[blindkid] Joli's education

Carol Castellano blindchildren at verizon.net
Sun Feb 22 18:27:54 UTC 2009


Hi Lauren,

I kind of lost track of the thread regarding your 
daughter's school situation.  What happened after 
the teacher left?  Have you guys discussed braille for Joli?

Carol

At 03:35 PM 2/11/2009, you wrote:
>I am feeling a little frustrated. I just found 
>out that My daughter Joli's teacher is leaving 
>the school one Friday. The school will be hiring 
>somebody new who is not familiar with Joli's 
>vision (corrected 20/400) and language issues. 
>They haven't decided who they are hiring yet. I 
>am worried however, I am going to try to use 
>this as opportunity to get some additional 
>services for Joli. I have some questions: Do you 
>have a scribe for your child? I have found 
>during homework time Joli (Age 7 & Vision: 
>20/400 corrected) is often told to write a few 
>paragraphs about something, or to use each of 
>her spelling words in sentences showing meaning. 
>Last week she was given a writing exercise where 
>she had to invent her own Greek myth where 
>somebody had to send somebody on a task of 
>finding something. 3 things had to go wrong and 
>each needed to be resolved, and at the end of 
>her myth the task had to be completed. Joli is 
>able to dictate such things to me, and I write 
>down what she says. Then she copies what I have 
>written into her homework exercise book . The 
>process of getting the ideas out of her head and 
>onto the paper without my taking her dictation 
>would take forever because of her vision and her 
>language issues. She often looses her place when 
>writing and so has to go back and find it again. 
>It's painstaking because by the time she has 
>written one sentence it has taken so long that 
>she has forgotten the rest of what she is trying 
>to say. The physical problem with her writing is 
>that she has to hold her face so close to the 
>page that it actually gets in the way of her 
>hand. Anytime she needs to look away from her 
>paper and glance at something on her  worksheet 
>that she needs to refer to, she must again find 
>her place on her page to finish writing. I don't 
>want her to be dependent on others but at that 
>same time it kills me to see her struggle with 
>her nose resting on her paper trying to squeeze 
>the letters on the line. I am wondering how she 
>is able to do any kind of writing -- creative or 
>otherwise -- in the classroom because of this. 
>(Whatever is written on the big classroom board 
>is also given to her either on her personal hand 
>held white board or as an enlarged worksheet. I 
>am more worried about the writing that has to 
>come from her own head rather than note 
>copying.) I am wondering if having her do her 
>classwork on a laptop where she can enlarge the 
>text and where it would be easier for her to 
>self edit on the fly wouldn't be a good idea. 
>Her  teacher who is leaving has been worried 
>that she may loose her cursive script. To be 
>honestly I am amazed that she is able to fit her 
>letters on the lines correctly at all. Right now 
>the extras she receives: worksheets are 
>enlarged. -- (her school doesn't use textbooks 
>as all assignments are on worksheets. The 
>reading books they have are individual 
>children¢s paperbacks and the kids take out one 
>at a time so each kid works at her own level) 
>Once a week she has an hour of extra reading and 
>language help. The nurse puts sunblock on her if 
>they are going outside for more than 5 mins. Her 
>class doesn¢t use any over head projectors 
>except during whole school assembly. She is 
>allowed to wear a hat and sunglasses. I have 
>provided her regular glasses plus reading 
>glasses, hand held magnification devices, and a 
>clip board which we find helps with her writing 
>because otherwise her neck gets stiff from 
>having to hold her face so close to the papers. 
>She sits in the front in her class for 
>everything. However I recently attended a whole 
>school assembly and her class was in the 3rd 
>row, and she remained with her class. I am not 
>sure if this is a good thing or not. In a way I 
>want her to remain with her classmates but if 
>she can't see that¢s not good either.  As I said 
>above she gets anything writen on the board put 
>on her hand-held board or on her enlarged 
>worksheet. She isn¢t receiving extra time on 
>tests or assignments etc. Her teachers also 
>complain that she is often restless and will get 
>up out of her seat at times when she shouldn¢t 
>and will talk out of turn. She also sometimes 
>asks a teacher to repeat himself many times 
>which frustrates him to no end. (She did this 
>with last year¢s teacher too.) I am not sure 
>what the issue is there. I don't know if she is 
>doing it just because she wants to or because 
>she can't see who the teacher is calling on. I 
>don¢t know if she is restless because she is 
>bored or hyper or if she needs a break because 
>her eyes are tired. Our school doesn't have a 
>TVI or IEP. It's a small private school outside 
>the US. Right now I am thinking about asking for 
>a classroom scribe for her at least for her 
>literacy /writing portions that are more than 
>just copying and/or letting her use a laptop for 
>writing excursuses in class. Thoughts? Any other 
>ideas of things I should ask for? I am esp 
>interested if people think a scribe is a good 
>idea.  I was thinking maybe having one for the 
>times when Joli has to write more than one or 
>two paragraphs...? Thanks! Lauren --- On Wed, 
>2/11/09, blindkid-request at nfbnet.org 
><blindkid-request at nfbnet.org> wrote: From: 
>blindkid-request at nfbnet.org 
><blindkid-request at nfbnet.org> Subject: blindkid 
>Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11 To: blindkid at nfbnet.org 
>Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 1:00 PM Send 
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>digest..." Today's Topics:    1. Re: music at 
>convention (Carol Castellano)    2. Re: music at 
>convention (Peter Donahue)    3. Re: music at 
>convention (Barbara.Mathews at sce.com) 
>---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>Message: 1 Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:09:13 -0500 
>From: Carol Castellano 
><carol_castellano at verizon.net> Subject: Re: 
>[blindkid] music at convention To: "NFBnet Blind 
>Kid Mailing List,    \(for parents of blind 
>children\)"      <blindkid at nfbnet.org> 
>Message-ID: 
><20090210180914.53B413373F1 at zcs.tcnj.edu> 
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; 
>format=flowed Oh, that would be fun! CC At 04:27 
>PM 2/8/2009, you wrote: >Hey, Carrie, since you 
>have nothing else to work on...<grin>What if >we 
>were to have the kids bring their instruments 
>and put on a short >performance toward the end 
>of convention?  They pulled it together >in 3 
>days for 4-County honor band, why not 
>convention? One more way >to showcase our kids' 
>talents, and to emphasize the need for 
>music >Braille. Do I see a middle/high school 
>event? > >Maybe that's something we could think 
>towards for next year, if not this 
>one. > > 
>Debby >bwbddl at yahoo.com >www.nfbflorida.org/paren 
>ts > >Please support Braille literacy and 
>programs for our youth by sponsoring me in >the 
>Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, 
>join the team of >the FL Parents of Blind 
>Children! >http://www.marchforindependence.org/go 
>to/fpobc >http://www.marchforindependence.org/got 
>o/debbyb > > > > > >_____________________________ 
>__________________ >blindkid mailing 
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>blindkid_nfbnet.org/blindchildren%40verizon.net 
>------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: 
>Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:42:31 -0600 From: "Peter 
>Donahue" <pdonahue1 at sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: 
>[blindkid] music at convention To: "NFBnet Blind 
>Kid Mailing List,       \(for parents of blind 
>children\)"      <blindkid at nfbnet.org> 
>Message-ID: 
><000c01c98baf$55d79820$210110ac at yourfsyly0jtwn> 
>Content-Type: 
>text/plain;     charset="iso-8859-1" Hello 
>Carrie and listers,     Let me find that article 
>about our music festival and will post it in the 
>next few days. It was a wonderful event for 
>those who participated. It's too bad it wasn't 
>replaced with an activity such as the NFB Youth 
>SLAM or something similar. We're talking about 
>the 1970s. Though the technology wasn't there 
>such an event was doable. We proved that with 
>such activities like that music festival. Peter 
>Donahue ----- Original Message ----- From: 
>"Carol Castellano" 
><carol_castellano at verizon.net> To: "NFBnet Blind 
>Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind 
>children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org> Sent: Tuesday, 
>February 10, 2009 12:09 PM Subject: Re: 
>[blindkid] music at convention Oh, that would be 
>fun! CC At 04:27 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote: >Hey, 
>Carrie, since you have nothing else to work 
>on...<grin>What if >we were to have the kids 
>bring their instruments and put on a 
>short >performance toward the end of 
>convention?  They pulled it together >in 3 days 
>for 4-County honor band, why not convention? One 
>more way >to showcase our kids' talents, and to 
>emphasize the need for music >Braille. Do I see 
>a middle/high school event? > >Maybe that's 
>something we could think towards for next year, 
>if not 
>this >one. > > 
>Debby >bwbddl at yahoo.com >www.nfbflorida.org/paren 
>ts > >Please support Braille literacy and 
>programs for our youth by sponsoring me >in >the 
>Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, 
>join the team of >the FL Parents of Blind 
>Children! >http://www.marchforindependence.org/go 
>to/fpobc >http://www.marchforindependence.org/got 
>o/debbyb > > > > > >_____________________________ 
>__________________ >blindkid mailing 
>list >blindkid at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/ 
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>unsubscribe, change your list options or get 
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>_______________________________________________ 
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>------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: 
>Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:38:37 -0800 From: 
>Barbara.Mathews at sce.com Subject: Re: [blindkid] 
>music at convention To: "NFBnet Blind Kid 
>Mailing List,      \(for parents of blind 
>children\)"      <blindkid at nfbnet.org> 
>Message-ID: 
><OF526D672D.25A5909E-ON88257559.006BE800 at sce.com> 
>  Content-Type: 
>text/plain;   charset="utf-8"; 
>Format="flowed" I agree! ----- Original Message 
>----- From: Carol Castellano 
>[carol_castellano at verizon.net] Sent: 02/10/2009 
>01:09 PM EST To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing 
>List,   \(for parents of blind children\)" 
><blindkid at nfbnet.org> Subject: Re: [blindkid] 
>music at convention Oh, that would be fun! CC At 
>04:27 PM 2/8/2009, you wrote: >Hey, Carrie, 
>since you have nothing else to work 
>on...<grin>What if >we were to have the kids 
>bring their instruments and put on a 
>short >performance toward the end of 
>convention?  They pulled it together >in 3 days 
>for 4-County honor band, why not convention? One 
>more way >to showcase our kids' talents, and to 
>emphasize the need for music >Braille. Do I see 
>a middle/high school event? > >Maybe that's 
>something we could think towards for next year, 
>if not this 
>one. > > 
>Debby >bwbddl at yahoo.com >www.nfbflorida.org/paren 
>ts > >Please support Braille literacy and 
>programs for our youth by sponsoring me in >the 
>Motor City March for Independence! Better yet, 
>join the team of >the FL Parents of Blind 
>Children! >http://www.marchforindependence.org/go 
>to/fpobc >http://www.marchforindependence.org/got 
>o/debbyb > > > > > >_____________________________ 
>__________________ >blindkid mailing 
>list >blindkid at nfbnet.org >http://www.nfbnet.org/ 
>mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org >To 
>unsubscribe, change your list options or get 
>your account info >for 
>blindkid: >http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ 
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>------------------------------ 
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>End of blindkid Digest, Vol 58, Issue 11 
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