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TN VIVA: Access for All: Differentiated Instruction for Complex Learners with Visual Impairments

Added Oct 10, 2025 •

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Presented by Melissa Hawkins on October 3, 2025. TN VIVA 2025-2026 Presentation Materials: - (Sensory Channel forms) https://4.files.edl.io/f884/10/10/25/143356-fbfc3f16-1f68-49a9-bc75-f93421913684.pdf - (PPT) https://4.files.edl.io/e538/10/10/25/143356-c054e004-7c35-4896-9b22-997ce7880897.pdf Session Description: This seminar explores effective, research-based strategies for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of students with visual impairments and additional disabilities. Participants will view hands-on examples, adaptive tools, and flexible lesson frameworks that promote access, engagement, and independence. Whether you're a classroom teacher, specialist, or paraprofessional, you’ll leave with practical approaches to immediately implement in your learning environment.

Show Transcript

all right good afternoon everybody happy Friday uh this is um another session of the Tennessee visual impairment Virtual Academy we like to call it TN Viva and here on October 3rd uh we have a really exciting um session here for you today uh presented by Miss Melissa Hawkins who's 1 of our fabulous teachers here at the Tennessee School for the Blind today's session is called access for all differentiated instruction for complex Learners with visual impairments and so while I am still in charge of talking let me pull up uh something real quick in the chat I'm going to put a link to the Tennessee Viva um homepage if you want to call that this is a collaboration between the Tennessee School for the Blind um the Vanderbilt University program and visual disabilities TBI training program as well as the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center which is um our University based uh you said and so um glad to have so many people here joining us from across the country literally Coast to uh beautiful Tennessee um and I think let's see Delaney if you have the the feedback link could you put that in the chat as well yes I will drop that in the chat for everybody awesome thank you so much and so in case you guys would like to request um uh certificate for your attendance here today we can do that I do apologize we typically provide acvrep credits but today at this time we have we are quite where we can um do that just yet however we can provide a certificate um uh continuing learning certificate all right so um like I said today's session is really exciting Miss Hawkins is 1 of our really amazing teachers here on campus at the Tennessee School for the Blind um and I'm going to just turn it over to you Miss Hawkins to uh share your presentation your screen and then uh take it away excellent and uh Alan are we going to need a break at all or you think just kind of go right through I don't know we typically for for these sessions we we kind of push on through okay that's what I thought but just wanted to make sure yep all right um let me it says I cannot share my screen While others sharing all right try now perfect let me just put it in all right can you all see my screen yes looks good excellent excellent um so hi everyone I'm Melissa Hawkins um I am a certified teacher of the visually impaired um and and I am the preschool to second grade teacher at the Tennessee School for the Blind um my class is very unique um and has more complex Learners with visual impairments and other additional disabilities um so I love being able to talk about that differentiated instruction piece and kind of how I Implement that in my classroom um I'm going to start off with today's agenda um we'll talk about a little bit about me and the purpose of this presentation and then go into the framework of differentiated instruction instructional strategies that I use that my students um why collaboration and teaming is a part and the key takeaways and some resources for y'all um and then throughout there's some materials and prep I have a lot of photos in there um and then final tips and takeaways and questions at the end if you have any um while I am presenting if you do have any questions or think of anything you want to make a comment or anything please just share in the chat um and I'll keep that kind of located on my end um but feel free to unmute yourself if you need um to interrupt so as I said some stuff about me um how I got here is I'm originally from New Jersey um I came to Tennessee through lacrosse at Vanderbilt University as a division 1 athlete um and I choose chose special education um in my high school growing up we had a pea partner program where you got nominated to be a partner with um an individual disabilities during gym class um and I actually was put through um with a non-verbal um Behavior student who I absolutely loved um we were Best Buds and something 1 day kind of set him off um and I was kind of in that lane of fire um and I was hospitalized for a little bit um and although that is traumatic for some people it almost even though I was a freshman in high school um it geared me on of well why why next time I saw uh Jason it was the same old Jason um why did that happen why in the moment all of this happened to me when we're so close um so it kind of geared me in that field of I want to know more about behaviors specifically um and working with students with severe disabilities so through my recruitment process just for lacrosse Vanderbilt stuck out right away being 1 of the top programs um and because of coid got an extra year of Eligibility and went right into my vision track um for my masters and then throughout practicum and student teaching um fell in love with the School for the Blind here um and I've been the Pre-K to second grade tvi here for this is my third year um I am the head coach of the track and field team here too which I love being able to bring in my passion um and balance of both Sport and academics um here and work with the youngs and then the olds um and try see the balance of both and it's a very different world outside of the classroom but super fun um and then just want to add fun fact is I was in the Junior Olympics as a gymnast when I was younger and I ran a half marathon last year guiding 1 of the students that I coach on the track team um so that was some cool things I think opportunities continue to grow here at TSB um and each student can get those opportunities as you support them um and Mentor them so super excited about that so what is differentiated instruction um adjusting teaching methods to meet diverse student needs and the key principles in this is content process production and learning environment um these key principles really add into that overall student approached individualized student approach um and why I'll dig down a little deeper as to why this is so important for for our students with visual impairments so differentiated instruction is essential for complex Learners with visual impairments because like I said it's not 1 size does not fit all um these students bring diverse strengths learning needs and access requirements that cannot be met with a single teaching method or material format um so if everyone's kind of Familiar of the RTI process in Tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 where we're all trying to get to that Universal learning level um but really inside of that where do our complex Learners fit and complex Learners with visual impairments where they need maybe those extra accommodations support s and all of that to get to those grade level standards um something that I find challenging on my end um when I started here is that there are no standards that are different or um what's the word uh adapted towards my population of students as probably some people have um kind of encountered so I am based off of the Tennessee state standards of pre-K to second grade General Ed um so it kind of brings in that creativity piece knowing the student um and a lot of trial and error of implementation and intervention um but overall all that's kind of what I'm basing this whole presentation off is to show that you're not the only 1 that is told you need to find these standards um but how can we get created in making those standards match in that own individualized students weigh so the chat pop up we're good so diving in to what this looks like um I think I have 5 6 different categories within differentiated instruction um access to curriculum this looks like in my classroom standard print visual graphics and sometimes fast-paced verbal delivery of instruction um kind of like to that standard of that generalized curriculum often creates Bears um so when our students are in their gened um setting and placement they are showing more difficulty through limitations or maybe access um and some of these barriers are around why they're getting pushed into not having those accommodations and modifications um however instead of creating those how can we limit or prevent those from happening for each student we can adapt it through Braille to actual Graphics large print um tangible symbols Hands-On manipulatives and so that way the students are engaging in understanding um I use multiple Pathways for learning in my classroom um so there's not just 1 we're not all just doing Braille um my instruction and I'll show some photos is there's multiple modalities going on there's actual auditory um sensory visual everything under the sun um that's because all 5 of my students learn differently and their primary modes of media or sensory channels I tried to make sure is the best fit for them um and add in all those things and that doesn't mean that my student who has Vision can't be doing auditory and tactual things too that's only help them gain all that access as well um so as much as we can have them have Hands-On materials being able to touch the object then look at the object on the book or photo or whatever it may be and then maybe be listening to the song that is piecing all that together that's kind of how it all blends and then of course oop sorry of course promoting Independence and confidence this is 1 of my biggest things especially with um always training my educational assistance is here is it's okay for the student to get something wrong or fail um now if they're failing 3 times in a row and cons over consecutive sessions or it's not going in any sort of direction of a positive trend then that's when we need to kind of step in and use that um hierarchy of prompting and then tailor off that need but fully to the start I let the students hey this is what the directions are let's see if we can implement it if I need to start prompting you I know when to do so um so biggest things here is I really push my students to try to build those self-advocacy independent and confidence um especially in my classroom where social interactions self-determination at this age is so so important um it's just continuously making choices being able to demonstrate what they know um and be an active participant participant in their environment any questions off of these 3 perfect so the next 3 um just addressing varied Readiness levels um complex Learners often have uneven skill profiles so sometimes they're strong over here emerging over here sometimes they know this and the next day they don't know this um so differentiation including that teacher scaffolding like I've uh explained a little bit of giving them all that's there um we don't not just need to be okay you're a visual learner that's all you're getting Vision wise no that's not going to work for that student um it's more of let's have the object let's put it to the a 2d filter or a tactual symbol and then in that auditory piece of silly sounds or you know with the weather I'm thinking of in morning meeting I bring a fan around and I blow all of them with the wind and then I spray all of them with water um for the rain and I have ice packs for snow for them to feel and touch and get a little more creative um of course it's so fun and they have so much fun but they're also learning at the same time um and then of course that that really goes into different levels um and I have a slide later towards the end talking about more behavior management systems what that looks like as well so as much as we can do that teacher scaffolding and all also extending those learning needs um we will be decreasing or eliminating those behaviors happening encouraging engagement and motivation um lesson should always include those real objects textual experiences and meaningful context um I try to take the real standard and make it a little more creative or adaptive towards where that student is at this current moment um and I'll show some of these throughout the PowerPoint but how can we talk about the seasons how can we do patterns in math um and how can we really get that deeper engagement of each student while doing those tasks that for them it's super fun and they're they're doing those visual memory or visual um learning experience with those AIDS and getting their hands on those manipulatives but how really how is that over overall reaching that standard and then supporting those Mastery grade level standards um is a really big thing for differentiated instruction I have 3 grade levels right now in my class which just always I down and I'm like how how is this happening right now but how can I blend it all together um and really just adjusting those materials and making sure that they are on that same grade level expectation um of of course there are modifications accommodations based off of individual needs but that will fall um when you have a lot of observation and data collection being taken so bumping in thought I would kind of give you a quick overview of the students in my classroom um I have 2 students that have Vision um 1 who only has vision and 1 I and she has cataracts in the other and she is her primary mode is tactual and second is visual I then have a student with low vision who has 2 cataracts cortical visual impairment and is visual on some days as his primary but is mainly auditory as his secondary or primary on other days um so with that cortical Vision impairment being that the brain and the eyes are working at 2 different things he can see small print some days I'll have my badge up and he'll spell my name right off the print but then the next day he can't see something that's large print so it's just kind of gearing into okay it does he need it to be slanted up a little higher does he need to add in a different contrast background are we supporting his needs over here um and for him what that looks like is he's getting both print Braille and tactual pictures um and pitcher symbols at the same time so he's got a lot going on um and then I have 1 student who has no eye Anatomy so he has no vision um mainly auditory learner and we're getting more tactual um he was very aversive to actual my first year and we've kind of implemented more and more tasks in place where he's getting that predetermination of okay you're going to be doing this and this is what's next right rather I'm not going to take your hand and just put it in the sand or I'm not going to take your hand and just put it in this weird slime we're going to talk about it and we're going to prep you and get you in that um and then lastly I have a student that has no light perception so she's very tactual and auditory um and then I think I forgot Lucas and he is has light perception um to actual auditory so as you could see overall have had um 4 out the 5 the past 2 years and really are starting to see growth in some areas and some that have started off as auditory Learners as their primary sensory channels have changed or adapted into adding that second 1 as much as that first 1 um which is great knowing all of those areas there as needed um so if you are someone in a classroom or working with an individual student I suggest doing a century Channel assessment on them it's really quick and easy it's an observation um checklist I don't have it right here on the screen um but if you do want to copy of it I have copies um and really you would just go in and observe them and see what they were doing in the moments are they really listening and focusing are they visually attending or are they really touching and making sure that they're Hands-On those materials and getting that tactual sense um and that overall outweighs of where their real learning media and sensory channels should be going and gearing up so that's just an overview of my 5 students that I have it feels like a million but it's okay and they uh 2 out of the 5 also have additional physical impairments um ones in wheelchair and yeah and I just tried to as much as possible with all my students is to talk about how they're all different but how they're the same um because that's really important here at TSB is why are we at TSB and them to acknowledge that and take ownership of the fact that they can self Advocate and be self-determined and do anything that we can put our minds to sew some instructional strategies that I focus on very heavily in my classroom um is I do we do you do that is the gradual release of responds possibility um and then multi Hands-On learning with real objects and tactual supports um I'm going to dive in a little deeper with some photos of those materials that you'll see um but just wanted to talk a little bit about both of these strategies um my first year I added all the strategies Under the Sun that you know came in with school with and I was like okay these are the 2 main ones that I have kept consistent implemented each and every lesson um and just I really I really really love them and I feel that my students have just grabbed them so great um especially this year we're going into more first grade second grade standards so that adds in those CVC words um and more math facts and things like that so just trying to implement more strategies as much as we can so first talking about that I do you do we do this is probably my 1 of the main models in uh strategies that I use why it works it provides explicit modeling guided practice and Independence for critical for Learners who need that multiple exposure and cleared scaffolding um and it builds that confidence when reducing those cognitive loads frustration overwhelming feelings that they're feeling um so basically going through this how it applies to students Vision um I I always start with all right we are going to do our CVC words our word is bat I go first and then I'll also say Miss Hawkins goes first because sometimes we're still learning I means me and all that those things too so I'll do it and I'll sound it out or I'll spell it out and I'll say all right are we ready to do it together we do and then the students will do it together and then this is really great um structure also too for data collection is it does take time but allow each student go around and allow them show me how do you do it now and for some students I have to use speech output devices and record it previous or maybe whatever we're doing in the moment some students I have to have those actual things in hand um there's a ton of resources out there Lakeshore has these really awesome CVC word blending um little cards and each and I put Braille or like a tactual little sticker for whatever it may be that we're working on um and they can actually feel b a t blend it together or we'll do our arm of b a t or we'll clap it b a t the more and more that they can understand that memory um and thinking out loud and tactual modeling that they're getting from me and doing it all together then it helps build that confidence individually um I've also seen this be super super impactful my students like to cheer each other on if someone gets something wrong it's okay I might do a funny like on the iPad then if they get it right the next time because we'll try it again and we're going to keep trying and that's okay and then I'll give them a fun little positive reinforcement quick feedback loop immediate um and I just really love this model if anyone has never used it I really really recommend using it um my kids love it and they're just building upon it more and more as I've said that I had some of them for 3 years now um so they're used to that structure and although it might take the time a little longer than you do piece quick in the I do we get that we do and you do might be separate task it might be let's sit and wait our turn um there's so many different strategies and skills that can be worked on in that let's cheer on your friend it's not your your turn it's whoever else's turn um wait time is very hard for students that have visual impairments as well because they're anticipating something happening um so just trying to implement and reinforce those things as well does anyone have any questions about this strategy before I move on and like I said if you're just listening um and have a thought pops up in your mind or you're like I use that too feel free to add it into the chat my other um strategy that I Implement every single day every single activity that we do um whether it's breakfast or you can see there's a picture right there as a task analysis for going to the bathroom um both shown as a visual task analysis and a tactual task analysis um and why it works complex learn Learners benefit from these concrete experiences before abstract so getting Hands-On with that maybe we're just starting off with you go to the bathroom door by yourself and you wait then we go through we touch the toilet paper we flush the toilet it might not even we're not going to the bathroom right now but then we can move to the table or in the bathroom let's go through our schedule after our textual analysis after we flush the toilet do we just go back to the table we need to wash our hands and I have a whole separate task analysis for that um but it's a really easy way for them to acknowledge that I can do my own tasks take advantage of that um you can also increase those chaining differences whether you're back chaining or forward chaining in these task analysis but using those multi-sensory and Hands-On um real objects with that t support is so so so so important um and like I said it has increased engagement and strengthens all of my students retention um reducing that Vision aspect of just adding in that tax actual piece they're confident in getting it done um I love the tax actual symbols because when they're finished with you know obviously they're not going to use the toilet paper and then take off the thing but after they finish the bathroom okay they can take off the bathroom and move it to finish or whatever that may look like for you in your classroom but being an actual participant within all of that um and walk them through it they're not going to get it the first week the first day they might not even get it the first month it might take time but it's just an extra adding that you can take data on or present a goal for their IEP objectives um with them being accountable of their own schedule and routines and how does this apply to V students um using those real objects coins shapes tools food items before moving to tactual Graphics or symbols um I always when I'm introducing a tangible symbol that maybe our speech pathologists have used or work kind of getting ready to go into pumpkins and so before showing them a pumpkin symbol and thinking oh they're just going to know and they're going to feel it not really how that works so I'm going to get real pumpkins and we're going to feel it and we're going to touch it and tell me all about that pumpkin and we're going to go through the life cycle of the pumpkin and then once we we've mastered that let's move a little smaller same kind of just of General Ed where we all start in kindergarten preschool with large print and then it goes smaller and smaller and smaller it's the same sort of way that we are decreasing those actual supports into uh a decreasing sorry those objects those big objects and then we can get a little abstract in those actual supports um and some students might stick they might have to always use those real objects and that's okay um they can sort they can do all those things with those objects as long as they're not huge objects but um just close to those original ones and then incorporating audio audio supports um verbal cues sound cues for matching games or prompting um allowing students to explore and manipulate materials this is my favorite favorite 1 if you know we always have to touch things before really introducing them and working with them um I take the time to let them explore it I let them tell me do you like what this feels like like tell me what it feels like and this is all pre Braille skills how how what's the texture that you're feeling on this object or oh it's a fish where can we put the fish and then have a little bowl of water where they can bring the fish to the water oh okay and just kind of blend that in and then maybe your story comes after that a couple days later oh we talked about the fish and we put it in the water oh this fish has a friend and then you add and you can start adding in fish for math concepts or basic concepts um I just love when my students really take that self- advocacy piece and are like oh this feels like this it might be completely different but they're really acknowledging that they're exploring that material um and then some students might just throw their hands up in the air and that's okay here at TSB we um our speed Pathologists are amazing and and they like to do 321 touch and once that student touches that thank you so much for touching they might touch it for not even a second but they got their hands on something where then they are showing that's enough I need a break and we're going to try again later um and that kind of was where I was at with my 1 student and he now is touching all the things under the sun um because we're using that same verbal and getting him ready it's not just okay take his hand and touch it because that's not going to work ever um and it's going to make him aversive to that he's going to be kind of nervous or scared 1 lessons are happen um and now that we've kind of used that same verbiage and everyone working with him still using that generalizing that skill outside of the classroom he is touching and exploring and doing all the things now um um and then as much as we can it's really hard for our kids to play it really is um incidental learning is a huge thing and I'll talk about the expanded Core Curriculum a little bit but as you guys may know that insulin learning our kids that do not have visual impairments they learn through sight um when you take away that visual piece what how we need to learn how to implement those skills um so in my classroom we have a lot of breaks and choice time and choice boards and 1 of my students he thought he liked playing with cars but really all he wanted to do he liked tapping on it and I was like okay we're at choose in a car but how do we play with it and I had to take the time probably about 3 months where every time he chose this car because that's what he really wanted to play with even though he thought he would get it and just start tapping which is his stimming behavior I was like ooh let's make sounds how does the car go vroom vroom vroom go we're going left we're going right and just adding in those language prompts too um talk about the wheels on the car and make them feel it um this is oh it's spinning and it's a circle what else is a circle and try to connect it once those language um kind of builds up and I've learned all that through observation of my related service providers here and it's just it's it does really impact these students who might not know what dramatic play is or playing in a kitchen or doctor's office or what that looks like um so those are just kind of some of the things that I use this strategy the most in kind of like Choice break time um we don't really have breaks in here that's like okay everyone's silent we're just sitting um unless a student requests a break on their own but it's more of okay we can take a 10 to 15 minute break but let's do something let's go play with something and build those pieces in there for sensory seeking or whatever that may look like all right so I'm going to be showing some of um my materials that I used in the classroom um my first first in my schedule every single day we do morning meeting and morning meeting looks very different from a typical preschool the second grade classroom in my room um my first year I learned it's all about trial and error my first year I had the typical setup where I was the teacher sitting in the big chair I had my calendar behind me I had the speaker I had all the things and my students were sitting in chairs right in front of me not at a table not at a desk nothing and I was I was super excited for them to engage and play with their instruments and all of that when I started realizing the days of the week the months of the year this and that it was not connecting at all and why because on my end in my fault is I was not best suiting any of them for what they needed whether those sensory channels so for a student who is very visual if I'm playing something on the iPad and it's a it's a little song or whatever it may look like let them watch it let them engage in that for my students that do not have vision and are more uh tactual learners put that object in there if the song is talking about clapping hands we have a symbol for hands ooh I can clap my hands I'll pause the song and I'll model it and then they can be clapping throughout the song um and same as some of my kids just like sitting and listening and then realizing oh well if yesterday was Monday today has to be Tuesday um so that's kind of where my first year I started in the typical Circle time routine um I don't have the luxury of having a Smartboard in here just because I choose not to it's not going to be very suitable for my population of students I have um but it would be a great thing for my new a student that just came in a month ago he can see a lot um and he so for him I give him the iPad when I played the songs during morning meeting um but just following a same schedule taking attendance or are kind of showing acknowledgement that the student understands that they're here at school and not at home they all have their own name symbols as you can see in bottom left um and sorry this thing is there we go um the bottom left we all have our own name symbol it's very unique to that specific child um so at the top and always use those Concepts uh we always sing a song in the morning learning to get us going we greet each other and then we all sign in um and then at the end they can give me a sentence this is very new for us this year we've expanded that learning and knowledge um they create the sentence and let's say I go first I find my name I put it at the bottom and that August symbol is school and um I say I am at school today and if there's 3 other names next to my name and I ask a student to give a sentence they can say I am at school with couple of their classmates and if someone's not here my students have done a excellent job this year of really recognizing um when someone isn't here and they can leave that name at the top or I might make a little floofy I guess um error and have them check my work did Miss Hawkins make the right did I sign and everyone in or is someone really not here um and have them kind of go through think about it um so after signing in we do our schedule um as I said it looks very different for all my students each hi students have a binder in morning meeting so I went from the typical Circle time they're at a seat or a cube chair to we all do morning meeting at a table now um it is the main table in my classroom I have a also have names for all so that way they can discriminate between them all um but this is differentiation in its finest we have all tangible symbols with Braille and print for our names but then it gets more individualized with their binders in the middle you can see uh my new student is using pitcher symbols and Braille so he is creating his own schedule with that and then on the bottom right I created um so that at my other students that are more tactual seeking they can create their own schedule and trying to add in okay I don't need to tell you every Wednesday that Mr so and so has come to pick you up at 10:00 or or I don't have to tell you that you have o and m every Wednesday let's get that memorized in our head and when we're doing our schedule on Wednesdays oh what do you have today that's different from me or different different from you and it kind of helps the kids acknowledge um I'm sure if people are in a classroom or a gen Ed setting or a different self-contained setting where your students are getting pulled out for services or the services are coming in your students with vision are very curious well why are they seeing someone and I'm not why are they getting pulled out and I'm not and I just kind of had this go through with 1 of my students um he was new to the school only has onm and speech but all of my other students have onm speech PT OT all all of it um so he was he just kept asking well why is he going here why is he going there where is she acknowledging that his classmates are leaving the class and understanding that they're no longer there but he felt the need of well why why can't I do that too so that's why I made we talk about our schedules and now we're on a good trend of he can tell me do we have on andm today do we have speech what kind of what does that look like when is it in our schedule um any questions on the visual schedules and signing in really see the chat oh here we go yes I will absolutely share these slides at the end sell someone's comment in the chat um so continuing my morning meeting routine um how I kind of do it we have an a day and B Day schedule here so on a days we use our binders um the binder I think it's on the next slide perfect so and bottom left um this is what their binder looks like right when they open it up and bottom right is the actual version of it I should have put them beside by that so I apologize but so the bottom left on your screen this is the days of the week um this is from the unique learning curriculum that we just started implementing here this year um and I love their resources so that has both print and Braille on it and then the 1 all the way to the right has actual symbols and it's more shapes so that's basic concepts for math sequencing um today is Tuesday tomorrow will be Wednesday and then implementing those okay well yesterday today tomorrow um let's make the date now that those are some things that I'm starting to expanding because my kids are used to that today tomorrow and so need to add in some more on that end and they're getting like fluid with it um so each kid we're working on those book concepts of opening their own binders flipping to their symbols page and I and I am very strategic of using the same language as I mentioned um so that way I'm not telling someone over here okay flip to your days of the week flip to your symbols flip to your this flip to your that everyone knows that we all started with symbols but now we're just a little more differentiated here and there and we can flip to our days our our symbols page and we're there um and then some students are more independent or quicker than other so my student who is a visual learner um is learning both print and Braille right now he goes through and does today is tomorrow will be or yesterday was that whole sequence I can then I love these binders is at the end of the day I can look through although we do take time to everyone goes around and read a sentence through from their binder um that's great data to take I can then look at their work that they've already done and hm was that the right sequence I always try to do it right in the moment but some of my students go through pretty quickly and um if I miss it that day then we'll just retok about it the next day but it kind of allows them to think that they're doing it in a more independent way and then kind of go through with me oh this is Friday but today is Thursday let's let's find Thursday and sound out Thursday and spell Thursday or Thursday is a trying Le and I'll and I'll say that and they're like no Wednesdays so try I'm like I know I know Miss Hawkins just can't get it together some days but we have Wednesday on our thing as tomorrow will be when it should be Thursday um so just trying to give them some more self-correction um and then in the middle here um every single morning or week I kind of choose a random symbol it could be geared towards school it can be a hobby that they like it could be a toy that they play with um and they can create their sentence of Miss Hawkins I like pizza well my friend next to me might not like pizza but I don't want him to just say the same thing just because we're talking about the object of like and don't like so we all have our preferences we have an opinion tell me it's okay to not like it and um I'm very open with my students of it's okay to not like things and it's okay to like things but we need to try um and just make sure and this is just 1 easy quick way for students to get some structure and again writing sentences looks very different reading sentences looks very different but this is reading and writing for my students at the level and access that they need um and then if my students are kind of sitting around waiting for others to finish up I have a um they're just little buttons at the bottom and I made a braille cell and I'll tell a student hmm let's make the letter oh it's Monday let's make the letter oh and they'll just peel off and make it it's kind of like take the muffin tin with the tennis balls and make it smaller and smaller and smaller um just to get their fingers moving and getting that piece all together so as I said it's it's definitely is a process in the beginning um morning meeting would take I don't even know and a crazy amount of time but I told myself you know what it's okay we need to take the time to do this and show why we're doing this and then it will start you know being more fluent and now we get through everything with signing in greeting um I have a song for every Everything prepping um so we do the Good Morning Song which some days we do the same song every single day or some days I like to make it a little change up be a little flexible our schedules can change that's very hard for my kids that are very routine and structure but I've implemented that it's okay we can make a different choice and we can listen to that song back again tomorrow um and let them be the speakers or the teacher that day um of implementing more class jobs this year and so I have a calendar Helper and they always get to choose what song do you want the original song that we always do or do you want something different um and let them be that speaker and that's kind of how they help and teacher assistant roles um but yeah any questions on this and this is just 1 way I do want to mention that all these things that I'm showing is what works for me and what works for my students specifically um of course this has not always the first go around I was like I don't even know I don't know so what I'm doing I have no idea but I feel as though them getting Hands-On setting at the table listening to the songs and doing all of that is going to be better for them in the long run than just sitting and listening the entire time during Circle um and it really really really has shown that this has progressed them into more and more and more um and mourning meaning now is probably about 30 35 40 minutes and all of my kids sit in their seats during during that time they understand that expectation and as long as we get through that's will be done in 30 minutes if we can um and you get an extra break at the end kind of how my structure goes and I'm on time um Alan what time am I supposed to be done with this we're scheduled for 2 hours through about 2:30 so you have quite a bit of time okay okay I probably won't take that full 2 hours but I'll go a little quicker I I just love talking about my kids so much so if I if I keep going and you're like okay we've heard this 5 times just let me get so we've done our sign-in we've done our schedules we've now done our days of the months of the year Braille practice sentences the final of morning meeting and this is my kids favorite part of the day is weather and feelings board um it's really hard for our kids who have visual impairments to understand feelings it really is they cannot see facial expressions they don't know what that looks like so how can we get to the point um and I sat down with 1 of our slps last year and I was like I need something to actual the songs aren't really you know we can if you're happy and you know it clap your hands sure and they can show that they're happy but what does that actually look like to someone else am I just because I'm happy today and I was just going to sit there and clap the entire day know that would be so silly how can I do that I can smile I can laugh I can clap my hands but like tell someone that I am happy so we've implemented did um a feelings board and we kind of go through and each kid we were just choosing 1 feeling that's where we started and I'll go through and I'll have their hand uh hand underhand and will do okay are you tired mad sad hurt nice and then excited to be on there but I guess it fell off um and for some of my kids that's too many options so I'll give them are you happy today are you tired or are you mad and it's okay if they choose mad then I'll probably follow up with a different question of well why I'm hungry I didn't sleep well or morning meetings too long or something funny I'll just add it in there sometimes they'll choose it I don't want to do my work right now oh yeah I feel you but we're going to get it done and we're going to do it together and then we're going to move on but for some of my students they might need 2 choices field 2 field of 3 um and we go through and we're now on and I'm so so proud of my kids we're now on talking about mixed emotions if you are happy today but you are so tired that you just want to lay your head on this table tell me that you're happy and tired and then you can add in those symbols with those 3 um I don't know how easy it is to see these photos but with the 3 velcro up top they can give me a sentence I today I feel happy and we have a symbol for and and sad 1 of my students is that the other day I said oh sad happy and sad mixed emotions well tell me a little bit about that her she was so excited her mom is about to have a new baby so she's about to be another big sister have a little sister at home but they just moved to a different home uh completely different home for their family on a different bus all those things change so she's over here very excited super excited can't control the emotions of just happiness for everything going on that same time there's so much change going on and that's okay and that's kind of how I talk through um with my kids and sometimes they can't express all of that which is fine and we'll just leave it as okay we're happy happy and a little upset today maybe we'll see I'll ask you in a couple hours see if that's changed um and then the weather is their their like favorite thing as I mentioned I'll spray them with water and uh use the wind symbol is kind of flipped up right now but I'll use a fan and and go around and on some days where it's raining outside I'll have them open up the umbrella and put on a rain jacket and put on rain boots and it takes time in that morning meeting but it gets them that concept of when it's raining I can protect myself from the rain by using an umbrella by having raincoats by having rain boots I don't need to just walk outside and get wet how can I prevent all of that um so we just go through those things those are some silly things that I Implement and just came up with in here um and they loved it some kids are really funny when you try to squirt them with water and it's hilarious so out of all that that's what we do every single morning for about 30 to 40 minutes depending on if there's any additional behaviors or all that going on um but my kids love it and I've been able to on that a day b day schedule change it up a little bit so on a days we do majority the entire binders on bdays we do some of the binder and then work on our CVC words all together so implementing that Allah piece in there as well and foundational skills um to just give you some other options out there of what I do with my students for Math Science Social Studies Etc and Ela um I know this is a lot so I apologize that all these photos are everywhere um I wish I can share everything that we do but starting on the left um this was our 5 senses unit last year um at the top there's 5 beads that you you can't see because it got cut off but there's 5 beads for showing the number 5 um and we started off with I forget I think it was salty sour sweet and I don't remember I remember what but this was based off of our taste so this is strictly for Taste and I had all my kids do a taste test if you've never done this before it is hilarious especially with the lemon at the top um or it maybe it was sugar I forget which ones were which but again I met it took Wiki sticks made a little uh 4 square and we started off with the pretzel and if 1 of my students because I have you know feeding meal plans and all if they can't have a pretzel well maybe we just lick it and get that salty um and then they tell me I like it or I don't like it and this was my kids they voted on their own things and told us oh man I like that sour lemon but then you saw their face and they were like this and you're like did you really like it but some of my kids went back for it um and just to give them their own perspective of I I can I can light things and don't like things but I'm also learning at the same time and creating fun um so that's just kind of the 5 senses unit um down below we have The Very Hungry Caterpillar kind of showing that multi aspect where we have the book um you can also have the book now they have 1 that is super tactual my kids love it um but I start off with just all of the um concrete objects so every single fruit that talks about in the book we go along that first day we don't even read the book we just go through and we identify all the objects in the book that we will be seeing in it the next day or so and because this is a process you can't sometimes you just can't have them all feel every single thing in the book then look at every single thing in the book then sound it and then read it that's going to take a really long time but if it's structured and kids are at a pace where they're recognizing that routine um it goes by a little faster um so how I would do this is the first day we're talking about The Very Hungry Caterpillar I'd probably let them listen to the story after the stories finished or maybe a song about the story that's in some way related then we talk about hmm what are some fruits that you heard and I have a fun um I think it's from Lakeshore too it's a box where you stick your hand inside and you don't see anything um because some of my kids with vision I try to get them to really use their hands a little bit more but I'm like oh there's stuff in my box and they'll reach in and take it out and they got to tell me what do you feel is it big is it small is it long is it short um adding in those Concepts and then they can pass it around the table that's a big Concept in here we we can pass it to our friends to the left or to the right um so we look through all those fruit and that just might be the lesson for the day then the next day start off with that same song but oh we looked at those fruits yesterday who can tell me what we looked at oh now we're going to actually have little symbols of them or Braille cards of them and I record if there's a book that says like 1 line over and over and over again um I'm thinking of like the little old lady who swallowed something I'll record it on a speech output device and each kid can go around and they can almost be like the anticipation of that's coming up oh no she's gonna swallow it and I chew and they love it and it just builds the whole it all comes together um just building that actual auditory visual support their um I hope I'm not talking too fast um and then in the center we have we did a science fair last year and my students we took probably about 2 3 months of just learning the seasons of understanding the structure of the seasons I made a whole uh circle cycle for them that that fall turns into winter winter turns into spring spring to Summer and then we made tangible symbols for it um and then combined with all that we dressed up froggy for each season and the learning those Concepts if it's winter are we going to put flip-flops on froggy know probably not um so talking through that and then they love dressing up froggy but also understanding we're talking about the main concept here not really talking about froggy froggy is an object that we're using to determine what season it is and connecting that to that standard um and then top right is patterns uh my kids just started this this year we used to just use um it's just a lot long kind of piece of wood and it just has 1 almost if you see the top of the pattern that 1 of is making it's just that first row um and then some of my students just like her right there she can complete 3 rows and continue that pattern this from Lakeshore these patterns or any of the these um there's a Venn diagram that I love to use for my kids because they have all that actual in there and um differentiate in there that it helps her with her Braille tracking that if she has a strawberry at the end up blueberries supposed to go next but there's no room for that blueberry where does it go hold your right hand there follow back to the left find that down and give them that vocabulary um but this is just we started on a patterns and then we make it more and more um interesting as it goes and again we we I constantly am trying to get creative in ways that patterns can be recognizable and talk about them and listen to songs but how can we actually uh implement it and connect it to other subjects that we're learning of course this is math it could be maybe even just identifying the little objects themselves um I change it up I have all these little objects some cars and trains and animals and I let the kids aside do you want a fruit pattern or an animal pattern and then we kind of talked through it and I give them it and after this you can check their work or have them check it themselves the pattern was strawberry blueberry but I see strawberry strawberry blueberry strawberry blueberry strawberry blueberry what happened in the beginning let's go back back and check and fix that um so that's kind of like our math unit right now we just started there and then bottom right um my 1 student is her finger dexterity and strength right now is not up to par with using the Braille Rider um although she just loves pounding the heck out of the thing I'm not here to fix a braille writer every day so what I kind of chose for her she loves work she loves doing tasks that involves all different movements so we just started off me and her 1-on-1 instruction um we went through just the flashcards and they had the Braille little stickies on them from AP and we just did the main we did the alphabet in order flashcards went through recognizing reading identifying those letters next time around it implemented the swing sell gave the swing sell to her just by the swing cell by itself and we went through oh this is really cool and neat she particularly has really really good tracking and um memory of where that last thing was so it's it's really easy flowing for her um and then once we mastered all letters on the swing sale let's piece it together let's read and write again looks different from reading and writing on the Braille writer but is the same thing just adapted that we now I scramble up the order of the letters because we are now just recognizing or auditorily remembering that A to Z goes in this amount of order so now we're scrambling the and really focusing on reading that letter it might be Z might be the first 1 and she might get it wrong or whatever but we try again talk through the dots and then let's write and make Z I always try to give those language prompts too that we are reading and we are writing but let's you know let's talk about it in different ways um so right now that's what she does after she makes the she may be um on the swing sell she put that in her little basket and then she's on to the next 1 it's really an awesome task too just to get her kind of flowing with that Braille practice and getting her hands going so again a lot going on in this page I I wish I had multiple multiple slides but I don't I don't want to keep y'all for forever oh there we go um and my strongest suit I would say for myself is behavior management systems um my undergraduate at Vanderbilt was in severe disabilities and then my masters was in Vision um so I come from a lot of students who are not nonverbal aggression behaviors um that need more implemented routines and systems to learn that behavior management plan um so last year I actually had a student who was super aggressive um so we started off with the token board on the bottom left um this was main for positive reinforcement where if we you know were upset or angry or whatever Under the Sun it was if we used a coping strategy if we did not exhibit any of those behaviors that we were observing and measuring if we were randomly you know not even on those 2 maybe we were just really kind to a friend or help someone out that earns a token um and working for something that is preferred a preferred activity um and always giving him that choice in the beginning I'll give him 2 choices he loved the trampoline and the sensory wall that I have in my room and he chose the trampoline that day that started getting to a point where the aggression came down um you see token boards and all this being implemented in special education classrooms but making it more actual I should have added um for my students that can take ownership of their own token board um so this token board stayed by his table and I don't know if you can see behind it but I had to create a box on the table for him to stay in his own personal space at the table and stay in his little bubble so that way I was safe being next to him his friend was safe name being next to him and he understood I can have a body calm hands in this space and then that ultimately results in me getting a token working for a preferred activity or break or whatever choice I made it could be candy it could be whatever coloring the Oliver then it got to a point where a behaviors were decreasing all the way down to we were having 75 to 100 behaviors a day right in the beginning to about in 2 3 months we got to a point where we are having about 1 to 2 behaviors a week um so great we're working it's going on the right track then as I mentioned you know we've had consecutive sessions I was taking a data sheet every day making sure okay he earned 3 tokens um then you know kind of came that he started realizing that oh if I work for these tokens I get a preferred thing and whatever whatever so it started becoming a Trend where he really wanted the token board and it started becoming more of he's testing playing a game so it's like okay we're still we're not exhibiting aggression but we're still saying I'm gonna bite you I'm going to hit you I'm going to whatever that may be from his vocabulary so to me that was an area of I'm not positively reinforcing any of that and the constant of telling you know telling you stop saying this telling whatever and he's a a student that has so much going on a lot of vocabulary but kind of just spits and it's kind of like squirrely I would say if Mom's telling me to top bite to not hit to not do that at school and I'm just going to remember that in my head and although I really want to greet Miss Hawkins this morning my first thing I'm going to say is I'm not going to bite you I'm not going to hit you I'm not going to do this and so how we started doing that is implementing that token board up top where he started out with 10 tokens um the difference was the bottom he's he the 3 tokens at the bottom he took off and moved up when he earned 1 and then the file folder up at the top he had 10 tokens every time that he would say I'm going to bite you or I'm going to do this we just took a token off now I didn't do it he had to do it and then he counted if he at certain discretion if he had 5 tokens left at the end of the day he could get that preferred thing or choice that he made but if there wasn't 5 left you have to make a different choice and it took a while I mean he's still some aggression came back um but it got to a point where we got to January so it was August September October November December about 5 months of implementing different Behavior systems and he is no longer exhibiting any behavior um and like I said first second month I was like I I don't know what I'm going to do but this isn't working that's not working what's going on and and then you start to see over time oh well he's catching on he's catching on he's catching on and now we're at a point where we are safe we're calm we're just kind of blurting out the things that I can do not that I can't do um and that's really big for our students with visual impairments too and at the bottom it's not really a behavior management system but I have um a student who kind of exhibits more defiant behavior um and she at the end of the day for some reason was not going to stand up and just wanted to sit at the table and not go home um and we were doing you know timing her it took about 15 20 minutes every single day to get the backpack on with a screaming and crying and this and that and I was like you know what let's make it she's a textual learner let's make it textual we're going to read our sentence we're going to put our backpack on and go to the bus once we start doing this for about 2 weeks she now you don't even have to do it I've decreased it from actual to now it's just an auditory cue that it's time to stand up put backpack on and go to the bus and keep it concise um not too much verbiage in there because just how they would read it with their hands to actually that's what you should be saying so like this it's a little miniature backpack that I found somewhere and so backpack on go bus that's where we started then I started adding in okay stand up that's not on their backpack on now let's go to the bus and then started decreasing all of those visual supports and supports for her um and now we're at that point where we've kind of dwindled that away so I know this wasn't our main um topic of differentiated instruction but it still adds into the those pieces of during morning meeting if something were to happen you have to have those behavior management systems on hand happen in the moment reinforced in the moment immediate feedback we're now good to go and that all goes into how fluent we can do things now um taking the time to put all this in going on to explaining I'm not going to go through all 9 areas of the ECC um if you are not familiar of the expanded Core Curriculum ECC um these are the 9 are that it is so important for us as tvis to be implementing skill-wise um and learning for our students and how they grow so just that incidental learning piece that they're not getting through their Vision how can we put those skills somewhere else um so some of these skills I chose 3 out of the 9 and kind of showed how I adapt them into a way of working on them um each for each student I this year every Friday or um a half day here at TSB because our kids are from all over the state I make it an ECC Friday so there are 9 categories we're here for about 10 months or so of school um and really that month of August is so quick which just observing and assessments and all that that we have 9 months um and I take each month of the year and I focus on 1 area of the ECC and that first week of the month it might just be let's talk about the expanded Core Curriculum and then and refresh and have them talk about it themselves and then today we are this month of September is focused on orientation mobility and what does that look like what is orientation mobility and then maybe the next week we do a game around orientation Mobility this year we did a scavenger hunt in my classroom um I put things all over and I had symbols um and symbols for the bathroom the sink cubby um kind of wherever in the classroom I hid things and I gave them Clues and I had auditory cues and just made it fun but also implementing that they need to use their bumpers when we're walking around the classroom and you don't have your cane um if we do have Vision we're not running to find that thing we're walking because our our classmates that do not have vision and might are taking their time walking around we can't run to them we're not going to trip them and we're going to have safe safety um and then another game that we played my kids loved it we played left right center and I had made tactual symbols and we passed things around and then someone at the end won um under understanding that we don't always have to win not everyone but the next week we played the game again and someone else won um so just some ways that you can incorporate the ECC I know we all have so many curriculums that we're focusing on out there especially me um I'm teaching Ela science social studies math and the ECC pretty much every single day in that AB schedule um and how do you put it all in there and that's just kind of how this year at least it's worked for for me of taking each month and ECC category and that way you can give a full intro to then do a whole big assessment at the end of where that kid is in skill and print out um I've made a couple assessments on myself and keep that in for their IEP or maybe if they're working and that's that collaboration with uh o&m instructor um or generalizing skills outside the classroom what's those Next Step um so diving a little deeper I chose compensatory skills um as 1 of the big focuses so skills are learning Braille large print letter recognition exploring tactual Graphics raised drawings um those textures um and developing listening comprehension strategies and then for differentiation example is students choose between actual alphabet tiles Audio Phonics songs or large print flashcards so this is all of our skills that we are focusing on right now and what does that look like for a specific student now we're not going to do maybe all these skills at once we might break it into 3 and work on 1 skill this week and then progressed and progressed on and on um but the more that you can get their hands on Braille even if they don't even know it just give them the exposure and experience of it it just builds and builds and builds and then you can get super creative in those um activities and tasks that you have them completing and then Independent Living skills um some skills that we kind of focus on in room or organization of materials um opening lunch containers or using a zipper for your lunchbox practicing self-care routines washing hands um and I also have a job chart so every Monday my kids they love it they all get to choose a new job for the week and although it's the same jobs the first couple months and then I'll start implementing some new ones um they just love that ownership of that routine so we do launch injury um line leader door holder weather monitor during morning meeting teacher assistant and calendar helper um and sometimes some kids have 2 jobs than 1 and they're just doing really well implementing it that this year and then being able to follow a tactual or visual um daily schedule um so my student right now needs a a little more structure and routine continuously asks me even though we've gone over our schedule in the morning what's next what well where are we going what's this what's that and so instead of me sitting there and telling him all the time oh we went over over that this morning but you know we have art next what's next Miss Hawkins oh we have morning meeting next instead of that I'll say let's go to the table let's check our schedule and then I'll pull out his schedule that he did that morning or if it's a kind of a routine based thing we'll look at over and then they can tell you okay you know take off the ones that were finished or what what have we done today tell me about them and then okay so if we've done these things what's next on your schedule um and you can be implementing like a first then board a first next then board um just some things that I use to differentiate that between students um of course using those pitcher symbols for routine and those checklists as well and then lastly um self-determination is something that we've been focused on this year um specifically is my kids are growing up they're not and preschool anymore so how can we take more ownership of expressing things and making choices on their own um so making simple choices is a skill expressing needs I need help um not saying I can't I can't I can't I'm getting frustrated I can but I just need help right now um and being able to advocate for those accommodations my student who came in um he sometimes it kind of sits there and stares and really it's because he might not be able to see or it's not positioned the correct way and it came down and we've took in about a month and a half of you know I let him sit there and wait and I acknowledge what was going on kind of in my own head and I'm like okay he probably needs some prompting so I started prompting him and then we started talking about well if you need help or you can't see something Miss Hawkins can't read your mind so so if we're able to use our words or if it's really hard to use our words let's use our symbols to try to get us there um 1 of my students this is a big thing and he's non-verbal so we're piecing both a switch device and um 2 symbols for eat and drink while during feeding time he last year couldn't even feed himself couldn't even touch the utensil nothing got to a point the this year he is now independently making that choice on his board so that way whoever is helping him feed he can then you know he would get frustrated if they kept handing him water when he didn't want water and he can't tell you I don't want water but rather on our device we could say I want to eat eat eat I want drink right when he says drink you hand him the drink if it is not what he intended he will show you I don't want the drink then you redirect you meant to eat I want to eat and for him to be involved in that process um and they actually started doing that at home now and it's so great that we can generalize that skill but allowing him just because he's non-verbal doesn't mean he he can't make a choice and he can't tell you you know I I really don't want any more water I'm done with that or I want more food I'm hungry or I'm finished even though I still have stuff left on my plate um so just giving those kind of options and then my favorite that I've implemented this year is a choice board um with actual symbols and verbal choices and this I have a picture of it somewhere oh right here perfect um when we make breaks or choices I change up the board every single time so in the morning my kids come in they hang up their backpacks and they eat breakfast go to the bathroom make a quick choice now that choice we've talked about you know wants and needs and we're in that social studies unit right now of that choice is free play go make a choice doesn't have to be educational doesn't have to be anything um but when Miss Hawkins tells us that we're ready for a break to make choices that's when we use the choice Board of course my students that need a request a break and they're saying I need a break that's a different situation that might need a timer system that might be whatever else um but I use timers big big big big time in uh my choice time and break time um this has helped my students really navigate the classroom and get back to where at the location they're supposed to um so on the left I always present this little Choice board we created um me and my EA created some tactual symbols for some of their preferred choices um and I will give unpreferred choices but if they're kind of looking and they get that unpreferred choice a couple times they might choose it randomly um and so some of the stations I have in my classroom um 2 of my students are up obsessed with the doctor kit and the vet kit and doing hair so me and my EA because they would be running around the classroom trying to pull your hair and B you're the patient at the doctor and whatever and we're all over the place I'm like okay how can we make this a station or a center for you to do choices they now have a waiting room you could see that they have a rocking chair and a little Cube chair with a little Leap Frog laptop they give you your results after you uh go to the doctor's office but those are some things that you add in dramatic play career exploration independent living things um and I just thought it was really cool the kit came with um x-ray thing and I'm using a light box where they can turn it on if they want to see the X-ray of the animal or something going on um so this is just kind of a way that I've implemented this year a little more creative in those choices rather than saying okay Lucas do you want to go to the sensory Wall trampoline and he would just automatically say sensory wall and go now he has to read read take it off your choice and that's because Sometimes some of the choices like for the Tony box for example which is the Elmo 1 I'm not going to have 5 students all listen to the Tony box um so that's a 1 person choice where if the sensor is not on here but if someone chooses the sensory wall but someone else really wanted it we're now learning how to share and work together you can ask your friend to go play with him at the sensory wall but if he says no he chose it first so you need to make a different Choice um it's really instilled a lot of social interaction um in my classroom and those safety of acknowledging that you know I'm not just going to go up to my friend and pull their hair and do all this if I I want to play with them I have to initiate and ask and ask those questions um so this has been just some fun things and we have a dramatic play center there's puzzles um my 1 student that needs adaptive equipment I made his own sensory mat area so almost like a common corner um but it's full the entire thing is full of squishy things all around him bean bags and mats on the wall and he can just free ball in there and do anybody wants to do and have fun if that's his choice um but he's also now starting to expand and do a variety of things so it's just a fun way to give some more choices and break time um collaboration as we all know is a huge huge piece of everything that I do and what I can be successful in here um 2 things we can go through a million ways to collaborate but 2 things that I strongly go by is aligning my goal planning across disciplines um so making sure that what we're doing in the classroom is not just Secret Safe in the classroom I'm telling my related service providers or people that my child is going to in my student is going to see like hey today you won't believe it they've been working on my student has been working on buckling his seat belt in the chair because he needs an Adaptive chair at for OT probably 2 years now and he finally the other day somehow clicked it together I don't even know I didn't watch it and I was just beaming of excitement and he felt it and if I didn't tell OT that and he went to OT the next day they might just go through and he might try to bring up a story to uh our OT but had no recollection rather I've reached out to OT hey you won't believe it finally got it um just when you see him the next time like asked him about it and just so that we're all together um in those skills because sometimes small little skills go a long long way um we have speech group every Monday in my room so although some of my student students don't have individual speech they get speech group altogether um I love that all my slps here are incredible and they go over different skills and Concepts and what you know last week we talked about track um I was coaching the track meet here and it was a perfect segue to the weekend of track because I'm talking to my kids I had track practice today and they're like I don't know what you're talking about Miss Hawkins well this weekend the track team is fine finally competing and we just took a field trip my class and a couple other Elementary classes to the Kentucky School for the Blind where we competed in our own Junior Olympics so how did we prep them for that we're going to wear a T-shirt and we're going to put on sneakers and go through all those skills and language prep um and just as much as we can collaborate in those as well and especially if you're having a student with a behavior or anything like that make sure those systems of course I start them in my classroom until we get a hold on that implementation and intervention happening and good things are coming out of it then we can expand it um but it doesn't hurt to let them know that you're implementing these things and then of course I regularly communicate and share um the data that's going on in here with the rest of my team and each individual kids IEP team um and that looks very different depending on each student what they're working on XYZ um but just ensuring that you are taking data on sometimes the smallest things um and you will see positives along the way as long as you're consistent with that think I have here we go we're to the end you guys have been so great um just some final tips and takeaway of that differentiation is flexible and accessible and it provides access to these students both functionally and academically um I believe that wholeheartedly is that if I can be flexible and access and do the things I need to do why can't my students um and it's not going to be the first time we Implement something it might be the fifth time that we try something new but just don't don't put your head down just keep doing it um I've been in that situation before and the more you collaborate and talk and talk through some things you don't know who Next Door um has a different idea that you could think about or Implement um using multiple Pathways for input and output so using those multiple sensory channels um and actual and um objects real objects real objects textual supports um whatever that looks like in your own classroom and then small changes make big big big big differences and create that big access change um the littlest things that even my new student that came in hasn't had instruction for a while so didn't know what was going on and you can see it right when it came into school it was so excited but was so squirrel fully and I was like okay Miss Hawkins can't do this with 5 kids in here how do we start small to get the big picture and now we are on timer systems we know our schedule we got the routine our structures in place and it takes some time but I'm there to talk things through um and then finally um I think you guys so much for allowing me to present um I love this topic more than anything so please um this is my personal cell if there's anything that came up or you're just like you know what her number could be really good of if something's going on I need a tip or trick um and then my email is at the bottom where you can re teach me um and I will send out this PowerPoint um let me check the chat well Stephanie in the chat says you Melissa this so dialed in thank you for sharing all your fabulous ideas I can't wait to share your slides and the recording with teachers we work with in California Allison said thanks Melissa you are amazing thanks agreed you guys tell the Melissa how's it going on it's such a good job working with beginning with the EA all the other related service and of course your students so thank you so much Melissa for um everything you've shared today um and for those who are looking forward to um a recording we will get this uploaded as soon as possible um that should be um by early next week and we will uh try to get that sent out to those who registered um and uh see what we can do as well um I don't know let me let me stop recording and we can keep talking but don't do that yeah I wanted to open up real quick if anyone had any uh questions or um anything specific again I I do want to say that these are things that I've gone through um and implemented in here and that might work for my classroom my students um but something different can be working for you and this community of visually impaired teachers is so small as everyone knows um but the more and more we can all get together and share our tips and tricks and strategies and the things that we do the better off we'll be and the research will support I promise you that um and I see some familiar people in here that I've learned so much from and I appreciate you guys so if you have a question feel free to ask um but if not it's okay

7:23 LEA Instructions for Completing Federal Quota Census Updates Featured
All LEAs with students who are registered with the RCVI should following the steps described in this video to complete student account updates for the annual Federal Quota Program census. Questions may be directed to [email protected] or [email protected]
Uploaded Dec 10, 2025
1:00:31 Bioptic Driving – Adult Perspectives & Tennessee Requirements (Panel Discussion)
Participants: Dr. Joshua Robinson (Vanderbilt University Medical Center), Arthur Humphrey, Joshua Harper
Date: 2/23/2024
TN VIVA 2022-2023
Session Description:
This session will present an overview of considerations of bioptic driving for teens and young adults with low vision. Panelists include a low vision specialist and adults with low vision sharing why they decided bioptic driving was or was not a good fit for them. This session is geared towards teens with low vision and their families, as well as TVIs, O&M specialists, VR counselors, and other transition specialists looking for a background knowledge of how to talk about bioptic driving with students and clients.
Uploaded Feb 24, 2023
1:46:30 Essential Assessments (FVA) Strategies for Students with Visual Impairments and Complex Profiles Featured
Presented by Suzanne Dinwiddie (TN Deaf-Blind Project) on 2/18/2022
Unity Virtual Academy 2021-2022
Session Description:
Project will share tips and
Hear about strategies that TVIs and O&M specialists can use when conducting functional vision, learning media and expanded core curriculum assessments with students with VI and complex profiles, including students with CVI.
Uploaded Feb 22, 2022
56:27 Social Emotional Learning & Crisis Support for Visually Impaired Students
Presented by Andrea Word, MSW (TSB) on 9/1/2021
Unity Virtual Academy 2021-2022
Session Description:
This session is designed for TVIs to learn more about SEL (social emotional learning) for students with VI, learn signs of when a student is in a mental health crisis, and discuss appropriate resources in and out of school to support students.
Uploaded Sep 07, 2021
51:27 Lightbox Stories & Literacy Programming for Students with Complex Profiles Featured
Presented by Dr. Adam Wilson on 2/17/2021
Unity Virtual Academy 2020-2021
Session Description:
Looking for ways to integrate literacy and lightboxes? In this session we will take a deep dive into the creation of lightbox stories and digital books, adapted so they are accessible for students with more complex profiles that include VI. We will also look at opportunities for meaningful engagement for learners so they become part of the story!
Uploaded Oct 14, 2021

Videos

TN VIVA: Access for All: Differentiated Instruction for Complex Learners with Visual Impairments

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