It’s back to school for yet another fun-filled semester. I had my first class of the semester last night, and I know that I will be quite busy with this class- Trends and Issues in Literacy. The big project in this class is that I have to write a publishable journal article. Wow. I am going to “work smarter, not harder” (to quote one of my professors from last summer) and gear this project toward my thesis topic: autism and literacy. Today I spent about two hours researching and found about 21 journal articles to get me started. A couple of the articles I’ve used in previous projects. Almost all of my research projects that I’ve done in graduate school I have tooled toward my thesis project, and I think I can even use some of the information in my project about dyslexia for the thesis, too.
So, if you know of any good links, information, books, connections about autism and literacy, please send them my way! 
My other class I’m taking this semester is Behavior Management. Gee, I could have used this class when I was an undergraduate student!! I think it will be helpful as a parent, too (wink). I will be learning how to do a Functional Behavior Assessment, and I am looking forward to learning how to do that (yes, I am that weird).
Plus I need to finish my incompletes from the previous two semesters. I will be living at the library during the day. I want to finish all of this work so that I can go into the summer semester with just two classes to worry about instead of all this extra work I have on my plate.
I have to stay focused… I need to learn how to focus…. Wait, was that a bird that flew by, or my sanity that just flew out the window?
Good luck!!
ewww…I have two good books that I just made my library purchase. One is an adult book called Autism Heroes. And one is a children’s book called Autistic Planet. AWESOME!!
Autism and literacy? Not specifically, but check into Kristina’s autismvox blog. There’s a link to her from mine, if you haven’t been there already.
As for publishable journal articles, I had one published last fall in the Wisconsin State Reading Association Journal. It’s a print only, though, not available online yet. Keep it concise, clear, and applicable, and it’ll be worthwhile.
This sounds really really stressful but fascinating, too.
Have you listened to the LDPodcast? Or spoken with Whitney Hoffman (she’s at http://www.gnmparents.com, too)? I bet she could point you to some helpful people.