Week 9

Oct. 7-11, 2013

This week, I'm learning more specifically about how to record student progress at the end of the day or student's lesson. It's good, because I'm also able to think more about what I'm doing when I'm teaching the kids and especially to think about what I'm going to do before I even begin a lesson. I also appreciated the teacher's feedback on what I recorded.

We also are in the process of evaluating a student at an elementary school in which we gave him his first official cane. He is just the littlest thing and using that cane so well already. Bryan says he is a natural and he foresees him learning the routes around the school in no time. How exciting to watch this curious kid develop great skills!

I'm learning how to just get over my fears and work through the challenge of possibly being bit, attacked, or slobbered on. I've been telling myself to just jump in and do it, because now is the time to get the practice. And, it's been working! :) I worked more with Andrew and Dino this week - 2 boys I swore I would not be handling at the beginning of the internship. With Andrew, I had almost complete independence working with him and he took completely everything out of me. I helped him trail a rail (15-20ft) that led to some shaky poles and helped him walk all the way back to class with his walker. This was really hard physically because he fought the entire way up the rail except for the walk back to class (which he loves - circle time!). With Dino, I think I'm finally finding a good rhythm for him that works for both of us. He loves music and so I had Stevie Wonder playing while he was practicing his touch and trail techniques with arc trainer support.

I also got to observe Bryan teach a new assistant how to work with one of the students. This was really cool, because I am so used to being the student. It was nice to take a step back and watch him teach someone else.

I also got to observe some really cool community lessons in downtown Dunedin - amazingly beautiful area of town. This was the very first time I've ever worked with audible signals at lighted intersections. Yes, can you believe it? This was actually my favorite lesson thus far. I learned so much and got to see the student perform so many obstacles under the blindfold in such a short amount of time. It was neat that Bryan took the time to teach the terms: parallel park and jay-walking at this time.

Another student I used to be fearful of working with was a deafblind student, named Sarah. Bryan has been backing off more and more and encouraging me to work with her more independently. At first, I did not appreciate that, but now I do. :) We are starting to make a connection and build a necessary relationship. Today, when I was working on some homework for this deafblind class I'm taking, I got ideas of new lessons I could incorporate with her and I got pretty excited about it. Thanks, Bryan! :)