TRANSCRIPT - Supervising Teachers of Students with Visual Impairment? This Coffee Hour is for You! Ð 9/11/23

>>Emily: So, this presentation is about supervising teachers of students with visual impairments and so I hope we have some administrators on today and also some teachers. I'm doing sort of a broad overview to if you're listening in and you're like, oh, she forgot to mention this, I hope you'll go ahead and put it in the chat. I definitely don't mind audience participation. And so, my name is Emily Coleman and I am the superintendent here at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. So, the first question you might have is why would the superintendent of a residential school know anything about supervising itinerant TSVIs. Let me tell you about my background really quick. I am the parent of a child who is 18 years old now, which is crazy. And is blind with multiple disabilities. And so, when he was younger, I was just a stay at home mom with him and when he got to be about 5, I went back to school and became a TVI. And my first job was working for the Washington State School for the Blind, which is in this picture here in the background. And in the foreground, there is a Toyota Prius with a whole bunch of educators sitting on it and around it. So, when I started working at the Washington State school, I was an itinerant teacher. I worked in 35 school districts -- sorry. I worked in nine school districts and had 35 students and covered pretty much 25% of Washington State as far as travel goes. So, I definitely was learning how to be an itinerant. I had students that were Braille and on grade level and also students who were Deafblind and those with significant multiple disabilities. So, sort of served the whole gamut. After doing that for four years, then I moved into the role as the outreach director at the Washington State school. And so that's why I'm here today, because in that role this group of people in this photo were the people that I supervised that were teaching all over the State of Washington and we worked based on contracts. So, they had direct service hours that they were responsible for to meet the requirements within IEPs and also served a wide range of students in many different geographical locations. And so, I did that and then five years ago moved here to Austin where I was the Outreach director here for one year and then moved into the superintendent role. So, full disclosure, it's been a minute since I did this specific job, supervising TSVIs. I reached out to my friend and colleague, Pam Parker and got some feedback on my presentation, asked if she would like to do it instead, and she declined. So hopefully I have a lot today that you'll be able to use or share with your administrators when you're ready. So, the first thing I want to say is what are the roles of a teacher of students with visual impairment. We're not going to go into detail with all of them but I wanted to pull up the web page at TSBVI, which is roles and responsibilities. This is from the QPVI or quality programs for the visually impaired, developed my Nancy, and it talks about all the different things that a TVI is responsible for in a school district. This is a great website that as an administrator, you can take a look at this as a teacher, you can share it with your administrator. It's really comprehensive. And when you look through it, it talks about specialized instruction and services, working with teachers, parents, students, consultation. All of these things that we're going to go through here today. But quickly, for those of you that are teachers of students with visual impairments, when you think about all of the things that you're responsible for, what are some concerns that might come to mind? Or a thought or a word that you think about when you think about all the things that you have to take care of in your daily work? I'm going to see if anyone is brave enough to put something in the chat. And I'm scrolling this, like all the things on here on this list. You can put negative words, if you want. It's okay. Maybe those are the unwanted words that it's blocking. Just kidding. Assessments. Yep, assessments is a big deal. We're going to talk a little bit about that. Sorry about that. That was our bells. Yeah, Braillist, supporting teachers. It is. It's so difficult to explain. Yeah, getting teachers to implement what we're offering. That's real hard sometimes. Yeah, it takes a while to learn the field. There is so much to do. Yep. The annual registration and child counts, which are different in every state, probably for all of you. All right. So, the first thing that I think of is time. Like, how is there ever enough time to do all that stuff? All the things that you're listing. And so, the considerations that I always want administrators to think of is that these are some of the big buckets of time that an itinerant TVI spends their time on. Prep and materials ordering, ARD -- in Texas we call it an ARD but IEPs, evaluations, direct service, teaming, consultation, travel, professional development, collaboration and mentoring, and family engagement. And so, when you look at all of that stuff -- say as an administrator who has never supervised a TSVI before, they might say that's every teacher. That's pretty much any special educator has to do a lot of this stuff. And so, it might feel like it's a similar job but I'm going to explain the ways that each of these categories are different for a TSVI compared to a classroom educator. Okay. So, the first one is prep and materials considerations. On the right here is a picture of my son Eddie's calendar from clearly November 2021. And there are tactile symbols on there every day and there are also Brailled words. And so, he's a student that uses a mix of Braille sight words and tactile symbols. And so, this is just an example of when you go into a classroom and there's a calendar on the wall for a student who is sighted, then they likely were able to order that catalog from a magazine of school supplies and have it show up and it's going to have the months and the year and the days and the dates. It's probably going to have cute pictures for the weather and all that thing ready to go. But not for our students. So, for our students, look at the amount of work that went into just a school calendar that's supposed to be like a grab and go item for other students. And so that's a materials consideration right there is that often the materials have to be created and TSVIs have to make them on their own, whether it's Braille or large print or tactile symbols or an accommodation of all those things. And, of course, based on assessment for what kind of learning media a student needs. So, this is a huge amount of time that it takes an educator. And if you have a Braillist or staff that can help with materials prep, that's huge. But a lot of times teachers in rural districts do not have that. So, another thing to think of is there are some ready-made products. Like part of this calendar is from the American precinct house for the blind. You can get those materials but those take time to get. Sometimes they're back ordered. It's not as easy to access as typical school supplies. In addition, students that need Braille textbooks, that can take months up to a year. Some of you have horror stories of never getting the textbooks and so lead time for ordering is huge. When teachers start talking about the next school year in December, there's usually reasons for that. And then I already mentioned making adaptive materials. Also, classroom materials often don't get to the TSVIs in time for adapting so that can be an issue as well. When classroom teachers are kind of doing last-minute prep, which we all do. You know, it's just the way it is. But it's really difficult for our students when they don't have those in time and so sometimes a TSVI will show up in a classroom and something will have to be made on the spot. And so that's another part, big part of their job. So, do you think I missed anything when it comes to prep and materials considerations, as far as something that's wildly different than maybe a typical teacher? Oh, little rooms. Yep. That's a huge one for active learners. 

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Sorry about that again. Keeping up with quota funds. Making sure we're spending the money and also not running out. All right. So, in quota funds for new administrators here that may not know is federal grant money that we receive based on per student who is legally blind allocation in the State of Texas. And it helps buy some of the materials that our students use. And TSBVI is the material center for those dollars. Okay. So next up, thinking about ARD, IEP evaluations. There's a picture of a Brailler on the screen here. So, lots of things to think about here, of course, but there's some things that are a little different. Of course, reevaluations. We're responsible for reevaluating the students on our case load when those come due. The other big thing is new referrals and we're responsible for doing assessments for eligibility. And one of the things that's really different for us is that it's really difficult to put this in place in a district. But the information from the TSVI's evaluation is really required for every other evaluation. Because if a TSVI is assessing how a student uses their vision in the classroom and to access their learning, then anybody else that evaluates that student should be using that information to inform how they present materials to the student for assessment. Otherwise, it's not going to be valid. For example, if a student needs a certain size print and they're given a reading assessment in the wrong size print, then they're not going to perform at the optimal level or at a level that's going to give us good information. So that's a hard thing to consider, especially if you're a teacher working in a lot of different districts as an itinerant and you're trying to get the evaluations done before the other people do their evaluations. And so, again, I'm saying this is how it should be done. We all know that this is a struggle. In addition, it's really important that TSVIs attend the IEP and the eval meetings. You know, a lot of times as a parent I go to a lot of meetings where a bunch of people ask to be excused and I totally understand that and sometimes it's fine. A lot of times the people that would like to be excused from my son's meeting, they really don't need to be there. But it's really difficult for a TSVI to not be there. Like, they have so much critical information that informs all of the goals on the IEP and the present levels. That's a big part of their scheduling and their time. In addition, it's really important they share information with families because the things that they know about a student's vision, parents need to be implementing that at home as well. And also, we'll talk a little bit more about family engagement later and the ways that TSVIs work with families. Also, back to assessments. Something to think about is that our students have to be assessed in multiple settings because their vision -- if they're low vision or if they have a complicated diagnosis or CVI, any different setting might provide different results that can inform instruction going forward. Oh, and I'm so glad that Ashley put in the chat that tracking down medical records necessary is really hard and time consuming and that is 100% true. And it's critical that administrators know that without a report we cannot do Functional Vision Assessment. Because we have to know what correctable lenses would do or if it even matters. Or if the diagnosis is degenerative. These are all critical factors when deciding about a student's educational plan. Getting eye reports, yep, lighting conditions, yes. These are all really important things when it comes to evaluations. I'm writing your things down on my notes so that I don't forget them. Okay. Direct service considerations. Here's a picture of some of our students at TSBVI. There's four of them with their arms around each other. Two in cheerleading outfits and two in white cane day shirts. Here's some direct service considerations that we need to think of when we talk about the time of an itinerant TSVI. So, of course we have to teach the expanded core curriculum. It includes assistive technology, career education, compensatory skills, independent living skills, O&M, rec and leisure, self-determination, and social interaction. A lot of this stuff nowadays is built into some of a student's curriculum. We see these things in career ed programs in schools. We might see them in social and emotional learning opportunities that can be adapted for our students. But the stuff that our students miss that is a need for them that is determined in evaluation is the responsibility of the TSVI to provide that instruction. And for a lot of those things, students have to be pulled out of the classroom to have that instruction and so that also revolves around the student's schedule. So, imagine you're a teacher and you're juggling multiple school districts and multiple students and, you know, your student in the middle school downtown can only see you for the second half of third period. And your student in the high school, you know, south of town can only see you at a certain time. Like this can be very complicated so it's critical if you're supervising itinerant teachers to talk to them about their scheduling and to really help them, if they need to problem solve some of this stuff or find ways to work as a team, if you have multiple teachers working in a district, to be the most efficient with scheduling. That direct service time is specified within the IEP so that's not something that's negotiable and it really has to be based on a student's need and not the teacher's availability. I know this is a really difficult chicken-egg situation, meaning a lot of times if you're the only teacher in a district and you have a full case load and a new student shows up, it's not like that student doesn't need services because your schedule's full. And there are no easy answers to solve these problems but I think it's important to say that the IEP service time really should be based on the student's needs from their assessment and the present levels. And if you find that your teacher doesn't have enough time to serve their entire case load, then it's really important to start brainstorming, if you can, whether hiring, contracting for a little bit of time with a retired individual, perhaps, reaching out to your educational service center in Texas. Other states have other regional centers that might be able to provide resources and teachers as well. So those are just some quick direct service recommendations. I'll just give it a second if anyone wants to add anything about direct service in the chat. All right. So of course, if you have direct service, you also have classroom teaming and collaboration considerations. Oh, wait. Before I move on. Great point in the chat. Finding space to work with students. That's a -- that can be extremely difficult. I'm sure any of us that have worked as itinerants have worked in closets, in hallways. You know, I've worked in empty gyms because just PE didn't happen to be that period. So, it's great if a school can help you find a usable space. But that definitely takes some time. Okay. So, for teaming and collaboration, this is another thing that has to do with scheduling. This is often built into the classroom schedule and not the TSVI's schedule. So, for example, just because I happen to have an hour free in the middle of the day on a Wednesday doesn't mean that my student's team is available to meet with me during that time regularly. And most schools in districts have times set aside for teaming, especially within special education -- not all but more and more are going that way. So, teachers are really trying to work to meet those needs as well and not just the direct service. Also, students with multiple teachers require extra time for this. So, if you're seeing a high schooler that's in eight different classes and you're always trying to catch a different teacher, that's also an important time consideration. You also have to team with related service and support staff. The paraprofessionals, the Braillist, the PT, OT. If you think about the way that a student's vision impacts their education, it's every part of their education. So, it's not going to be a little bit here, oh, it's just in the classroom where I need to meet with that teacher. Or, you know, it's only impacting the student in PE. And there may be areas that impact more than others, depending on a student's vision. But it's really important to check in with all their teachers. Also, this of course takes more time because for students that have a teacher they've never had before, which is most students, because they're moving grades over the summer. Then the start of the year -- for me when I was an itinerant, the end of August and the first half of September was so much about figuring out my schedule, checking in with every teacher every one of my students had, finding out when I could team, collaborate, and provide information about vision. Sending e-mails with -- even if you can just send a bulleted list saying these are the things you want to think about right now. And, of course, some of this can happen in the spring if you have the same students and you know where they're headed in the fall. But it doesn't always work that way. And also, finally, often communication and teaching strategies come from the TSVI, so time for staff training and modeling is really critical. One example of modeling that I have modeled -- I don't know, a thousand times now -- is hand under hand, which I'm sure anyone on this webinar who has ever had a student and is working as a TSVI probably has also had to model that. Yes. So, and, you know, it's not just with the teachers, it's with everybody the student interacts with at the school. Sometimes it's even students. But that's just one example of one technique that requires modeling. But it can impact the whole rest of the school year. And if you don't get into a classroom early on and show the team hand under hand for students with -- specifically with multiple disabilities and unique communication strategies, then it could really break the trust in that classroom for the rest of the school year. So, there's just things that are really critical and making time to make that happen. That's a whole other PowerPoint to I won't get into that. So those are some classroom and teaming considerations. Okay. Here's a picture of a little red cartoon car. Travel considerations. Of course. And this just depends on your job as an itinerant. You might work in a really big district where there's a lot of itinerant TSVIs and maybe you can be in one school or one part of town. That always is complicated to schedule if you have a team of educators working in the vision department. But, you know, we have to travel between schools and districts. I saw we have someone on here from Alaska and so, you know, they're flying, maybe. Sometimes they are flying between towns. And these are all travel pieces that we have to take into consideration when we're supervising itinerants. Another piece to consider is where is their office going to be in the district. Are you going to have a centralized office? Are they going to be at a school where most of their students are? This is just something really important to think about. And, as a supervisor, it's really important to listen to what your teachers are saying about where they think the best office placement would be, because they're going to know and they want to be as efficient with their time as well. Also, our teachers have to travel in the community with students to do a lot of the Expanded Core Curriculum instruction, so that's an important thing to consider. I'm not speaking about O&M specifically, but even if you're a TSVI and you're going out to the mall or a restaurant, you may want to utilize Lyft or a bus or something that the student's working on with their O&M provider. And that could be a time and a resource need, cost-wise. And, finally, visiting homes. TSVIs really need to spend time going to homes and working with families. And I will talk about that a little more as well. In a minute. All right. Professional development considerations. So, this one is something that I think is often overlooked by a supervisor that may have never supervised a TSVI before. Here's a picture of the Outreach department here at TSBVI. They're all wearing orange, which was one thing -- it's my favorite color and so they did that one day as a surprise for me, which was great. But the reason I put the Outreach department up here is they offer, clearly, a lot of professional development, like this one. But some of the things to think about is that it really needs to be unique to the position, in many ways. And so, because of that and because of the uniqueness of the role of a TSVI, often this requires attending out of state conferences. We have a couple national conferences a year, two or three, and they move around the country to try to hit different regions. But every state has a small amount of professionals in this field. And it's so valuable when they can travel out of state to meet up with other professionals from around the country doing the same kind of work. And so, as an administrator you're going to want to think about how could you fund some out of state conferences. Maybe your educator is going to present at an out of state conference and of course I would always encourage presentations. We learn so much from each other. And with our staff, we share that a lot. Like, if there's a conference you really want to go to, submit a paper for a presentation and see if you get accepted, because the odds are better that you'll be able to go if you're also sharing information with the field. We also all have requirements for our certification so that's not super unique to TSVIs, that's pretty much anyone in education that's certified. But it's really critical for orientation and mobility instructors because they need really specific hours to be met. And so, paying attention to those as well is important. And then, of course, collegiate coursework. A lot of our educators that are hired to work as TSVIs are working on emergency cert or might be new to the field and so they might also be going to -- taking university coursework as well. Keep that in mind when you're building their caseloads and thinking about time. And then, again, I talked about out of state conferences but even out of district. So, for those educators that work throughout Texas, they come to TSBVI a lot, you know, they go, oh, yep, Texas AER, of course. There are options in state that are beneficial but they often aren't going to be in your town. So, you are -- districts are going to pay a little more to make sure that your TSVIs are educated and up to speed with best practices. Okay. So, for another big thing to think about is collaboration and mentoring. And so, on the screen here I have a picture of a lone wolf. It's like a white wolf in the forest. And what we want in our field and what I want as a parent is that there are no lone wolves because, from experience, I have seen TSVIs working out in districts and regions without anyone else to bounce ideas off, especially new ones, can have some missteps because they're new. And nobody in their district is going to know what they do or what they're supposed to be doing. And so, you can make a mistake and it can go unchecked. And we all want to team to be better for our students. When I started working as an itinerant, I was on an emergency certification and I was working in a district with those students and only saw a mentor once every other month. And I feel real bad for my first caseload of students. I think I did okay but it was very clear my second-year things that I had done wrong. Yes, Chrissy put in there crystallized bad practice. For example, if my first year as an emergency certed teacher, I started teaching a lesson in a really bad way and nobody corrected me and I never checked in with anybody else, that would definitely have been crystallized over years because nobody would have told me that I was making a big mistake. It's really important to connect to a bigger community. And, as a supervisor, I think it's one of our responsibilities to provide those opportunities and to encourage our teachers and require our teachers to do so. So, of course, in Texas we have a mentor program -- Chrissy runs it. And so, we have a robust system of supporting new teachers and teachers on emergency cert. Not all states have that and so if you're working in another state or a supervisor in another state, you might have to get creative about finding mentors for your new teachers. When you hire somebody from another state, it's really important -- and my colleague, Pam Parker was talking about this with me. There are so many differences between states and when you are providing direct service, it's not just the educational field knowledge that you need, but you also need to make sure you know the state laws and the requirements for students. For example, Texas is one of the only states that requires Expanded Core Curriculum assessment and instruction. And so -- hold on. Let me turn off my emergency radio. Okay. So, one of the things to think about is that you want your new teachers -- even from out of state. Even if they've had 15 years of experience elsewhere, connect them with somebody else in your state that can be a resource for them. Another thing that's really important is to shadow other TSVIs. And this is hard to do, especially in the current climate of education when we're short staffed and it's hard to find subs and we're all trying to meet our IEP minutes. And so, I understand this is not an easy thing to pull off, but if there's an opportunity to do so or a way to make it work, it's just really beneficial. And I'm going to jump to the bottom one on this list, which says opportunities to problem solve together. This is one of the reasons shadowing is so great is because -- like when I was an itinerant and I had an opportunity to have someone come shadow me for a day, I didn't pick my easy students, I picked my hardest students where maybe I was wondering if their visual field was a little different than I thought or if an accommodation wasn't doing what I thought it was supposed to do. And having a teacher go with me and talk about that or maybe doing a difficult assessment as a team. Because it's always great to have two perspectives in those settings. And, again, I know it's really difficult, as a supervisor, to make that work. But if you can, it will go a long way to support your teacher. And then, again, I added attending for the Educational Service Center regional meetings. Those are important opportunities to collaborate and work closely with your colleagues. And then also if you have multiple TSVIs working for one school district or organization, try to have those team meetings regularly with your team. Because you can problem solve some of this. You can talk about scheduling. Some of you might share students and caseloads and so making sure that your staff have time for that is also critical. Oh, yes, and April added that mentoring also increases TSVI retention. That's 100% true. I think that, you know, when you're out there working in districts, if you're flying solo, not only is it, you know, could you do a bad job, but you're also isolated and you don't have really a peer group -- a peer working group. And so, it totally makes sense that mentoring would support teachers. And encourage them to -- that it's okay to ask for help and we all are trying to figure it out. Even 20 years in sometimes you get a student that you need help with. It's just critical. Okay. Family engagement. And this is a part that I think is so important for TSVIs and also extremely difficult to get scheduled. Because it's often not in the IEP. And so, as we know, things written in the IEP documentation are legal and mandatory. And things that aren't might be best practice but not prioritized when it comes to scheduling. So, here's a picture of my son, Eddie, when he was a toddler with one of his first TSVIs. They're sitting on our living room floor with some toys. So, family engagement. It's really important that TSVIs can do home visits. You know, of course this is going to be more frequent when children are younger. But even older it's helpful to go into a hope and adapt equipment, help with independent living, all of those ECC categories that don't just happen at school but also happen in the home. It's great if TSVIs can plan family events for students that are in the same region or district. Families connecting with each other is so important for their own learning but also to feel that sense of community. I can speak personally that it is super isolating to have a child who is blind. I lived in multiple communities where he was the only blind child that we knew or anyone else knew. And so, it was so helpful for us to go to regional or state events and meet other families like ours. Yes. Heather says amen. She knows. She's a mom. She knows. So, I know it's another planning thing for a TSVI to figure this piece out as well, but it's just really important for families. Also, that family training to support the Expanded Core Curriculum instruction. You know, if you teach hand under hand, for example, at school but you don't teach it at home, it's really difficult for families to build those relationships and communication strategies with students that might need that. So, it has to also happen at home. And then, again, talking more to connecting families to resources and each other. Even if it's just a Facebook group, it could be free Braille resources online. Just trying to engage them in the community of not just blind education but blind culture and consumer groups like National Federation of the Blind and American council of the blind and just getting them connected can go such a long way. And if the TSVI doesn't do it, there might not be anybody else that does. Anything else on family engagement that you can think of? Attending eye appointments. Yes. I have twice I have had a TSVI go with me to my son's eye appointment. Actually, I did that three times and they ask way better questions than me and I'm even in the field. It's so helpful. Yeah, Ben says family engagement is his favorite part. Yeah, it's great. I like it too. I miss that. When I was working itinerant, I had a caseload that included birth to 3, and just hanging out in living rooms. So fun! All right. Apologies. There's a lot of words on this slide. But this is moving more from, like, the stuff to consider that a TSVI does to what's important that an administrator does and how they engage with the teacher they're supervising. Shadowing twice a year -- twice a year doesn't feel like that much but I know it's hard to schedule and if you can do it twice a year, it will benefit you and your teachers will appreciate it. New teachers may need more visits, especially at first. So be there for them. Support them. You want to retain them because there aren't a lot of us. Again, discuss complicated students and problem solving. Even if your background isn't from the vision field, they might be able to bounce ideas off you and you can just be there as a support person in that work. I recommend you avoid micromanagement. I think that people that are itinerant TSVIs go into that role because -- I think often they're leaders and they can take on a challenge and be very successful. And they're not going to appreciate micromanagement, given all the things I just shared that they have to figure out and what's on their plate. They definitely want support, from my experience, but also give them the latitude to work out those complicated parts of their job. And then, again, provide resources needed, including money for travel to receive professional development. Our field isn't a very old field and it's changing all the time with different requirements and assessments and knowledge. And so, it's just critical that our teachers continue to learn what the best practices are and the research that's happening. And then to the evaluation side because, you know, administrators, we got to evaluate teachers. It's part of our job. You know, try to do your observations in person. That can happen while you're job shadowing. If you can't do that, you know, look at -- try to get videos of them teaching. Ask them to submit a video to you. When I was supervising teachers, I think I always made sure I did one in person a year and then a video assessment. And for teachers that were having a harder time, I would visit more often. So, you can adapt it, based on their needs. Make sure the evaluation tools you use account for their unique role. You know, in Texas we have the T Test and lots of different things. I used the state evaluation tool in Washington and it was based on the Danielson framework, just like t-test is. You can use it with your teachers but just listen to them and bounce ideas off of them if parts of the tool feel like they don't quite fit. Of course, SMART goals, just like we write for students to support areas of need for teachers. You know, I wanted to point out these employees work really independently so you want to make sure that you hire well. And if you have concerns, you address them early. Because you might hear a concern and let it go. And speaking from experience you might get three or four months down the road and find out that it was a lot bigger than you initially thought. So, with your new hires, pay attention but also hire well. We all want to hire well. It's, you know, but by engaging with their mentors and co-workers you can learn a lot about them too. You know, check in with the mentors. Like, if you have new teachers or if you have new teachers from out of state and they're working with a mentor, make sure that you work with them. Oh, and Kaycee put in the chat the T-TESS companion for TSVIs. Use those resources. Chrissy says sa supervisors should require itinerant personnel to keep a Google or other calendar. Yes, actually that's a great idea. There are horror stories -- I'm not going to lie. I wasn't supervising this teacher but I heard of a teacher who said she was going out to a district regularly and then we, you know, it was found out by her supervisor later on that she hadn't been to the district in three months. They really do work alone so you have to have strategies in place to make sure that they're meeting the needs of students. Especially with new teachers if you don't know them yet. They should expect a little more extra engagement and supervision. Yeah. Share Outlook calendar, share Google calendar. Ask to see lesson plans. This is really important. My first year teaching I didn't write enough lesson plans. I was just surviving. So, it's important to check and make sure that they are doing their professional responsibilities. Chrissy says check evaluation reports. Yes. Yeah. And hopefully with mentors, they're getting support with that as well. So, I put up here just a few resources that we have. We do have an administrator's toolbox. It is not available right now because we switched to a new website and they're updating it to make sure it's up to date. But I was told it is coming soon. Also, for those of you in Texas, you can reference the guidelines and standards for educating students with visual impairments in Texas. This explains all of our obligations in the state. There also is a student service analysis tool on the TSBVI website. It doesn't account for all the additional work that TSVIs have to do but there is a caseload tool coming in the future. And then lots more at tsbvi.edu or you can contact your Educational Service Center VI or Deafblind lead. Yes, we're updating guidelines and standards this year. VISSPA. We love our acronyms. Workload analysis tool. Yep. Okay. Now, those of you who are currently itinerant-working TSVIs, anything I missed. Anything you want to make sure an administrator knows about your job or keeps in mind while they're supervising you? Maybe I did all right. I know I liked my supervisor to know what my favorite coffee was so that if they were going to be showing up to job shadow, maybe they would bring me some. Yes, consultation is big. It's like so big. I'm glad that you said that. Yeah, the tech they need. Great point, Kate. Yeah, that goes into making sure they have the resources they need. It can be pricey but they have to have it. Cecilia put in what the VISSPA stands for in the chat. Thanks, Ben. Avoid micromanagement. Yep. Lots of questions around vision therapy, CVI and OT. Yeah. That's a whole other PowerPoint too. Deafblind students take even more time. Yes, you're right, Kaycee. It's not Deaf plus blind. Lots of great points. All right. Well, I just put on the screen further discussion or questions. It says the TSBVI Wildcats logo. We might be ending early but I also know administrators love that, if they're watching this recording. Oh, Judy put a great point in here. It's great to know someone is interested about what you do and why you do it, especially if you're the only TSVI in the district. That's so important as a supervisor. Be interested in the work of your teachers, whether it's a TSVI or a special ed classroom teacher, that's critical.