Week 7 (cont'd...)

Sept. 23-27, 2013

This week, we accomplished 2 screenings and attended another IEP meeting. I also had my first observation from one of the supervising teachers. It was a productive week as I am also taking on more students independently and really enjoying it.

On one of the screenings for a student, I started to learn how creative you have to be to accomplish this thing. These are the objectives I noticed Bryan got from the student while he screened him: (1) who the student was and where he came from, (2) if the student had mobility training in the past, (3) if the student uses peripheral/central vision, (4) what the student sees exactly when he is looking out at a view, (5) if the student knows anything about his visual impairment, (6) if the student has issues with night vision, (7) observing the student’s depth perception, (8) student’s ability to go up and down stairs, (9) if the student knows where certain rooms or buildings are in the school, (10) the student’s ability to read words from signs from certain distances, (11) if the student uses or used a telescope, and (12) if the student uses glasses and if he does, how often he relies upon the glasses to see. This screening took place over 3 different sessions.

The observation by one of the supervising teachers went very well. For this, I worked with Michelle, high school student with RP (retinitis pigmentosa). I had her blindfolded at a drop-off location in a residential area. When she came out of the car, I had her put the blindfold on, gave her directions (verbally) of a block route (u-route) travel from the current location to a coffee shop. Then, she was required to locate the store, go inside, make a purchase, and find a table. I was really impressed with her ability to do all of this with only one verbal prompt, because I afforded her about 6 prompts at most on the pre-written lesson plans. She ended up crossing a few intersections (stop signs) and one lighted intersection. When we made it to the coffee shop, I met her at the table she found and that is when she took off her blindfold and we were able to chat about her progress. Afterwards, I had her describe how she would reverse the route and then, she reapplied the blindfold and did just that with again, just one verbal prompt. I was proud of myself for biting my tongue the time she got lost in some bushes and had to find her way back out and onto the sidewalk and also when she could not make out when to cross the lighted intersection until after about 3 traffic cycles.

I am beginning to feel more and more confident about this position. Yay! :)