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didi - Hi Dave are you out there?
Dave MontrealCan - Good evening Didi welcome to the meeting
Dave MontrealCan - Nice to have you here
didi - Where is everyone???
Dave MontrealCan - I have no idea what grade do you teach welcome
didi - What do you teach Dave?
didi - I teach Year 5 to 11 Indonesian
Dave MontrealCan - I give workshops and inservice training to elementary teachers about mainstreaming and integrating sight impaired and blind children into the regular classroom environment
didi - That must be rewarding - how did you get into it?
Dave MontrealCan - I am sight impaired myself and was mainstreamed into the regular school system from K through University
didi - Did you find it difficult?
Dave MontrealCan - When I left University I found it next to impossible to get a job in the private sector so I started my own contracting business giving workshops and inservice training to elementary teachers
Dave MontrealCan - yes when I went to elementary school in the 1970's it was very challenging because I was the only sight impaired student at my elementary school
didi - What do you think is the single most important thing needed to integrate these children into a classroom?
Dave MontrealCan - For these children to succeed and flourish the support services must be there these children must have readily access to books in large print or on tape and also have itinerant teacher services available to them when needed. Also they should be made to feel welcome, wanted, and accepted in the regular classroom environment so that their year can be successful
didi - Yes, ideally. I worry that socially they may be left out. What would you recommend to someone like me who teaches a language?
Dave MontrealCan - Do you have a sight impaired child in your school this year?
didi - Yes, but he is not yet at the level where they start Indonesian - he starts next year.
didi - We do a lot of kinesthetic, hands-on activities in Year 5 - I'm worried about him getting knocked over, etc.
Dave MontrealCan - I would say that at the beginning of the year if you have a sight impaired child in your classroom you should at some point discuss this with the other students but making sure that the sight impaired child is not present at that time, open the floor for an honest discussion where the children will be allowed to discuss and give their opinions, this will allow you as their teacher to find out which students may be prone to bully or harass the sight impaired student and it will allow you to put in check any signs of intolerance by some of the students
didi - Although we do have a big emphasis on speaking & listening - which should help
didi - We don't have just one classroom teacher - there are specialists for every subject from Year 5.
didi - I can honestly say that I'm certain bullying and harassment wont happen in this school.
Dave MontrealCan - I have developed a series of audio taped workshops that I have done for elementary teachers and I have also just come out with a resource manual called "Integration A Rewarding Experience" these are very helpful resources
Dave MontrealCan - Do you teach in private school?
didi - Sounds good Dave - I'll speak to the 'boss'! re resources - yes it is a private school.
Dave MontrealCan - Do you have any itinerant teacher services available should you require assistance
didi - I don't know what you mean by 'itinerant' - a visiting specialist in vision-impaired??
Dave MontrealCan - Didi yes these are teachers who do the traveling circuit to schools who have sight impaired children mainstreamed and they bring the teachers books in large print or on tape and offer advice and are available should the regular classroom teacher require their services at any time
didi - No, I don't think that is available to us in non-government schools - but he appears to be very well integrated into his 'normal' subjects - I'm just concerned about him when he starts a foreign language - did you have this experience as a child?
Dave MontrealCan - Yes I learned French as a second language being in the Quebec school system it would be very helpful to this student to have language tapes available to them throughout the year that they could listen to and follow along I think listening and speaking the language throughout the year is a wonderful way for the student to learn
Dave MontrealCan - Also will you have a lot of oral discussion in your classroom this will benefit this student as well
didi - How do you think he'll cope with the more physical games we play in learning a language?
Dave MontrealCan - Please describe the psychical activities you have the children do?
Dave MontrealCan - Didi are you still there?
didi - Example; We play games like relays to reinforce number knowledge - team members run about 30 m , collect a written number and bring it back to the rest of the team, tag the next team member who collects the next number and so on - meanwhile the rest of the team puts the words in numerical order - students of this age love these sorts of games - but would he cope?
Dave MontrealCan - Didi one way to help this student would be to pair them up with "a buddy" who could guide the child in other words run with them guiding them as they went, have this other student assist the sight impaired child throughout the year, this is a wonderful way to educate the other children and it will ensure that this child does not feel left out or rejected by the other students
didi - A great idea! I had thought of letting him arrange the words - but this really leaves him out of the fun, doesn't it? Dave, thank you for your input - I have a class at 11.45 and must go - I will pass on your recommendations.
Dave MontrealCan - Didi please take down my email address
didi - Thanks - do you mind if I contact you re any concerns - we are in Australia.
Dave MontrealCan - You can email me at melanson@teachers.net also you can consult my monthly articles in the Teachers' Net Gazette
Dave MontrealCan - Yes absolutely you may contact me any time you wish I am always here to help
didi - Bye.
Dave MontrealCan - Take care Didi thanks for dropping by
Jamie - I have not worked with visually impaired children, only hearing impaired....
Dave MontrealCan - Jamie do you use the mic to talk to the hearing impaired students
Jamie - I saw that you mentioned you write articles....where are they located?
Jamie - Dave, yes I've used the mic...do they do the same for visually impaired children too?
Dave MontrealCan - You can consult the Teachers Net Gazette I write monthly for them and the Gazettes are all archived as well as the current issue being available on the main page of Teachers' Net
Jamie - thanks, Dave...I will check them out...there's always lots to learn!
Jamie - Dave, when you went to school were you fully mainstreamed or in a pull-out program?
Dave MontrealCan - No they do not normally use the mic for visually impaired children the mic is actually a low powered Fm transmitter that allows the hearing impaired student to hear the lesson you are teaching it is interesting that if you were in a car in the school parking lot you could actually tune in on the car radio the little transmitter that you would be using in the classroom
Dave MontrealCan - I was mainstreamed all of the time accept for math and the school board did try for a few months to put me in a special class but my parents found out what they were doing and demanded that I be returned to the regular classroom environment
Jamie - good for your parents!! I work in a system where the special education teacher doesn't want to work in the room with me, she'd rather pull them out....I think that's too bad...they are very capable of staying.
Dave MontrealCan - Jamie you must be a devoted teacher (smile)
Jamie - I do not feel that my undergraduate education prepared me to work with children that have differences...but I'm trying to learn more!
Dave MontrealCan - Well it is 10 pm at this time I would like to thank Teachers' Net for allowing me to hold this session please if anyone wishes email me at melanson@teachers.net or consult my monthly articles in the Teachers' Net Gazette
Dave MontrealCan - Jamie I think that is wonderful
Dave MontrealCan - Jamie how long have you been teaching
Jamie - thank you Dave for sharing your knowledge with us all......I look forward to talking with you again soon....
Dave MontrealCan - Jamie thanks for dropping by I love helping teachers
Jamie - your work is so important...I hope to see you on t.net again sometime.......
Jamie - bye, Dave.....
Dave MontrealCan - I am often in the chatroom of teachers net (smile)
Dave MontrealCan - Bye Jamie take care
Jamie - good night, Dave.....take care......
