This week has been pretty predictable and easy so far. All of my students are working on some stage of street crossings. A few are still focusing on how to align themselves, but I have two other students that will probably be done working on street crossings this week. Then it's on to bus travel!
Speaking of bus travel, I'm struggling to figure out how to teach my students who are blind to plan routes. The website for Volusia's bus service isn't really accessible. There isn't any kind of function where you can enter your origin and destination and find out what some suggested routes are. The bus route map provided on the website isn't very detailed, and even the schedule doesn't really tell you where exactly the bus goes (the routes are very meandering).
We have an excel spreadsheet with the schedule, but not all of my students can use excel. I'm beginning to think that my students might just have to call the bus office and tell them where they are going and find out what route to use.
Anyhow, CH has been interesting lately. She started out at the center being very quiet, and then she opened up and became very social. Then apparently some relationship issue occured, and she became withdrawn and wasn't coming to classes or actively participating in lessons. Last week there was a change for the positive again and it seemed like she was coming around. She even asked for the long white cane back on Monday, although she couldn't give me a very good reason why. When she returned it to me last week she said that she didn't like identifying herself as a person who is visually impaired (in so many words).
Well the improvement seems to be short-lived. She was late to class yesterday and was very withdrawn again. She did what I asked her to, but it was back to feeling like I was pulling teeth. She's supposed to be in my class now but she's meeting with one of the case managers. I think the source of all these issues is the rocky relationship she has with an older student who was here about a month ago. That student left, but he's returning in just a few weeks to start another program. It's frustrating for the instructors because her mood and behavior changes so dramatically from one day to the next.
SL has been working on aligning herself at intersections. We talked the other day about what she sees herself doing when she finishes here. There is an apartment program in the dorm but she said she doesn't want to do it because she isn't going to live on her own any time soon (she is 26). She is planning on going to a community college near her home, so I asked her how she is going to get there. She said probably paratransit but that she didn't really like using it because they can be late to pick you up, but you can't be late for the bus. Either way it's sort of disheartening because the goal of being here should be independence, but she doesn't seem to have much interest in it. She's learning new skills here, but how much will she be able to keep using them if she goes back home to live with her mom?
On a final note, I only have about 2 1/2 weeks left here. There are 5 students on my caseload, so I'm trying to get as much done with them now and possibly exit 2 of them from mobility by the time I leave. That's looking increasingly difficult though, so I'm not sure how everything is going to pan out. I really hate to leave and dump all of my students on Steve and Holly.
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