Day 60

So. . .lots to reflect on! This week at school we are celebrating Braille Awareness in honor of the bicentennial birthday of Louis Braille, and I've learned more about Braille the last two days than I have all year. We've had great participation from the students and families, and it's encouraging to see how they are supporting Zack. Zack has had a really rough past few days with his behavior, and the vision team is wondering if he is being pushed too hard and in need of more breaks. He's been defiant and disrespectful (not to me, thank goodness!), and he's missing out on some fun activities because of it. I hope they can get to the bottom of it for his sake and for their sake. . .they were tired at the end of the day today! Zack's lead teacher told me something interesting yesterday--she said Zack doesn't think he's blind. She'll hold something out, say, "What is this," and he'll grab it and figure it out. She said she doesn't think he has a concept of sight or that he's missing anything. . .I guess that's a good thing, right? We'll see how he does tomorrow. Maybe he's just needing a break like the other kids are. . .

Day 50-something

So I have been out sick two days and caught in a whirlwind to finish my other class and start a new tutoring job. . .I am a distracted researcher! We are doing Braille Awareness week at school next week, and I'm really excited. My class is getting t-shirts donated by Zack's family (the staff and students can purchase them), and we're going to do different activities throughout the week. I am going to pull some of the books from the website previously listed on the blog, and I hope we can make steps to continue to narrow the gap between Zack and the other students. Our story in literacy today was about Braille (just a coincidence), and Zack came in just for the story. I'm not sure how much of it he was paying attention to. . .I think he has some of my germs, and when he doesn't feel good, it shows in his behavior. Hopefully tomorrow he will be back to himself. I'm anxious to see how it all goes next week (and this week with the preparations). I feel very much a part of it all as I am the only elementary classroom teacher with a blind student. . .kind of cool to have had the experience so far!

Days 52 and 53

I think I'm finally getting the hang having a full-time inclusion student, and then I go and forget to give the homework packet to the vision teacher when I'd had it for over a week. . .I'm still not 100% remembering all the pieces, but it's as smooth as I think it could be. One thing I have to admit I'm loving is having an adult perspective on everything from specials classes to how it went with a substitute. It's interesting to hear about your class from a different point of view! Zack's lead teacher went to a big training on Friday, and she wants Zack doing our full math program with us. He has been doing math every day with us, but she wants to braille all of the materials and things. Math seems to be a strong point for him, so we'll see how that goes. I was home sick today, so I don't have too much to say. When I was starting to lose my voice yesterday, though, Zack didn't recognize me when I said good morning to him--he asked me who I was. :) Then every time I spoke to him throughout the day, he'd tell me I had a frog in my throat. . .he makes me laugh! I guess a kid who is very in-tune to sounds would notice a froggy voice more than the other kids!