TRANSCRIPT
Boosting Transition with ECC
3/3/25

>>Belinda: We think transition is the most exciting part of what we do and we're hoping to share some of that, some of the information to help you boost transition with the ECC. We know it's a critical element on the path to having a successful transition. So we're going to look at some resources, strategies, and example of how the ECC supports transition. So let's take a look. This is from the guidelines and standards. If you guys aren't familiar with that, it can be found on our website. It's a really good resource for all things VI. And we know that vision is the primary sensory channel that most students are using to gain information about the world around them. But for children and adults who have low vision or no vision, learning has to happen in a different way to compensate for that lack of incidental learning that typically is happening. So the ECC is really the foundation for all of that other learning to be able to happen. And we have this quote here. The term Expanded Core Curriculum is used to define concepts and skills typically learned incidentally by sighted students but we know it has to be taught sequentially presented to the student who is blind or has low vision. So if you're already in the VI profession, you know what these nine areas of the ECC are. But in case we have some guests who are joining us from another world, we want to make sure we list it. And then we have some pictures here that are showing you some examples of some really great aspects of the ECC. Part of why I think our job is so much fun. We have a teacher for students with visual impairments working with a student on assistive technology. We have a young man displaying his lovely cinnamon rolls that he's made in a cooking class in our kitchen here at the School for the Blind. We have a student showing respect the cane, part of our self-determination. This is white cane day. We talk about being out there and showing people who we are and what the cane is. And then we have a young lady exploring plants, a sensory efficiency kind of focus. She's smelling, touches, exploring the textures. So these are areas that we are assessing and then coordinating and teaching, if appropriate, for our students. And I will mention, just point out compensatory access, because if you're kind of new to the world, that can be a tricky one to get. But it's really the skills that students need to have in order to access the core curriculum. That's giving you that access to all of the other things that are being taught in the mainstream classroom. 

>>Heather: Okay. So now I'm going to ask everyone in the audience to contribute to the chat. What areas do you think are the most important part of the ECC or transition? So you can pick one or two of the most important things from that list that would be most important for transition. 

>>Belinda: We have independent living, self-determination. Terry says whichever one the student needs. Whatever happens to be most important for them. Self-determination. We have a lot of self-determination. Independent living. Self-advocacy. O&M. Can't ask for your accommodations if you don't have self-advocacy. Independent living skills from Ben. Self-advocacy. Alex says independent living, self-determination. We have a family lynx person here. Independent living. I see lots for independent living, for sure. Main focus to enhance quality of life as much as we can. I like that. Right? Again, it's about finding what's important to that person and what brings them joy. Compensatory. Communication, Hillary says. Based on student need, self-advocacy, O&M, independent living. Lots of different ones coming in here. 

>>Heather: Excellent. Perfect. Thank you all so much for your input and your thoughts on that. I know, as a COMS myself, we have our own area in the ECC. We get a whole aspect of the ECC, which is super important. And I'll say, honestly, we all know that the truth is that each area is important for transition. All of the areas of the ECC. And we need the ECC because it is designed to teach students skills beyond just academics, right? To really be a well-rounded individual. If you are a student and, say, you're great with academics but all these other areas are lacking, that is where you need to grow because you're not balanced and well rounded. So we are really looking at the whole person and how important that is. And, like you said, it needs to be specific to each individual's needs. And making sure that they are ready for transition. I could say that if you wait until later, you'll find a lot of things that maybe haven't been worked on yet and maybe feel like you're starting a little bit late. You know, when you get to 20, 21. It feels kind of late so it's really important to start looking at these ideas early to help plan and get that student where they're at, figure out what they know, what do they need to know. And start all those things as early as possible. Because the sooner you start, the more success you'll have, especially when you're in public education, right? Okay. Let's get to the next slide. Excellent. So ECC and transition readiness. So each component really does contribute to life stills and independence. Like we mentioned earlier, everyone is different. And through our experience, working with students, we've had the opportunity to work with a lot of different students, a wide variety. And not -- the ECC is not the same for everyone. It's really individualized and you have to kind of prioritize what's the most important for that individual. And finding what's important to each person you'll find wildly different results. It depends on what they're interested in. The different types of abilities. Different skills. And so we really want to emphasize that it is individual to each person. For example, assistive technology, we use technology for work now. I'm sure a lot of us are using technology. Now where your student is at, looking at their future, tying those two things together, what might they need in their future? What might support them to get to where they want to go? Which kind of technologies might be appropriate for that. And what's appropriate for their abilities? Career education? Are they researching jobs, different fields out there? Maybe they are shadowing someone doing a job that they're interested in. Maybe they're using their tech, they're searching online for different fields. Maybe they're e-mailing people to ask questions about different careers. There are a lot of different ways to explore career education. And compensatory skills. We mentioned that one earlier. That is a really big one for us. Because it also includes the skills of how to access the core curriculum. It involves time management, which is huge. Time management is so important. If you have a job, you have to know what time you have to show up for it. How much time do you need to check in on time at your job? If you have to punch in or whatever time you have to get there, how much time do you need to travel to get to that job? How much time do you need to have to set up, if you're waiting for a ride, depending on your transportation. So you really have to work backwards from that time management piece of when you have to get there and all the things to get there. And because to keep your job, you have to show up on time. And it requires organizing information and planning, which is a huge skill. And all of us here, everyone here in this session today on our webinar, we had a lot of answers for independent living and how important that is. Which is so true. O&M, of course. How we get to where we want to go and how we get to our jobs, which, again, involves that time management piece. Rec and leisure. So important for our mental health and well-being for everyone, not just our students but all of us. When we're so focused, we have to be mindful of how we keep that life/work balance for that individual, and just that balance. You don't want to over focus on work because you have to have fun too in your life. It's really important. So having a good balance between those things. And I'm also not saying that work can't be fun, because work can be fun. Self-determination was another big one. That could be making requests to improve access. Wherever you are. Maybe this is in your home. Maybe it's in school. Maybe it's at work. Or at an event. Maybe a fun community event. How do you advocate for what you need? Sensory efficiency. That is where you kind of can use -- I like to call them hacks or workarounds or things that you do that make your job or life easier. And now social skills. So let's say if you have a job, great. You got your job. Awesome. But if you're lacking social skills, it might be hard -- it would be difficult to stay in the workplace without certain social skills. You have to keep those working relationships healthy. And there's a lot of things related with social skills. So let's hit that next slide. 

>>Belinda: All right. And I would add in too, I think social skills and rec/leisure sometimes get forgotten. They are important aspects of living independently successfully. We have students, we help them find a job, we prepare them for that job but then can they keep it if they're doing things that are inappropriate socially at work. So that can be a barrier. And then we have students who have jobs and it's like, all right, I'm making money. I have an apartment. But if they don't have something that's fun to do outside of work hours, they can get burnt out really quickly or they can say what's the point? What fun do I get to have? Why am I going to work? If they don't have something that's a fun outlet, that can be tough for them. Okay. So let's look at -- take a look at when can we work on these ECC skills that help prepare students for tradition? We know there's not enough time in the day to meet all of our students' needs. So and we start thinking about the transition and the ECC, sometimes we find that we just haven't met everything we needed to meet by 12th grade. There could be a need to continue services after they've met all their credits for graduation. And we explore like an intensive time of focus for these skills that they need to be successful beyond school. So all of our students in the VI world are served under an IEP with goals and objectives for specific areas of the ECC. Now, we may support some other goals from other teams but really they are still ECC skills that we should be working on for those goals. The student may have evaluation data that still indicates a need for special education, right? That is an ARD committee decision. So they may continue services after meeting their high school credits if there's a need for related or special education services. So you really want to make sure that you're updating that ECC information each year and staying on top of what skills are still needed. You may have a student who is employed or enrolled in higher education training, like a local community college. They've demonstrated independent living skills. They're connected with services like Texas Workforce Commission when getting Social Security. There may not be a need for 18-plus programming but I would encourage you to really meet with the ARD committee and take a look at all of the skills necessary to live independently. A future for students with visual impairment and a COMS, there may be some areas you haven't explored. Can may manage an apartment? Can they travel to work? Can they get groceries? Fill out paperwork for a doctor's office? Use the technology that's needed on a job or at college. And then, you know, consider our students with complex access needs as well. Have we worked with the family to find meaningful routines that they can continue at home? Maybe they're doing these routines at school but what about at home when school ends? So have we moved that transition routines into the home and the community? Have we helped them establish like a circle of support so that they have people in the community they know they can rely on for an art class that happens or a friends group that meets on Friday afternoons. Whatever it might be. We want to make sure that they have access to the community, that there's agency support in place and that there are activities that are allowing the student to participate at whatever level they're comfortable with in their home and in their community. So that may still be a need for 18-plus services to happen. I want to emphasize too that this is very individualized. You don't have to have an 18-plus program. Your district may say there's nobody else. We're a tiny rural district and we don't have any students receiving 18-plus services. That's okay because it's individualized. You just have to figure out what's going to work best for this one student. It doesn't have to be a full-blown program. It's services for the student. It could mean the VI teacher and/or the COMS are going into the home, are meeting at a workplace. Or maybe the student is coming to school part time. We work together to figure out what they need, what's going to work for them. I'll pass it back over to you, Hex. 

>>Heather: Perfect. Thanks, Belinda. And I want to add to what Belinda just said. Because exactly right. If there's no 18-plus program set up already in that area, the point is really the individualized services. So we're not trying to make our student or child fit into, you know, a square hole. It's really the other way around. We're making the services we have fit the individual. And we do have a creative planning license to design a program that fits that student. And also for kids who are Deafblind or emergent communicators or have complex access needs, as a mom of one of those kids, the more that they can do to take care of themselves, you know, that independent living and self-care and being able to take care of themselves, that takes something off of my plate, right? So that is, when I look at my son and his contributions to transition and his skills for transition, being able to take care of himself is a huge thing for him, and that takes something off of my plate. So I wanted to point out just one example of that. My son can finally open a doorknob, right? I think that came at like age 12. He was about 12 years old and it was a huge celebration for us because that counts. You know, someone opening a doorknob. You know, we're not going to give him like a job application for that or he gets an A on his report card or anything like that, this is all measured in different ways and it's just really individualized. And so we had a huge celebration for that because it was a big moment for him. So back to this. We're talking about the ECC today, the Expanded Core Curriculum, and I do want to talk about the seven areas of the Deafblind ECC. So I'll go through these quickly. I'll say there is also a Deaf and Hard of Hearing ECC. So what the Deafblind ECC does is it fills in the gaps that really address Deafblind skills and concepts that might not have been identified on our ECC for blind low vision or our ECC for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. So for specifically the Deafblind ECC, the gap fillers using hearing for orientation and travel. Self-determination and advocacy. Stress management and the effects of stress. Communication and language. Planning for the future. Concept development and access, of course. Okay. I do want to highlight the area of self-determination here because understanding different services that are available in school and then when you get out in the community, those are two different things. With some similarities, but different. So a lot of us know interveners. We have interveners in the school setting. So what you have in the school might look different in the home and community after school is done. It could be that a Deafblind person who is, say, a proficient communicator, maybe they have an intervener when they're in school but when they're done with public education and they're out in the world, they're not going to have an intervener. But there are other services. There are things like support service provider, SSP, or a co-navigator, CN. That's one example of how things can be different from school and community and prepare for things that are going to happen after school. Okay. So we can jump to the next slide. 

>>Belinda: And I should share you got a hand clap for Orion opening the door. 

>>Heather: That's what I'm saying! Thanks! I'll mention there's a balance we have to have here because now we have a risk of elopement with that door opening. But, at the same time, I feel so much better that he can help himself if there's an emergency and he needs to open the door. So I'll just say it's balanced. 

>>Belinda: Now let's take a look at the role for VI professionals and this whole transition and ECC process. We know everything we're doing starts with data. We need to know where our students are and where they're going. I think there tends to be a little bit of nervousness about let's find the best, the absolute best formal evaluation tool. There are tons of them but are any of them really perfect for our students with visual impairments or who are Deafblind? It's really tough to find something that's going to work for all of our students, and that's okay. I think we want you to know that gathering data from the classroom teachers, that testing that they're doing in class that tells you about their reading level, their communication level. You can get that from if they're receiving speech services. Or maybe the classroom teacher, maybe their case manager, gathering data from them but also informal. And I think for our students, a lot of informal data is really some of the best stuff that we can get. Going along on community outings, if it's a self-contained classroom where they're doing outings or job exploration is really great. You can take data and see maybe a student with CVI, the minute they walk into HDB with the music and the lights and the really complex visual environment, maybe they can't see for a minute or two while they're processing that information, that overload. That's something good to know that that's not going to be the best job for them unless they have time to figure out an adaptation process when they get to the store, get to work early. Maybe a quieter store is going to be a better bet. Maybe not a place that has the overheadlights and loud music. But exploring, gathering that data, discovery is really about trying things and discovering what a student enjoys. What's the reason to get out of bed every day, and seeing if we can incorporate those activities into some of their transition plans. That's really important. We understand that students may not know where they want to go or they may have made a choice based on limited information. I think that's the case a lot of times with our kiddos. They're sometimes making uninformed decisions just because of a lack of exposure and experiences. So that's a big part of our job is to help figure out how to get them to have that exposure to these activities and experiences. We want to make sure that the family and the other team members understand that as well and incorporate them into those activities. Collaboration is really the key here. To make sure that we're all working together to coordinate across the team. We can't teach every aspect of the ECC but what we can do is coordinate with the -- maybe the cooking teacher. Maybe a student is taking a cooking class or maybe it's a self-contained class where they cook on Fridays. And we can coordinate that instruction with that teacher. We can embed those skills into all of our lessons. We should be doing that. But also taking the time to recognize what we are hitting in the ECC. Because you might be surprised if you stop and take a look at your lessons and what all they encompass. And then, you know, we want to make sure that we are truly giving our children real-life experiences. Hex mentioned job shadowing, mobility training, and those natural community interactions that are happening when you're out and about on those lessons are wonderful. I can't tell you how many times I've gone along on a lesson and somebody's come along to try to assist a student in crossing the street. Wants to take their arm and lead them across the street. You've got to be able to say, hey, no thanks. I've got this. Because it happens all the time. And I think that one of the other things I really want to emphasize is it's super important to collaborate and establish who is leading this process. We, as VI professionals, often know these students really well and may have served them from birth to high school, especially the small community. You may be the only VI and/or COMS in that district. So you may have somebody in high school who, for an academic kiddo, doesn't even have them for a class. They may be just assigned as their case manager because they are the special education teacher for that grade. But this is an academic kiddo who doesn't get resource or inclusion. They're just doing great besides VI support. That may be a case where you consider saying, hey, do you know what? I think I'm happy to lead this charge or let's co-lead this to make sure we're inviting people like TWC, when we sit down and do this transition planning ahead of the ARD, that we're inviting mom and dad to come. Ensuring that these discussions about the student's future isn't just happening one-on-one. It should be a team discussion. Bring everybody together to plan. And I just wanted to mention the examinations, the formal and informal assessments I mentioned, just in case y'all are wondering what are some examples. You know, the classroom data that the teacher is getting STAAR testing but also things like EOC -- well, that is STAAR. College entrance exams, Woodcock Johnson. Your vocational inventories, surveys. Observation of the job site, that's ten times more a lot of times for our students, just because it's realistic, daily life that you can see and observe and learn from. And I saw we had some comments in the chat. Okay, that was about the ECC for Deafblind students. Yes. So glad. And we do have a link for it as well in in our resources. As well as the ECC for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I believe, right, Hex? 

>>Heather: Yep. 

>>Belinda: I'll hand it over. 

>>Heather: This is a perfect transition, your comments about including the family and TWC and having those folks at the table is a perfect transition to this slide because when a person is finished with their special education years, school is done, the school team is not going to be there anymore and so it's on the family. It's on the individual and the families to take over and continue that transition. So making sure that they have services ready and programs, transition VR, vocational rehab services are important to include, or independent living considerations and situations. Knowing how to access those. So TWC or vocational rehab, that can happen at any time after a person is 14. That starts at 14 so there's no need to wait until they're almost done with school to apply for VR. You don't have to wait until they graduate to apply. You don't have to wait until the year before. You can start at 14 and up. We like to encourage -- the families can do those applications. And the school can help with that and so that's why it's really important to have that collaboration piece and making sure they're getting informed of that. And it's really important to have that individual stay in contact with that VR counselor because if they do not, they are at risk of that VR closing their case, if they don't stay in contact. By VR, I do mean vocational rehab. Vocational rehabilitation. Perfect. Great. Thank you for asking. I want to make sure we're clear, definitely. And also program services through community partners like Blind Children's Program, the National Federation of the Blind or the American Foundation for the Blind, AFB. Deafblind communities of Texas, they used to be camp, now it's Deafblind communities of Texas. You can always check with your local Lighthouse. I know we heard that East Texas Lighthouse has some great college readiness and assistive technology training and scholarships for college. That was new to me. I think that's great. It's amazing. Also, All Blinds children of Texas has scholarships for transition-age students as well. All right. 

>>Belinda: Now let's take a look at some resources for teaching transition skills. I'm going to highlight two of them. We're giving you a whole list in the handout today. But I want to highlight two that I think -- they've been around a little while but every time I come across it I'm like, this is a really good tool to keep in the toolkit. This first one was a document put together and it's a list of activities and strategies that you can do with your student and your family. So what I like to do is I'm going to open that up. I like to sit down with the family and the team. It's broken up into community experience, employment, instruction, and functional evaluation. And then independent daily living skills. So you can go through this list and sort of sit down with your student and family and start talking about, you know, being aware of community setting near the home school near my town. And start looking at some of these specific activities. Like organizations and religious services. If your student and their family are church-goers, can they figure out is there a walking route? Is there a bus route? If the student is going to go off to college, are they going to look for that same kind of community in their college town? Starting to think about those kinds of things. If I'm going to SFA, for example, and I want to go to a particular club or church, can I get there without mom and dad in town to drive me when I need to go? Making sure you're thinking about the community they're in now and where they're going to be too, as we start thinking about transition. This book talks about different communication and travel options. Then accessing print. Large print, audio, e-books. Gosh, there are so many options these days but Bookshare still tends to be a favorite one. And the Texas State Library talking books program. I'm a huge fan of that. It really is fabulous. And then family services for our students who may need -- whose parents or caregivers may need respite. There are some great resources on Health and Human Services website where you can help your families find those people providing respite or what was called day hab is now ISS, so that their student with complex access needs who needs that ongoing supervision support can go out in the community too. And be aware of special ed events. We have the employment section where it's just giving you some ideas. It's a discussion to go through this list with your family and prioritize what are we going to work on this year? What do we see doing really well? We might have some gaps in the area of work experiences, for example. Maybe a kiddo was very active in choir and all their free time in the summer and evenings was spent on choir competitions and preparation and they didn't have much time for job experience. Let's talk about how to fit that in. Maybe summer earn and learn is a good way to do that with TWC. Maybe some programs like Waco that's held at A&M, or in Central Texas, the jobs program. Typically with Education Service Center support. Sorry, I'm scrolling a little fast. Instruction and functional evaluation. So, you know, we start looking at their writing skills, math skills, listening skills. Just a prompt for a discussion. And you can go into further evaluation with other tools. Or this may drive you to say, okay, we don't have an ID. And then they may help you realize we don't have a bank account either. We don't know anything about those. They may be where you decide to focus efforts, learning how to get an ID and then how to manage money, have a bank account. Maybe get a debit card. So really great conversation starters. And then we have independent daily living skills, kitchen skills, identifying tools. Talks about different appliances. You can tell this is older because it doesn't have an air fryer, which I think every kitchen needs an air fryer now. It's a greatest thing ever. So add that to your list. All right. So I'm going to move on very quickly to the next tool I want you to know about is an app that's free. It's been around for a while too but it's great. It has 140 short lessons on the Expanded Core Curriculum. It's a great data tracking tool so it's quick and easy Expanded Core Curriculum app through APH and you can download it through the app store. All right. Let me go back to the next slide. There you go. 

>>Heather: Okay. TAPS is another resource that supports planning for transition. Really anyone can open up this book and anywhere that student -- anywhere you look in this book is a benefit. But for our purposes, I'm looking here at Part 2. It's the comprehensive initial and ongoing evaluation. And so if you just look at -- you can look at residential travel. You can look at commercial travel, public transportation. I mean, there are so many different sections in here. An example of this would be if you want to find out where that student is right now in a certain area, let's say public transportation, what skills do they have with traveling on a bus right now? Or are they at the place where they can step on to the bus themselves but they need practice on using the fare card, communicating with the driver, those types of things. And so you know where they are and it lists out all the other skills that they'll need for that area. So there is a whole list of skills in these books. There's plenty to work on. It's a great resource just to pick out what you want to work on next and get them going. All right. Back to you, Belinda. 

>>Belinda: I think I'm going to leave everyone to explore these resources. Tons of great ideas. They're listed in your resources list. And I do want to highlight very quickly TSBVI has some weekend workshops that we offer through short-term programs. Game of life, middle school students with come and their parents come too. Parents do some training under blindfold and work in the kitchen. They're working on stepping back. Students are working on stepping up. And then college of vocational prep is a new one we added this year and it filled up quickly. Super popular. That will be offered again in December, so look for that to come out on the short-term programs schedule. But parents come. We put them in a hotel. Students stay in a dorm and we do lots of activities with the parents in Outreach and then the students with short-term programs. Discovering the future is for parents of students with complex access needs. So we really focus on getting a person-centered plan started for them. And we're going to move along so that we can show you some videos that I think are really helpful. Hand it back to you, Hex. 

>>Heather: Awesome! Okay. So this is Orion, this is my son. He's 14. He's an emergent communicator. We are going to hear from his teacher, Daniel. And he's talking about the ECC and the areas focusing on supporting Orion's transition, which is starting now. Belinda, can you hit play for me? Great. 

>>Orion's recycling routine addresses at least two components of the ECC. Career education and also time concepts. And the way we do this routine in our classroom, on Mondays, Orion's recycling receptacle is empty and throughout the week he fills it with milk bottles. On Friday that receptacle is full, bring it out to the big bin, dump it, it's empty. A couple of hours later, Orion's weekend begins. Thinking about his adult life after he exits public education, simple routines like this can serve to fill his weeks with meaningful tasks that are going to bring structure to his days. And that's a universal need for all of us. For me, you know, doing the dishes, taking out the garbage, doing laundry, those things help make sense of my days and bring structure to them. 

>>Heather: And here in this video, I'll just say while it's playing, Daniel and Orion are leaving the classroom. He's got kind of this plastic basket. It's hooked on to his chair, on to the arm of his wheelchair. And so they're rolling along outside. On the way they've got that full recycling bag at the big, huge dumpster and I love how Daniel is pounding on it, getting that reverberation. You can hear it, I know. Orion felt it. I know he could feel that. And we see Daniel gives him some encouragement. But now Orion's holding the bag himself and they're together working on pouring that in the big bin. They are doing that together, emptying it out. Orion's kind of pushing his thumbs into his teeth, which means he's excited. Maybe a little overwhelmed. And Daniel now helps him back into his chair and it shows how the recycling bin is empty. There's nothing left in it. And hooks it back under the chair where he still can feel it. And then Orion unlocks his wheels and off they go. Okay. Great. So now the next slide -- perfect. Thank you. We'll hear from Orion's COMS, his O&M. Who happens to have known Orion since he was 2 years old. 

>>How is O&M and the ECC supportive of Orion's transition for his life in high school? 

>>Well, O&M is one of the most important parts of the ECC -- not just because I'm O&M. For Orion, O&M, it's crucial to give him the skills and the power to access his environment. To know where things are and to know how to get them. Like in the classroom, for example, he knows, you know, we find his calendar and he has a choice. Do you want to go eat or do you want to relax? And he'll pick up the symbol and that's part of communication of ECC also. And then lets me know what he wants to do. And if he wants to go to relax, he knows exactly which way to turn from his desk to find the area where he will relax. Or, if he wants to eat, he goes a different way across the room to locate the table and where he needs to go. Another thing that he does very powerful, whenever we're in the wheelchair and before we take off in that wheelchair, when he goes from one building to another -- he can walk but it's a little bit further away. We use the wheelchair. We have a folding cane he always uses when he's on the chair and keeps it in front of him. Before we go anywhere, he would reach to the back where he keeps his cane folded and he will take your hand and point to where his cane is. So make sure that he has his cane. He will not want to go anywhere without having this cane. And this cane gives him information too as we're going along the way of the different textures. So he learns so much from O&M about where he's going, how he's going to get there. And sometimes make a choice of where he wants to be. 

>>Heather: Excellent. All right. 

>>Belinda: That was great. There are so many aspects of the Expanded Core Curriculum in that lesson, that recycling lesson. It's really good to see. Okay. We have one more video. This is a student who was in a resource kind of setting in school. And now she has graduated from -- she went to exit and then Paths program and now she's working as a teaching assistant. So she's kind of reflecting on what prepared her to live independently. 

>>Megan, what was important skills that your VI teacher taught you when you were in middle school and high school, to prepare you for living on your own and working? 

>>In middle school, I got to do more lessons with cooking. So my awesome VI teacher, Ms. Hawkins, helps me learn individually how to cook eggs or hash browns and stuff. And then we also got to do lessons with other people. So that was really cool and very nice. And then I just did more technology in middle school and high school and just learning different equipment. 

>>Belinda: So for Megan, what stands out to her is the technology lessons that she worked on, but also the cooking and, even better, cooking with a friend. That was a highlight of her week when her fabulous VI teacher, Marcia Hopkins, would bring in another student and do the lesson together. And, you know, she still remembers that and how much it has prepared her to live on her own. And she does now. Totally on her own. So we are going to share our contact information with you here. We have another video that you guys will be able to access from the handout but we want you to know that the resources we gave you, there's a ton of great things in there. Take time to look through them. But be creative. Look at your lessons and see, you know, I may already been incorporating some time management. Maybe I can get my student to e-mail the O&M their shopping list. The VI and COMS can work together and the student can possibly e-mail the COMS and say, hey, I would really love to go shopping on our next lesson. Here's a list of things I need to make our recipe. And maybe your student can e-mail their teachers to say I'm going to be out next Tuesday. Instead of the teacher doing that. Thank you, Terri. We do love sharing those stories. We know you guys can't physically cover this all this yourselves so you really got to coordinate with all of the other teachers. Don't be afraid to role release. Teach them what needs to happen and trust they're working on their social skills when you're not there too, because it's completely appropriate. Even more so to work on those social skills in the classroom rather than a one-on-one, you know, lesson with us. And as the VI professional, you can support those lessons. You can role release. So best of luck boosting your ECC to prepare for transition. We're really excited that you joined us and hope that you find the resources helpful.