Project Math Access DVD 04 - Facilitating Inclusion - Part 01 Transcript Start Audio Description: Part one; teacher interview; algebra. ANGEL: Hi my name is Angel Seleb, I'm an itinerant vision teacher with Southwest Co-op, and I travel between 7 schools and I have about 15 students or so. I spend most of my time here at Lemont High School. I have a totally blind student who is fully academic and he is in... all of his classes are regular classes, they are not special ed classes, per say. I do... ln his algebra class, which is all regular ed students, he is in there every clay of the week. We have a block schedule so classes are usually every other clay for most classes, but with his algebra class he has that every clay and I am in that class with him supporting what the rest of the class is doing. We sit at the back of the room at a small table where he... where I can reiterate what is being put on the board, what other kids might say, or what is being presented. His math teacher does a really good job of trying to verbalize everything she is doing on the board. Every now and then she forgets, so I just try to remind her or I'm there as a backup for Brandon to remind him and to re-teach concepts as we are going along. That way he‘s not missing out on anything, we're not having to slow clown, I really don't cut clown his work. He does just as much work as everyone else, sometimes even more. Because he does have a whole period of vision resource with me, every other clay, which these are an hour, these are an hour and a half periods so we have that time which I use not only for my vision goals but also to re-teach algebra or any concepts he is missing out on, work on special projects from other classes, things like that, so that is pretty much it in a nutshell. KAPPERMAN: Can you summarize some of the difficulties Branclon has had with mathematics? What are some of the major challenges? ANGEL: Major challenges in math, I think, would be especially when we come across visual concepts. There are things like factor boxes, which is a visual thing. It's a graph, a chart, where you are trying to factor out trinomials, binomials, whatever, and you are trying to use a factor box. It's a very visual kind of thing, not necessarily a great tool for a blind kid. Brandon and I have come up with our own system of it where he just puts them in order on the paper. Say you have x squared so you have an x and x would be a factor of that, so he puts X, x and then the next two factors for the numbers within the equation, that kind of thing. Visual concepts are definitely a challenge. Also just trying to figure out how to present, well that‘s more of my challenge, but having him grasp what the other kids are getting out of the material, whether it's something that she‘s presenting on the board. One huge, huge challenge he has in there is, nowadays they are using these graphing calculators, which I never had when I was in school. They pretty much do everything for the kids. They don't have to think as much. They don't have to do the calculations. They have these things pop up on the screens. They just plug it in and it pops up and they write it down on their paper, which I think they are missing out on some basic math skills that those of us who had math earlier on, or back in the day, we gained more of that because we didn‘t have the graphing calculator. So he‘s missing out on that part of it. Usually during that time in class we‘II spend time just re-teaching what‘s going on or trying to come up with a different method of presenting what‘s going on. KAPPERMAN: How have you tried to overcome that problem of not having a graphing calculator for him? What have you done? What do you do? ANGEL: I try to use a lot of tactile materials, raised line graph paper if we are graphing an equation. We use that a lot. He uses the calculator function on his Braille Lite, whenever he has calculations he needs to do. He discovered the fraction mode without me teaching it to him, so that was a really plus for us both. His Nemeth skills are pretty good so we use Nemeth code in the braille. I want him... he uses a brailler in math class as well because I want him to get that instant feedback and the response of his own material, his responses are right there in front of him without having to translate, transcribe, that kind of thing. KAPPERMAN: What would you say... What do you do when he runs across new math symbols? How do you handle teaching him the Nemeth code as you are moving along through the class? ANGEL: I keep a cheat sheet with me so I can remember the Nemeth code. And I'll just, I'll tell him the symbol right then and there or if he comes across one in a book he'll usually ask me about it. You know what this is? He's really good at picking up on that stuff, so l don't have to remind him too many times. KAPPERMAN: So in a nutshell, when he sees a symbol he doesn't recognize, he asks you, you let him know what it is, or look it up, or however, explain it to him. Is that correct? ANGEL: Yes, I also have an ink print copy of the book in front of me, he has an ink print copy of the book at home, mom and dad can help him with that, or he asks his teacher, “Hey what is this supposed to be? I don't understand it." And then he can usually figure out, oh, this is the symbol for this, that kind of thing. So, he still has a little trouble with repeating decimals, but then again who doesn't? (she laughs) KAPPERMAN: Have you had any trouble getting the books for him? For his math class? ANGEL: Not yet, but I've been told that next year's book is not in braille yet, so we're going to deal with that. KAPPERMAN: Are you satisfied with the level of the quality of the braille in his math books? ANGEL: Actually no! About every other page there is an error. So, whether it's a number that was mis-transcribed, or something's left out, they screw it up pretty regularly. KAPPERMAN: And so it helps with obviously, for you to have the ink print version of his math book beside you so you know... ANGEL: Absolutely, that way I can reinforce what's there, and we'll try to... when he gets an assignment that he has to take for homework or something, I'll try to quick run through what are the equations on the page, just let him know, you know, if there's a mistake on there, that kind of thing. We try to do that as much as we can, but there's not always time, but... And like I said he has the ink print at home so if he has a question he can ask mom and dad. His teacher's pretty lenient and understanding, too, she realizes that the braiIIe's not perfect. And just like when I transcribe assignments that I get... she does a lot of worksheets in there, so I do all those by hand, and uh, I make mistakes, so he's pretty good about letting me know about that too. STICKEN: How does the classroom teacher work with you on... do you have a communication system set up? Do you ever have the opportunity to meet with her without, you know without sitting in or interrupting the class? And, and, how has she handled having a braille reader in her class? ANGEL: One of the fortunate things is that I am in there the whole time. She'll have, a lot of times, she might assign something that kids are working on independently so we'll converse during those times, or also they have a really good e-mail system so she e-mails me a lot of his assignments, they're already in text format, and all I have to do is print them out. If it's something with not a lot of math symbols in I'll just throw it through Word and Duxbury and do it that way. If it has a lot of particular Nemeth code symbols then I'll do it by hand. But it helps a lot, the e-mail, because we are constantly back and forth with that, so that communication has really been a definite benefit, but also she has a resource period second hour every day so more often than not she comes in and checks with me, this is what we are doing tomorrow, blah, blah, blah, just a real quick little five- minute meeting or something. STICKEN: That's outstanding! How about his math teacher last year, was it...was this person as willing to work with you? ANGEL: No, not at all. And we had very little communication, last year. I also was not in his classroom last year. That was something, because initially in his IEP it was that has was to have no support, he only had 150 direct vision minutes when he came to the high school, whereas now he has ten times that amount. He has 1100 minutes a week with me. So that difference, towards the second half of the year, in his math class last year, we did put a special ed aide in there, however she didn't really have any math back- ground herself, so that made it more difficult, plus she didn't have any blindness or braille experience, so that made it more difficult. But I tried to converse with her and help her out. Taught her a few, you know, braille symbols and just some basic stuff and taught her, you know, take notes like this and you might want to repeat this giving her suggestions, every now and then I'd go in the class, but the teacher wasn't really open to that. It also didn't help that she was pregnant so she was gone for eight weeks of the semester, as well, so we also had to deal with a second teacher at that time too, so... STICKEN: So this year's teacher: does this teacher have a different attitude from the start, or is it because you have more time to work with her so she doesn't have the same pressure that last year's teacher had? What do you think? ANGEL: I think it's the latter of those two. I think that I'm there to support her and I give her suggestions. I think that makes a huge difference in her comfort level, because of course, whenever somebody finds out they have a blind student you get the whole initial freak out! “Oh my God! What am I going to do? How am I going to pull this off?" And, being there I think it really helps ease their mind, you know, and get them, and also it really helps the other kids in the class. They're not as apprehensive about working with him. They're more willing to help out. There's been a couple of days, when they've had Assembly Days and part of the class would be out of the room, because it's Freshmen and Sophomores in the cIass... Sophomores in the class, so there would be maybe only Freshmen in the class and Brandon so, they might have fun days. There was one day that they got to play math basketball and a couple of kids really took him under their wing and they helped him to shoot the baskets and they're making the noise over by the garbage can because they're shooting paper into the garbage can and just trying to help him out. And pick up on things that they've seen me do in class. So I think by that way, the best way to educate the world is to show them what we do. I think we are making more teachers. We're growing more teachers I always like to say. STICKEN: Good, that's good, that's great! So your recommendations for other people in your position dealing with braille readers who are going to be at the secondary level in regular math classes, your recommendation is that someone who knows braille and understands blindness and is a certified teacher would be supporting that student actually in the math class in order to provide support for the teacher as well as the student? ANGEL: Yes. STICKEN: So, Angel. You're aware that most vision teachers do not have a background in math and virtually no general education math teachers have a background in blindness or braille, ANGEL: Right... STICKEN: Do you have any advice for the typical vision teacher in this situation? ANGEL: Make friends with the math teacher. Make nice with the math teacher, along with all the other school personnel of course. But definitely try to keep up on what's going on in class. Plan ahead a little bit, check out what you're doing ahead of time, if you don't understand something, and it, uh, never hurts to have the answer key next to you. So if you can get the answers to the problems ahead of time it makes it easier to figure out as you're going along. STICKEN: And how do you make friends with the math teacher? ANGEL: Being a good support. And just trying to remind her and give her pointers on you want to verbalize this, that kind of stuff, this is how we want to present it to the kids. Just being a really good support to the math teacher in her... his or her pursuit to educate the blind student. Mostly, it's all about support. And even if you don't know how to do something, knowing where to go to get the answers or finding someone else to ask. It wasn't unusual that I could e-mail Kapp and say “What's the symbol for this?" That kind of thing, so knowing where your resources are really helps. STICKEN: Do you ever work with any other students in the class or do anything to help this teacher out with other situations in the classroom? Or do you... ANGEL: I have helped other students. They might be doing boardwork and Brandon and I are sitting right next to the board, so I'll usually have two or three kids standing right next to me and I'll help them work through their problems if they need help. And they know that they can come to me if they have a question. They do a lot of group work, so I'm right there within the group working on the things trying to show them how to work with Brandon as well as helping them through the problem. I've given them a wrong answer once or twice but they're pretty lighthearted about it and they're ok with that. STICKEN: What kind of contact did you have with this teacher before classes actually started last fall? ANGEL: I provided an in-service, as I did to all of his teachers. As to how the whole braille transcription was going to go and depending on the class, because there are some classes that he doesn't need any support at all. And he doesn't use his brailler in... like in his English class, he doesn't need a brailler in there; he can do it all on his Braille Lite. He does up his assignments in there and then comes to my office during Vision Resource and prints them out, turns them in all on his own. So he really doesn't need any support. But just trying to individually go through each class and say, “these are the kinds of things you might try." “This is what I am here to offer." And again the e-mail system here at the school is fabulous! The teachers are not shy about saying, “Hey I need help with this." Or, “Hey can you come up during this class time and work on this with me." For instance, if it is an Internet project or something I'll go up in the computer lab and sit with him and work on Internet and also at the same time work on his technology skills. I think that the best thing to remember is just that keep an open mind and even if you don't get it right right away, stick with it. Pursuit, it's all about pursuit and just going for it. These kids can do this stuff if you give them the opportunity and don't be shy about telling your administrator if you need more minutes.