Continuing on my journey, our family was dealt a serious blow.  My oldest son, Nick, was diagnosed with an extremely rare blood disorder called Severe Aplastic Anemia which as treatment required chemo, a bone marrow transplant, and eight months of isolation after transplant to allow his immune system to grow.  This eight month isolation period just happened to begin at the start of my son’s 8th grade year and homeschooling was required to ensure he was prepared for his first year of high school.  After all he had been through, he would have been devastated to be held back and not begin high school with his friends.  Once returning from the hospital, it was clear that this wouldn’t be ordinary homeschooling.  Not only did we have a port and broviac catheters to flush and clean a couple times daily, but Nick had difficulty with focus due to all his medications, his stamina was very low, he was depressed, and there were days that he just didn’t feel well overall.  In addition, we spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the hospital for blood work.  Once again, fate intervened!  CEP 882:  The Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences and CEP 801A:  Collaboration and Consultation in Special Education (taken just before Nick’s illness came on) set me up perfectly to help my boy.  CEP 882:  The Nature and Design of Compelling Experiences taught me to think outside the box when it comes to education… find ways to create compelling educative experiences for him.  The job of a teacher is to help students see the dull and ordinary as something a bit more compelling and extraordinary to hold their interest.  When we studied the Holocaust, I arranged private visits to the Holocaust Memorial Center.  Nick couldn’t focus long enough to read, so I would search for movies that pertained to our topic, using the filmmaker as our storyteller.  I arranged private showings in movie theaters to view films such as Unbroken which encompassed a history lesson.  I read books to him and acted out scenes, I found YouTube videos pertaining to almost every topic we studied to create vivid imagery bridging what he needs to know with a means of feeding it to him in compelling ways.  For gym class we would take long walks at the zoo or go swimming at the local pool.  Whatever I could manipulate to make the experience more compelling.  My objective was to always have Nick really experience something.  Like a conductor uses his power to make the orchestra powerful, our job as a storyteller is to awaken possibility in those we teach.  I learned to create an imaginative bridge between the “work of art” and the “work of teaching”... creating an experience that was attention-grabbing and memorable.  CEP 801A:  Collaboration and Consultation in Special Education ~  Collaboration, Consultation and Teaming…  This course not only provided me with the skills related to decision-making, problem-solving, and collaboration related to the education of my son,  but it prepared me to work with the school to develop Nick's Individualized Education Program (IEP).   This plan spelled out my son’s unique learning needs, the services the school would provide and how progress would be measured.   Consultation is “triadic” a third person provided expert advice (Nick's psychologist) as to how Nick may be feeling emotionally and how hard to push him.  Collaboration involved myself and the teachers working together to design and implement programs and interventions.  There was a degree of parity, equality, and shared responsibility between our collaboration, and this partnership made the arrangement effective for the teachers, Nick and myself.  As collaborators, we jointly shared the outcomes, and responsibility for Nick's progress.  Nick had a modified workload (if the rest of the class had ten problems on one concept, Nick had two or three problems).  Nick's teachers monitored his progress, and when the time came, he was ready to head back.  Nick graduated the 8th grade, and was accepted to his high school of choice with an academic scholarship to boot!