The Essence of Introspection

Fantasy was a household theme during my childhood. It appeared in the form of unicorn figurines, a fairy mural on my bedroom wall, a healthy obsession with Amy Brown, a love of Sci-fi movies, and regular Dungeons and Dragons games with my parents. After experiences including sexual abuse, divorce, coming out, and my son’s autism diagnosis my art made a metamorphosis from fantasy to reality. My current work explores the positive and negative feelings associated with all of those personal events. Uniquely raw, figurative works combine themes of love and trauma into my recent prints, paintings, and ceramics. Taking notes from Doron Langberg’s explorative and evocative use of color, my color palette is highly saturated and portrays the intense emotions of underlying narratives. Similarly to contemporary painter, fellow queer artist, and mother, Jenna Gribbon, I am using personal references incorporating LGBTQ themes and referring to my son’s struggles and triumphs. The figures in my work are to be regarded with empathy as you capture a glimpse into tender scenes of interaction and personal discovery. Embracing representational art in all mediums, enables me to weave these universal narratives together. My prints, ceramic works, and oil paintings are executed with elements of realism to allow viewers to enter the scenes and relate to the figures as well as to my experiences. This art is the prime mode in which I express the love and grief and empowerment and anxiety of daily life.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/1069/thumbnail.jp

THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN AN OUTDOOR SETTING ON MEMORY

This study explored the outcome setting of physical activity had on 2nd grade students’ memory. Specific attention was given to given to the vestibular system, in charge of balance and equilibrium. In order to understand how setting affected memory, a maze with specific stations was set-up inside the school and in an outdoor space with a pre- and post-memory test given before and after the 6-week maze study. Coupled with the post-memory test was a 12 command review, testing both the indoor and outdoor group of students on the number of commands they were able to memorize and execute correctly. Overall physical activity done in different setting seemed to have little difference on student’s memory; however, this study highlights inter-personal growth and higher command retention within students who participated in physical activity in the outdoor setting. In this way, outdoor physical activity may serve as a foundation for interpersonal outcomes within the school system.Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in the School of Public Health Indiana Universit

Art 399 Portfolio

Growing up, I was surrounded by fantasy themes appearing in Dungeons and Dragons, figurines, and Amy Brown fairy school folders. As I grew, I doodled those fairies and copied beautiful women from magazines to improve my skills. It makes sense that after all of my experiences; including sexual abuse, divorce, coming out, and my son’s Autism diagnosis, that I made a metamorphosis from fairies to feelings. In my current work, I focus on mending the traumas of my past and celebrating the triumphs of my present. Because my art helps me to cope and heal, many pieces are quite personal. Most of the figures in them are in quiet, contemplative poses with complimentary colors appropriate for the mood of the piece, often utilizing color symbolism for conveying warmth, growth, etc. The figures are generally lifesize as they are lifesize memories. Scale is important in my work because I am interested in rendering as much detail as my skill permits. My compositions are usually drawn from literal photos of my daily life, sometimes imagining or overlapping elements from other images in my camera roll. Taking notes from contemporary painter Jenna Gribbon, a fellow queer artist and mother, I often include intimate scenes from daily life with my family and incorporating LGBTQ content as well as refer to my sons issues and his victories. Similarly to Hugh Steers, I intend to portray these figures to be regarded with empathy in tender scenes of interaction. I embrace representational art as well, as it is universal to all viewers. Executed with elements of realism, the viewer can enter the scene and relate to the figures represented. The figures in these compositions are often candidly captured and painted or drawn in the same way. My art is the prime mode in which I can express the love and grief and empowerment and anxiety I feel in my daily life.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/1136/thumbnail.jp

A 10-year review of child injury hospitalisations, health outcomes and treatment costs in Australia

Background: Childhood injury is a leading cause of hospitalisation, yet there has been no comprehensive examination of child injury and survival over time in Australia. To examine the characteristics, temporal trend and survival for children who were hospitalised as a result of injury in Australia. Method: A retrospective examination of linked hospitalisation and mortality data for injured children aged 16 years or less during 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2012. Negative binomial regression examined change in injury hospitalisation trends. Cox proportional hazard regression examined the association of risk factors on 30-day survival. Results: There were 686409 injury hospitalisations,with an age-standardised rate of 1489 per 100000 population (95%CI 1485.3 to 1492.4) in Australia. Child injury hospitalisation rates did not change over the 10-year period. For every severely injured child, there are at least 13 children hospitalised with minor or moderate injuries. The total cost of child injury hospitalisations was $A2.1billion (annually$A212million). Falls (38.4%) were the most common injury mechanism. Factors associated with a higher risk of 30-day mortality were: child was aged ≤10 years, higher injury severity, head injury, injured in a transport incident or following drowning and submersion or other threats to breathing, during self-harm and usual residence was regional/remote Australia. Conclusions: Childhood injury hospitalisation rates have not reduced in 10 years. Children’s patterns of injury change with age, and priorities for injury prevention alter according to developmental stages. The development of a national multisectorial childhood injury monitoring and prevention strategy in Australia is long overdue

Globalization, Values Management, and Interpretations of Integrity in Higher Education: Perspectives from the Kingdom of Cambodia

As globalization moves higher education worldwide toward international confluence, local imperatives are sometimes overlooked in favor of indiscriminate norms. This study explored forces that impact higher education in an emerging educational center, especially as they are identified by students within that system. The findings revealed three areas of importance to the participants: a) the deep and continuous evolution of the education system in Cambodia, b) the value of social support systems, and c) the influence of a complex ethical system. The third area showcases the opposition between global forces of confluence and local values in higher education, and offers thoughtful practitioners the opportunity both to reconsider their own preconceptions and to work together with students and others to shape future systems in emerging higher education

Development of a Teaching Performance Assessment in Australia: What did we learn?

Following increasing criticism of the variability in graduate teachers’ readiness to enter the profession, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) introduced a program accreditation requirement that all initial teacher education (ITE) providers must implement a Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) in the final year of their teacher education programs. AITSL were not prescriptive in how ITE providers must meet the program standard which has resulted in 12 TPAs being implemented across 42 ITE providers. This paper outlines the development and implementation of one endorsed TPA designed to measure the readiness of graduating teachers, whilst taking into consideration the learnings from well-known TPAs and our own experiences. With this being one of the earlier unfunded TPAs in Australia to have been approved through the accreditation endorsement process, the paper offers some insights into meeting the additional accreditation program requirements and raises some longer-term considerations associated with implementing TPAs

A qualitative study exploring the effects of attending a community pain service choir on wellbeing in people who experience chronic pain

The choir has links to a multidisciplinary pain management service, which is informed by the ethos of solution-focused principles, specifically in identifying and drawing upon patients’ resources. Seven choir members participated in semi-structured interviews, grounded in lines of enquiry commonly used in SF practice. Thematic analysis of the data uncovered seven themes: Physical Improvements, Emotional Impact, Personal Growth, Interpersonal Processes, Relationship with the ‘Self’, Living Well with Pain and Sharing the Music and Spreading the Word. The choir enabled continued progress towards accomplishing key PMP aims: self-management, coping and living well with pain. Findings expanded upon existing findings relating to singing and wellbeing by highlighting the choir’s role in promoting resilience and acceptance of pain. Clinical implications are explored in relation to psychosocial dimensions of pain

Investigating early childhood curriculum and pedagogy through a three-way collaboration

This paper examines one aspect of the university curriculum: the Professional Experience or practicum. Professional Experience has always been a pivotal and valued aspect of Teacher Education courses. However, in the contemporary Australian context many of the traditional ways of ‘doing’ the practicum are unsustainable. Two new Flinders University Early Childhood pre-service programs implement a different approach. Professional Experience in these new programs is underpinned by a partnership orientation focusing on the contributions that pre-service educators can make to young children’s learning through the pursuit of joint research. This change in the university curriculum provides the opportunity for centre/school and university staff to work in new ways and offers opportunities for mutual investigations of early childhood curriculum and pedagogy. This paper outlines examples of the contributions that pre-service educators have made within a partnership approach. Their stories demonstrate how the changed roles of the university staff, practicing early childhood educators and pre-service teachers have enabled the pursuit of significant questions about young children’s learning