[NOBE-L] Questions about teaching

Sun Dec 15 18:39:20 UTC 2019

These ladies have said everything so beautifully and I have to agree with
them completely. I earned my BA in History with a minor/licensure in Early
Childhood Education and then obtained a position teaching Kindergarten in a
daycare. I then had 4 kids and was able to stay home.

When I was looking into what I wanted to teach when my kids were all in
school I became a substitute teacher first. I hit all the grade levels and
ranges. I taught in SDC mild, moderate, and severe. I taught elementary,
multiple grade levels, personalized learning, pod learning, and just a
regular classroom. I taught middle where I recurved many f**k you’s, and I
work in the high school where I saw avoidance, talking, back complete
engagement and lots of fun.

With this experience I gained a greater love of teaching and a better idea
as to where I wanted to land. I decided I wanted to give kids the
confidence and start that I gained in school. I am an SDC K-2 teacher.
These kiddos are amazing! I love them to the moon and back. I realized that
I personally do not want to deal with the hormones that go with upper
elementary, middle, high. I love the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement.
This, of course, is a personal preference. You have to have a good behavior
system put in place, high expectations, and lots of praise/rewards when you
are getting what you want. I have multiple systems in my room. Clip chart,
star chart, and class pom pins. They all earn them different things and
they all know how to earn them.

Focus more on what you want to teach and what age group you want to teach.
There are many alternatives that have made blind/visually impaired teachers
successful at every level of education.

Good luck!
Andrea

On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 4:35 AM Kathy via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> This is well said. I echo everything here. I teach high school and always
> have. They are certainly more independent, but they are also more
> resourceful as to quietly accessing devices and creatively dodging
> expectations. The flipside, of course, is that their brains are more
> developed and their sense of responsibility is more articulated. I love
> them to the moon and back all the time and enjoy them most of the time! :-)
> I enjoy my work because my Chosen field is what I get to present to them
> which makes my passion bigger than some of the drawbacks. That is why the
> subject area is so important. If I were teaching a subject I did not enjoy,
> the output and stress would not be balanced out by the pure enjoyment of
> sharing my love for writing with the kiddos.
>
> Grace and Peace,
>
> Kathy Nimmer and Nacho
>
> “No matter where you are, no matter how difficult things might appear to
> be, you are always being moved toward magnificence. Always.” - Author
> Unknown
>
> > On Dec 15, 2019, at 12:24 AM, nmpbrat--- via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> >
>
> I think there are a variety of variables to take into consideration when
> determining where, what, and who you are going to teach.  Just as a side
> note, I'm licensed to teach K-12 and have taught various grade levels over
> my career.  I think each level brings its own sets of challenges, so I
> don't know that one is necessarily better than the other, just different.
> First, I would ask "what do you want to teach?"  Based upon what you
> stated, you are likely looking at middle or high school level.  I think it
> is more important that you make your decision based upon what you want to
> teach rather than what may be perceived to be easier due to your visual
> impairment.  Secondly, do you have a preference of who you want to teach?
> Interestingly enough, that may change as you begin teaching.  When I
> started teaching, I thought that I would always want to teach elementary.
> However, I eventually was moved into the middle school level due to the
> district closing my elementary building I was working in.  I never thought
> I'd be teaching middle school but ended up falling in love with it.  Since
> you are mom and have likely had many life experiences with various age
> levels, you may have an idea of what your tolerance level will lend itself
> to.  For example, at the middle school level, you often deal with
> immaturity, while at the high school level it's more about them thinking
> they are little adults and they know it all.  Third, where you choose to
> teach may also impact a decision.  If you end up in an inner city, rough
> district, you may be more comfortable at the lower levels where there is
> less of a chance of safety issues arising due to gangs, fights, weapons,
> etc.  Bottom line, I guess my point is....don't make your decisions based
> upon your vision.  Regardless of what level you teach, you will need to
> develop a strong classroom management plan because kids can be sneaky and
> deceitful at any age.  You will want to develop classroom routines,
> procedures, etc. that help you manage the class and keep behavior problems
> to a minimum.  As to hiring, I personally didn't have this issue but have
> heard plenty of stories where people have had issues.  I think the key is
> going into the interview prepared to discuss and address any concerns they
> may have and how you will handle them.  Often for teachers with visual
> impairments, they want to know how you are going to manage student
> behavior, so you'll want to go into it knowing how you are going to deal
> with it and what type of plan you will put into place to minimize any
> issues arising.  These are just my initial thoughts.  Best of luck to
> you!Nicole
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dawn via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>
> To: nobe-l <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Dawn <illibrium at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Sat, Dec 14, 2019 7:32 pm
> Subject: [NOBE-L] Questions about teaching
>
>
>     My name is Dawn Scott, from San Antonio, TX. I am a 43 year old,
> married, mother of 5.  I am almost done with my BA in family studies and
> human development, and am looking into obtaining my teaching certificate. I
> am low vision, but have a good amount of usable vision. I am looking into
> teaching consumer science, child development or health nutrition at the
> middle or high school level. I am also open to other suggestions. My
> reasoning is older kids can turn in their work electronically and they are
> self governing. A few visually impaired people disagree with me, but they
> aren’t teachers. Their general consensus is older students would be more
> likely to take advantage of a disability. Younger students are more helpful
> and honest. What has been your experiences with teaching different age
> groups?
>     Has hiring been a big problem for anyone? I am concerned if I do the
> work to become a teacher in Texas, I won’t get hired because of my
> disability.
> Thanks in advance for your input. I look forward to meeting you all at the
> NFB convention in Houston.
> Dawn Scott
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
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