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.