Day 47

Zack is continuing his impressive independence. . .he is shining when we give him the opportunity! I agree, though--it's rare that we give him a chance to show us his independence. We have his IEP on Tuesday this week, and I'm curious as to what his goals are. He had mastered 19 of 26 braille letters at his first parent conference, and he was at 21 of 26 by the next conference only 4 days later. He's learning how to use his fingers independently on the braille machine, and I'm amazed at listening to him read. I'm noticing that if I don't sit down to blog before I go to bed, I'm not remembering the things I noticed at school that day. Life has been busy lately, and my observations (which I'm sure were valid and would have led me to additional thoughts and questions) are gone from my memory. . .there's a lesson for a teacher-researcher--don't rely on your memory! Maybe I can make short little notes during the day and then add them to the blog. . .I don't have access to the blog at school, so that doesn't help. I will chalk the last few days up to learning a lesson the hard way and start fresh this week.

Day 45

Zack made some huge gains today, and I'm really proud of his independence. He came in with the class from music, and he was the boys' line leader. He and the girls' line leader held hands, so she was his sighted guide. It'll be like that all week, so I'll have to see if it continues working well. Anyway, the teacher who goes with him to specials usually goes to get the vision teacher who is with us the majority of the time. Sometimes Zack goes with her, and sometimes he stays with us. When he is sitting at the carpet with the rest of the class but without his teacher, he tends to be disruptive. He reaches all around him and knocks over things he finds, and he asks questions incessantly about where the teacher is and what's happening. Today was different, though--he sat appropriately with his head up and listened to the math lesson! He counted with us (I modified everything to be very auditory) and didn't ask once about the whereabouts of his vision teacher. I really praised his independence AND the independence of the class and their listening skills, and I told the vision teacher in front of Zack how impressed I was with his behavior. Hopefully strides like this will continue to happen--he has the potential to fit perfectly in with this group of kids and be very socially appropriate.

Day 44

So I learned tons about Zack at his conference when I heard from the lead vision teacher, the speech therapist and the physical therapist--it was great! So according to the lead teacher, Zack's interaction in class and his ability to sit and listen and follow directions have improved greatly since kindergarten. She mentioned some of the ways I have worked to include him (calling on him with the same frequency as the other kids, mentioning his name occasionally to cue him back to our class discussion), and I was thrilled to hear that positive feedback.
The speech therapist's report was probably the most interesting to me. She has been working with Zack on staying on a particular topic to carry on a conversation. As she said this, I realized that he does have much more trouble than a typical six-year-old when it comes to staying on a topic. Also, she said that she is having to really work to get him to stop asking so many questions (apparently appropriate questioning is a skill he worked on last year) because he is only asking questions instead of answering them or having a normal conversation. It was like a light turned on for me when she said that as Zack is incredibly curious and always asks questions to the point where it's more than you're typical child. We all discussed his fascination with adults, and once again, this was something I hadn't identified yet. It's true, though--Zack is much more interested in talking and interacting with adults than his peers. Is this because he always has an adult with him? Where is this coming from?
Next, the speech therapist talked about helping Zack to understand his prepositions by having him place an object around on a tray (or table or something). She thought he was having some trouble with them, but the vision teacher thinks he may be acting up when he's not performing for the speech therapist. Also, she thinks he may have some confusion with his pronouns. He'll occasionally say something about "you doing something" when we think he is trying to say "I am doing something." He does it when he talks about blowing his nose and will sometimes say "you need to blow your nose" when we think he means to say "you need to help me blow my nose" or "I need to blow my nose."
The physical therapist talked about her struggle and creativity in teaching Zack how to run naturally with opposite arm and leg movements. She said she'll occasionally carry him (all 30 pounds of him, I'm sure!) and run with him so he can feel the motion. How cool is that?! I am curious to hear more about what she's doing.
I have another conference with his father and step-mom/girlfriend tomorrow, so I'm excited to hear what other cool things I am going to find out about Zack's education.

Day 43

So Zack was too cute today. . .he loves to carry on conversations, and when I was talking with him at the end of the day, he wanted to know what I was doing after school. He is an amazing conversationalist, by the way--very articulate and friendly. I told him I was going home, and he asked if he could come to my house. :) He makes me smile! As I think about this, it might be a little immature for a six-year-old, but he is also somewhat of a clown. Hmm. . .I'll have to watch more of our interactions to see how he compares socially to his classmates. I only had him for a bit today, but he did join us at the end of literacy (and during math and writing as always). He came in as we were discussing our predictions from a story, and our class filled him in on the story so he could join the discussion. His questions about the story were right on target--he definitely has a sharp mind!
We had an interesting interaction with the class today. One boy in my class today was sitting at the carpet when Zack came over to join us as we were all getting ready to start a math lesson. His vision teacher stepped back to get something, and the child said, "Zack, sit." I immediately told him not to be bossy and to apologize (the child is known for being bossy) and reminded him he was not Zack's teacher. I hope I explained to the child how to treat him in the future and why his command was inappropriate. First graders. . .it's always something!
I have a meeting with the vision teachers in the morning to go over Zack's report card before conferences, and then I have a conference with one of his parents on Thursday and the other on Tuesday. I haven't had much interaction with the mother, a little with the father, and quite a bit with the step mother. We'll see how it goes. . .family dynamics are always interesting in conferences! Because of conferences, though, I won't have my kids again until Monday. . .

Day 42

Short and sweet today! Zack was back at school, but he's still really stuffy and had an ear ache today. I hope he can keep healthy! He sometimes has a harder time working when he doesn't feel good, but what six or seven-year-old doesn't?! He actually brailled a few CVC words on his own and read them today. His vision teacher was so excited I had to come see the commotion, and he read me the words he had just brailled. Apparently the vision teachers have been working on getting him to use his fingers in different combinations (the brailler he has has three keys for each hand, and he pushes one or a combination of several to make each letter), and he did it on his own. I came over to have him read to me, and he asked me, "Are you blind with me?" I think maybe he was asking me if I could read braille. . .it was sweet. I said, "No, Zack, I'm not, but I wish I could understand braille like you can!" I made a point to call on him during the high-frequency word section of our reading this afternoon, and I asked the vision teacher and Zack to pick out the word. He did just fine on it, and the teacher and I talked for a bit at the end of the day. She was very encouraging about how I am including him just like the other kids, and it was great to hear that feedback. I've really been working on thinking about the things I'm reading in the textbook (not talking over his head, expecting the same from him, not making him feel like he's being treated like a baby), and those thoughts from her were just what I needed to hear.
Poor Zack had two kids crying and fighting about being his partner today, so we quickly created a list of the class (split by boys and girls) to make it fair. We'll just go down the list, and whoever is next can be his partner that day. Who would have thought he'd be our number one partner? The kids are getting even better about treating him like an equal, and I'd like to think it has something to do with my interactions with him and the modeling and explaining I've done with them. Who knows--kids are naturally smart and good with one another, so I don't want to take any credit where it's not due!

Day 41

So today was a shortened day at school, and we didn't have math thanks to a bullying presentation. I wasn't able to work with Zack on any math skills or to try out my theory on his ability to count out a quantity using a bowl or other shallow container to help him understand conservation of number and the idea of a number representing a particular quantity. I DID get to have him in my class for all of literacy, though, and apparently it happens every Monday. I missed the pattern in the midst of the daily chaos, I guess! Anyway, I am making a conscious effort to make sure I call on Zack as often as the other kids, but I know I occasionally don't call on him when we are doing our high frequency words because I know he isn't doing these with us regularly and isn't expected to know them. Should I call on him during this time, too? I call on him enough that it isn't obvious, but I know he is learning his braille letters and not focusing on "sight" words during his time (Tuesday-Friday) with the vision teacher. I'll ask the team about it. . .I don't want to treat him differently!
There is a short article in the textbook I've been referring to about a blind adult who recalls learning that he didn't ever have to do his best on assignments in school. His first grade teacher asked the class to help him be safe at recess, so he had extra playmates. His middle school teachers assigned him half of the homework as other kids, and his high school teachers gave him half the reading and often gave him ful credit for partially completed work. The author of the article says it gave him a sense of entitlement that he didn't have to perform at the level of his peers. This entitlement came back to teach him a lesson when he got his first job and tried to do less than what was expected. He said it felt good to finally earn his full paycheck (after not getting a full check due to not completing his work) when he knew he had met the expectations. This made me think about Zack, of course. Am I unknowingly lowering my expectations of his production abilities? I can't think of a particular time this has come up, but he is unable to type in braille at this point so he has different expectations during writing time. Hmm. . .I think this may be another point to ponder and to watch for over the rest of the semester. . .

Days 37 through 40

A big chunk of time has gone by since my last blog, but Zack was out sick some this week. I got to work one-on-one with him on Friday for a while and then did his report card with his lead vision teacher, so I have lots to report on. :)
On Friday, I gave Zack the math test I've been giving to the other students since school started. It's a simple counting test that involves counting 32 cubes, counting out a given quantity, adding and taking away from a group of cubes and asking questions about adding or taking away cubes. He did fine on the counting piece (he started counting by 5s when he hit 25, but the teachers assured me this was him "performing" for me and that he regularly counts to 40 correctly for them), but he struggled on counting out a particular quantity. I discussed it with the vision teacher, and we think that he needs a container to put the cubes into so that he can touch the ones he's counted. He would just keep counting when I asked him to give me a pile of 18 or 12 or 7, never noticing when he reached the number. He was putting the cubes in a deep tray, though, and I think this was impacting his idea of conservation of number. Because he wasn't able to feel the cubes he had counted, he was performing a rote counting task rather than recognizing when he had reached a given quantity. Hmm. . .that may not make sense to anyone but me! It seemed foreign to him to create a quantity, so we're going to try it again with a shallow bowl for him to put the cubes in so the task seems more concrete.
His report card was a little challenging, but I think his vision teacher and I have the kinks all worked out. It was frustrating to grade him on tasks designed for seeing children (like letter recognition or sight word recognition) because he is at a different place in his reading instruction. Apparently braille is much more challenging to learn than visual letters? That may be another chapter I want to read quickly so I can have a better grasp of why that is. Although I don't work with him during reading time at all, it would be nice to understand what she is talking about. Remembering to give all of the testing materials to the vision team has been challenging. . .I can hardly keep up with the testing I have to do! We survived, though, and all of Zack's testing is done and his report card is complete. One day at a time, right?