[Pibe-division] Comment

Tue Jun 8 23:08:18 UTC 2010

Many teacher's have a tendency to keep up with skills that are necessary for
teaching their students. If a TVI has no Braille students for one year,
naturally their Braille skills will be reduced. The same is true if the TVI
has no students using assistive technology, the TVI's assistive tech skills
will go down. Also, what about the TVI's who have over 25 on their caseload
and 8 students no Braille or are learning Braille. When the student see's
the TVI for ah, twice a week, could you say that the student is really
learning Braille? Sighted children are subjected to some form of print at
least 7 hours of the school day. Blind children do not have the privilege to
see Braille but maybe 4 to 6 hours a week, when being seen by an itenerate
TVI.

From: pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dr. Denise M.
Robinson
Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 11:13 AM
To: Professionals in Blindness Education Division List
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

 <http://us.mc524.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=cane.travel@gmail.com>
cane.travel at gmail.com

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