Different view
- From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:30:33 -0400
Explorer News, AZ, USA
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Different view
By Eric Beidel
Traveling teacher Christina Schoch shows visually impaired students the way
through Marana schools
Sitting between a stack of giant calculators and a Braille machine, the two
third-graders pressed monoculars to their eyes.
Itinerant teacher Christina Schoch stood 10 feet away with slips of paper, each
containing a vocabulary word. She held the words at chest level, then over her
head and off to the side.
Fabian Gonzalez and Elizabeth Edwards take part in a program Schoch started in
1996 for the Marana Unified School District to aide visually impaired students.
Schoch and two other teachers work with about 60 students each day.
Fabian has no lenses in his eyes. Elizabeth's vision has suffered since her
premature birth.
The two attend regular classes with other third-graders. They use special lamps
at their desks and place their schoolwork on giant binders to hold the words
closer to their eyes.
Schoch travels between five schools during the week. She spent the morning of
Oct. 3 at Ironwood Elementary School, where Haylee Holland used an abacus to do
algebra.
Haylee, who will turn 12 years old next month, took notes with a
typewriter-like machine with tiny metal pins that allow her to feel the words.
Schoch sat next to her with a Braille Writer resting on her knees. She typed
math problems that the teacher had written on the board and handed them to
Haylee, who ran her fingers across them.
Haylee's vision extends to about the tip of her nose. Schoch wiped smudges from
Haylee's face after she had been painting a picture in art class.
Becky Fowler, a fourth full-time teacher who works with the visually impaired,
used to lead Haylee from class to class. This year, Haylee has navigated the
campus alone using her white cane.
Haylee attended the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) for pre-school
and kindergarten. But, like an increasingly growing number of kids with visual
impairments, she switched to the public school system.
"They're here for socialization," Schoch said. "The real world is full of
sighted people, so being here really helps them adapt to the real world."
Haylee's mother, Tawni Holland, teaches at Desert Winds Elementary School.
Because ASDB caters more to kids with cognitive deficiencies, she felt Haylee's
best chance to get a varied education lied in Marana schools.
"We didn't want to retard her development," Holland said. "At home, she acts
like a typical kid. She rides her bike, plays with friends, even goes rock
climbing."
While Haylee excels academically, she usually ends up alone at recess.
Making friends is the hardest subject of all for blind students, Schoch said.
"We've sort of failed in that," the teacher said. "It's really to the point
that Haylee doesn't enjoy recess, because all of the kids are running around
and she can't see what they're doing or where they're going."
In the classroom, Haylee's peers treat her like a regular kid, trying to figure
out where the decimal point goes in multiplication problems.
Last week, her algebra group partner Chris Smith without batting an eye
retrieved her abacus for her when he saw Haylee struggling to find it in her
backpack.
Chris gave Haylee a visual summary of their group assignment, describing the
worksheet and saying, "We do this as a group, but we all have our own sheets to
fill out."
Visually impaired students require expensive technology and tools. Last week,
Schoch joked that she had an upcoming meeting with her supervisor to discuss
"how much I've been spending."
In a little office on Ironwood's campus, Schoch and her associates have a
Braille Writer, a Braille printer and a bookshelf filled with Braille textbooks.
Currently, Haylee is the only student in the district that reads Braille.
Because of their size, she needs a half-dozen or so Braille books just to cover
the same material in one regular textbook.
Schoch uses a number of computer programs that make text bigger or allow
students to complete assignments audibly rather than visually.
The district also has several closed-circuit TVs for students with lesser
vision. The screens magnify papers or classroom boards.
Students can make the image larger, or change the color of the text or
background to make it easier to read.
Sheldon Harbour, 10, uses one of the TV in his classes. He has retinoschisis,
an uncommon disease that splits the retina's sensory layers.
Though the disease rarely results in total blindness, it can reduce vision to
less than 20/200 in both eyes.
Students move in and out of the visual impairment program, depending on their
needs.
Schoch visits the classrooms of all of her students, no matter their levels of
vision.
After brain surgery, Gunner Randall lost much of his periphery vision. His
right side seems to have suffered the most.
While Gunner tried to glue together a paper house last week, Schoch watched his
right arm hang limp at his side.
"It does this sometimes when he stops using it," Schoch said before placing his
arm back up on the table. "Let's try to use both," she told Gunner.
Schoch just this year began keeping an eye on Isabella Rasmussen, a shy girl
who has struggled with her sight as the result of a rather common doctor's
treatment.
Her doctor essentially blinded her strong eye to force her to use her weak eye.
Isabella has been using the same tools as Fabian and Elizabeth. Last week, she
worked on math problems at her desk under the glow of a lamp.
The University of Arizona offers teacher training to those who want to assist
visually impaired students. The university often sends interns to shadow Schoch.
The next college intern she will get is a blind woman with a guide dog. Schoch
previously has worked with three other blind interns.
In addition to her regular classroom work, Schoch always seems to be giving a
presentation to someone.
Last week, she spoke to a group of Ironwood students about some of the tools
that blind people use.
She showed them a whistle used to let kids know when they're close to the hoop
in basketball or the goal in soccer. She passed around science books with
raised pictures of animals.
And, of course, she typed "Max" in Braille per a student's request.
This week, the teacher and the student will team up when Haylee and Schoch
speak to a group of parents with visually impaired children.
They want to show the parents the advantages of sending their children to
public school.
By all accounts, Haylee can use herself as evidence.
Fast facts
About 10 million blind and visually impaired people live in the U.S.; about
93,600 are students in special education.
About 45 percent of people with serious visual impairment or blindness graduate
high school, compared to 80 percent of the sigted population.
Approximately 109,000 visually impaired people in the U.S. use long canes to
get around; about 7,000 use guide dogs.
Approximately 5,500 legally blind children in the U.S. use Braille as their
primary reading medium.
In 2005-2006, 726 students in Arizona were classified as having a visual
impairment. That's .07 percent of the more than 1 million students enrolled in
state public schools that year.
Sources: American Foundation for the Blind and Arizona Department of Education
http://www.explorernews.com/article/show/20301
BlindNews Mailing List
Subscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" as subject
Unsubscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" as subject
Moderator: BlindNews-Moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Archive: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind
RSS: http://GeoffAndWen.com/BlindNewsRSS.asp
More information about RSS feeds will be published shortly.
Other related posts:
