[Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted Undergrads

Wed Aug 10 09:47:04 UTC 2011

Hi,
  Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. Much appreciated. We are on the 
quarter system, and thus, I am actually not teaching until Jan. Best of luck 
with  teaching, and I would love any insights you can provide as  you 
undergo this experience.
Many thanks,
Christine

 M. Szostak
Doctoral Candidate
Language Perception Laboratory
Department of Psychology, Cognitive Area
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
szostak.1 at osu.edu
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ryan Thomas" <rlt56 at nau.edu>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted 
Undergrads

> Dear Christine,
>
>   I'm a graduate student myself.  I'll be teaching sighted undergrads
> in just over two weeks.  As a graduate student, I find it highly
> unlikely that you'd be given a teaching assistant yourself.  Typically
> that sort of thing is reserved for full professors or instructors.  I
> know that some of the other students have hours of tutoring in our
> math resource room.  My plan is to ask one to do my grading in
> exchange for grading some of my students homework.  If you make some
> sort of trade like that then you're helping others and not expecting
> sighted people to take on extra work on your behalf.
>   I do feel it's highly inappropriate to talk about how you
> accomplish things as a blind person.  Your class is on
> psycholinguistics-not on blindness techniques.  I would tell them only
> what they need to know such as "If you have a question call out
> because I won't see your hand".  Otherwise, you can inform students
> that they can ask you any questions they may have during your office
> hours or at other times since the classroom is not a suitable
> environment for that type of a discussion.  Then you can move forward
> with your material, students don't feel hung up on the blindness since
> you don't make a big deal of it, and they still realize that you're
> open and approachable with your vision loss and with the required
> information.
>   Please feel free to write me offlist.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of
> struggles this semester and seeing as we're in the same sort of
> situation, maybe experiential learning will help both of us become
> better teachers.  Good luck to you and your class.
>
> Sincerely,
>   Ryan
>
> On 8/9/11, Christine Szostak <szostak.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>> Thanks, I really like these ideas.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Susan Jolly" <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>
>> To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 3:25 PM
>> Subject: [Blindmath] Teacher with Vision Loss Teaching Sighted Undergrads
>>
>>
>>> Christine,
>>>
>>> I would encourage you to do two things.  First, spend some time talking
>>> about yourself and how you deal with your vision loss, etc. Your 
>>> students
>>> are very unlikely to have ever had a chance to interact with a blind
>>> person before and I think that the quicker they feel comfortable with 
>>> you,
>>>
>>> the quicker they will forget about your vision loss and be able to focus
>>> on the subject matter.
>>>
>>> Second, ask your students for advice and ideas on how to handle the 
>>> issues
>>>
>>> you asked about. Many, many years ago, when I was teaching AP high 
>>> school
>>> chemistry, I divided the students into several small groups and each 
>>> group
>>>
>>> had to choose a lab experiment from suggested resource material, perform
>>> it, and then write out the directions so each of the other groups could
>>> perform that same experiment.  (They, of course, provided me in advance
>>> with a list of the needed supplies.)  I at first felt a bit guilty 
>>> making
>>> the students do something I thought perhaps I should have done but it
>>> turned out to be one of my most successful teaching experiences.  The
>>> students loved it and it really brought out their creativity.
>>>
>>> HTH,
>>> SusanJ
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Blindmath mailing list
>>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>>> Blindmath:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/szostak.1%40osu.edu
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blindmath mailing list
>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> Blindmath:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/rlt56%40nau.edu
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blindmath mailing list
> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> Blindmath:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/szostak.1%40osu.edu
> 