Introduction

Hello, my name is Jo Ann Nelson, but only the government and my mother call me that. Everyone else can call me Jodee. My blog was created in my very first graduate class, I just hope I can remember how to do things. Technology is not my strong suit.  I am an assistant professor for the respiratory care program at Pierpont Community and Technical College, I am a transplant from Cleveland, Ohio where I was born and raised. I was married and have 2 adult children that reside in Cleveland. I have been a clinical respiratory therapist for 25 years and have come full circle and have been teaching for 4 years, which I absolutely love. I am about half way through my Master's in Ed and hope to complete before I retire. I love the outdoors and for my 60th birthday, my daughter and I walked 30 miles of the Appalachian Trail. What an adventure that was. My bucket list includes hitting all 50 states and doing something in each state. Passing through does not count.I'm about half way. I look forward to working with everyone and hopefully teach an old dog new tricks.
 Now that I have figured out how to use the syllabus, I hope to gain much more knowledge and skill in this new media age. As Lee Iacoca was fond of saying"lead, follow or get out of the way." So If I am going to lead, I better get proficient.
Literacy means to me the skill of reading and writing. With these come critical thinking and decision making skills. But why can't Johnny read? If I had the answer to that , I would be very rich. In the health care field, reading and writing are an absolute necessity. I think my students can read, but they write in phone text, which I hate, I made them write papers and the spelling errors were quite remarkable.