[nobe-l] Questions

[Sharon Dudley]

Danielle,

I am a totally blind pre-k teacher, teaching sighted children.  I do have an
assistant, just like every pre-k teacher in my county.  When I used to teach
kindergarten, at first I had an assistant one-fourth of the time.  The
assistant was split between 4 classes.  Later, when my county wasn't in such
a budget crunch, I had a full-time assistant in kindergarten.  I had 3
different paraprofessionals at different times, so some of their duties were
to mark attendance for me (either on a paper copy or on the computer),
assist with behavior (such as "Toby, stop pulling on Annie's hair"), and
help me watch the children on the playground and in centers.  I'm not sure
what grade level you want to teach, but I find that young children do adapt
very well to my disability, bringing me things that they want me to look at,
saying "Look at this" and handing it to me.  I could go on for days with
this email.  It might be better if you just ask me specific questions.

Sharon Dudley

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Danielle Shives <shives1 at myactv.net> wrote:

> Hi, all,
> My name is Danielle, and I am relatively new to this list. I am about to
> receive a master's degree in Special Education. I earned my bachelor's
> degree in elementary education 2 years ago. I am finally ready to look for a
> job! I am totally blind, but I am interested in teaching sighted children. I
> know it is not easy to get such a position for someone who is totally blind,
> but I know some of you have done it, and I was wondering if you could answer
> some questions for me. specifically, how many of you have an aide in your
> classroom, and what types of things does this person do? Also, who pays
> their salary? I have received conflicting information on this, so I thought
> I would ask those with experience. I would also be interested to know what
> grade or subject you teach. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts to
> pass along, I would certainly appreciate it, and I will probably have more
> questions at some point. Thank you in advance.
>
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