Keeping Up with Jimmy...In High School

My thoughts: I CANNOT believe that this is a post about Jimmy eh um...Jim going to high school! I still remember him as my preschool student. Where has the time gone? I've loved staying with him and his mom, Kristi as they take on new adventures together. I can't wait to see what lies ahead for the both of them.

Hello everyone! It has been a while since we have chatted. It is September 2018 and we all know what that means, the beginning of the school year for most. We have left behind Elementary School and Middle School/Junior High and now it is time for Jimmy to start his last school at home, ie. High school!!! With every transitional school year it doesn’t come without its challenges. This year we have had more than I have seen before with Jimmy. To start the first week of school were all half days due to extreme heat which also means he was not given a chance to get his bearings around school nor get used to his schedule, nor his teachers/administration had a chance to get to know him, so for all us parents of our blind students who are transitioning it means EVEN MORE HEADACHES.

As I sit here I don’t even know where to begin: classes, teachers, over protective administration who are comparing Jimmy to past students or the fact that Jimmy is in HIGH School. Let’s start with the fact Jimmy is 100% a teenage AND a high school student. And no matter what is said or asked of, or even reminding him to get his school work done we get an attitude for it. For the past 9 years I have been dreading this school year for no reason other than knowing that once THESE four years are over my only son is off to college and it is the beginning of his adult life. I truly am not going to dwell on the college years as I do have 4 more years to get through as most of us remember our high school experiences so we will have a lot more going on socially than ever before. Jimmy plans on wrestling for the school this coming winter which will be something new for him but hey he loves a good challenge.

A picture of Jimmy as a preschooler

As we are only a week or so into school it has bee a ball of fun (insert sarcasm here) as Jimmy was NOT given a brailled schedule the first day of school nor have any teachers (that I am aware of) given him any brailled work, which means they haven’t given any to his braillist. He has already been given zeros on assignments because those assignments were uploaded to Google Classroom which he currently doesn’t have access to. (yes an email was sent out to address this after it was brought to my attention) One amazing thing though is that Jimmy has finally truly embraced his laptop and wants to do most of his work through this technology but with that being said we are already seeing difficulty accessing email, getting work sent to him, and then him back to the teachers but as with all transitions this will get worked out sooner than later. Due to all of the half days (we had a heat wave the first week and a half of school) the staffing meeting we had, had to be rescheduled, at which time we planned to go over all areas of concern the teachers MAY have as we are tackling a new school. The meeting was scheduled for more than a week later so thus we couldn’t get some of the challenges out of the way. This means the teachers had no idea how to get him his work or how he is going to his work back to them. This really puts a damper on not having any hurdles to get over because all we have at this point are hurdles.

As I haven’t had a chance to meet the teachers face to face only ONE teacher has reached out to me since the beginning of school to introduce themselves to me and give me a quick rundown on what is expected, if I have any concerns and that this teacher is excited to have jimmy in their classroom, the two even spent about an hour after school one day just talking getting to know one another. (Bonus points to this teacher). 

Jimmy was lucky enough to have a couple trips to school over the course of the summer to tour, walk, get to know his environment the best he could with no other students but even with this additional time he still found a way to walk into a display case. You may be asking if he was using appropriate cane skills to which the answer is yes, but the problem is/was that this particular display case is hanging on the wall with nothing below to allow his cane to indicate to him that there is something sticking a foot and half out from the wall until he found it with his face. He is fine and he went on about his day but the problem we faced was a friend saw it and reported it to the Principal. I know this was done out of concern for Jimmy to not get hurt but it caused the school to go on hyper drive over liability and claim that Jimmy needs to be observed. As I came to find out that there were a couple more safety concerns because I am allowing Jimmy to walk through the parking lot and walk home. At the school we have a couple of over protective staff members who claim that Jimmy was in danger of getting hit by a car (which was not the case AT ALL) but now Jimmy has to be shadowed for the next 2 weeks to make sure that he is safe. If Jimmy was not safe all the appropriate people, in particular his O&M teacher, would not have signed off on him walking.

Ok so let me back up a little bit, Jimmy’s TVI and I have been in lots of contact through this process and she did give me the heads up that the school was thinking about having Jimmy shadowed for a little while to just make sure he has his classes down and everything is good. His TVI told the administration to please contact Mom to discuss it with her prior to starting any shadowing of Jimmy. I bet you all can guess what didn’t happen, that’s right I did not get a call and again found out after the fact of this happening. Can anyone take a guess as to what happened next? That is right I marched right down to the school to have a face to face with Jimmy’s administrator. I am not going to allow my son’s independence be taken away that quickly with only 4 cumulative days at school.

As this is a new school the administration did not know me yet, but they do now!!! I have to say that the discussion I had with Jimmy’s administrator did go well, we both had a chance to speak about the who’s, when’s, why’s and now they are aware that if things happen behind my back and I find out about it, I am not going to just make a phone call they are going to see my face and we are going to talk right then and there. The one funny part to the conversation (at least to me) was when said administrator said that they want to be able to put my fear to rest which I then interrupted them and explained that this was not fear I had but straight anger for what was happening without my involvement. It was at this point I had to start educating them. When asked if I heard about him hitting his nose I said yes because my child talks to me about that. And the next question/statement was well he was asked to go to the nurse and he turned it down. I said yes I know, he turned it down because he was fine. I then pointedly asked the administrator if it was a sighted student who wasn’t paying attention and hit this thing and said they were fine, would everyone be up in arms? Their reply, no probably not, so for my child because he is blind we are not going to listen to his words of him being fine? Administrator saw my point and said you right we have to listen to what he is saying and not think he doesn’t know himself well enough to state weather he is ok or not. Furthermore they are already comparing him to another. 

A picture of Jimmy on his first day of high school with a female friend.

You see another blind student just graduated at the end of last year, so the school has had a blind student so recently that one would have assumed they would give this NEW blind student a chance to get acclimated to the school. And from what Jimmy was telling me they (the staff) are already comparing my child to this child. I feel as a parent of a blind child it is part of my job to educate the sighted world as to the fact that no two blind children are the same just like no other two people (no matter the circumstances) are alike. It has been my experience that as soon as the word blind, or deaf, or disabled are used people have a preconceived notion that two individuals with the same dis-abil(able)-ity (see what I did there, the word able is in the word disability and they have to recognize that are children are still able to do things) are the exact same, but in actuality that does not mean that those two children have the same skills, personalities, or even the same acceptance to where the cards they have been dealt. My child and this other child are complete polar opposites that any two kids can be. And it is really frustrating to have to explain, yet again, that the staff has to look past the blindness of these two students and look at the student. When all of this was discussed with the administrator they said well I already see the differences between the two and Jimmy’s teachers will as well. I was like that is all good and fine but what about the rest of the staff who does NOT have interaction with my child but instead just assumes he is like the other boy. Everyone has to be told to have an open mind in regards to the different children.

As Jimmy is now in high school he has to continue to speak up for himself which he does very well. This time he asked me to start the conversation as he sincerely didn’t know who to go talk to. The administrator I spoke with did pull Jimmy aside the following day to have a conversation about all the goings on and they were able to have an open and honest conversation about it all. Jimmy got to convey his perspective on how things are going and to speak towards the “incidences” and the administrator also took what Jimmy had to say to heart. Jimmy is and will be fully involved in his education and things he like and doesn’t like. If he feels there is something that can be changed and will be hands on.

I know it can at times seem that the schools, administrators, or even the teachers don’t get our kids but that is why I will always be outspoken with them and try to get them to be open and understanding that our kids are just that kids who have the right to be independent and left alone to enjoy school like all the sighted kids. Are they “different” I guess you can say that but that doesn’t mean that they are less-than anyone else if nothing else they are more-than because they have had to face a harder life and continuously have to Prove themselves to everyone around them that they ARE just like everyone else. They are students who are just trying to navigate growing up like everyone else and if that means I have to be momma bear at times to get people who don’t know my child well to understand to back off and let him be, than by George that is exactly what I am going to do.

It is hard to be a parent of a blind student, especially when you enter a new school and have teach them all what said child is capable of. This does not happen with sighted students only with students who have an IEP, 504, whatever the case. We (or at least I) want to just scream in their face to back the #&( up and let my kid be. He can handle himself and if he can’t he will be the first one to ask for help or guidance. I want to scream to give him more than 3 days to get used to his school and show you who and what he is. I want to scream he is a typical 9th grader who doesn’t want to be treated any different than any other child in the school. Please give him room to grow and be comfortable in his own skin, do have a preconceived idea of who or what he is. Take a minute and talk to him (this part goes for the other students too who just see someone different and assume they know what he is like) isn’t that why you went into teaching to help and teach our children to be the best version of themselves and give them a chance to become productive humans in this world we live in? STOP ASSUMING and take a minute to learn.

Come Tuesday we will be starting our second week at our new school where we have both Open House and the Staffing meeting. My hopes are I meet everyone at the Open House and then the staffing meeting will be a breeze and I will not be fighting will all the teachers on who’s, what’s, where’s, and how’s. Hopefully they will be open and willing to do things just a little different to make sure that Jim is included in all areas of the classroom because if not we will be seeing each other real soon and after that meeting Jimmy will be included through modifications that I will do my best to give them if not I have a wonderful support group (TVI’s, past ECC instructors, and other families) to go to help give me ideas on how to best help the class and Jimmy. So for now so long and keep your fingers crossed that everything will be worked out within the next week and I will never have to think about it again. (I know it’s kind of a pipe dream, but a mom can hope for this Right!?)

White Cane Day is Coming!

Hey friends, have you heard of White Cane Day? It's a national holiday celebrated on October 15th every year! It's a day that celebrates the achievements of people with vision impairments and promotes safety and independence. President Obama made a declaration about it last year. Why am I telling you about it? Because I challenge you to celebrate it this year!! White Cane Day is a great day to rock some blind pride out in the community. You are pretty psyched right now, aren't you? I am blogging now because you still have time to organize a sweet little soiree for your community or school. Are you stumped on how to get started? Have no fear! First, save the date--October 15th! Second, check out if there's already a White Cane Day bash going on your city. Third, hit the internet and check out some resources. Here's a good one: http://www.whitecaneday.org/. Last, get organizing! 

Here's some fun ideas: plan a community party! It can be as easy as having a table in front of grocery store and handing out flyers. We are throwing a fun community event at Old Navy in West Hartford here in Connecticut. We are even having a fashion show starring our students! Talk to your local Lions Clubs as they are usually big supporter of White Cane Day. In addition, think about coloring sheets (Google images: guide dog has some good ones!), food!! (candy canes as "rigid canes") or just hit up high school driver's ed classes and have your student/child talk about white cane safety. 

Lots of businesses have a community day where you can also share information. Eastern Mountain Sports has a day in October (well they do in Connecticut...) where I will be at my own little booth handing out flyers about white cane safety. Call your local businesses and see what you can do. It's amazing how just asking businesses to support  you can turn into something amazing! A big thank you to Old Navy in West Hartford for stepping up to let us have our White Cane Day bash there. 

It truly doesn't matter if your White Cane Day is a big or small. It could just be free treats during lunch periods at your school. The point is to just get out there! Let's show the community how awesome the blind community is!

Here's the word art I made for our t-shirt and posters for 2013 White Cane Day. Our theme is I Heart White Cane. You can make one too! I went to taxgedo.com and created this in 5 minutes. You can save it as a jpeg. Happy White Cane Day 2013!!

Minute to Win it Games: Ideas that Work for our Kids too!!

Hi friends! I am back and I am loaded with fun ideas to share. I've been away at one of our residential programs where I tried out a new idea: playing minute to win it games. It can be tricky sometimes to find a fun party game that our kids can play right along with their sighted peers. Here's a couple of my new favorite games (plus pictures) of some fun games that do not require sighted guide, a lot of description or visual information. All you need is a willing attitude to have some fun!

I found a couple great ideas from the blog, Invite & Delight:
 http://inviteanddelight.blogspot.com/2012/03/minute-to-win-it-party.html
The games that I found the easiest to play were Chocolate Unicorn and Tear it Up. I think A Bit Dicey would have worked too but I didn't try that one yet. 

 We used chocolate donuts (or you can use Ding Dongs which are probably easier) for this game. I put them in the freezer so they wouldn't melt easy. 

 We did this game by having a couple of different rounds. I divided them up into three groups of three and had them compete against each other with everyone taking turns. The first round was stacking 3 donuts and holding it for a minute.

  The second round got harder with 4 donuts to balance as well as clapping or snapping your fingers and wiggling your tongue for the full minute. We had two winners with this round!

 Here's our version of Tearin' it Up:




 We also played another fun group game that required each team member to eat 3 saltine crackers and then try to whistle. We divided our group into two teams and each team member face off against each other. It's actually pretty challenging to eat 3 saltine crackers fast!

  Then try to whistle for 30 seconds!!

  

 Even the teachers got in on the fun for this one!

 This is Jessica, one of our mobility instructors, and me facing off!

 We chose to play this game outside on the grass in case there was a cracker explosion! 

We also loved the game Pass the Parcel. We followed the instruction from this site:http://www.jubed.com/youth_ministry/view/Pass-the-parcel/?s=12

Here are the instructions:Everyone's heard of "Pass the Parcel", so you might think this sounds a bit lame as a youth group game, but it can work well if you add a little twist. 

For those that don't know "Pass the Parcel", you wrap up a prize (eg a box of chocolates), then add multiple layers or wrapping (up to 20 times). Within each layer, add a smaller prize (such as a lolly or small chocolate).

The group sits in a circle and "Passes the Parcel" around the group with some music playing in the background. When the music stops, whoever is holding the "Parcel" unwraps one layer and keeps the small prize hidden within that layer. This continues until the last layer is unwrapt and whomever has the parcel wins the prize.

This is the part that we had a blast playing:
Now, the twist. As well as adding a small prize within each layer, add a written "Challenge" of some sort that the person unwraping the layer must complete. The challenge can be something the person must do in front of the group, or something share

I had my students do a couple other challenges that got big laughs such as sing or rap (their choice) the ABC song, pretend to be a screaming toddler throwing a tantrum, get up and sing loudly "I'm a Little Tea Pot" with hand motions and get on all fours and pretend to be a ferocious lion. 

These games are great for family game nights, ice breakers for back to school, theme party ideas for birthdays or just a fun Saturday night. Again, I loved these games because our kids could play pretty much all by themselves. We didn't have to provide a lot of modifications and we had blast playing them! Have fun!!

Our ski trip hit the news!

Michelle and Jose are our resident snowboard gurus!
They are wearing their neon orange vests and rocking some serious Blind Pride!!

 Here's the highlights from our ski trip: 10 students took to Ski Sundown, 3 of them rocked snowboarding, 4 were newbies, 1 was the only that went gun barrel and 1 was a 5 year skier that rocks! It was a great time!! Again, the instructors from STRIDE Adaptive Sports were amazing!! We can't wait to do it again!

Sam, from the posts Around Town with Sam, heading off with his guide

We made the rounds with a few journalists. Here's the link for one of the stories that we were featured in:

 http://rep-am.com/news/local/706272.txt.

Remember, skiing is a GREAT sport for people with vision impairments! Grab some skis, get an experienced guide and hit the slopes---there's still snow on the mountain!!

Around Town with Sam

Oh  man, I am SO excited!! Why? Because another one of my super fab students has agreed to blog with me---yay!! This is another ongoing column written by one of my students. Please welcome (drumroll......) Sam to the independent little bee!! I am excited for Sam to share his experiences "around town". Sam is one of my older students, a Braille reader, sports enthusiast and all around nice guy. 

Sam and Cody at Camp Abilities 2011

 Enough from me, now here's Sam...
     Hi, my name is Sam. I am 20 years old and live in  Connecticut where I am a student at the town High school.
     I was born with sclerocornea, microophthalmia, and aniridia. I had corneal transplants in both eyes at the age of 5. Soon afterward I developed glaucoma, and lost the vision in my left eye. After several glaucoma surgeries, I have light perception in my right eye. 

     My preferred reading mode is Braille. I started learning Braille when I was in Preschool, but hated it. My Mom remembers me throwing my Perkins Brailler on the floor. It made a dent. I'm not sure why but in second grade, I finally decided to read, and now I love it. I read everyday, especially novels, ESPation magazine, sports schedules, classwork brailled by my Para, Rolling Stone Magazine, and the New York Times. I also follow Facebook on the refreshable Braille display on my Braille Note.
     I stayed in public school until the end of 7th grade. I then went to Perkins School for the Blind because my district thought I would get good schooling there. I was there for for 6 years, I loved it very much. The hardest thing for me was being 2 and a half hours away from my parents. And my dogs. And my siblings. I liked doing sports there because all of the sports were blind friendly. Many of my teachers there were blind, which helped me learn how to be a blind adult. I still think of them as mentors.
     When I first started going to Perkins I was driven there and back. Eventually I started taking the train by myself. It made me feel free. Staff at Perkins would take me to the train. I would ask the conductor which car I was on and then I would call my Dad to tell him so he knew where to meet me.
     Moving home from Perkins was very hard. I left a lot of friends and teachers at Perkins. My town friends I knew from elementary school and middle school had already graduated. I was excited to start at the town high school because it was a new chapter in my life. Now, 5 months on, I've completed a semester at my town high school and made new friends. The academics are challenging but I'm getting used to them now. I am also getting some work experience working at the Town Senior Center.
     I am in Best Buddies, an after school club for typical and disabled kids which I love because we have a lot of social activities. I am also working out with a trainer 3 times a week. I will be starting to coach Goalball for 5th graders in another town, Greenwich. I ski several weekends each winter, I am also in the BESB Student Advisory Council. And I like hanging out with friends. But I still go on Facebkook and text old friends.
     I hope to write a lot for this blog about my experiences. If you have any questions for me comment, and I'll get back to you. Look forward to hearing from you.

Sam and Craig, a fave PE teacher at weekend programs

Rock Paper Scissors Tag

Hi!! I am sorry that I didn't post last week. I started but never got to final post. I left to visit my family in Florida for a new holiday I like to call Thanks'Ristmas. It was great. I was lounging on Cocoa Beach at 80 degree weather....now back to business in CT! I've got lots of fun things to blog about so I hope I get them all posted. Keep checking back. This coming weekend we are having our first ever GIRLS SPORTS & MORE weekend! It's a superfusion of sports & rec, ILS, social skills and sparkle!! I am SO pumped for this one!!

Okay, okay but enough about coming events. I want to blog about what fun little discovery I uncovered last month. Rock, paper, scissors tag!! This fun game comes our way thanks to our good PE friend, Lauren Andersen.

Know how to play Rock Paper Scissors? Take that concept and use your whole body to show it! This is a PE game that is pretty popular around the gym. I love when we teach general ed PE games because we help give our kids a nice little pre-teach to the game. 

First, learn the poses.
Here's paper, starring our friend Jimmy:

Now learn Scissors...

And last is another student showing ROCK...

Now that you know the poses, it's time to divide up into two teams and come to the  'shooting line'. You need to divide up into two teams. The caller (Lauren, girl with blonde hair at bottom of picture). Each team huddles up and chooses either rock, paper or scissors. The caller yells "Rock, paper, scissors, SHOOT!". Each team then shoots their pose. See below....both teams tied! In that event, each team has a 'backup move'. The caller calls "rock, paper, scissors, SHOOT!" again. 

The winning side chases down the losing side. Each tagged player joins the winning side. The goal is for one team to tag all of the opposing players until they are all one winning team. Make sense? 

We needed to provide some guide support and the students all knew the layout of the room that we were playing in pretty well. You will need to make sure your kids feel comfortable with the layout of the room. I loved this game because it worked on body in space positioning which can be a real tough cookie for our kids. Try it out!! It's a super fun game!! We played it all weekend :)

A New Level of Service

 Wow, on November 10, 2012 my students took service to a whole new level! As many of you know I am part of a group of teachers that are advisers for a group of my students called Student Advisory Council (aka SAC). We did a community service project for over 70 youth and welcomed them into the vision impairment community. In addition to my stellar students rocking the house, we also had Fidelco guide dog school and Silver Lining Technology come and round out the cast. We spent almost 6 hours welcoming our new friends into our community and the results were awesome! The morning was spent dividing up the youth into three groups: orientation & mobility, assistive technology and Braille. We shuttled our youth into these groups and had them do sighted guide technique, make some edible Braille and have some hands-on time with AT devices.

My super awesome students!!

I am blogging about this because not only am I super proud of my students but this was an amazing experience for the community. I also want to empower other students to do the same thing! This was great for the community. What I loved the most was watching the youth "get it" about our kids. They saw our students for who they really are. Each group was led by one of our fab teacher advisers. We have two mobility instructors, two TVIs and me! We all split up and headed a group. 

My family and our friend learning about guide dogs with Fidelco.

My tech loving students presenting with Stephen Deltatto of Silver Lining Technology

  The other treat to our community outreach project was that we all worked together and made tactual books for our preschool and special services division. We made three different types of books. You can also do this too!The directions and pictures are in a separate post.

Service project work!!

Michelle and other SACker Gannon instructing goalball

My students, Jose and Michelle, teaching goalball

Youth Mackenzie doing edible Braille

Jimmy also came out as a junior SAC member and taught about Braille

Our teacher advisers leading the discussion on Braille

 It truly was a great community outreach event. The youth leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints supplied the materials for our tactual books and worked with me on setting up the dates and other details.  I still get positive feedback from the youth about this outreach service project. I had a handful of my super stellar students work this. They worked their butts off and changed the way over 70 youth view students with vision impairments. I call that a success! Yeah, another great day for me as a teacher. I look forward to a million more with my students for sure!

My student Kacper and his new friends :)

Everyone took home their name in Braille

Fabric and table set up for the service project

Freshman College Life

Frankie & me at Camp Abilities CT 2012

If you have been following my blog for awhile now you know that in the fall I invite one of my new college students to write about their experiences. Fortunate for me, I am still in touch with all my students as they go off to college life. In November, I run a college day at a college campus and we work on the high school to college life transition. I'll have tips for that in November!  This year I am happy to have my super fave student, Frankie Ann, write for me. Not only has she been my one of my super favorites, she is talented and off to pursue her big dreams in musical theater. She was also my CIT Supervisor at Camp Abilities CT 2012 this year. Whenever I see her, I just smile! I am super proud of her and just love her to pieces!! I had so much fun going through my pictures of programs with Frankie Ann. I couldn't just pick one! 

She was my race partner at the New England Warrior Dash

My favorite mud picture :)

And lastly, a picture of us from when we saw "Wicked" up close in the
 2nd row at The Bushnell

Hey all! :) My name is Frankie Ann and I am in the middle of my second week of classes at Western Connecticut State University. I am a freshman musical theatre major and couldn't be happier with how my classes have been going for these first two weeks! 

I'm not going to lie, I was extremely nervous to go onto college. I have gone to small catholic schools for all of my previous years of school, where everyone knew me and was familiar with my vision impairment. I was nervous for having to go up to my professors and explain to them personally what my disability is and what accommodations I need. But things could not have gone smoother. Majority of my classes are theatre related (Private Voice, Dance, Acting, Piano, etc.) But I am also taking general education classes such as Economics and Sociology which are going to have a lot more to them. I was afraid that my professors would not be willing to work with me and make the accommodations necessary for me to succeed in their class. But I was dead wrong.

I walked into my first piano class, nervous as I could be because I had never attempted piano before and wasn't sure how it would work for me because I already know that I cannot read notes on sheet music. But I am so lucky to have such an incredible professor who already had the syllabus in large print for me and who helped me to learn the basics of piano in just two classes despite my vision impairment. He told met what he would do anything I need in order to succeed in the class.

As a musical theatre major, I had to audition for the three fall shows. As a freshman, it is not common for you to get cast in any show and if you are its usually the Fall Cabaret and not one of the main stage shows. However, I was so thrilled to get a callback for lead roles in both the straight play, Major Barbara, and the musical Into the Woods. I couldn't have been more excited! I found out yesterday that I got cast in the play as an ensemble member and understudy for one of the leads!!! What was even more shocking was that I got cast over several upperclassmen who were not cast in any show.

To sum it all up- college is everything I thought it would be and more! I am learning so much about what I love most and having the time of my life! :)

Student Tech Wiz

This week I am happy to blog about one of my students. He has a unique talent for technology and worked at our agency this summer in the Braille Unit.
I spent some quality tech time one afternoon with him and got some tips for acquiring good tech skills for students.
Here's my conversation with John Carnemolla, 16 years old. He was born with ROP with a nystagmus and a little light perception. 
Fast facts about John:

• He's been into technology since 2006.
• He got started because he had a computer and just got interested.
• First piece of technology was a PC, then an MPOWER in 5th grade. He played games and started feeling around. He used the word processing programs, too. 
• Skills that he has that help be successful: typing, listening, patience and good keyboarding skills--knows the commands like the back of his hand!
• He reads the programming manuals to learn the operating systems. 
• He started typing in kindergarten and actually prefers the QWERTY keyboard over a Braille input because it's a similar interface to a computer. 
• He uses Bookshare a lot on his APEX. He says using Bookshare is awesome because "in 10 minutes you can get 50 books".
• He plays chess and cards on his APEX.

Programs John likes:

• He has a Braillenote APEX (He's like a whiz on it!!)
• He likes the APEX because he says it's easy to use.
• John prefers JAWS but will also use NVDA (which he taught me about the day I hung out with him). NVDA is an open source program (a freebie!) that works like JAWS-ish but is better than Word.

How do your teachers handle your technology in the classroom? 

John says it's all pretty cool. He comments that it is handy to use the email via WIFI in school and is completely electronic in school.

What skills are a must for tech users?

Keyboarding for sure! Next is good understanding of the computer. 

Got a tech question? John is definitely one of my favorite resources to hit up! He's smart as a whip when it comes to technology. He's helped me do presentations on adaptive technology with community partners. Feel free to email me and I will pass it on to him!

One of the very best things I have ever done with my students so far....

Hello my friends!
     I hope you read my previous post on the blind chic that ran the Spartan Race because at the bottom of the post, I hinted at what this posting would be about....
     This past weekend we had our first Outdoor Education program. I hope everyone remembers that I am not a one woman show here but am part of a great team of people that make some crazy ideas a real possibility. This was part of a brain child from Justin Haegele with a very talented teacher, Beth Crescenzo, as our fearless leader for Outdoor Ed. Chris Bub, Greg Schultz, Kevin Butler and Lauren Andersen rounded out our teaching team. I had to name each one of these individuals because this was a weekend with several events that I will always treasure and remember as a teacher. 

     We took 9 awesome students on Saturday (10 on Sunday) out to camp loaded up with tents, an inflatable kayak that became our fire obstacle, duct tape, sleeping bags and of course, s'mores ingredients. We taught the students how to pitch tents and about Leave No Trace. This first day was pretty fun as we watched the students teach each other talents, give Leave No Trace presentations and overall work well with each other. 

     In between all of our OE work, we practiced obstacles. Obstacles? Yes, obstacles and running! On Sunday, June 10, 2012 my amazing students ran the New England Warrior Dash with 9 fantastic guides!! Don't know what a Warrior Dash is? It's a 5k obstacle course race and it is something that many people don't think legally blind teens could do. I wanted to prove them wrong. 

We trained for a few months. I thought carefully about selecting the students as well as matching appropriate guides for them. I had to pitch this to our agency director and parents. I reviewed the obstacles and consulted with one of our mobility instructors. Warrior Dash (Red Frog Events) was even gracious enough to speak with me several times over the phone about obstacles and allowed me to come to the race site (with Greg) and do a preview of the obstacles. We practiced a lot on Saturday. We did a lot of pre-teaching of obstacles. The students had to really open up about their vision and any possible limitations. 


We ran our Warrior Dash together as a team. We ran only as fast as our slowest person. Our shirts were a message to the world about blind people. Our shirts read (on the front): Blind warriors don't just survive, they dominate! And on the back, You were just passed by a blind person! HOW AWESOME!  My students ran that race yelling blind pride and I have to admit, there was more than a few times that a tear caught my eye. I was just SO PROUD of them!!


I was proud of them because they were accomplishing something that a lot of people, maybe even themselves, didn't think they could completely do. I was proud because they successfully completed each and every obstacle. I was proud because they knew that they were accomplishing something great as a blind person. 

They opened up and shared their vision impairments. We had students that had recently lost their vision as teenagers. We had students from tough neighborhoods and rough life dynamics. We had students that are moving forward with their lives knowing that there are ways around their visual limitations despite those frustrating moments. It all sounds a little cheesy I suppose but when I think over my 10 warriors and this experience that I feel quite privileged to been part of, I realize how much I was changed as a person that day. I became a better person and a better teacher because I learned a new and very valuable lesson that it really isn't about what you see, it's about what you do (Camp Abilities CT motto--I knew it was a good idea when we started CT but now I feel it in the very marrow of my bones).
      We came up with warrior names that we wrote on our arms the day of the race. I guess I could keep typing more but to be honest, the only thing I really want to say over and over is that they crushed it! (And know that there is a giant smile on my face as I think about it).
     I hope the Warrior Dash race is something that my students hold on to for quite some time. I hope it continues to empower them as I know that day it truly had. 


We had four additional guides with us in addition to our OE teaching team, Patty & Brant Fahle and Adam & Sarena Sharp. How could we have run this without them? Each of them provided such valuable guidance and added so much to our team. 


I am sure that I will continue to have moments that I will always treasure with my students. If you couldn't tell, I just love these kids. They truly are some of my best teachers. I am a better teacher for them because of who each and everyone of them are. Better yet, I really am a better person because of who each and everyone of them are. 

  

 

 

  

I can't wait for the next experience.....