians' moral duties." The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 30.5 (2005): 517-533. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
3. Perry, Joshua E, Larry R Churchill, and Howard S Kirshner. "The Terri Schiavo case: legal, ethical, and medical perspectives." Annals of Internal Medicine 143.10 (2005): 744-748. MEDLINE. EBSCO. Web. 22 Apr. 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Nursing
Nursing is a rewarding carrier. I started my carrier out as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistance). You have a lot of responsibilities with taking care of sick patients. At the nursing home you have the elderly with taking care of their personal needs like helping them with their bathing, helping them with eating there meals and if they need to walk or be transported anywhere. It is rewarding seeing how happy they are when they get their needs and wants that they need. With having your CNA (Certified Nursing Assistance) you have to also have your CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation). This is a mandatory thing in most of the nursing field.
I eventually went on to working as a LPN (license Practical Nurse). This carrier is very rewarding. You can work almost anywhere that nursing is needed. You get a certified license. Working at the hospital is a challenging place of employment. You meet a lot of different patients. You really get to use your skills at the hospital. You do the entire medication passing. You hang all the IV medication and also get to start the IV sites on the patients. You also have to do all the treatments on the wounds, surgical sites that the patients might have.
Nursing is very rewarding but can be frustrating also. There is always a shortage with staffing that makes it very frustrated and makes you feel rushed with your job. It is very tiring to work like that. It makes it very hard with staffing issues when there is a call off and there is nobody to call in to help you out. You sometimes get very burned out with all the responsibility you are responsible for.
March on Washington
March On Washington
Martin Luther King, JR.
“I Have A Dream, Speech”
The March on Washington was an interracial march by 250,000 blacks and whites on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C., protesting segregation and job discrimination against blacks in the nation. Also called March for freedom and Jobs. Martin Luther King JR’s “I Have a Dream” speech was the most famous part of that day. This was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation’s capital.
The march was initiated by A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO. Randolph had planned a similar march in 1941. The threat of the earlier march had convinced President Roosevelt to establish the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and bar discriminatory hiring in the defense industry.
The 1963 march was an important part of the rapidly expanding Civil Rights Movement. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. By 1963, the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, most of the goals of these earlier protests still had not been realized. High levels of black unemployment, work that offered most African Americans only minimal wages and poor job mobility, systematic disenfranchisement of many African Americans, and the persistence of racial segregation in the South prompted discussions about a large scale march for political and economic justice as early as 1962.
The march was organized by a coalition of organizations and their leaders including: Randolph who was chosen as the head of the march, James Farmer (president of the Congress of Racial Equality), John Lewis (president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Martin Luther King, Jr. (president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), Roy Wilkins (president of the NAACP), Whitney Young (president of the National Urban League). They were also known as the “Big Six”. Randolph focused on jobs and the other groups focused on freedom.
The actual march itself was administered by deputy director Bayard Rustin, a civil rights veteran and organizer of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, the first of the Freedom Rides to test the Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination. Rustin was a long-time associate of both Randolph and Martin Luther King, Jr.
President Kennedy originally discouraged the march, he feared it might discourage the legislature to vote against the civil rights law and perceive a threat. Once Kennedy seen that the march will go on, he supported it. March organizers themselves disagreed over the purpose of the march. The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for a civil rights bill that had been introduced by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) saw it as a way of raising both civil rights and economic issues to national attention beyond the Kennedy bill. Student Nonviolent coordination Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) saw it as a way of challenging and condemning the Kennedy administration’s inaction and lack of support for civil rights for African Americans.
In March 1963 Randolph telegraphed King that the Negro American Labor Council (NALC) had begun planning a June March “for Negro job rights,” and asked for King’s immediate response. In May, at the Birmingham Campaign, King joined Randolph, James Farmer of CORE, and Charles MCDew of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in calling for such an action later that year, declaring, “Let the black laboring masses speak. “After notifying President Kennedy of their intent, the leaders of the major civil rights organizations set the march date for August 28th. The stated goals of the protest included “a comprehensive civil rights bill” that would do away with segregated public accommodations; “protected of the right to vote”; “desegregation of all public schools in 1963”; a massive federal works program
“to train and place unemployed workers”; and “a Federal Fair Employment Practices Act barring discrimination in all employment” (“Goals of Rights March”).
The day’s high point came when Martin Luther King JR took the podium toward the end of the event, and moved the Lincoln Memorial audience and live television viewers with what has come to be known as his “I Have a Dream” speech. King commented that “as television beamed the image of this extraordinary gathering across the border oceans, everyone who believed in man’s capacity to better himself had a moment of inspiration and confidence in the future of the human race, “ and characterized the march as an “appropriate climax” to the summer’s events.
After the march, Martin Luther King JR. and other civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House, where they discussed the need for bipartisan support of civil rights legislation. Though they were passed after Kennedy’s death, the provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 reflect the demands of the march.
Works Cited
Civil Rights March on Washington. All about the March on Washington, August 28, 1963
Congress of Racial Equality. “Making Equality A Reality”. March on Washington. The World Hears of Dr. King’s “Dream”.
Lerone, Bennett JR. “The Day They Marched.” March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963 Civil rights demonstrations. Ebony. Aug2003, Vol. 58 issue 10, P150. 8p. PROQUEST. Harrisburg Area Community College Libraries, Harrisburg, PA. 9 Aug. 1999
http://web.ebscohost.comezproxy.hacc.edu/ehost/delivery?sid=38f963bc-8d8d
Garrow, David J. King The March The Man The Dream. American History; Aug2003, Vol. 38, p26, 10p. 7 “March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963 “ Civil rights demonstrations…Washington (D.C.) Proquest. Harrisburg area Community College Libraries, Harrisburg, PA.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/ehost/delivery?hid=10...
Tourette Syndrome
Tourette Syndrome
“A Collaborative Approach Focused on Empowering Students, Families, and Teachers”
A Third grade teacher tells us how she had two students, Evan and TJ who both had Tourette syndrome, along with other students that all had learning disabilities of some sort. The teacher went on to tell how Evan and TJ’s vocal tics and motor tics weren’t always alike. When the teacher would think she figured each of them out then there tics and behaviors would change. The teacher would keep in contact with the parents to compare the changes to keep it easier for the parents when doctoring with their diagnoses. Evan and TJ would have vocal tics as far as blurting out competitive words or phrases. They would also continuously cough and clear their throats. Neither of the two boys would have the same tic at the same time. They would also have motor tics as far as blinking the eyes, cracking the knuckles, sniffing and shrugging the shoulders. There are a lot more different vocal and motor ticks again not the same all of the time. There are a lot of adjustments the teacher has to do to make each one of them feel comfortable; they might have to go into a room by themselves to take a test. The tics come out more if in anxious situation. Most of the time children do not show signs of having ticks till the age of 6-7. The teacher and the mother are in contact a lot to be sure they are on the same page with the boy’s education so they get what they deserve. A lot of time outsiders that don’t know signs and symptoms of Tourette syndrome so when they see a child acting out they blame the parents for spoiling them or treating them like babies. A lot of time a child with Tourette syndrome has some sort of other learning defects. When the child has a doctor’s appointment the have to decide what to treat first but then they have to watch because and then they have to watch because some medications will bring tics out. The parents know the child the best. The family involvement in the education of a child makes a difference in there child’s school education.
This article was very helpful with the information on Tourette syndrome. It gave a lot of good examples of what tics were and the different kinds of motor and vocal tics there are. I have a daughter who has Tourette syndrome and a lot of the information in this article is exactly what my family went through. She also had just about all the motor tics that were listed and some of the vocal tics. She also had other learning disabilities, like ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was diagnosed with bi-polar. We also did have to keep in contact with her teachers throughout her school year. I really enjoyed reading this article. It was very interesting to me.
Tuesday with Morrie
The novel “Tuesday with Morrie” was about this prominent doctor of sociology who taught at Brandeis University in the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. The novel was basically about Morrie and how he developed “ALS”, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is also known as the Lou Gehrig’s disease. An illness of the neurological system. After reading the novel “Tuesday with Morrie” and then watching the movie there were a lot of comparison and contrast between the two of them.
In the novel and the movie Mitch Albom, who was one of Morrie’s student in college considered Morrie his favorite professor and had referred to him as “coach,” the way he used to address his high school track coach. Morrie liked that nick name that he started to refer Mitch as his player. They had a very good relationship from the very beginning.
When Morrie first realized that there was something just not right with him he was tripping a lot, having trouble catching his breath, along with a lot of other things. One of the signs were seen in the movie and read in the novel, Morrie was in his car and went to back up and then when it was too late to realize it he could not lift his foot to put on the break. He then put the car into park, went to get out of the car and fell to the ground. He could not walk. He had at that point had to quit driving his car. In the novel Morrie had seen several doctors and had several tests ran. Morrie and his wife Charlotte went to the neurologist’s office after the test results were back and he broke the news to them that Morrie had “ALS”. That there were no known cure and that Morrie was going to eventually die. Morrie had stated and aphorism in both the novel and the movie that “ALS is like a lit candle, it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax”. ALS begins with your legs and works its way up. You lose control of your thigh muscles, so you cannot support yourself standing; you lose control of your trunk muscles, so you cannot sit up straight. By the end you will be breathing through a tube with a hole in your throat. Morrie had to decide whether he wanted to wither up and disappear or make the best of his time left. He decided to make the best of his time left.
When Mitch first found out about Morrie dying, this occurred in both the movie and the novel, he was flipping through the channels on the TV and caught Ted Koppel, a host of ABC-TV’s “Nightline” show, stating “ who is Morrie Schwartz and why by the end of the night are so many of you going to care about him.” Mitch went numb.
Mitch went to see Morrie. He found a way to get away from work. In the movie it showed Mitch got fired from his job and in the novel it read that Mitch’s company went on strike.
Mitch ended up spending time week after week with Morrie. They made it on Tuesdays, both movie and in novel. Morrie made it out of a learning experience with life for Mitch. Mitch made lots of notes and taped there visits to write a thesis on Morrie and his life. Each time Mitch went to see Morrie he brought him food. Mitch new how he liked to eat. In the movie Charlotte “Morrie’s” wife stated it was getting harder for Morrie to eat solid food. The refrigerator was filled with food Mitch had brought previous weeks. Mitch said he wanted to contribute something. He felt helpless.
Mitch had a girl friend named Janine. Janine appeared a lot in the movie compared to the novel. Mitch did eventually take her to see Morrie. Morrie and Janine really have some special moments. One of them was she had sang a beautiful song to Morrie that brought tears to his eyes. Morrie really enjoyed her company.
Morrie talked a lot in the movie about his step mother and how she taught him and his brother learning material from school. She had sangs a lot to Morrie and his brother. She taught them how there could be love in the house. The movie and the novel showed how their father did not act like a father. Never gave them any attention.
Morrie asked Mitch if he was going to cry when he died. Morrie states “we must love one another or die.” In the movie Mitch did end up breaking down and crying. Mitch wondered how he would talk to Morrie when he was gone and Morrie said you can come up to my grave and talk to me. Mitch said you won’t be able to talk back and Morrie said “ok you talk and I will listen. It was shortly after that Morrie past away. All his friends and family was with him as far as the novel. In the movie they all stepped out of the room and then he passed. In the movie Mitch got the call of his passing. He was not there. He died on Saturday and was buried on Tuesday.
Tuesday with Morrie was a wonderful, heart felting book to read. There were a lot of lessons that Morrie had taught not only Mitch but also readers about how to love, and cherish what you have. He taught you how not to give up on life and to live life to the fullest as much as you can. He also taught you how to forgive yourselves and then forgive others before it is too late. Comparing the novel against the movie. Both of them showed different views of Morrie, Mitch and all of the other family and friends. I enjoy both of them and learned a lot and mostly not to take life for granted and to keep on living no matter what comes your way. I also learned that you can’t just work and try to get to the top and forget about your family and friends. You need to make time with your family and friends so there are no regrets at the end.
The Secret Life of Bees
Kimberly Rittenhouse
Theme Project
English 003
T.B. Gardner, M. Ed.
March 28, 2011
The Secret Life Of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
Chapter Three: New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first
Locating her circle of attendants.
Response A: Why is this passage important to the novel?
This passage is important to the novel because Lilly was on a mission to find out
Information about her mother and was at first feeling like she was getting closer to
getting answers than she thought. Lilly and Rosaleen had stopped at a store for Lilly to
get them something to eat and she noticed a jar of honey with black Mary’s picture on
it. Lilly’s heart stopped because it was the same picture Lilly had from her mother. Lilly
then asked questions about where did that picture come from on the honey jar? Lilly
found out the Lady’s name was August Boatwright. August was the beekeeper. Lilly
was excited that she might have finally found something about her mother and hoped
this was a final break to get started on gathering information about her mother. Lilly is
trying to locate the circle her mother went in.
Response B: Why is this passage important to you?
This passage is important to me because I think it is good to know your family.
Especially your mother. I would do anything in my power just like Lilly is doing to find
out anything she can about her mother. I don’t think it is right though how Lilly lies to
get her information she wants. Lying only leads to more lies to cover up for the lies
that was already told.
Chapter Five: Let’s imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee into a hive.
Usually the first thing we would have to get used to is the darkness.
Response A: Why is this passage Important to the Novel?
This passage is important to the novel because when Lilly and Rosaleen took off
and ran away they felt like they were in the dark and were scarred. Rosaleen was
runny away from the law and Lilly was running away from her father, who she called
T.Ray, and life in general. Lilly wanted to find her mother. Lilly and Rosaleen slept
outside in the dark before they came upon a house that belonged to August (one of
the calendar sisters). August left Lilly and Rosaleen stay there till they figured out
where they were going. Lilly was still in the dark with all of the calendar sisters because
she lied about a lot of things. She lied about whey they were going to see. Lilly told them
she was going to see her aunt and she also told them that her mother and father were dead. It was true about her mother being dead but not her father. Lilly wanted to be at
August’s because she thought she would get information on her mother and the black
Madonna.
Response B: Why is this passage important to you?
This passage is important to me because I feel that nobody should ever be in the
Dark with not knowing who your family is and where they come from. I don’t feel it is
right to just run away instead of facing the problem, but it was hard for Lilly when she is
just a child. I tried that once when I was a teenager and it is not fun being out there in
the dark not knowing where you are going and not having anywhere to go. I think
Lilly should have been honest up front with August on why she was there instead
of lying to her.
Response Eight: Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also
require its Social Companionship and Support. Isolate a honeybee from
her sisters and she will soon die.
Response A: Why is this passage important to the novel?
This passage is important to the novel because August was showing Lilly how
it was important to take care of their hives to put into jars and label them to place
in several different businesses to sell. August has good social companionship and
support to sell the honey. August also shows how good at a relationship her and her
sister has. Lilly did start having feelings for Zach but felt he did not have the same
feelings. Lilly and Zach have a good social companionship and support each other.
Response A: Why is this passage Important to you?
This passage is important to me because I feel it is good to do good things for
others including working well with others when work needs done. It is also good to
have a good relationship with your family. They are always the ones to get support
from and companionship with. Without family you have nobody.
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