Wednesday, November 18, 2009

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. . .

2 comments:

  1. Zack has is own way of responding to the questions "What is this?" If he grabs the object and examines it using his hand, he is using his appropriate sense to discover the answer to "What is this? He only knows how to answer that question with the senses he gathers information from.

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  2. Hello! I didn't know you had a blog! I've enjoyed reading through your reflections--I'm not at all surprised to see your love for your kiddos and your passion for teaching them shine through your words :-).
    Quick question: was Zach born blind? If so, then he probably doesn't realize he is blind, and would have no reference for sight-related words. I think Madeline hit the nail on the head as far as his employing the appropriate senses for him to answer questions.
    How is everything else going outside of the classroom :-)?

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