[Pibe-division] Comment
Sheila Amato
brltrans at verizon.net
Tue Jun 8 00:59:25 UTC 2010
Hi, Denise - In such a situation, my first (knee-jerk) response would be to try to find out WHY the kid is struggling. There are many factors that could come into play, such as a learning disability, not enough instructional time in the expanded core curriculum, the need for PT or OT, etc. I would like to see a functional vision assessment done, and a learning media assessment done. I would request an assistive technology assessment. I would use the Michigan Severity Rating Scale to document the services that should be provided. I would bring all the data generated by these assessments to a team meeting and lay it out and say that this is what the kid needs in the way of materials and in instruction. Now, who can provide this for the child?
As a TVI, I have said outright to administrators that I am not the best qualified person to teach a specific piece of (brand new) technology... I had never used it before. So, I asked for - and received - training in how to use it... and mentorship support. True, I had to do the legwork and find my own trainer (after all, this is my world, and I hope I have more networks than a public school administrator in the blindness world), but they were willing to support my need... so I could support my student's.
As a TVI in the trenches (for another 3 weeks... and then I'm a retired TVI after 38 years of teaching), it's not my place to evaluate the skills (or lack thereof) of my colleagues. That is where the administration and the parents need to step up to the plate. Yes, sigh, I've seen and heard stories of too many incompetent teachers - just as you have. I think I'm always going to be the eternal optimist and try to find a way to fix a situation through mentorship and networking. If they're there in the teaching position, I'm going to try to help them get better each day. We don't have any other pool to draw from.
Do you know of any more recent data than this... there are about 40 teacher-training programs in the country. Collectively, they graduate about 250 TVIs a year. I would guess this data is about 8-10 years old, but based on the number of graduate students in my braille courses, I get 7 or 8 or 9 a year. In the past few years, I've run approximately a 50% failure rate in my university braille courses (I teach 5 of them). So, I guess that sparks more questions than it does answers. I probably had 15 students pass braille this past year out of 30 something who enrolled.
I'm really enjoying this dialogue...
Sheila
From: Dr. Denise M. Robinson
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 8:03 PM
To: Professionals in Blindness Education Division List
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
Sheila
I am not sure you would use these arguments if you had a blind child who was at the bottom of the class, struggling and unable to meet his potential due to the poor instructional skills of his TVI
Denise
Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
Coordinator for Blind/VI students at ESD105
Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired
509-969-3622
--- On Mon, 6/7/10, Sheila Amato <brltrans at verizon.net> wrote:
From: Sheila Amato <brltrans at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
To: "Professionals in Blindness Education Division List" <pibe-division at nfbnet.org>
Date: Monday, June 7, 2010, 10:42 PM
Hi, Denise - ay, we can be bad in so many ways...
We can have poor communication skills and not accurately convey the scope of our - or our students' needs.
We can have poor skills in transcribing braille
We can have poor skills in teaching braille... which (as we all know) is not necessarily related to transcribing braille
We can have poor social skills
We can have poor mobility skills
Of course you realize I'm speaking tongue in cheek. What I am trying to convey is that just as each of our students is an individual... with unique talents and areas in need of further development, so are teachers.
I consider myself a rather proficient braille transcriber, but I will also admit that I have a colleague who is a much better teacher (introducing braille skills to little ones) than I am. However, she would panic if she had to transcribe geometry, while I sink my teeth in and grin.
This is one unique thing about OUR field that regular educators - or even special educators - don't have to deal with. We teach kids:
from birth to 21 - or older
those who are blind (adventitiously or congenitally)
those who have varying degrees of low vision (adventitiously or congenitally)
those with vision loss and multiple disabilities
in any combination of the above, and in multiple settings on a daily basis.
I don't know any one individual who can do it ALL to a high level of proficiency. I do know many who are in there every day doing the best they can with limited resources and lack of support from the educational system as well as the parents and doctors.
We tend to hear about the problem teachers. They make the daily news and people are outraged. We do ourselves a disservice as a field for not sharing news publicly about the teachers who are considered to be excellent - by virtue of their student's outstanding achievements. Even without data (but with common sense, perhaps) I'm willing to bet the good apples in our field highly outnumber the bad ones.
The REAL problem is... what are we all going to do to help the teachers with less-than-proficient skills reach for the stars and gain the proficiency they need to have, what are we going to do to "fix" a system of education that is broken, and how can we assure that students who graduate from teacher training programs do so with a set of skills and knowledge that meet national criteria.
Sheila
From: Dr. Denise M. Robinson
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 10:15 AM
To: Professionals in Blindness Education Division List
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
The REALLY bad thing about the content of these comments is we have the teachers with poor skills telling the administration all the incorrect information--which they believe, hence the lack of instruction and poor instruction continues.
Denise
Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
Coordinator for Blind/VI students at ESD105
Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired
509-969-3622
--- On Mon, 6/7/10, Kirsten Peterson <kpeterson at perandoe.org> wrote:
From: Kirsten Peterson <kpeterson at perandoe.org>
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
To: "Professionals in Blindness Education Division List" <pibe-division at nfbnet.org>
Date: Monday, June 7, 2010, 5:13 AM
I couldn't agree with you more Denise! Thanks for standing up and making the point that clearly needs to be made over and over again. It amazes me how many school districts and teachers..special ed teachers included..think of Braille instruction as an extra to occur when time allows, rather than as an absolute necessity!
Kirsten
On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 7:43 PM, Allison Hilliker (NFBA) <nfbarizona at gmail.com> wrote:
Well said, Denise! I'm glad we have teachers out there like you who are spreading such Braille-positive messages.
It continuously amazes me how seldom common sense is applied when many people teach blind kids. Concepts that are widely accepted as educational must-haves, like teachers proficient in the material they teach, are considered novelties or low priorities for blind kids.
Allison
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr. Denise M. Robinson
To: Professionals in Blindness Education Division List
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
Poor teacher skills ARE directly related to poor student outcomes. I have seen it over and over for the past 20 years as anyone else has in the field who has good skills and see their students exel and others who do not because of the teacher who is teaching them with poor skills.
You cannot teach what you do not know and students cannot learn what you cannot teach them. You do not need formal research to know this, though it would not be a bad idea to finally put such a foolish notion to rest. But how many teachers with poor skills are going to stand up and say "yes, please test me and show me how poor my skills are and test my students to show everyone how far behind they are compared to a teacher with good skills."
Denise
Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
Coordinator for Blind/VI students at ESD105
Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired
509-969-3622
--- On Sun, 6/6/10, Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Carrie Gilmer <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Pibe-division] Comment
To: "'Professionals in Blindness Education Division List'" <pibe-division at nfbnet.org>
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010, 4:12 PM
Right on Denise, exactly dead on right on. Thank you for not being frustrated, bothered and angry in silence. Carrie
----------------------------------------------------
From: pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Denise Mackenstadt
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 1:07 PM
To: pibe-division at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Pibe-division] Comment
Recently on AERnet I noticed a post that bothered me. I have responded and I am sending this response to the PIBE list. Every time I think that we are making progress something like this comment is used to justify not providing for the needs of blind kids. Here is the post and my response:
Recently in response to a question posted by Sheila one of the posts stated "Weaknesses: 1. still no published research proving or disproving that poor teacher braille skills are responsible for poor braille outcomes for students. Nevertheless, we've gone full steam ahead addressing a "problem" that may not exist. Assertions by advocacy groups are not evidence, nor are gut hunches. We need DATA. And thus far no data exists." I find it astonishing that an assertion is being made that teacher competency in an essential skill to be taught to students is not relevant to student outcomes. Lack of Data cannot take the place of common sense or best practice. I cannot think of another subject area, for example: Language Arts, Math, Science or Art, where a decent state licensing entity will not expect an instructor to demonstrate competence. As a parent I would be very concerned if my child's English teacher could not read or write English. Let us not throw out critical thinking as an alternative to non-existent DATA Collection. I do not want to say that legitimate research and legitimate data results are not beneficial to best practices. But let us not sacrifice common sense to the altar of statistics.
Denise Mackenstadt, NOMC
Mackenstadt Rehab Services
(206)419-9555
cane.travel at gmail.com
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Kirsten M. Peterson, M.S.Ed.
Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments
Perandoe Special Education District
1525 Locust
Red Bud, IL 62278
(618) 282-6251 ext. 104
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