Visually+Impaired

Pre-Assessment

Molly 1. We thought that this would be an interesting topic to choose because it is something that we haven't had to deal with much on a personal level. I just hope to learn more about ways that we can adapt a classroom to meet the needs of a visually impaired student. 2. I don't have many concerns at this time. 3. The biggest asset I will bring to the group is my organization skills and my ideas.

Olivia 1. I thought that this would be an interesting topic because the idea of being 'visually impaired' is something that can affect anyone at any point in their lives. A person can be born with it, or develop later in life. Even though I personally do not know anyone affected by this, I hope by learning more about it I will learn the skills necessary to handle it in the classroom. 2. As of right now, I don't have any concerns. 3. The biggest asset I will bring to the group is my brainstorming skills and dedication to the group.

Sparrow Hawk (dares to be different) a) We thought this topic was an interesting choice mainly due to not having much prior knowledge of the visually impaired, much less what it would be like being a student with visual impairments. I think it would be interesting learning about it myself, and now we all have the opportunity to educate others on the subject as well. b) My only concern: talking for an hour. I know we will be able to pull it off...but it still concerns me. c) The biggest assets I will bring is my creativity and hard work. Also, my general awesomeness is hard to beat... (:

Working Outline

Introduction
 * Opening activity (Still to be decided)

Poor Vision
 * Partially sighted, low vision, legally blind, color blind
 * Strategies for dealing with students who are visually impaired
 * Ex. Sitting closer to board, giving them handouts to work off of, etc.
 * Activity (Still to be decided)
 * Bullying problems associated with
 * Video

Totally Blind
 * Born blind vs. becoming blind
 * Discussion about things that people who are blind aren’t able to experience
 * Ex. Color
 * Video?
 * Activity (Still to be decided)
 * Strategies for making classrooms/lessons easier for blind students
 * Mostly verbal, classroom set-ups, etc.
 * [|http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/vision.html]
 * Not differentiating

Discussion/Questions

I think that this was a very interesting topic! My favorite part was when you asked us to describe a color without saying the word. You all also had great information and presented it well! -Kailey

You guys did a really good job on your presentation. I thought it was a great topic because i have never learned much about visually impaired. I really liked how you incorporated the part where we had to describe a color, it was really difficult and i thought impossible. I really saw how hard it would be for a blind person. I am glad you included teaching aspect to help. -Emily Tessar

The main thing i remember is when you guys had us describe a color. I was frustrated because I couldn't think of a way to describe it to someone. If I were blind or color blind, I would get frustrated a lot not knowing what color things are; color helps you picture things. You guys did a great job informing us about the visual impaired. - Kayla Schmeckel

You guys did an awesome job! I really liked when you had us describe a color without saying the color! That is something that we do not ever think about. Way to go:) - Nicole Gottsacker

I really liked this presentation. Its not something that I would naturally pick as a topic, but you guys had a lot of great information. This is something that we will all see on a regular basis while teaching, so it was really good to learn about it. You had many examples for options in the classroom. Great job! -Alisha Adams

Your presenation really got me thinking about how challenging it would be to work with visually impaired children. I loved the part that discussed all of the new technology that they are working on to make their lives a little less difficult. It was very inspiring! -Alyssa Thomas

__ Cultural Presentation Wrap Up __ __ Molly: __
 * I learned that there are more categories than just blind and not blind. I also learned that there are tons of awesome new inventions that have been developed in recent years to help people who are visually impaired perform day-to-day activities, everything from helping with math problems to pouring a glass of water.
 * Our group had a bit of trouble getting together due to everyone’s crazy schedules, but we were able to communicate pretty well despite that. We all were able to find information, pictures, and videos for the presentation.
 * I’m most proud of the fact that we were able to pull out a whole presentation and present it well despite our limited time to go over the material and practice as a whole group. I really wish we could have found better videos in place of the cheesier ones. It was just such a challenge to find videos that fit the criteria and weren’t just about random stuff.

Emily Sparks
 * The three main things that I learned about this topic were:
 * 1) (As Molly said) there is more than one category than the normal "blind" and "not blind." People with glasses are also considered visually impaired, as well as people who have sensitivity to light (such as myself) as well as just slight trouble seeing and focussing. More people are visually impaired than we know.
 * 2) You can be legally blind and still be able to see. For some reason I was under the impression that "blind" was blackness and not seeing. I suppose we grew up with misconceptions, and I am sure I was not the only one who learned being blind doesn't always mean seeing only dark-blackness and nothing else.
 * 3) This is more of a self-realization than a learned topic, but we are so blessed to live in a day where technology is so advanced where we can use it to benefit disabilities and make every-day tasks simpler for everyone. It never really occurred to me the DEPTH of this until this presentation.
 * We had some issues divvying up work, but it ended up working out pretty well. Olivia and I had a lot of conflicts with me working so much and her having softball, so a lot of our work was done outside of group work, but we would email information back and forth, editing each others work. I think it ended up working better than expected, though I wish we would have met a few more times as a group. We did meet a few times, but I think we would have been more comfortable meeting one or two more times.
 * I am really happy we came out strong in the end. We were all a little nervous about getting the project done with our schedules, but i think we really pulled through and did our best for what we were given. I agree with Molly about the videos, though. And not just about the videos either. A lot of information was limited, and most was on websites made by regular people and didn't seem credible. I wish there was more variety!

Olivia:
 * I learned that it isn't uncommon to have students in the classroom who are visually impaired. Every classroom we will ever teach in will have a handful of students who at least wear glasses, but it's possible that we will have to face having a legally or completely blind students. They are a lot of things that, as a teacher, you will have think about that you normally wouldn't for a student with perfect eyesight.
 * I also learned that with the development of technology, making a good environment for a visually impaired student is easier than ever. There are apps for iPads and Androids that, especially for blind students, can aid in certain subjects, especially in math.
 * One of the challenges we faced with this project is the fact that, as Emily and Molly mentioned as well, we had extremely difficult schedules to work. Molly had work, Emily had work, I had work/softball, so majority of our work had to be done separate. But we managed to stay well connected through email, so I felt like the whole project came together well in the end!
 * I'm proud of the fact that even with all the challenges that our group had to deal with, we managed to pull of a presentation that, in my opinion, turned out great. Filling the allotted amount of time was a bit of a challenge because I didn't anticipate the class being so quite,but it just shows that this is something we'll have to face in the actual classroom in the future.
 * One of the obstacles we faced throughout this presentation was the fact that it was hard to find good videos that represented our topic, and the ones we did find had very poor acting and were more funny than serious.)

Comments: You guys did a great job! It was interesting to learn about something i really have no knowledge of. I came in a little late so i didn't get to catch the beginning of your presentation, but what i saw was very good. So Great job guys!! :)

Very nice job! Visually impaired is such a wide spread issue and your presentation enlightened me on some of the cutting edge technology. I think each of you spoke comfortably and with strong knowledge. Nicely done! -Michael Federman