TRANSCRIPT - Effective Itinerant Strategies (August 2023)

>>Collins: Hello, everybody. My name is Rachel Collins, and I serve as one of the deafblind education consultants here on the Texas deafblind project. And today I am going to be sharing with you guys some strategies for being an itinerant teacher out in the district. So I have had the pleasure of being able to serve in many different types of settings. I have worked as a self-contained teacher in a school district as a Deaf Ed teacher, and then I was a teacher of the deafblind at the School for the Blind here. And then I served for many years in a local school district at the teacher of students with visual impairments as well as the deafblind specialist. And so each of these differences -- I mean, each of these experiences and placements were so different from one another. And so today, I just wanted to share about those experiences and how big of a shift there was to itinerant teaching. And then just some things that worked for me along the way. There are so many different ways that people figure out -- figure out how to do well in this job. And I think -- and there is no right way, is basically what I'm trying to say, but what I just wanted to share is if you're getting started in the itinerant world, like I'm just going to give you just some basics about how to just get started, and then you're going to figure out your own -- your own -- your own flow. The first thing that -- this is today's agenda, so we're going to talk about the differences in some of the placements, self-contained in a district, self-contained in a residential school and then out in the district, in the public school system. And then we're going to look at a new TVI professional year at a glance, it's this live binder that's full of amazing, amazing information. One of our outreach employees, Christy Cowan, does the mentor center here at the School for the Blind. She does it, I think, four times a year -- two -- two or three times a year, and it is full of information. And I wish that I would have had that before my day one starting in as an itinerant. I didn't. Or maybe it was shared with me and I totally forgot about it, that's also true, too. And then we're going to look at different ways that I have found that have helped me collect documentation. And if you were in the education field anyway, you know that there are an endless possibility of ways to document your information. And you just have to figure out the way that makes sense to you. And so -- and it may keep changing. It may morph into new things. And so you're constantly finding new ways and more efficient ways to collect that documentation. But we all know that we have to collect it. And then we're going to look at where -- like how do you even decide, you know, like on those service times. Is it some kind of like random number, do you just guess, do you just keep, you know, carrying over the minutes from the year prior? And then, you know, if you've tried to look up all sorts of different resources but haven't been able to find the information that you're looking for, I just want to give you some ideas of like where to go next for help. And at any point, like if you guys have any questions or you need any clarification, please go ahead and just type it in the chat, and then -- and Kaycee will flag my attention and let me know what's going on. All right. So the first placement that I started in was in a Deaf Ed classroom, and I was in a public school system. And like some basics of -- some basic, like, you know, generalizations about that placement is that there are set schedules to your day. It's typically -- it's typically determined by the grade level, so whatever grade level you're teaching, the school system, you know, will have the schedules that are -- that go according to that grade level. So everybody has like a 7:30 -- so elementary, a 7:30 to a 2:55 school day. However how that day gets broken up is kind of determined and discussed by the grade level. The second thing that I -- that I noticed or characteristic about a self-contained classroom in the school system is that it's generally a small class size. So you are -- you're able to -- you know, you're able to manage your classrooms pretty easily. You know, you have relationships develop -- you have the opportunity to develop relationships faster because you're with the same group of kids every single day, day in, day out, and so you learn to build relationships really quickly. Then the next one is having the opportunity, more of an opportunity to have consistent collaboration. So you're on the campus, you're there every single day, you're typically meeting with your grade level staff, and so there's always an opportunity to go back and forth about, like, what other teachers are doing. And so there's always -- there's always that consistency, at least among the grade level. And the last thing is that you have ultimate control over your classroom. You are the leader of that classroom. You decide the organization, you decide the flow, you decide how things are presented. And so you get to make -- you get to call all those shots. The next setting is the residential school. My -- these are my observations and my experiences at the residential school. So there is a bell schedule that's set by the school, and you hear bells ringing; however, when you're in a smaller -- when you're in a smaller class or for students who have, you know, multiple disabilities or if they are dual sensory impaired, like there are students that are deafblind, those classes are pretty small. And the reason why they're in a residential school, which is the most restrictive placement, is that they have more complex needs. Classrooms are smaller in size than in -- than you're going to find in a classroom in a school district. One of my most favorite things about being in the residential school is that there are multiple service providers that come and help throughout the day. You have -- you can have weekly meetings with like the behavior specialist, with a speech therapist. You always have somebody who's there kind of guiding you, which was always so helpful to me, especially when you're first starting out. And it just helps, you know, solidify, you know, some of your strategies that are working -- like have somebody to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of. And so I really loved that part. The last part is that -- is that you do still have a lot of control over what goes on in your classroom. Again, you're setting the flow, you're developing your routines that you want to have during your day. You decide what -- like what games, what routines, what activities that you are going to -- you're going to do. So those are some of the big things. Now we're going to move into the itinerant schedule, and this is where it gets -- it gets -- where there's the most flexibility. So number one, you're going to have varied schedules. You're going to have a varied schedule throughout the year, you're going to have varied schedules from year to year. Your schedules are typically dictated by the students that you serve. And so you can have -- and since you're going to be serving students of all ages, you're having to work within the schedules of, you know, all the different grades and all the different bell schedules. And there are -- there are only a limited number of classes that you're able to pull students out of. You're not able to pull from core or academic classes. And even with specials, like specials are music, PE, art, there are only a certain number of times that you can pull from those, too, because there's a requirement of, you know, attendance for them to be there. And also, this is a time for the student to be able to kind of like reset and not -- not be bombarded with, you know, hard, you know, information and content and concepts. So it's a way for them to be able to kind of, like, get out energy in different ways rather than just being in a classroom. So you don't want to pull from there either. The number of students that you serve depend on the minutes and that can fluctuate pretty often. So, for instance, you could have just a very few number of students on your caseload, but they have an exorbitant amount of service minutes because they're in AP classes and they require all materials in Braille. That's going to take a lot of time. So that person's caseload may not have very many students simply because the students that they're serving have a lot of minutes that require attention. Or you may have like a lot of students on your caseload, but their service minutes are pretty low. So maybe they're consult minutes or maybe they're -- the frequency of visitation is less. And so you may have more students. That's just going -- that's just going to vary. A really, really big thing is that you are working across an entire district. So you are working with so many different teams, so many different individuals on each different campus, and so that's a lot of information to pass around. That's a lot of information to kind of hold within, and so the -- the importance and the necessity for teaming is going to be pretty -- pretty important. And collaboration is what -- is what becomes the name of the game. You are working across a lot of different personalities, a lot of different, you know, temperaments. And so you have to figure out a way to address each of the teams that you help serve, so that way it's to the benefit and to the most success of that student. All right. This is -- this is what I always found -- this is one of the parts that is the hardest, but the most exciting parts of being an itinerant teacher. And that is that your scope of knowledge has to like change and fluctuate and keep up with the level of your student. So I mean, you are working with kids in preK, AP chemistry, transition, 18 plus classes. And so you have to be able to keep up with all the different kinds of technologies. And there are so many different technologies. And not only is there so many -- are there so many different technologies, they all change and they change often. And so -- and even if you are -- were -- became familiar at one point with one student and then you haven't used that technology for the next couple -- even a couple of years because you haven't had any students who have needed that, you have to like relearn it all over again. I just remember it was my first year as an itinerant teacher, and I had a student in AP chemistry. And I had never taught Braille at that point because I had just come from the School for the Blind and the students that I were working with had already known Braille so I didn't have to teach it. And none of the students that I was working with were taking AP chemistry. And so I had to learn how to proofread chemistry Braille like real quick. And so that part of it is super exciting, because you're constantly learning new things. And that, I always found, so exciting. It's -- it's never boring, never ever ever boring. Have any of you guys -- I guess, you know, being -- being an itinerant teacher, have you guys ever come up with -- encountered a student where you were like, I have no idea. I have no idea how to do this. I don't even know where to find the information on how to do this and had to kind of like teach yourself? Like you're constantly -- it's like you're a perpetual student. So if you really like being a student, this is a great job, because you constantly have to keep up with all of the students that you serve. Yeah. Is there anybody -- is there anybody that has had that kind of experience?

>>Bennett: We had one come in from dor any. She said definitely, especially when it comes to technology.

>>Collins: Yes, technology is the big one. Is a really big one. I had a student who I had to figure out how -- she was deafblind, and we had to figure out a way for her to be able to stay connected with her community. So I took a focus 14 and an iPhone and all -- plenty of other devices to try and figure out how to -- how to use that -- the Focus 14 and an iPhone to teach her how to text. And there isn't anything that teaches you how to do that, so I literally had to take that -- the Focus 14 and the iPhone, and it teaches you how to connect it, but that's about it. And then I had to push different buttons to figure out what did -- which button controlled what. And I had to like write it all down and made myself like a little manual of how -- of how to like navigate through that. That was pretty hard. 

>>Bennett: Stephanie shared a really interesting one before you move on. Stephanie had a student take French and so she had to learn French accents in Braille. 

>>Collins: Oh, my gosh. Yes, that's hard.

>>Bennett: Lots of technology. And Dorothy shared, I can't believe I'm admitting this to you all, but my VI students are teaching me how to use my iPhone. 

>>Collins: Well, but I mean, is it any different from even like our teaching how to use the different features on the iPhone? You know, probably the same. 

>>Bennett: We're always learning from the kids for sure. 

>>Collins: Yes. I love -- I love it. That is one of the biggest things about being an itinerant. And then the last thing, you know, for self-contained -- for a self-contained classroom in the school district and even in a residential school, you have control over that classroom. When you become an itinerant teacher, you have no control over any of those classrooms because you are not the lead of that classroom. So how that classroom flows, how the schedules are set up, we have to figure out ways to -- to work within that educational team so that way -- so that way we can, you know, instill best practices, you know, for our field. But that also feel authentic to the classroom teacher who is the one who's in control of that classroom. Does anybody have any comments about that? I see some... 

>>Bennett: There's some more coming in of things that they had to learn. Learning basic music Braille for an elementary student. And then other people saying same here on the iPhone, having students help them learning. And Emily said makes you want to be a better teacher and learn things more deeply to better know what to suggest and how to do it for the team. 

>>Collins: Yes. I love it. I love that. Great. Let me see. All right. So -- all right. So you've just become an itinerant TSVI or you're thinking about becoming a TSVI. So what do you do now? I have this -- I have this meme that I posted, and it's a woman who is looking pretty frazzled and pretty distressed. And the caption reads, when you get so stressed that your stress starts stressing you out to the point where you're too stressed to deal with your stress. When I first became an itinerant TSVI, I had a really hard time, because I would see the rest of the team like furiously typing, printing, looking stuff up, gathering things around, and I didn't know what they were doing. And so I was like, I should probably be running around, too. I should probably be doing these things, but I don't know what these things are. And that was really hard for me. And I -- and I guess what I want to impart to new itinerants or if you're thinking about it, is that, again, there isn't a set way to do this. You -- I mean, there isn't -- it's kind of like -- this is kind of how I approach a recipe. There is a basic plan, you know, there's a basic plan thing that you do, but then you can like change it, you can add things to it, you can -- and you can kind of create what makes the most sense to you. And every single person does it totally differently. But the -- I mean, the bottom line is, do your job the best to your ability and just serve the students, and then how you go about that is up to you. And this doesn't just apply to, you know, TSVI. Like new TSVIs. This applies for even the most seasoned of us. 

>>Bennett: People are feeling your meme over there. 

>>Collins: Oh, yes. I'm so glad. Are any comments about this meme? This was literally -- this was literally me. I'm sitting behind my desk and I'm going, I know that I'm supposed to be doing something, I don't know what that something is. 

>>Bennett: So overwhelmed. Margaret says I don't think the stress ever goes away from year to year. There's so many variables, so many new things. 

>>Collins: Exactly. And it's new stress and then you get stressed about something new, but we're all still here, so clearly, clearly we get through it. All right. So what I really want to direct your attention to right now is this new VI professional year at a glance. I mentioned this before. This was developed -- and it's also maintained by Chrissy Cowan. She is the mentor coordinator here at TSVBI outreach. Some of you may have already gone through the mentor course -- the mentor center before, and if not and you're in Texas, absolutely sign up for it. It helped me like -- I guess reacquaint myself with different -- with different supports and resources out there. And so -- yes, I just want to show you guys really quickly. So this is what it looks like. It's a live binder, and I'm going to go to that page right now. In the handout, I have included all the links, and so all the links in the handout will lead you to all of these different things that I'm showing you today. So here is the new VI professional year at a glance. And it goes through every month of the year to tell you what you're supposed to be doing -- or what you can be doing or what -- not -- I don't want to say "Should," because I think that it -- it can change and it can vary. But if you're like, what am I supposed to do? This is the greatest place to go. So let's just look at August. All right. So in August, what you're doing is you are -- you're new to the district, you are -- you're getting started. You are gathering information about your students. Okay? So you are -- so you are creating these information packets for yourself. That could be digital, it can be paper. However suits you the best, but also know that when you go into different schools, I've noticed it's like you're in a concrete block and there's like no reception. So if you're relying on Internet access to be able to go onto the Internet, just be aware of that and be careful. So this just gives you different ideas. Like to-do lists for August, like what you should be doing. You should be reviewing the student folders. You should be looking at the student's schools, looking at their IEP, like what are their VI goals, what's -- what are you responsible for, like what is the student's vision history or vision and hearing history, what are those things. When are they due for their next evaluation? So you are setting up these information systems and these documentation systems for yourself so that you have something at a quick glance to be able to refer to and serve your student. You're looking at preparing packets for class for the teachers. So the classroom accommodations, information on -- like if they use telescopes. All of these different things. And this is all listed out for you. You don't have to remember any of it. It is all listed for you. Like all the different checklists, like check off all of the different things. And I love -- 

>>Bennett: There's been some questions in the chat, Chrissy wanted to clarify that only SFA or Texas university students enrolled in O & M or VI coursework can attend a mentor center as well as those who are assigned a mentor. 

>>Collins: Got it. 

>>Bennett: And then someone asked if you have to be a mentor to attend, yes, you only currently enrolled students can attend the mentor centers that Chrissy holds in person. 

>>Collins: Okay. 

>>Bennett: But if you want to talk about how to access this live binder separately from that, that might be cool. 

>>Collins: Okay. So Chrissy, just to clarify, people can access the live binder, but to be able to be a part of the mentor center, you have to be assigned a mentor and have to be enrolled in the SFA course. 

>>Bennett: For TTU, that's correct. 

>>Collins: Okay. All right. Well, I'm sorry about the mentor center, if you're not enrolled, but there is this really great -- there is this really great resource here to help you get started. Schedule -- there's a tab on schedules, scheduling tips. Like I mentioned earlier, you're constantly playing like a puzzle. You're constantly working with a puzzle to try and fit in when you're going to see your students, at what time, which is dependent on teacher's schedules, class schedules, block schedules, all of those things. And classes that you -- and core classes that you can't pull out of. It makes it really, really difficult. And so this just has all these different kinds of resources for you to look through. I'm not going to go through all of them, but just -- you can just see, in September, here are some things -- here's a to-do list for September. And creating -- creating different documentation systems for yourself, and we're going to get into documentation in a minute. All right. I'm going to go back to here. Okay. So I wanted to show you -- I wanted to show you, this is a -- this is an example of how I compiled information for myself. So I created just a spreadsheet, a table. On that table, it has the name of the student and the school, the columns read, student name and school, what their date of birth is, what their vision is, what is -- hold on a second. So sorry. What is their -- what is their service time, their FIE date when that is, their ARD date, FVE/LMA and the LVE, low vision evaluation date. And they're color coded. So red for me means it has to happen immediately. It has to happen, like, the fall of this year. Okay. So that's like -- those are your priority items. The blue ones are, okay, maybe like later -- like late in the fall, early spring. And then the yellow ones are the -- the yellow ones for me are the ones that are due like towards the later part of the spring or toward -- before the end of the year. And so I color code my spreadsheet or my table so that I can see at a glance, like who needs that -- who do I need to prioritize, who needs that -- that evaluation done immediately. 

>>Bennett: Yeah, Rachel, some of these acronyms, so we have FIE, full and individual evaluation. Do you want to explain ARD for those that are not in Texas. 

>>Collins: Got it. It's an IEP. ARD sphands for annual review and dismissal. It's what the rest of the country calls IEP. But in Texas, it's called ARD. But it's the same thing. ARD, IEP, same thing. And so FIE is, you know, the functional -- the full individual evaluation. That's your three-year evaluation as a TSVI. Functional vision evaluation, learning media assessment, those are the big ones that determine -- that explain exactly how a student uses their vision, how they -- how they interact with their environment, how they communicate, all of those things. And if you also work with students who are deafblind, then these are -- these are dates that you're going to want to share with the regional day school program for the deaf, RDSPT itinerant teacher, the DHH person, and so that way you guys can collaborate on writing a very comprehensive and full evaluation on the student. And then low vision evaluations, those are done every three years typically; however, it doesn't have to be that way. If the student's vision is -- if the student's vision is stable and there isn't a lot of change in programming, then it's not necessary. You -- it's nice to have, but if there isn't a lot of information that is -- that is going to be changing, then it's not necessary to do that. You want to -- you want to have those if you are looking into ideas for new low vision tools, if that's applicable or, you know, if the student is wanting to drive one day, you know, getting evaluated for that. And -- but definitely, if you've seen a big change in vision, you definitely want to look into getting an updated one. And I remember like when I was in the school district, if a student came in from out of state or out of town and their vision information just kind of lacked some information, you know, to give us a clearer -- to give us a clear picture of how a student used their vision, then we would -- we would want to ask for another one of those low vision evaluations. So, again, you can make this any way that you want to. This was just how I kept up with mine. And I like it to be -- and I like my tables to be colorful. All right. All right. So traveling folder, this is what I took with me in my backpack wherever I went. And so I had a little -- like a small little binder, maybe half inch to an inch binder -- probably about a half inch because an inch starts to get a little bit too big. And in that I had my go-to information. We were just talking about when we were looking at the live binder where it talks about gathering the student information. These are the types of things that I would print out and I would put in. Again, a lot of people preferred digital copies, and I totally respect that and I totally understand that. And -- but when I need to look up something really quickly, pulling it out of my backpack and flipping to that page is much faster than relying on whether or not I have access to the Internet at that time. And it's like searching through the different, you know, files in, like, say, Eastbed or whatever documentation -- or IEP system that you or your district uses. So here are some of the things that I would keep in my folder. So I had dividers, you know, to distinguish the different campuses. I would put campus maps in there, the bell schedules of each campus, the student schedules, according to -- and so I would have the bell schedule as well as the student's schedule. I would have functional vision, learning media assessment reports, any vision or hearing reports that they have. And then the most recent IEP goals and objectives, and just -- and a list of accommodations so that I had that with me at all times. But I also had all this kind of stuff, you know, stored digitally as well. Okay. All right. So I want to go over -- I want to go over staffings. And this is covered under, you know, teaming and why it's so important. You are working with a whole lot of different people. So at the very beginning of the year, you know, you're wanting to set up staffings with each -- with each educational team. And so what -- so I just wanted to just go into and explain like what do those entail, what do you do in those, like, staffing meetings or what are some ideas of what you could do. This is -- this is your opportunity to explain to the classroom teacher and actually the team about what to expect when they have your student with a visual impairment or a dual sensory impairment or multiple impairment in their class. Try setting these team meetings up with the case manager, because the case manager is the one that's on campus. They're the ones who are going to pretty much know who all the teachers are. I think that it fluctuates. If you as a TSVI have good relationship with the people, you know, in the -- on campus, then you can set those up. But we've -- I've found that I had to, like, work like a bunch of different types of, you know, avenues to be able to like set up those staffings, because everybody is so busy at the beginning of the year, nobody really wants to talk about it until they get the student in their class and then they're like, what am I supposed to do? One of the -- so one of the things that, you know, is also important to look at is coordinating with your O & M. Doing sensitivity trainings at the beginning of the year is always very, very helpful. You can do sensitivity training if you have a student who is just visually impaired or if you have a student who is dual sensory impaired. And I found that it actually really, really helped to have the actual student, if it's appropriate, have the actual student come into those staff meetings so that they are explaining to their educational team how they utilize their technology, how they want to set up a system with the teacher. Because you kind of want to, like, work your way out of and encouraging your student to be able to interact with the teacher as appropriate. So when -- I would set up these staff meetings, I would create like a one-pager. So on this one-pager, because they're not going to read a whole lot of information. So you create a one-pager that has all the vision information and not all the technical terms, but how their visual impairment like will actually affect them in class. This is -- you want to include information that is helpful to the teacher. For instance, use bold d dry erase markers because the student's not going to be able to see. You're not going to say they have hypropia, you don't want to give them all the technical terms because that means nothing to them. You want to give them the useful information of how it will affect them in class. And then the accommodations, like what the student uses currently and what you may be trying with the student to help that student gain access within the classroom and to access that general -- that general ed curriculum.. You want to include that information on there. And then for my students, because I serve as the deafblind specialist in the district, I would create and I would plot on a speech banana or it is an audiogram where it shows like the decibels and common sounds and where they fall within that -- within the level of sounds. And then in the middle as a speech banana or where all the speech sounds that can be heard and at what decibel or what level of hearing. So what I would do is I would plot their audiogram on that so that in a clinical situation, this is basically where the student is accessing speech and accessing sound. That doesn't mean that when there's noise and there's background noise, that doesn't change, because it will absolutely change. I also include if there are any field losses, I plot that on a visual field chart so that way there is a visual of like what this child is seeing and hearing in a best-case scenario. Does anybody have any -- 

>>Bennett: Rachel, we had Brittany share at the beginning of the year, she sends classroom teachers a little student snapshot slide show, and she has the students help create that to send to them as well. 

>>Collins: Excellent. I found that I would do that as well, and I found that that was really helpful to be able to help the student kind of like go through what it is they needed. And it helped them to have a visual, it helped them to explain what it was that they needed. Yep. Okay. Okay. So with these one-pagers, just remember, you know, keep it simple. You know, we -- we have -- we have -- we're tasked with -- we're tasked with making sure that our students have access all day, not just one class but all day. And so to be able to make that happen and to make the students successful at gaining access is to be able to collaborate with that student's -- with the student's educational teams and to make sure that everybody's on the same page. But with staffings, remember to keep it simple. Create those one-pagers, because as a classroom teacher, you're super busy, you've got all these other students and simplifying that information as much as possible is really helpful. With those staffings, to try -- to make sure that you set up like those potential like meetings, you know, like what kind of frequency, is it every week? Is it every other week? Is it monthly? But to always make sure that you kind of set up a frequency schedule to be able to meet on a regular basis to be able to discuss what it is you need to discuss. And also to, you know, make your role very clear, right? So we as TSVIs, you know, -- or teachers of the deafblind do not teach core curriculum as an itinerant, we do not teach core curriculum, but we do help provide access to that content, so just remember. I think that sometimes our roles get a little bit muddied and confused, and sometimes we can be seen as one-on-ones. And that is not our role. Or it is not our role to, you know, to help explain, you know, the concept of that particular lesson, like graphing, you know, equations or whatever. That's not our role. That is the role of the classroom teacher to be able to explain it. And then our role would be how do we make that content accessible to the student. So just to make that very clear. All right. Ooh, gosh, I've only got 15 minutes left. Okay. So documentation, there is literally so many ways, so many ways that you can do this. And so in some ways, it makes it more difficult because there are so many different ways to do documentation, but I'm just going to go through just a couple of them. So here for whatever IEP documentation or, you know, tracking system you use, I was always using eSped, they actually have built in tracking sheets at the back of, you know -- or within the system, which auto populates, you know, what the student's IEP goals, the objectives, like what period it is. And all you have do is print them out and then document. If you like that, then you can -- then go for that. Let's see. Then I started creating some -- I started creating some individual -- like some individual ones where I would create a Google form. And so Google forms have been really fun because you can just like send these out -- or this is for one like if you're documenting yourself, so if you've got your Google form with you and you're visiting a student and you just kind of fill it out really quickly. So you fill out the grading period, what type of service it is, is it direct or consult. You know, here is the goal, and then you kind of can choose like, you know, did they -- did they hit one goal with one prompt or, you know, to -- you can select where -- like where they're at. And then all of this gets populated, if you're familiar with Google forms, all of this gets populated at the very end in a nice graphic. And so you can do that. Another thing that I use like right before ARD, and you are gathering information about how the student is doing in class, I would send this out to the teachers prior to ARD reportings -- like before grading report time, so what subject, you know, if it's apprickable -- applicable, the reading level, that could be important when you're writing reports as well. Math, what are their strengths, challenges, what area do they need the most improvements, do they complete assignments on time, do they communicate? So I would actually use this whenever I was writing functional vision evaluations or media assessments, and I would actually have a section in there about what their general observations about how they performed within their class and what their teachers were saying about their performance and their -- and whether or not they were advocating for themselves, visually or auditorily, if they were -- what -- you know, what their strengths were, what are some of the things that they needed some -- that were some challenges. Here's just a Google -- on a Google form, I just collected, you know, like IEP data, so you can fill this out, you can either keep it on -- you can keep it on your Google Drive or you can print this out and then write it down as you're serving the student. So many, so many, so many different ways. Okay. Does anybody want to share like some ideas that you guys have used for documentation? Oh, and, of course, just good old pen and paper. Write it down. Does anybody have any suggestions of what -- One Note. Okay? A couple people, Shelly also uses One Note. Google Keep. 

>>Bennett: I like Google Keep myself, too. 

>>Bennett: Interesting. So all these Microsoft people. 

>>Collins: Okay. Again, I haven't been -- I mean, I've only just been out of the itinerant world for just a year, and I have never heard of those. Okay. Yep. 

>>Bennett: Google docs. Typically districts are either Google or Microsoft, so One Note is one of the Microsoft products. 

>>Collins: Okay. Got it. 

>>Bennett: So many people using Google docs. 

>>Collins: Absolutely. Yes. Huh, that's really interesting. Okay. Well, again, plethora, plethora of ways to do this. Then, you know -- then you want -- then you're going to have documentation for whenever you're doing consultations or your meetings. Again, back with the teaming. So, so, so important to team. Again, I used -- you know, we use Google docs, so I would have a shared doc with the teams that I would use. And this is -- this is an example of something that I would do where I would have weekly team meetings. And they were virtual. Sometimes they were in person, but then once COVID hit then, you know, it became, you know, virtual. But what I would do is we would talk to the classroom teacher and, you know, all the service disciplines and we would say, okay, what is the topic or what is the concept that you're going to be -- that you're going to be talking about this week? And so -- and so we were looking at -- you know, so say ICE or whatever, so here as a team we would come up with some activities that we could do. Now, here are areas where the TSVI or the TDB or DHH can enter in, a place for speech and a place for OT. I did not come up with the vaicts or the -- or what the other service disciplines were going to do or provide. We collaborated as a team, as a group on what the activities were, and then the other service providers chimed in on what they -- what they were going to contribute. And so that way whenever any of the service providers would come in, we were all targeting the same concept. We were targeting the same vocabulary across, you know, the -- across the activities that were centered around one central concept. And so we know that the more opportunities we have to touch on a topic, the more -- the easily -- the more easily -- easy the concept will be absorbed into the student's, you know, knowledge. And so this is what we would do. And so like if -- if like a team member couldn't make it to the meeting, I'll show you the next thing. I had like a running -- a running log of all the things that we talked about. So the date of the meeting, who was present, what were the topics discussed and what were some of the action items. So if at any point anybody missed a meeting, they could go back to this document and say, what were they talking about? Okay. Say I'm speech, okay, they're talking about this. Oh, I can incorporate this you know utilizing this goal that I have for the student but talking about this topic on the concept of -- on the main concept that was being covered during the week. Does anybody have any questions about that? 

>>Bennett: Yeah, we had one come in asking if you as the VI or the TSVI initiated this team planning with the core teacher and the service providers? 

>>Collins: Yes, I did. Yes. I was -- I was the one who initiated. And I was the one who led the meetings as well. Because it had to happen. And so -- and so -- like I think that, you know, even -- like for me, I wanted to make sure that I was -- that I wasn't, you know, covering extra ground, that I wasn't, you know, talking about a topic or doing an activity that was like so far from what the classroom was doing, because then -- they're just like little pieces of information that just kind of are just kind of randomly thrown out there, and then very easily forgotten. But if there was a topic that -- if there was a topic that everybody talked about, I felt like there was a better chance of being able to retain that knowledge. So, yeah, I was the one who led that. Any other questions? 

>>Bennett: Perfect. No other questions at this point, but Chrissy did share that she's always looking for ways to update her live binder so if you have any forms or things that you think should be featured in that live binder that Rachel showed, you can mail to Chrissy, she's cowan@tsvbi.edu. 

>>Collins: You just make these suit whatever you're trying to share. I just feel like collaboration and consistency, however that happens is what the goal is. You want to all be working towards the same thing. And then, you know, there are times, like for more sporadic, like maybe monthly meetings, what I would do is I would just have a consultation form. And we would fill this out. It's the same thing as the running log, but here was just like each session was on one specific form. I started off using this one, just using one single form for each thing, but then I was like, when did we talk about that one -- that one topic and what did we say that we were going to do? And then I would have to search through because I couldn't figure out which one it was. I would date them, but I can't remember like what date we discussed something. So I changed it to a running log, so then all I had to do was scroll and figure out where -- like where we talked about something or what we discussed. Okay. Again, so many different ways to do documentation. All right. So how do you decide service times? In Texas, we use the VISSIT or the visual impairment scale of service intensity of Texas. So it goes through different areas of the ECC, or the expanded core curriculum and it looks at the needs of the students and then the needs of the educational team. And based on that need, it gives you kind of like a range of service time. And so -- so based on that, you -- at any point, like if you go to a student's IEP meeting and they're like, well, how did you come up with this service time, you can show and you can demonstrate how you came about that, how you came about those minutes. One of the things that I found is like, you know, for students who have like multiple impairments, who are, you know, in your life skills classrooms or things like that, like, you know, oftentimes they have the least amount of minutes, you know, but I have found in my experience that they're the ones who require the most amount of -- like a lot of minutes -- maybe not the most, but a lot more minutes because of all the different things that you're having to -- all the different materials that you're having to create for the student to be able to access what's happening within the classroom. So I have found that maybe direct time is very low, but the consult or material-making time is very large. Have you guys found the same in your experience? 

>>Bennett: Debra shared that for her it made service time objective and not subjective. 

>>Collins: Okay. Okay. And that's key. 

>>Bennett: She said an academic Braille student is very time-consuming. 

>>Collins: Absolutely. Absolutely. But making -- but also making active learning like boards is also very, very time-consuming. 

>>Bennett: For sure. Shannon shared, yes, this has always been really hard for me and the VISSIT helps. Rhonda said is there any way we can get a copy of the service scale time that you use? 

>>Collins: Yes. Okay. So to get to that -- and I actually put this on the document, on the handout. So you'll go to our main page, the main TSVBI web page and you'll go to statewide resources. And then you'll go to professional development, then publications, and then the VISSIT. And that's on the handout, the sequence of how to get -- how to find it. All right. So if you're -- I gave a lot of different ideas and a lot of different, you know, things that helped me and things that could have really helped me, you know, like when I was getting started, but if you do need more help, here in Texas we have educational service centers. There's 20 of them in Texas. I don't know about other states. You guys, I'm sure that there are local education, you know, like service centers that you guys have, too, I just don't know how it works in other states. But reach out to those. Reach out to those like VI specialists and DHH specialists, you know, in your specific region and ask, ask for more help, ask for assistance. And then these coffee hours, there's always so many different topics and there's -- I love every -- like each month is going to have like a specific, you know, topic. That's going to be great. And then TSVBI outreach. We are here for you. If you need us, go to -- you can dpiend us by going to the -- find us by going to the TSVBI home page, going into statewide resources and going into outreach, and then there's a button that's called "Contact outreach," and you can fill out your information. You can ask us to come out and do a training. You can just ask us questions. You can ask us to come out and visit like a specific student or a specific need. We're here for you if you need us.