Helping All Students: Teacher of the Blind Offers Resources for Students

If a child has a diagnosis of visual impairment, they take a visit to see Ms. Christina Work. She is one of the only Teachers of the Blind in the area.

She works with students who need large print, braille or other tactile learning. Work works with three students in the district. The bond created between her and her students is strong, as they work closely every day on different skills.

Work researches resources and projects to help her students learn better. She also recreates students’ lesson plans in braille, so they can learn alongside their classmates. She has books in braille that teaches students about science and math.

“For science, it can be challenging to explain certain concepts, like plants and animal cells. They can’t conceptualize it,” Work said. “So, I have raised cell with different textures to help differentiate between parts of the cell like the nucleus and membrane.”

PROVIDING RESOURCES

It’s apparent that Work’s students adore her. They greet her with big smiles and hugs. This great relationship is built from working closely every day. 

The recommended time to work with visually impaired and blind students is an hour and a half every day. Work spends time with her students working with students in her room, where she has a braille printer, books and other devices for visually impaired students. Work also goes into their classrooms to help them with skills as they are learning alongside classmates.

Work also collaborates with a man who comes into the school to teach two of her students’ cane skills.

Resources like Orbit Reader gives students access to resources like an iPad. Orbit Reader is a 3-in1 device and serves as a self-contained book reader, note-taker and braille display. Work connects her Orbit Reader to an iPad through Bluetooth, and students can click through apps and it will display the name in braille.

“I spend a lot of time just researching and trying to find ways to make learning fun because they should have the same access as their peers,” Work said.

Paths to Literacy and Perkins School for the Blind offer great resources that Work uses. They offer innovative resources and technology to offer visually impaired and blind people.

“This school district has been amazing at getting me resources I need or when I find new things to help the students learn,” Work said.

Another great resource for a student who is visually impaired is a monitor in her classroom. It connects to her Chromebook, but it allows her to see much better than working from her laptop. She also has a device that magnifies whatever she is looking at, like the Whiteboard at the front of the room becomes clearer for her.

FUN IN THE CLASSROOM

One of her students, Sammi, loves to learn with Work. She is working on learning to read braille, so Work finds fun new ways to help with memorizing. One is creating ice cream cones from felt. Words in braille are pasted onto scoops, and Work tells Sammi which words she needs to find for her ice cream cone.

Sammi also loves to color. Work has coloring books with numbers in braille. Work will ask Sammi to find a certain number and then Sammi feels the raised lines to know how much to color.

Another student, Aedan, uses tactile learning and memorization to work his iPad. He has a keyboard with raised buttons. Each button serves an action, and he uses voice commands to work through things on this iPad.

He’s worked on using this device to open Word documents, and he can have the device read his dictation back to him.

Work also loves to make her students’ excited to come into class. She has little mailboxes that she will leave notes in braille to them or other messages.

The resources Work utilizes are all self-taught. She spends time outside of the classroom, researching and learning how to best use the technology she gets.

“I love working with my students and seeing how they grow and adapt to their environment,” Work said. “My students are so smart, and I come here each day excited to see them.”