[Blindtlk] teaching class

Sun Jan 22 17:07:22 UTC 2017

Well, I haven't much to add since I incorporated pretty much
everything Judy and Erica did during my years of teaching. Formally, I
taught grades 2-5 special ed and informally, Sunday school 3-5. Great
job ladies! Julie, thanks for your input. Great for future
opportunities I might find myself in. Only thing I will add is take
some time out and talk to your students. Do not get personal, but make
efforts to develop a good rapport with each and every one of them.
This will help you to recognize when something different might be
going on that might need to be addressed.

On 1/13/17, Ericka via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I have taught Sunday school for years. Well generally this is a smaller
> class than most people have talked about here, I've worked with young kids
> and adults. You'll learn a lot about classroom management through listening
> and walking around. Trying to be the center of action is key to keeping
> classroom management. Taking time to talk to kids or the staff or whoever
> about your disability makes everyone feel more comfortable. I always use the
> Cranyon box example. That is, that there isn't just one color in there but
> many shades of different colors. If you look at every Group of people as a
> color,  there is still a variety of shades. Not everyone who is blind to see
> is black, not everyone who has good vision sees everything. To the adults
> even the seems to make sense. Then I let them ask me questions and I show
> them a few ways I do stuff. It takes about a half an hour usually. Then I
> never have any problems. I told the kids don't get into trouble because I
> can hear it. I've never really had a problem and I worked in daycare where
> the classes are bigger. I worked in a nursing home and this worked with the
> senior citizens to. A lot of them didn't want to come in or didn't want to
> try activities they didn't think they could do but I ended up bringing in a
> lot of people because they knew I made them try it and I would try to adapt
> so they could do the activity. That's the way I would want something to do
> it for me so I could succeed.
>
> Ericka Short
>
>
>  from my iPhone 6s
>
>> On Jan 13, 2017, at 6:45 AM, Julie J. via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I teach resiliency skills at an after school program.  Right now I'm
>> working with elementary kids.  In the past, I've done this same program
>> with just about every age group.  They all have challenges, but they
>> differ by age and why the people are there.
>>
>> With the elementary kids, keeping a reasonable amount of order is the
>> challenge.   When I started, there was always a staff member around.  Then
>> things got busy and they left me with the kids, which was fine for a
>> while. Then spring came and the end of the school year was on everyone's
>> mind. Manners went out the window.  My background is not  in teaching and
>> I don't know all the  school's ways of dealing with discipline issues.  I
>> ended up sending the problem kids out of my room and back to the main room
>> that day. Ongoing I requested one of the after school monitors to be there
>> to address any behavior problems.    Remember I'm not the regular teacher,
>> but more like a guest that comes in once a week.
>>
>> I also learned with the younger kids that group activities are great, but
>> not too much movement and no large groups.  If I do those kinds of
>> activities, things get crazy in a hurry.  So we do pairs or small groups
>> and quieter activities that have the kids sitting.   It also depends on
>> the particular make of the group that day.  Boys are more rowdy than the
>> girls. If I have more than about 5 boys, I know I need to split them up
>> for group work.  If I let all the boys be in one group, like they want to
>> be, chaos will ensue.
>>
>> With middle and high school kids, getting them to participate is the
>> difficult part.  Once they get to know you, they'll chatter away, but they
>> take longer to warm up and get involved.  I start the first few times with
>> providing more information and asking less of them.  I give choices with
>> options, instead of open ended.  It's easier for them to participate and
>> make decisions that way.  There will almost always be a few kids who hang
>> back and are very reluctant to participate.  Generally this is due to the
>> social dynamic going on.  Once these kids are specifically invited to
>> participate they will.  Discipline has never been an issue for me with
>> this age group.
>>
>> The college students I worked with had gotten into trouble with alcohol.
>> They had to attend an all day Saturday class with me as a direct
>> consequence of their choices with alcohol.  The first couple of hours of
>> those days were always tense because I was viewed as a punishment.  Once
>> we got into the curriculum and they realized it wasn't going to be me
>> telling them how horrible they were, it was a lot of fun.  The college
>> started providing donuts for breakfast and that helped get people into a
>> better mood first thing.  Hey, whatever works!
>>
>> All of Judy's suggestions were spot on.  I use a three ring binder with
>> notes in Braille.  I use pages with pockets that fit in the binder to keep
>> my handouts organized.  I tried using a Braille Note and later my iPad,
>> but both would turn off if not used for so many minutes or I'd lose my
>> place. Depending on the group and how long things take, I also like the
>> flexibility of being able to easily skip things or move them around.  the
>> three ring binder with hard copy notes makes this super easy.
>>
>> What will you be teaching and to what age group?  What sort of
>> environment, a school, community center, library?
>> Good luck!
>> Julie
>>
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