[Blindtlk] teaching class

Sun Jan 22 18:23:30 UTC 2017

Very true, good advice.

Judy

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Danielle
Ledet via blindtlk
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2017 10:07 AM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Danielle Ledet
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] teaching class

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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