[blindkid] High School
EMMOL at aol.com
EMMOL at aol.com
Sun May 16 10:41:42 UTC 2010
Hi,
Realized I had saved the questions regarding blind high school students for
a less busy time. Not sure when that is. So, I apologize for the delay in
responding. Patrick is a junior preparing for college. Our recent time and
focus relates to our many college visits on the weekends. Also time
devoted to the SAT.
So...things that we have found to work:
*Key the locker rather than the standard combination lock. Add his
combination lock to the gym locker. A locker on the end of a row helps.
*O&M always after school, once a week. It has interfered with certain
after school activities and we try and work the schedule around that. We have
switched the day different years depending on his activity schedule. It is
his responsibility to let her know ahead of time if he will be running late
due to a mandatory meeting, which happens in high school. Urban travel is
scheduled for teacher in-service days.The O&M would prefer that he misses a
Friday once a month for this. We feel that the missed class work, trying to
make up work and/or tests is too much to ask.
*Identify one librarian (there are several in our high school) who is
familiar with Patrick's equipment so that if he needs assistance when
researching or scanning etc. someone is knowledgeable. He's generally independent,
but it's good to have a "go to person" as the vision teacher is only in
district for part of the day.
*Vision Teacher is in the building, daily. In ninth grade they met after
school. In tenth & eleventh grade one period a day for technology. (Patrick
gave up choir and they eliminated health from his schedule.) Technology
time can be "soft" such as previewing materials for geometry or more
sophisticated such as programs used in chemistry, an internet/jaws glitch, scanning,
power point assistance, to name a few.
She is available to push in to math if needed. Usually at the beginning of
the year, not needed now. Some years more challenging, such as with
geometry.
She also has consult time in her schedule to meet with teachers. Much
information gathering is done via email for assignments etc, but it is important
that she is in the building and available for questions.She oversees his
technology in the building. She oversees the ordering of books, etc. but we
added that as a goal for Patrick to begin in 10th grade. Contacting next
years teachers, getting book lists and ordering materials, to assist with the
transition to college. We also find that the early contact gets teachers
thinking and they have their questions ready. They also see Patrick as
responsible for his program and feel more comfortable directing questions to
him.
Sorry for the length of this. I could go on. There are many little things
that help to make it work. Patrick actually did a power point on this topic.
(Maybe next year's convention...) I would be happy to answer specific
questions as I only touched on many things and didn't get into other things. We
are preparing for his final IEP meeting. Hard to believe!
Eileen
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