Week Seven

Today was another lesson in flexibility.  Margaret (the O&M instructor) and I met at a local grocery store so she could teach a lesson to a student who has a new power wheelchair.  Unfortunately, that student's class never showed up, so Margaret and I missed out on an hour of instruction.  

At any rate, Margaret explained that this student (who has low vision) recently had surgery and had gotten a new power wheelchair.  The new wheelchair is bigger than the previous one the student had, so it meant that he needs to get used to driving it.  I likened it to when you drive a new car; it takes awhile to figure out the car's dimensions, turning radius, etc.  

We talked some more about how much more common power wheelchairs are becoming for students that need wheelchairs, how difficult it is to decide if the student can take on that responsibility, and then the challenge of teaching O&M with these chairs.  Wheelchairs haven't been covered much yet in my coursework, let along power wheelchairs!

Next Margaret and I headed to a local planetarium to meet some of her middle school students that are in a supported varying exceptionalities class (I think going to the planetarium made up for missing out at the grocery store).  It was interesting, because two of Margaret's students in this class have light perception at best and the third student has CP as well as low vision.  This third student uses a power wheelchair and has difficulty keeping his trunk upright in order to look straight ahead (or up in the case of viewing the dome in the planetarium).  

Clearly the two students with light perception were not going to be able to see everything that was going on in the show.  Margaret decided to sit next to the student who has low vision, so that she could help him look in the right direction and provide more descriptions.  

One thing that stood out to me here was that because Margaret had three students at the outing and she couldn't possibly sit with all of them, the other two students were basically just listening to the lecture and probably not getting all of it.  Both of these students had their aides sitting with them, but the aides definitely didn't do anything to help their students understand what was going on (not that I expect them to; that's not what they're trained in!).  

But now that makes me wonder, do these students have a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) working with them?  I don't think I've actually heard of them having a TVI and certainly haven't met one at their school.  Must ask Margaret about this later. 

But even with all of this, the guy who gave the lecture did a good job of keeping things simple and providing descriptions as best he could, and it was probably a good experience for the students.  Margaret also took the opportunity to teach some elevator travel to the two students who have light perception.

After that, Margaret and I went to work with Stacy, the preschool prodigy (ok, maybe not, but she does use words like petrol and diesel).  We had a great time going for a walk in the neighborhood, letting Stacy tell us which way she wanted to go and pointing things out to her on the way.  

One problem that came up though is that Margaret wanted me to lead more of Stacy's lesson.  I started the lesson, but then Margaret jumped in.  I taught some more as we moved to another activity and then Margaret took over the lesson.  This didn't really bother me much, but afterwards Margaret more or less apologized, saying that it's her personality to jump in so I need to speak up.  

Unfortunately, this is a bit of a personality conflict for me.  Margaret definitely has a more dominating personality (plus she has more knowledge than I do), and I tend to defer to people like this.  Apparently I need to figure out how to be more assertive...

Week Six Part Two

My last post was pretty off topic because of the subject matter, but today I'll try to get back on track.  Margaret and I spent most of our time today with the group of middle school students that have multiple disabilities (Joe, Ralph, and Todd).  Ralph and Todd are twin brothers who have retinopathy of prematurity, and Joe has light perception and balance issues.  

Margaret and I started our day with Joe.  I've mentioned before how his hand preference seems to be in question and that he requires "spotting" when he walks.  I haven't seem him in a little over a week, but it's amazing to see again how much he's progressed.  When Margaret handed Joe his cane, he grabbed it with his right hand, put his left hand through the wrist strap, and transferred the cane to his left hand (no hesitation, no questioning!).  The last time I saw Joe, Margaret was just showing him how to put the wrist strap on, which was something he had difficulty with.  

Joe's PT also told us some of the awesome things he did during her lesson with him (picked up a dropped book, went down stairs, and found a doorway).  Did I mention that this is a student who only used a walker up until about a year ago?  Which brings up the next point.  

Margaret talked to the PT about the fact that when she sees Joe's class about on campus, Joe is usually using his walker with one of the aides towing him along.  In Margaret's words, seeing this makes her blood boil.  So while Margaret is working on all of these cane and travel skills with Joe, the other teachers don't seem to be giving him the opportunity to practice these skills when Margaret is not there.  

Hmm, I wonder how often that kind of thing happens with this population?  

So Margaret told both the PT and Joe's assistant that she would like to see Joe use his walker less, or not at all (apparently this is one of his IEP goals).  It will be interesting to see how successful she is getting the teachers to change.

Margaret and I also talked about me taking over some of Ralph's instruction.  Ralph has some light perception and uses a cane.  He gets distracted sometimes, but he actually seems to do better with his travel skills when he has to concentrate (if there's a lot of noise around, he's in an unfamiliar setting, etc). 

I'm comfortable with teaching him (I think), but I find myself wondering how you know when to give these students additional help and when to back off.  He has an intellectual disability, which makes some concepts more challenging for him.  But at the same time, I don't want to sell him short!  

At any rate, I'm making a tactile map of his school campus for him so we'll see how that turns out...

Week Six Part One

Went to an IEP meeting today with Margaret.  I haven't observed the student the meeting was for, but I've never been to an IEP meeting so I wanted to see what it was like.  The experience was educational, but even more so it made me feel connected and part of the field.  I'll explain.

I met Margaret at the front office of the school (which happened to be the elementary school I went to; some of it looked the same from 20 years ago and some of it looked different).  We passed one older lady (was she one of my teachers?  I'm so bad with faces and names, or maybe it's just my memory).  We finally got to the Vision Room, and the first person we came across was one of my current classmates.  She and I took a few minutes to gripe about the travesties of it all and our slave-labor professor (ok, maybe not so much).  

Then the teacher of the visually impaired (TVI) showed up, who I also knew.  I'd never met her formally before, but I'd seen her on numerous occasions.  Next the mom arrived, and then a woman who looked incredibly familiar to me came in the room.  She looked at me but didn't seem to recognize me.  When I introduced myself to the mother I looked at this familiar woman and said "I know you...." (what the heck is your name?)  She asked my name, I told her, and she immediately said, "Oh, Lizzy!".  Definitely a childhood name I do not hear very often anymore, unless I run into someone who knew me then.  

It was such a sweet moment; this woman had been my speech therapist and knew all of my teachers in the small program I attended as a child.  She even told me that my kindergarten teacher (the one teacher whose name and face I'll never forget) had stopped by to visit the school earlier that day, so I just missed her.  

At that point, I felt bad about drawing too much attention to myself and away from the purpose of the meeting.  By the way, the mother didn't even know I was going to be there (yikes!).  Anyhow, the speech therapist was acting as the LEA representative, and she did a great job of reassuring the mother and helping her follow the meeting.  The mother looked uncomfortable from the moment she arrived; at the end of the meeting she even said how hard IEP meetings are and started to cry.  My heart nearly broke for her, and I wanted to say something to reassure her ("No one here is judging you; we're all on your side!")

As the meeting progressed I found out that the student has a degenerative eye condition, which is part of what made this meeting so emotional for the mother.  The student's father has the same disease but doesn't seem to have accepted it (from my interpretation of what was said).  All of those at the meeting did a great job of saying how well the student was doing and were also sensitive when talking about her visual impairment.  

The mother asked some hard questions about whether the teachers thought her daughter's vision was getting worse or not.  I am sure TVIs get asked these kinds of questions a lot, and there doesn't seem to be any easy answer.  There were also several things said during the meeting that I felt might have been confusing or hard for the mother to understand (jargon, etc).  At those points, I was hoping that someone would explain what was said or make sure the mother got it.  But overall, the meeting felt so comfortable and everyone was so considerate.

When the meeting ended, my former speech therapist took me to see another one of my teachers that I had way back then (does anyone ever leave this school?)  That was a lovely encounter too.  When we all parted, I headed back to the Vision Room to check in with Margaret about my observations with her tomorrow.  At that point, another teacher showed up who happened to be the first teacher I observed before starting the Visual Disabilities program.  I also worked for this teacher last year at the Lighthouse.  What a small world!

The field of visual impairments really is such a small one, but it's almost nice in a way.  It's so comforting seeing people you know no matter where you go.  Even the other teachers at my elementary school knew the visually impaired staff.  This whole experience felt like going home, and it also helped me remember why I chose this career path.  

Week Five

This was a short week; only did 1.5 hours of observation at a different school than the ones I've been visiting on Fridays.  Due to scheduling issues, Margaret (the O&M instructor) and I settled on just doing a couple of hours.  Which worked out well, as I just found out yesterday that my student teaching application for the fall is due on Thursday.  Which means I should be writing an autobiographical statement right now as opposed to a blog, but I digress.

I've observed the student (Jim) that I saw today several times in the past year or so, which made it interesting to see how he's progressed.  He used his cane everywhere we went on campus (which was quite a few locations), and he didn't bump into anything.  The last time I observed Jim, he unwillingly used his cane and usually chose to use sighted guide instead.  It was great to see him travelling independently and confidently on his campus.

Jim has achromatopsia, which means that he sees varying shades of gray with a total absence of color.  His TVI and Margaret both already knew that Jim sees better in low lighting (more lighting is not always best for students who have visual impairments!), but Margaret recently discovered something else interesting about Jim's vision.

Jim was having difficulty seeing cones during PE, so Margaret put out several different cones and had Jim tell her which ones he could see best.  He chose the green and purple cones (which were on green grass).  This basically meant that Jim was seeing the objects that had the lowest contrast. So then Margaret put out a variety of folders in different colors on a black background, and Jim chose the purple and black folders.  Finally, she put out a variety of plastic cubes on a dark background, and again Jim chose the black and purple cubes.

Jim's vision seems to be the total opposite of what we assume for students who have visual impairments.  Typically, the more contrast the better. But with Jim, he might be seeing a washed-out world that makes saturated colors (green, black, purple) easier for him to see.

Did I mention how heterogeneous this population is? No assumptions are safe here.

Margaret is also doing a great rewards system with Jim.  If his teachers report that he has been using his cane and having good behavior overall, he gets to choose a sports related bead (football, soccer, baseball, etc), which is then put on a string that is attached to his cane.  When he gets four beads, he can trade it in for a charm.  When he has four charms, he gets to go on a community outing (McDonalds for ice cream!).  Of course he gets to keep the charm bracelet, which adds a little flair to his cane.

Jim has been at his school for about two years so he is very comfortable on campus.  In order to challenge him more, Margaret is planning to change his service hours to include more community outings.  It definitely seems like when a student has been at a school for awhile and has mastered its layout, the number of opportunities for O&M instruction dwindle.  If we want to continue developing the child's O&M skills, going off-campus becomes a necessity.

Week Four

For this week’s lesson with Stacy, I brought home a DRAFTSMAN Tactile Drawing Board which consisted of a rubber mat, plastic paper, and a stylus with two ends.  The goal was to make Stacy a basic tactile map of her school’s campus.  It was to include the school, the parking lot, the church across the street, the memorial garden, and the spiral staircase.  

Having made several tactile graphics already, I was feeling confident and hopeful that I could create a decent map with this kit.  Well, I was wrong.  I planned out the map on a piece of paper first and then proceeded to copy it on the plastic paper using the stylus provided.  As I worked, I had a feeling something wasn’t quite right.  

Once the map was finished, I closed my eyes and felt the page with my fingers to test its legibility (or lack thereof).  Well, apparently this tactile drawing kit is not meant to be used for tactile maps, because what I created felt like a bunch of lines with no distinct areas or borders.  I even tried adding extra lines to some of the shapes (diagonals, verticals), which seemed to make it even worse.  Either that, or I need to go back to Tactile Graphics Drawing 101.  

So I decided to go back to the tactile graphics kit that I made for one of my classes.  It’s full of fun things like felt, cork board, bubble wrap, and popsicle sticks.  I chose three of these textures to use for Stacy’s map, and kept the overall size to half a page to make it easier for her small hands to read.  Unfortunately, I didn’t leave enough room to fit the key on the same page, so I made a second small page for that section (for some reason I always forget to leave room for the key on these tactile graphics). 

I brought my creation with me this Friday, hoping that Stacy would be able to read it.  Margaret sat down with Stacy and one of her classmates and showed them all of the features on the map (she guided Stacy’s fingers using hand-over-hand).  It wasn’t until then that Margaret mentioned that this was Stacy’s first map (yikes!).  But when Margaret asked Stacy what one of the features on the map was, Margaret gave the right answer (yay!).  

Stacy’s classmate was even able to point out which square was the church and which was the school (seems to me all preschoolers would have fun reading a map like this…).  I was feeling quite happy that I stuck with the “keep it simple, stupid” motto, and it looks like Stacy will continue to use the map as she learns more about map-reading and cardinal directions. 

Basically the rest of the day was all about managing off-the-wall behavior and keeping ourselves sane.  Margaret and I convinced ourselves that there was either a full moon/no moon and that getting through the day with our lives would be a bonus: During gymnastics at Margaret’s school, three of the boys were a little "over enthusiastic" about the activities.  At the middle school, we took three of the students for a walk and one was moving like a bull in a china shop (and he’s capable of much more!).  I therefore spent most of the lesson keep this student from knocking another student over or from falling into a pond that we were standing by.  We took Mike (the high school student) out for a community lesson, but he managed to miss his bus and then talk his way out of walking the entire route from the bus stop to his house.  

But even with all of this craziness and a near accident, it was still a great day.