[nabs-l] introducing Myself

Fri Jun 29 04:51:31 UTC 2012

Oh, that is cool!
My mom is a TVI and she contracts out of Vista Center here in CA. I really 
think those kinds of organizations are the way to go for the school 
districts, because in my experience, Vista's workers have been eons higher 
quality than most of the TVIs I've had who were directly from the school.
My mom runs the TVI program in a county with like 65 students or some huge 
number like that and in every place she's worked she's been given inhuman 
amounts of students. She's a full TVI who was trained at Steven F Austin 
University and she has never needed to look for TVI work. The supervisor 
from Vista flew from CA to Washington state just to have lunch with my mom 
and offer her the job. It's super awesome that you're planning on going into 
TVI work! It's probably one of the hardest jobs out there, just because of 
the work load, but it's super fulfilling when you realize how many people 
you've taught technology to, how many books your students have read, how 
much your students have learned thanks to your problem solving with the 
teachers and students as well as how many dreams your students have been 
able to follow because of the confidence and inspiration you've given them. 
(I wonder what it's like being the TVI of that girl who read 21 thousand 
pages? My word!)
It might be a good idea to consider getting your masters in education as 
well. In today's age I believe teachers are best able to cope with the 
riggers of teaching with that masters. I'm not sure why, but all the totally 
best teachers I've had either had a masters, or had been teaching some 30+ 
years the same subject.
My mom's favorite students are the little kids, 5 month to 9 year olds. They 
are the students who require the most intense attention because if they are 
stunted by their parents and deprived of their childhood, not aloud to fall 
off the monkey bars a couple hundred times, they will be considered 
developmentally delayed and their real world experience for how ever many 
years will have been taken away from them. It's been my observation that the 
middle school and high school students are more difficult relationship wise 
because often at that point the educational system has ground them into 
submission, so many times it's very difficult to get the student to learn. 
The secondary school students also have lots of social questions and 
problems, wanting a date for the prom, making friends, being scared of being 
on the dance teem... So lots of what my mom has to do is teach social skills 
to their students. (What does it look like to be in love? and other 
oddities)

TVI is probably the most involved and problem solving job and I believe it's 
the most in demand. If one is just a Braille Teacher or VI instructor, they 
have to be darn good at what they do. For example I only had one Braille 
teacher who actually knew Braille music, Nemith, Grade 3 and all those other 
languages and were possibly able to teach them. And I had one VI instructor 
who actually  knew how to problem solve and was super involved with the 
public transportation and knew all the city boards. It's crucial for a VI 
specialist to be up to date on what's going on with all 6 kinds of public 
transportation in each town and for them to actively be making sure cities 
remain accessible. When a student has a teacher who loves their subject, 
it's the difference from being OK to being exceptional. There can't be an 
exceptional teacher who doesn't find a modicum of pleasure  in what they do. 
I think teaching is the hardest job and in my experience for every good 
teacher, there are at least 3 bad ones. If it was that our intelligences 
didn't mesh or what ever, I've been in classes where the teacher just 
couldn't communicate with me and in TVI classes, I've known more Braille 
than my Braille teacher in a few cases :(.
I a plod, commend and admire you for wanting to be a TVI and I hope you come 
to CA and decrease the shortage a little! LOL
Sorry for the long email...
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs
-----Original Message----- 
From: Rylie Robinson
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 8:06 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] introducing Myself

hello Brandon,

Secondary English Education just means middle school/high school
english (Secondary School as opposed to Primary School.) I was going
to simply major in English, but if I am to teach blind students
(braille specifically,) I figured getting some of the education out of
the way would work out better in the long-run. Braille is what I would
like to specialize in, but any TVI work could potentially be what I'm
looking for. What I teach isn't what I'm particular about, but where.
I would really like to work in a public school setting; I believe this
is where a lot of the advocacy work would have to be done, and it's
one of the best places to lay a foundation of high expectations, both
the the blind students and to their sighted parents and educators.

It's wonderful to see other blind musicians; I'll definitely have to
check out those other mailing lists.

Thanks a lot for the welcome, and i look forward to getting to know you 
better.

Blessings,
Rylie

On 6/28/12, Brandon Keith Biggs <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Rilie!
> Wow, we need good TVIs! Are you wanting to specialize in one area, or just
> be a full TVI?
> Does secondary English education talk about people learning things in 
> their
>
> second language? Like if I'm Italian or German going to school in China? 
> Or
>
> is it something totally different? I've never heard of that major 
> before...
> Thanks and so nice to hear from another person! And especially one going 
> to
>
> Dallas!
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rylie Robinson
> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 2:31 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nabs-l] introducing Myself
>
> Hello all,
>
> I don't really know how these introduction processes work on lists,
> but I just wanted to drop in and say hello to everyone. I've been on
> the list for a long time, but I finally changed my EMail over to a
> client that I actually enjoy using. So, hopefully, more posting from
> me will follow.
>
> My name is Rylie, a 20-year-old college student attending Indiana
> university Purdue University Indianapolis. Right now I'm studying
> Secondary English education. I hope after I acquire this degree to
> earn a certification in teacher of blind students and teach Braille in
> a public school setting.
>
> I have been involved in the nFB for a while, and I know, or know of
> quite a few of the Nabs members, and this seemed like one of the best
> ways to stay involved, especially with convention coming right around
> the corner. I hope to get to know some of you more and to be able to
> see some of you in Dallas.
>
> Blessings to all,
> Rylie
>
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