Week Ten

Well, today I officially reached the 50 hours required for my orientation and mobility practicum this semester.  Didn't seem as hard or take as long as I expected it to, and to top it off, today was a good day.  I was able to observe and work with some students that I haven't seen in a couple weeks, and the progress for some of these students was impressive!

Margaret and I started out at Stacy's preschool class, where Stacy was drawing on a whiteboard with an orange marker.  As we came in the room, one of the teachers approached us and said that Stacy mentioned that the purple marker looked black.  This teacher was surprised, because she didn't think Stacy had any really usable vision and didn't fully understand what her vision loss looks like.  Margaret took the time to explain how Stacy might be seeing shapes and outlines, or saturated colors with high contrast.  Because Stacy is only four years old and has only learned English within the past year, it's difficult to know what exactly she is seeing.  For Margaret and I, it wasn't really surprising to hear this, but just another useful piece of information.

Margaret and I were able to do quite a few activities with Stacy today.  The students had free time, so we all went to a center that had pictures of emotions (happy, sad, shy, bored, excited, etc).  Margaret had already showed Stacy this poster and explained the facial expressions to her.  We used this time to practice the facial expressions again (what fun!), and then we went to the class gymnastics lesson.  Stacy needs some assistance navigating through the gymnastics activities and supporting herself, so I walked with her through the activities.  

Next the three of us when on a mini-lesson where Margaret had Stacy show me a new route she learned.  After that, Stacy decided that she wanted to start spinning around, so Margaret called out if Stacy made a full turn, half turn, quarter turn, or three-quarters turn.  She also mentioned the degrees on several of these.  Stacy was very interested in the feedback Margaret was giving, so she kept turning to different degrees.  To me, this was such a great "teachable moment", something that Margaret seems very good at seizing on.

Next Margaret and I went to the middle school to see Jacob (student with low vision who uses a power wheelchair) and Joe (student who is totally blind and has balance issues).  Jacob has problems with depth perception, so the goal today was to find a cane that he could use from his wheelchair to detect drop-offs.  This was an interesting effort in collaboration.  Both Jacob's mother and his PT happened to be there, so all of us were involved in this process and put in our opinions.  We ended up with a Frankenstein solution (cane tip from one cane, grip from another, and shaft from yet another).  Needless to say Margaret will be ordering a cane with the specific features we decided upon.

Then Margaret and I went for a walk with Joe.  This student has been using a cane for less than six months, and he is already to the point where he needed only one prompt to sweep his cane during a half-hour lesson.  He was also able to recall the steps to a route that he learned several weeks ago.  Joe is definitely one of those students that teaches you the importance of having high expectations and of not making assumptions about a student's abilities.

To end the day, we did several street crossings with Mike, a high school student who is totally blind.  He is probably one of those model students, but his one downfall is his over-confidence.  I would definitely call him fearless, but that also means that he has a tendency to disregard input from Margaret or to not pay as much attention as he should.  But at the same time, Margaret is trying to encourage Mike to make his own decisions about routes to use, etc. so that he'll be ready when he graduates from high school.

The nice thing about a student like Mike (who is such a proficient traveler) is that you can get his perspective as a cane user on things related to O&M.  Today I asked him about his opinions on different types of cane tips and cane materials.  He pointed out things that I had never heard of, like the fact that aluminum canes can rust in a saltwater environment like the Tampa Bay area.  He also mentioned that the joints of a folding graphite cane can splinter, but a graphite cane is less likely to break than an aluminum cane.  To me, these are things that an O&M instructor can only learn from people who actually use O&M skills in their daily lives.

Extra Post

Didn't observe Margaret last week because of scheduling conflicts etc, but I will be observing her tomorrow.  I realized that while I mentioned the tactile map I made for Stacy previously, I didn't post any pictures of it!  The last time I worked with Stacy we looked at the map together, and I believe she still has it in her classroom.  Will find out tomorrow if she's still using it.

The first picture is of the actual map, with the top being oriented to the North, etc.  The bottom piece of cork represents the school and has the letter 's' on it in braille.  The top piece of cork represents the church and has the letter "c" on it.

This is the key, which I put on a separate page.  That wasn't fully intentional, but I think it worked well for Stacy's small hands.  At the time, not putting the church and school in the key seemed logical, but now I feel like I should have included those two things as well.  Oops!  At any rate, she seemed to be able to tell what each material represented.

Week Nine

What a day!  I chose to observe Margaret today because she was doing several community outings, and I wanted to see what those are like.  They are in a word, exhausting.

Margaret and I first went to see Jim at his elementary school and check on how things were going there.  He had a mishap on the playground the day before; he was running and body-slammed a little girl.  Fortunately the girl was ok but Jim ended up with a bruised eyelid and scratches below his eye; Jim wears tinted sunglasses at all times for glare, like these:

Margaret's suggestion was for Jim to not run any faster than his eyes can see.  This definitely made sense, but considering that Jim struggles with his weight it almost seemed wrong to discourage him from being active/running.  At any rate, I also got to see a fun a little lesson on how to swing on swings (something that is harder to explain in words than you would think).

Next the plan was for Margaret and I to pick up Daniel (who has albinism) at his elementary school, take him to his neighborhood to evaluate his O&M skills there, pick up Ralph and Todd (twins who have retinopathy of prematurity), go to a nearby Corvette dealer (???), then Walgreens to pick up some wall hooks for Ralph's cane (those 3M adhesive/removeable plastic thingies), and finally Steak and Shake for a snack.  And somehow this all took place in the space of four hours.

The highlight of this experience was probably the Corvette dealer.  This was actually a small dealership with about 2 dozen used Corvettes.  The owner was there and was kind enough to unlock one of the cars so the boys could take turns sitting in it.  I must still be getting used to the idea of having our students into everything, because I was internally cringing every time the boys touched one of these shiny cars or bumped their canes and/or monoculars into them (and hoping the owner didn't kick us out).  But despite my reservations, I think it was a great experience for the boys.

The hardest part of the day was probably corralling the three boys and managing their behavior as we went through the activities.  I think if we had just one or two of the students, it would have been less difficult, but with all three there they seemed to feed off of each other.  All I know is, Margaret was definitely grateful to have a helping hand!

Week Eight

Today I got to go back to a local elementary school and see Jim, a first grader that I have observed several times in the past.  This kid has a great sense of humor and is so creative.

Margaret and I were standing in the cafeteria waiting for Jim to finish his lunch and noticed that Jim's long cane was hanging on the fire extinguisher by the exit (eek!).  There had been an adhesive hook for his cane on the wall by the fire extinguisher, but the hook was missing so apparently the fire extinguisher was now the best alternative.

Margaret was looking at this and trying to come up with a different place for Jim to keep his cane while he ate lunch.  The fire extinguisher is on the right side of the entrance doors, which is also where all of the students line up to leave after they finish eating.  So I suggested, "why not put a hook on the opposite side of the double doors, away from where all the kids stand so they're not tempted to pick the hook off the wall?"

Margaret didn't want Jim to have to cross this heavy traffic area, so we thought some more.  Then I thought of Stacy's (Margaret's preschool student) cane and how it has a rubber hook on it so you can hang it off of a  desk.  It basically allows the cane to defy gravity:

http://www.ambutech.com/product-catalog/accessories/cane-hook-small/

Aha!  I mentioned this to Margaret.  It seemed like the perfect solution.  Jim could just hang his cane off of the lunch table and keep it near him.  We got one of these handy contraptions out of Margaret's car and attached it to Jim's cane.  It took some explaining to show Jim how it works and how to place it on things so that the cane is stable.  Margaret placed the hook on several things (a car bumper, the push bars on the cafeteria doors, and a lunch table).

Apparently we opened a can of worms.  Jim now wanted to hang his cane from any possible spot (his glasses, the back of someone's shirt).  The winner was definitely getting it to hang off the bark on an oak tree (really??).

Margaret was concerned that this was going to become a distraction for Jim, but I think he was getting a chance to learn and satisfy his curiosity.  I'm assuming that after a few days the novelty will wear off and he'll stop using it as an oversized ornament (hopefully).  This whole experience also allowed Margaret to talk to Jim about "problem solving" and "trial-and-error" (I love how she always goes back to skills like this in her lessons).

Next we went to the middle school to work with Ralph (who has light perception) and Jake (who has CP, low vision, and uses a power wheelchair).  I made a tactile map of the school campus for Ralph using the Wheatley Picture Maker.  At first I thought maybe the map was too large or that I needed to add a key, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to incorporate a key onto the Wheatley Picture Maker (probably not something it's intended for).  The white lines are the corridors the classrooms are in, and the yellow lines are the main hallways:

I sat down with Ralph on a couch and Margaret had me show him the map.  At first it was hard to direct his attention, but by the end he was able to say what the different shapes/textures on the maps represented (yay!).  He did have a hard time answering some of my questions though, which might have been because of the way I worded them ("which hallway is the teacher's lounge across from?").  Overall I thought our mini-lesson went well.

Margaret and I also went for a walk with Jake to the teacher's lounge.  One of his aides gave him the key to the lounge, so when we got there Jake had to put the key in the lock and open the door on his own.  This was definitely a challenge for Jake, but Margaret just waited and gave him some verbal reminders.  We talked some more about the challenges of teaching students in wheelchairs and how a lot of it is just learning as you go.  Still, it would be nice if there was a training that I could take on this subject!

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.