October 20th marks a new beginning. One of my favorite humans and colleague - Manda Nordes- and I are embarking on a new three-part series that explores the Health Education book published by the American Printing House for the Blind.
Manda and I presented at conferences since 2018 on both local and national level (see the blog post on #metoo) and we were excited to be approached to cover the book.
In this three-part series which will have one presentation per month (Oct., Nov., Dec.) we will share on how to approach the topics covered by purposefully planning and embedding instruction using the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). Webinar 1 will cover nutrition and disease prevention, webinar 2 will address personal care and safety, and we will close with a bang by addressing sex education. All of these topics are essential to cover to give our students a chance to thrive post-secondarily.
I use this book as a TVI to give me ideas on topics I should include in my instruction. What is exciting is that it goes directly with my previous series with APH on career education! You say what?! Yes! Health education is directly related to career education and post-secondary success. Our students need to know how to stay healthy to be able to live a meaningful life and to be able to build and keep a career.
As TVIs we need to look at our students holistically with the end in mind.
We can not just decide that today we teach braille and tomorrow we focus on independent living skills. If we purposefully plan out instruction, we can move our students along and assist them building their skills on all planes at once. Writing comprehensive SMART Goals that cover multiple areas of the ECC will easily get us there. It all lies in the foundation and for that, we must think using person-centered planning.
Ask yourself:
Where do I want my student (child) age 2, 6, 13, or 17 be at the end of our time together?
Did I give them the skills to be independent (individualized level of independence) adults or did I just focus on isolated skills without a aggregate purpose?
Did I ever consider that if my student does not know their visual impairment and current health status, they will not know how to seek help as an adult?
Did I collaborate with the families to ensure I am culturally sensitive but that I broach the topics necessary for post-secondary success?
As educators who are specialized in such a nuanced field that many do not even know we exists, we need to be extremely determined in our educational planning for our students. All our students -regardless of the complexities of their needs- deserve the best education we can provide for them. And remember, when it comes to academics, we provide accommodations and tools to those who are responsible for academics. As TVI and O&M specialist, our responsibilities lie in the nine areas of the ECC! We can not cover such broad area without purposeful, collaborative, and holistic planning.
For those collecting ACVREP units, we got you covered. As always, any and all are welcome, and most if not all of APH webinars are free.
Please go to the following link for more information and to register: bit.ly/2I75VTt
