Transcription Error

 When my phone receives a voicemail, I can listen to the voicemail, or I can read the transcription of the voicemail.  It is sometimes nice when I'm in a setting when I can't put the phone to my ear and listen to the message, but I can glance at my phone and see the typed gist of the message.

That said, of course the phone sometimes has errors in the transcriptions.

So, when my friend posted this on facebook last night, I laughed out loud because I could imagine this happening and portraying a very different message than the one intended.

He's Ready

 He's ready to start earning his keep around the house by working from home like Mama does...

Go Gray in May Brain Tumor Awareness Speech

May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month

The Plans

I make a lot of plans for our family.  I make plans for the season, for the month, for the week, and for the day.  Sometimes our plan is to stay home and relax... but there is still a plan for the day.  I know what time I'm expecting the kids to wake up -- I plan what time I'm awakening so I can plan what I want to get done before they wake.  I like to think our house runs as smoothly as it does because of my plans.

Well, we had a plan for this weekend.  We had a great plan.

I was supposed to go to Denver for a two-day professional development workshop Friday and Saturday.  I was supposed to leave Thursday afternoon and get back Satuday evening.

The kids didn't have school on Friday due to conferences, but we had a baby-sitter booked and Hubby planned to come back mid-day and take everyone to Carbondale for soccer practice, lunch, and to play in the park with the sitter while he attended conferences.

He was excited to take everyone to breakfast Saturday and then come home for a lazy day at home with Daddy until Mama got home around bedtime.

Oh the beautiful plans.

I should have known that the plans were in trouble when we kept all four kids home on Thursday due to vomiting.  Lee Lee had thrown up Wednesday evening, and Caroline woke us up during the night on Thursday.  Tracey was over the stomach bug she had over Easter... but was coughing to beat the band.  So we made the call to keep everyone home on Thursday.

By the time I was supposed to leave for Denver Thursday afternoon, both twins were vomiting every 30 minutes or so and Lee Lee was having an upset tummy with some very messy diapers.  I just thought if the twins could get over the actual vomiting, they would be exhausted and wanting to sleep and cuddle, and Chris could handle everything while I was gone.  This is an annual conference and some years I cannot attend -- this year I could.

I left our house around 7pm and arrived at my hotel around 10:00pm.

Up at 5:00am, I checked on the cameras to see how everyone's night went... and it was awful.  Both twins were up multiple times the entire night vomit.  And, I could see on the nursery camera that Lee Lee was awake and crying (probably from a messy diaper) and Hubby wasn't waking up to check on her.   I had to call our house phone to wake up Chris.

That's when I made the call... I needed to be home.

I like to think I keep a pretty good finger on the pulse of how our home is running, and I think I know what Hubby is capable of handling in my absence.

This was a two-parent situation.

I emailed the event organizer, took a shower, grabbed continental breakfast with a few colleagues also staying at the same hotel for the conference, checked out and headed home.

I walked through the door at 11:00am with jello, applesauce, bananas, ginger ale, and bread and Hubby was shocked... and then incredibly grateful.

I was gone a total of sixteen hours, six of which were spent on the road.

He was even more grateful when both twins and Lee Lee were vomiting again within 30 minutes of my getting home.

So... new plans for the weekend, which include lots of baths, lots of cuddles, lots of laundry. 

I felt so guilty for taking a spot in the conference registration... but this is the reality of being a working mother, and living away from family.  The truth is our family comes first, especially with our children as young as they are, and I needed to be at home.

Plans change.

 

10 On The 10th

10 picture taken on the 10h of the month... 

many in the car when you're a traveling vision teacher.

Post workout picture

In the care on the way to school 

Rain in the valley... snow in the mountains

The kid's dropped off and now driving and making work calls.

Long list

Many braillers...

Grading a braille assignment

Picked up kids.

Almost home

Bedtime.

 

One Month...

One Month from today will be a big day...

One month from today will be the culmination of something I began working on last January... something that literally started with one door being closed in my face and God opening a window for this idea.

This idea started in my head and has been my baby throughout the process.  I have one other teacher assisting me... but this is event is the culmination of my hard work and investment.

Here are the details:

I have a new student this year in 6th grade at a local middle school who is blind due to a brain tumor she has been fighting since she was 3 years old.  She is such an inspiration. 

Working with this student was my first exposure to the challenges of someone living with a brain tumor and from our working together this year came this idea for a Brain Tumor Awareness Event for our community.  We want my student to know there are other people in the valley suffering from brain tumors, and no one is alone in their fight.

We are partnering with some local schools creating a Brain Tumor Awareness Week during the week leading up to the race to really increase awareness in this area, especially with this studen's peers.

The event is a 1K Emoji Fun Run on Saturday May 11 at 10:00am in Silt.  We are partnering with the Silt Police Department and their annual Bike Safety Rodeo.  The race starts at one Park and ends at another Park where the Silt PD Bike Rodeo will be happening at the same time.  "Come for the Race!  Stay for the Rodeo!"

Race participants are encouraged to dress to support someone fighting a brain tumor... or dress like an emoji!

If participants register before April 18, they are guaranteed a race t-shirt.

We are hoping for a great family and youth turnout, so youth prices are available for kids ages 5-18.

All the proceeds go to the National Brain Tumor Society.

We have received monetary and in-kind donations from organizations up and down the valley and we have been thrilled by the community response thus far.

The race registration is available here:

https://gograyinmay1kemojifunrun.itsyourrace.com/event.aspx?id=12006

Two Blind Brothers Ted Talk

This was certainly worth the 17:21 of my time...

 

Working With Mama

When your Mama is a braille teacher, this is what you do when you come to work with Mama.  The ear protection is because the embosser is running and it is really loud.

 

Mark Twain

I read this the other day, and it really touched my heart.  I had never heard it before but it is a quote I want to remember.

 

Mantra For The School Year

I saw this last night and I cannot think of a more fitting sentence for me to read and ponder heading into this school year.

I think I'm going to have to memorize this, print it and tape it around my house, office, car, etc to read repeatedly throughout every day... not that I'm going into this school year overwhelmed or anything.

 

FRIDAY!!!

Frankly, Fridays have been a little anti-climatic in our home for the past four years when our local school district switched to four-day school weeks for budgetary reasons.  Thursday is the new Friday around here.

Now, our kids still go to school on Fridays, and I still work on Fridays but the whole situation doesn't have the same "TGIF" feeling that I grew up with.

That is... until TODAY!!!

Oh my gosh this has been an absolutely insane week both at work and at home and trying to do both.  I've worked more than double what I'm actually paid to work this week, and had to write two really big reports, and lead to really big meetings with special ed directors, special ed teachers, school principals, my boss, and parents I don't know well for two new students.

It was a stressful week.

Today is my last meeting for the week... and even if it weren't... ITS FRIDAY!!!!

All work stops for the next two days!!!

TGIF!!!

 

 

Combining Vision and Mothers

So, I've been doing a lot of posts this week related to mothers and motherhood, which are appropriate leading up to Mother's Day.

Well, this post I'm really excited about because it combines the subjects of Mothers with the subject of blindness and visual impairments, which is related to my career.  I work with students with blindness, who, thankfully, are not mothers yet... but this video is an amazing combination of two of my favorite subjects.


God bless this Doctor for thinking outside the box and doing all that he could to give this woman the same experience as every mother he sees.

Why Yes...

"Why yes, my mama is a vision teacher, why do you ask?"

Teaching the Hard Stuff

I teach my students about Sept 11, 2001.

I do not scare my students, and depending on their age, I give more or less details of the actual account on that day, but I do teacher my students about Sept. 11.

Last year, I taught my, then 2nd and 4th graders that firemen are heroes.  I related the concept to when we have fire drills at school.  Both of these students remembered and understood that when there is a fire drill, everyone leaves the building.  I pointed out to them, that even though everyone is leaving the building, the firemen are running inside the building ready to help anyone that might still be in there.

We wrote letters to our local firemen thanking them for everything they do, and I emphasized the point that when everyone runs out, the firemen run in.  One student came back to me the next day, and said that her mom was so impressed that her daughter had written a letter in appreciation of the local fire department, that Mom might send a letter too.

This year, I saw my, now, 5th grader on Sept. 11, and I told her more of the details of why we celebrate and thank firemen on Sept. 11.  I handed her two, pretty small, stacks of post-it notes (about 1" high) and I told her that these two stacks of post-in notes were supposed to represent the size of an average house, or an average school.  When fires start in a home or a school, this is the size of the building that is involved, this is where the firemen go to help people.

Then, I put my tall, 10", 16 oz water bottle next to the two stacks of post-its.  I told her that on Sept 11, there was a fire in a really big, tall building, and firemen had to climb, and climb, and climb to just reach the fire in order to put it out.  And while the firemen were trying to get to the fire, everyone else in the building was evacuating... and not long after the fire began, the entire building crashed (and I smashed the water bottle sideways to the table).  I explained that, some people got out of the building, but the people who were still in there, who the firemen were on their way to help, died in the crash, even if they didn't die in the fire.

I told her that this is a really sad topic, and we don't talk about it very often, because it is a really sad thing to talk about, but we DO talk about it on September 11, because we have to remember all these people who died in this fire, and the crash, and we remember the firemen who ran into the building, when everyone else was trying to run out of the building.

I touched a little bit on terrorism... but I didn't use that word.  I told her that one thing that made these fires so bad was that they weren't an accident.  Some people who hate America started these fires on purpose and were trying to hurt as many people as possible.  These people are from other countries and they hate that we are free, and that we can go to school, and that women can go to school, and that we can go to any church we want to.  I did not tell her that they used airplanes to start the fires, because I do not want her to be afraid to fly -- that piece of information will come in a few years.

Then, I read my student a story about a guide dog that was a hero on Sept. 11.  I told her that firemen and police officers were not that only ones who became heroes just by doing their job.  Although my student does not have a guide dog, she might someday, and I read her about how, after the explosion, no one could see anything, and the blind man, and about 12 other sighted people followed the guide dog safely down 76 flights of stairs, and a safe distance from the building.

Then, I asked my student to think about all the things we had talked about, and write a letter to our local firefighters.

It is not easy to teach students these very hard, sad, tough topics... I cried several times while she and I were talking... but I think it is our responsibility as teachers.  I think it is the role of parents as well, but it is also my job, as a teacher in America.

What good does it do to change my picture on facebook to a picture from the aftermath of 9-11, and say "I have not forgotten," if I am not doing my part to educate the next generation with what happened that day?

It is not my place to scare these students, or give them such a gruesome account that they burst into tears.  It is my job to teach them what happened, in an age-appropriate way, and help our nation create a positive outcome (appreciating our local firemen) from a horrible event.

How do you teach your students, or children about 9-11?

Please Join Me In Prayer.

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 I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that the Lord hears my prayers even when I don't speak them out loud. When I am the only one who knows what I'm saying to the Lord, I believe He hears, and listens, and answers. That being said, I don't exactly know how more people praying about and for the same topic increases the clarity of God's response, but I believe my faith increases when I ask others to pray on my behalf.
I don't fully understand how more or less people praying changes or enhances God listening and responding... and I am so grateful I don't have to understand.  It is not my job to understand.

I am so grateful that I am free to pray to my Creator, my Comforter, my Lord, my God, my Savior, my Father, my Friend any time and on any subject.  I am also grateful that I can request the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ and believe that their joining me in prayer makes a difference.

Today I'm requesting prayer for my summer practicum placements for Orientation and Mobility training.  These practicum placements are like student teaching for this graduate degree I am earning and I need 9 weeks of practicum experience to complete this degree.

 

I have been praying about, researching, petitioning, and organizing summer practicum placements for months now.  While I was earning other graduate degrees, my university arranged my student teaching placements, but for this Orientation and Mobility degree I am arranging everything on my own.  My hours of work have been endless... and literally endless because the summer placements are not yet arranged or confirmed.

At one point, 6 weeks ago, I believed all three of my necessary placements were arranged... but they were not and my quest has continued.  Maybe it is not the Lord's Will for me to complete this degree in 2013 and every day that passes that organization after organization does not return my calls, I become more and more convinced this might be the case, but I want to complete this degree in 2013 and until God clearly closes every door for this summer, I'm going to continue knocking. 

 

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Specifically:

• Please join me in prayer for the arrangements of summer placements. 
• Or join me in prayer that all the doors would be locked tight and I would get the message to stop knocking!
• Please pray that my will be in joyful submission to whatever the Lord wants me to do with my summer... and my life... and it will be on His time frame.
• Please pray that I learn from this intense frustration and that it grows my character.
• Please join me in prayer that something changes because I am coming to the end of my rope. 
• Maybe you will feel led to pray that I get a new dose of patience for dealing with organization after organization that seems intent on a lack of common courtesy... 
• But please, however you feel led to pray, please join me in prayer.

Oh, the Irony...

When I was in elementary, middle, and high school, very little drove my daddy more crazy than I had to do "art projects" in academic subjects.

You know the assignments... a colorful poster board about Pearl Harbor, a painted Styrofoam ball to demonstrate the parts of a cell, a collage demonstrating geometry in the real world -- these assignments drove him crazy.  My dad attended school in the 30s and 40s and it was UNHEARD of that a student would be assigned an "art project" as a way of learning.

If I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times... "She's not going to be an artist... when are her collage-making skills going to come in handy in the real world?"

Oh, the Irony...
Little did he know...

I would not grow up to be an artist, but occasionally I have to flex an artistic bone and create tactile graphics for my students.  Yesterday I found myself creating the step-by-step formation of Colorado sand dunes.  I had some fun and got quite a chuckle realizing that I was doing an "art project" for my teaching job.

What do you think of my sand dunes?

News From My Field

Many of you know that I work with students who are blind and visually impaired.

There are very rewarding parts of my job, and very challenging parts of my job.

Thus far, the most challenging part of my job has been working with a student who is slowing losing his vision... he doesn't exactly need my services today, but I have to try to prepare him to adjust to the idea that someday he might need my services -- and by that time he might be out of school, and I won't be there.

There are several eye diseases that slowly rob people of their sight, but last night on NBC Nightly News, they announced a tremendous breakthrough for people with one specific eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa.

I have a few students with this disease and know several adults who have lost, or are losing their vision to this disease.  The below news story is an answer to prayer and the biggest breakthrough people with Retinitis Pigmentosa have ever seen.

Wouldn't it be amazing if, in time, eventually, I had to find a new job because people's vision had been restored through the miracle of science and technology?  Please, Lord, let it be!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Vision Trip: Climbing

Before Christmas, my colleagues and I took six of our vision students from across our counties to a rock climbing gym.  The kids were able to meet each other, or become re-acquainted if the had met at our Vision Ropes Course field trip last spring.

It was an awesome time.

Enjoy some of the pictures.

Most of our group... one kiddo had left already

Pretending like we're climbing...

Here's a video:


What a great day!

Have You Ever Wondered What I Do?

Yesterday, I attended an all-staff workshop with all of my colleagues.  As I've alluded in the past, I travel a lot in my job, and so do my colleagues.  The organization for which I work does not have an easy task managing their staff between two offices and across ten school districts.  We communicate via phone and email and rarely talk face-to-face.  Days like yesterday are enjoyable because we're all in one place, once, to start the year.

As a part of the workshop yesterday, each department was asked to write a description of what they do to possibly be put into an annual report to share with the school districts we serve.  This will help the districts know exactly what they are getting through all of our collective services.

The Vision Team spent an hour creating a document explaining what we do, and I was really pleased with the result.  I think it is comprehensive, but not over-informative, and accurate, but not overly-complicated.

When we finished, I jokingly said to one of my vision colleagues, "I might have to send this to my mom and dad so they have a better understanding of what I do."  He said he'd like to send it to some of the general education district teachers with whom he works, so they believe that he really does have a job and doesn't just drive from school to school.

That gave me the idea to share what we wrote on my blog.  If you've ever wondered what I do, the document the vision team wrote describes it so well.

Before you read it, I should clarify that I am a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI), and I was recently accepted to a program to become certified as an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) instructor.  So, in the below writing, my job is TVI, and in the next two years, I will also the the O&M teacher, but I am not at this time.  The organization for which I work employs two TVIs and one O&M instructor to serve vision students across ten school districts.

What Do the Vision Teachers Do?

by: The Vision Department

         Vision services and Orientation and Mobility (O&M) services equip students with visual impairments for independent learning in the general education environment through providing instruction for skills and means to access the general curriculum.  In so doing, our aim, job, and goal is to create independent, safe, productive, happy citizens without limitations. 

When a student qualifies for vision services, they are not only entitled to curriculum adaptations, they become involved in an entire extended core curriculum (ECC).   A teacher for students with visual impairments (TVI) adapts general education material and curriculum so it becomes accessible for the student with visual impairment regardless of the severity of the visual impairment.  This includes but is not limited to braille and large print production, supplemental materials, tactile representations, magnification, auditory resources, and high-and-low classroom technology.

         Beyond the time spent adapting and supplementing general classroom curriculum, the TVI prepares and instructs the students with visual impairments in a standardized extended core curriculum.  The subjects included are (1) social skills, (2) daily living skills, (3) orientation and mobility, (4) technology, (5) recreation and leisure, (6) career and transition skills (7) visual efficiency, and (8) self-determination.  All of these subjects are the teaching responsibility of the TVI.  The students may have IEP goals in each of these areas throughout their years of schooling as they advance in skill and grade level.

         It is the responsibility of the TVI to determine the eligibility and severity of every potential student requiting services.  A recent eye doctor report is required before a TVI can meet and potentially evaluate a student.  If the TVI determines that state eligibility might be met, the TVI will conduct a Functional Vision Assessment and Learning Media Assessment.  A Functional Vision Assessment describes, in detail, what a student is likely able to see in a school setting, while a Learning Media Assessment determines the student’s primary learning and literacy modality and media.

If it is determined that a student’s primary learning modality is tactile, it would be recommended that the student becomes a braille reader.  In this case, the TVI acquires the responsibility of teaching the student the Braille Code.  If the student is determined to be a Braille reader, their classroom textbooks, materials, and supplements must all be transcribed into Braille.  This is the job of the TVI or a Braillist, who works in conjunction with the TVI.

Included in the extended core curriculum is Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Instruction.  This curriculum teaches students the ability to know where they are in space and travel safely and efficiently in their environment as independently as possible.  These lessons often include development of cane use, distance-viewing skills, auditory and environmental awareness, traffic and pedestrian rules, time and distance, and public transportation where available.  Orientation and Mobility may involve environments in school, neighborhood, and community at large, both during and after school hours.

And now you have a better idea of what I do August-May.
Thanks for reading.

Doing Her Job

On September 11th, the policemen and firefighters, paramedics and first responders were not the only ones who became heroes by simply doing their jobs.  The follow is a story taken from my Intro To Special Education textbook from graduate school (Smith, 2007).

September 11, 2001, changed the lives of most Americans.  And the events of that terrible day certainly altered the lives of Michael Hingson and his guide dog, Roselle.  On 9/11, Mr. Hingson was working on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in his job as a sales manager for a computer data storage company, and on the day he and Rosell -- like so many others -- became heroes.

On that morning, Mr. Hingson was hosting a meeting, and Roselle was sleeping under the table at her master's feet.  At the sound of a deafening boom, Roselle took her duty station right by Mr. Hingson's feet.  David Frank, a coworker of Hingson's, saw debris, burning paper, fire and smoke out of the office window.  They knew they needed to evacuate the building.  Roselle and Mr. Hingson guided everyone down the dark and smoky stairways to safety, and once on the ground, they continued to guide people a safe distance from the collapsing buildings.  When Mr. Hingson was out of harm's way he called his wife on his cell phone and broke down in tears, "He sobbed tears that seemed connected to hell and yet also to heaven.  He hugged Roselle, who was perfectly calm.  He hugged and hugged her, unable to find words.  Finally, he said, 'Good dog.  Good dog.'" (Laskas, 2003, p.46).  He also often recalls that trip down the stairway and "thinks about those firefighters who stopped to pet her on the way up the burning tower.  He thinks about how Rosell answered them with dog kisses.  He thinks those just may have been the last moments of unconditional love those brave people felt, "Good dog," he says.  "Good dog." (Laskas, 2003, p. 48)... 

To read a more detailed account of Roselle and Mr. Hingson's exit from the North Tower, visit here.