[nobe-l] teach without an aide

[Ashley Bramlett]

Kayla,

I'd agree with Heather; it really depends on the situation and tasks you are 
responsible for.
I'm not a teacher though but have contemplated it. I'd either teach young 
children like first or second grade or I'd teach learning disabled or blind 
children. I've not decided, but those are the areas of interest to me.

Yes, it is possible to teach without an aide.
However, there is paperwork tasks involved, so every blind teacher I've 
known, even those teaching other blind/vision impaired students, have had 
sighted assistants help them. You can think of them as readers or 
assistants, but they do have some help. I do not call them aides in this 
instance because they are not directly assisting in the teaching. An aide 
would assist you while you are actually teaching.
So, what I'm saying is that yes you will need a sighted assistant, but not 
necessarily an aide.
Special ed forms including IEPS are not yet fully accessible, so a reader is 
needed for this task.

In education, you have paperwork involved and grading which may require a 
reader's help.
But whether you need an aide while teaching depends on what area you teach 
and what age of kids, and your own skills as a teacher.

Unless you teach kindergarten, preschool or special education, I do not 
believe an aide is necessary all the time.
But certain situations warrant an aide.
Note, even sighted teachers have aides for those grades. My mom teaches 
preschool and they always have aides there or a co-teacher.
It is just safer to have two people supervising such young children. 
Besides, sometimes one kid has to go to the bathroom, so one adult takes 
them while the other adult supervises the rest of the class.

I also believe that certain tasks are visual in nature despite whatever 
alternative techniques we have used.
For these tasks, I believe an aide would be an appropriate accomodation.
However, I'm not so sure a school would hire a full time aide for you, so in 
my opinion, you might want to choose when and where you really need an aide.
Heather gave some good examples. In the early grades, several tasks come to 
mind where an aide is very helpful. When the children learn handwriting, do 
coloring assignments, or go to the playground are activities I would want an 
aide. I have some vision and know print and braille, but its just not 
possible to read handwriting efficiently and see if they are writing 
correctly.
Walking around the playground is a way to watch out for the kids, but this 
way you can only supervise a few children at a time. So, a sighted person 
would be  needed to see the whole area.
In the later grades, a blind teacher might want an aide to supervise a 
science experiment, monitor a test for cheating, or see the alignment of 
students in a music class.

So, whether you have an aide is an individual decision based on many 
factors.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kayla James via NOBE-L
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2016 8:45 PM
To: National Organization of Blind Educators Mailing List
Cc: Kayla James
Subject: [nobe-l] teach without an aide

Is it possible to be a blind teacher and teach without an aide with
you? Does it feel like you're less of a teacher without an aide.

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