Video Gallery

ECC Showcase: Practical Strategies for Implementing Quality Expanded Core Curriculum Instruction

Go to Video Gallery Added Oct 18, 2023 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.tsbtigers.org/apps/embed/?v=363435" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Presented by Rachel Schles (Vanderbilt) and Dr. Susan Lee (TSB) on 10/18/2023 TN VIVA 2023-2024 Session Description: In this session, TVIs will highlight different approaches to ECC instruction including project-based instruction and how to coordinate a meaningful college visit for a HS student.

Show Transcript

alright so good morning everybody welcome to this session of Tennessee Vive Virtual Academy for those of you who have been before or happens I'm just a reminder that these are when we try to make twice monthly session available for your professional learning open to Tennessee Mission and caterers anyone out of state as well if they do you know touch word and we just you know our mission is to continually provide relevant training that can you do Empower you guys to feel like you have the skillset and the learning the billable to better serve your students and so we try to set these sessions up for you with topics brought up by you and so on going please let dr. chouest or myself I know about what you're you're you're saying that is a critical need in your area or in your on your caseload and we'll be happy to you know but something together and so let me just start by myself my name is. Nashville and my co-host for view the sessions as Doctor Rachel's class at Vanderbilt and so will be your husband if you got the questions along the way just feel free to bring those up but otherwise we're really excited today's session titled BCC showcase practical strategies for implementing quality expanded Core Curriculum cut off our instruction so what we are going to start with play is a doctor she is going to give an overview of NECC portfolios kind of unique look at and then following dad's doctor Lee from really cool that they put together last year for some students in terms of setting up a college visit and some of the really neat learning and how to pick him out of bed for the students who attended without further Ado I'm going to turn this over to Doctors West and let her take it away and you know as I said before if you have questions do not do not hesitate to ask me to chat or phrase that virtual and we want you to feel like you can get your questions answered a Word document in the chat and then for those watching the recording after the fact will make sure the the word document is attached. And you can do that right but that's a hand out with the video once we have it uploaded so I'm going to share my screen we'll make it happen before we start or those who are here and need credits that you'd like to request apologize for a get for getting this I'm going to a sandwich at a place where you can request credit are opening code for today session is simply eccie alright well thank you I'm so excited this is a topic that I am particularly passionate about as Alan mentioned I'm a little bit going to talk about portfolios but much more about an instructional approach to making time for the exact a quarter with a bit of a focus on Independent Living skills but really just a lot of resources on different topics so going to talk a little bit about what project-based learning or inquiry-based learning is how it can fit real nice with the SEC and then share some resources around Vision Independent Living skills specifically and have little time for discussion at the end before we switch over to dr. Li tsbi college experience so if you're not familiar project or inquiry-based learning is an instructional strategy or approach that I set up in a way where is your challenge to solve real-world problems and the the approach from the teacher side is that I'm teachers provide mini lessons throughout the process to guide the students developing their content knowledge and ultimately developing a final meaningful final product and what I as a tvi what I absolutely loved about this approach is that what I learned first year teaching is because I said so is not a motivating or meaningful teaching strategy students aren't going to learn these basic or just cuz we think they need to and through project during previous learning your provide students with a they're making a final product for a specific real audience of people outside of themselves and outside of your lesson time I'm with your CDI or, there's a reason for them to learn Beyond you saying this is what we're going to do this month for a lesson and so there's a lot of resources out there and project-based learning in the handout that I put in the chat there's there's all of these links I'm there so I spend any time on this but just know that there's some go to well-thought-out resources generally for project Pacer inquiry-based learning and it's been around for quite a while as instructional approach and so do I mentioned a project Challenger Stadium address real-world problems and so this is usually you start off with like a simple question or a question to ignite their learning and drive throughout the process so here's a sample question that I he is going to pass with students is you are finally on your own at College how can you as a suit with a visual impairment communicate your needs to your professors and other school Personnel while securing the accommodations and tools you need to succeed so this could draw a year of instruction a few years of instruction because all embedded within that there are lessons and many projects around learning about the Americans with Disabilities Act testing accommodations dorm life Independent Living skills you know are they going to rent a place off campus versus living on campus at navigating Transportation at navigating campus itself learning about securing optical devices and Technology knowing that they're not going to be in school anymore so we have is another agency to help them get access to what they need how are they communicating with their professors or employers and in some ways most important identifying social opportunities in no continue music going to be establishing themselves as an adult so this one little question has just a wealth of lessons built within it and so I'm I know this this examples more about college but more at a smaller level I wanted to go through examples of what these mini-lessons could look like across the age range across the grade levels and so thinking about project during previous learning this was a lesson I did with a elementary students and he was he was in like a like a CDC classroom and he's recently had gotten optical devices and so the project was that he was going to make I'm thinking about how we're inventing skills in meaningful ways and so rather than having a lesson focused on using his optical devices the lesson is him doing making a product so in this case making Play-Doh and so he needed to identify which measuring tools are easiest for him to use and make a note of that so that for home use in Muncie at the middle school for like homework and I like to use he would know in a he went down as family would know what types of measuring tools he needed to be independent in the kitchen and what was it we do this together and then he did it I repeated the activity as a social activity with up here and just had a lot of fun doing that I'm in so again I just taking the skills we want the students to learn but inviting them in a more meaningful activity to them and this the reason we made Play-Doh was because it was something that he was very interested in doing so happy too. you know using cooking utensils and using his optical devices I know it says in that they slide here the Play-Doh recipes in the comments it is also in the word document as well if you want to download the hand towel so moving from I'm a student in elementary school up to students in high school this is another set of a project that I didn't collaborate I'm just a tvi and in collaboration with the comms you worked with two of my students we do have Bubble the 10th grader at once going in 8th grade at another school and what we did was coordinated with scheduling and what she was able to do in terms of taking the students off school campus also communicate with the students families and what we gave the students was a $10 budget to shop at Target and an $8 budget to get a snack at Starbucks and to do this successfully we working on a whole lot of different skills he write like this is to technology budgeting money management the onam was working on traveling routes in a car along with traveling independently and optical devices purchasing food and a social also just getting to meet up with someone another pure and so it how we broke that up is that I took responsibility for assistive technology so knowing the students had to make a budget they navigated the websites are Oxford Target Starbucks I'm 2 preview possible purchases and we talked about social skills and then in terms of the comms took lead obviously on the travel and communication skills and traveling independently in small shopping and we I shared responsibility of the money management and I have to go to Macy's and purchasing food and so these are all skills that is easy to work on and isolation but by bringing them into more of a driven purposeful activity for the students they got to do all of these skills while getting to connect with a with a similar visual impairment and were able to build that social experience in addition to using all of these skills very real world settings so I want to try and build off this to just talk about how important collaboration is we we know how important Hispanic or is preaching to the choir on that we as we speaking of itinerant tvi is it's really easy to feel isolated or overwhelmed and again baby preaching to the choir here but the benefit of collaborating with others or the sharing that response study of teaching our students whether you don't have to CBI, but also slps oties Petey's if your district has an HE specialist classroom teachers parents all everyone on the team we're not just we're making it easier for ourselves conveniently but most importantly we're really enhancing the student learning to do that multidisciplinary approach and I just want to acknowledge to you how much effort it can take to break our break routine and a Reach Out two colleagues to plan collaborative Russian lessons we all feel like there's not enough time in the day everyone is a bit overworked unfortunately and if we can just a little bit and some small ways from that survival mode to long-term planning it something that can benefit us and the students and so I'm not saying that you it's easy or important to do all of this at once but maybe pick one lesson 11 students where team where there's already been someone on remind we're always I think that I would see would be someone who would be fun to collaborate with her lesson in and just start small once you one call you can kind of go from there and so the building that went through collaboration or just making the time you know for Independent Living skills first unit you needed and makes Panic or in general I think we can the way we can think about building opportunity is is through intentional and opportunities where you know they relate to IQ goals and or like pre pre teaching content for students so that they are able to engage in a classroom lesson I feeling in examples of Prior now play George Stevens you know information that they might need help in building real world connections you know the whole point of these opportunities where I feel like maybe we've all kind of been there where we've been a little surprised that the student didn't know something that we thought they knew or that would certainly expect a few of theirs to know and so in that moment either decided if you have the time to fill in that knowledge Gap or just like make a note in your brain and in the future Anthony CC lesson around that you know opportunity so what I want to do is go through a couple examples in terms of how to make time planter on thinking about Xfinity but a little bit and  on in Evansville so like TriCity pretty key concept what the TV I did in this situation was it was a standards-based lesson for students about electricity all the students B complex multiple disabilities and they were always One on One support for each student in the room they were exploring the items in the classroom that use electricity and context the light switch in the wall outlet those were attached electrical currents going through but so that they could explore with us things were I'm it's really important for someone to know what a light switches or you know that that I microwave plugs into a wall and to do this several different team members of it Kmart in the classroom for this activity all the students have visual impairments and they're working on not just the easy to see concepts of Independent Schools and science standards electricity but also motor skills visual gaze using their age devices for communication skills and always using hand over hand for prompting cuz we know that's most I'm respectful and Presa safer environment for students to promote learning so this is anyway this is one of the ways to think about building ECC license is when we have to tie it to your standards and then this was an example of an unplanned opportunity where during an assessment I was observing a student and he in picture in their textbooks you'd never seen a cactus before and so because he's never seen any kind of cactus or cacti we had a subsequent lesson that was introducing the use of a video magnifier but also several days types of cacti and what does ended up being in the reason I paid maybe either I can laser also Independent Living skills he also threw this you never had a plant to care for before work and so the scene ended up keeping the plants and for the rest of the school year tended to the to the cacti and we're taking care of him and took him home at the end of the school year and brought up you know brought him home for the summer and learned about how to take care of a plant to keep a plant alive and all that stuff and you don't lose again. in the context of trialling a video magnifier he was about to go for a low vision exam and getting just a lot more content I think many you don't house plants have more and more popular again over the last few years and everyone should have a chance to enjoy that I think I may be a little bias of myself there but I wanted to share and I want to give it a little more into like resources and Logistics so as in terms of like okay cool you know these my samples might sound crazy but like how can we make this work for you know for your own case will help figure out students and For All Seasons always as y'all know I'm conducting an assessment before dying cuz I need instruction or writing is like eagles is really cute and especially if you're doing that to do an interview ECC screener you're going to get good data on identifying the student strengths but also areas that they want to grow in or we might need to know they need to grow in and see what I like about project-based learning is that you can emphasize a student strengths or interest while working on it so he can have another example for since I've done a lot of like I Anatomy lessons with students and they've taken a lot of different forms a student of mine who enjoyed to drawing she drew some bottles of the eye and had to label the parts of the eye that was impacted by his visual impairment for another student of mine she was a budding actress and loved writing and she wrote a screenplay like full-on some of the best things that I've seen Magic School Bus style screenplay where the students she took her friends through the parts of the eye and explain to the park like what parts and what parts were so what was impacted by Alvin is in them and now anyway the point is like your project an inquiry-based learning is that the end product is whatever is Meaningful and of interest to the student but the learning process is how we're expanding our knowledge in the expanded core time to thinking again I know of a bit of a focus on Independent Living skills for today's conversation so I wanted to share a couple resources again all the links are in the the word documents evals from tsbvi there's a fee necklace there along with it's a little old but the independent living curriculum I wasn't able to find a new link for the heywood's cooking curriculum that is really great if you can find a copy of it and then Michigan depart dad has some really great Independent Living skills checklist and died with it it be forced into Baton permit that I'd highly recommend checking out and then through Virginia on this is not specific division but it is around transition Project Life there's really great that our curriculum and checklists and skill sets for young adults around in pain living skills Project Life and then just in terms of project ideas there's so many different things you can do in terms of what the project looks like so the students into a class presentation or making a video or podcast or like a YouTube tutorial maybe it's a thing where you can get them to clap with other students visual impairment that at their school or you know maybe the next District over and just helped build some of that collaboration and social skills relationships implying skills within the community as well as at home how do you do another project it might be your just recorded you're just having an informal conversation with the students and the students ability to talk about it that counts as them being successful in learning the material it gets screenplay storied something's really enjoy that connecting with a Community member I always love doing like buddy is a mentor's whether it was like a peer mentor buddy or connecting the college do you live in so they could see that way I'll give you the presentations and I keep meeting some kids Pros cons list is where it's at and that's all they need to do and then I feel successful so it'll be just lots of different things I know I went to this little fast so any happy to have some time for discussion now what I wanted also shares the resource I'm a couple years ago I gave up a little bit more of an in-depth presentation to the National Center on Linus and so I have a I'm A sly but nowhere document so you can check out that webinar and it has all your doubts there and then I wanted to share I kept it short for today but if anyone's attend Unity I'll be giving I guess hour-long presentation where I'll get into how I structure the IEP goals for lessons around this because I think from what I found traditional I-80 gold format doesn't necessarily work well first you didn't who has Hunter skills in the expanded core where we want to work on a lot of different areas BCC but by creating a portfolio based assessment rather than like a Criterion based assessments early frequency or something like that week each of the students projects can go towards building a portfolio that they collect a combined over the course of a year and then they can resent their portfolio at their next meeting and keep going that way anyway without stop sharing Street or I can keep the screen out cuz most people have their video off but I'd love to hear anything that you might have found useful from this presentation or I think to you it's really always helpful is talking through barriers that you face in terms of implementation implementation of the expanding for instruction and then we know we can always talk through like how to to problem solve around those barriers with that would love to to open the floor for a few back and question this is Anita Henderson Clarksville Montgomery County School System the barrier that we I think you brought it up its time and or students who are on the academic track just finding time more upper elementary and middle school because high school they do have a state progressed through they do have a little bit more Flex time but elementary and middle school because of the academics that's placed upon we find a therapist not enough time in the day to work on certain eccie components that we have any suggestions about that I think trying to think for my students within those grades in middle school they started having like an every-other-day 30-40 minutes Flex. Kind of things I was able to middle schoolers wear SU or just rotating through what class they were missing so long enough so long as they are only missing a certain subject once or twice a quarter it didn't really it was okay for the Upper Elementary I feel like reset time it was usually it was quite often there English language arts time for some reason that wishes but the classroom teacher felt was easiest to pull them I'm cuz they said they don't have like a flex. In elementary school but I do really curious for everyone here you know when do you pull your students you're an academic setting I think honestly if the students eyebrow Reader reviews they are how do you what class periods is there been a pattern do you how do you work with a team in a student who maybe you see weekly or twice a week or even every other week what times of day or class periods have you found more conducive for Implant instruction Janae has some chimed in in the chat that she has a RTI time possible sometimes and related arts is also the time that she targets or make that happen Jennifer added and usually my elementary students are flexible Middle School almost always wants me to pull during related are but not PE I guess that you know could be a Opera be there any other creative or just how it works for you ways to make time for PCC or anything like that I've not done this but when I was a student teacher what my meant where did was she go she work with the classroom teacher and like once a month to do a full lesson for the Cyclops teacher I don't know if I said that clearly but she would go in and give like a 30 or 45 minute lesson to the whole third grade class which happened to be all about the expanded core that the seat with his own apartment particularly needed but then see what kind of built some good well with the classroom teacher because the teacher got you know 30 45 minutes where she didn't have to be in charge of the classroom so much she was present but it was a way to do a funner funner activity we so often and also build a lot of social opportunities for the students cuz instead of pulling out here you're pushing into the whole class I need to talk to probably about Ecco have Union guys structure your instruction through a project-based approach before or had something similar that you were able to do any cool experiences that you want to share I guess two going back to Clarksville Montgomery County we do have the nfb Bell Academy that we have a hole in our week of overnight camp that we have based our sec areas around so that has helped us because we can't pull kids from related arts in Carson Lake County and we can't take kids off campus but we have met parents and students after the school hours for o&m and some Vision instructions as well greatly appreciate everyone's having in last call for any thoughts on acc hopefully this was even useful to you guys and thinking through how you can organize and sequence package together really useful learning is extra motivating that Cactus I will tell everybody that Cactus example really resonates for me because I recently got fish over the weekend for my kids and I was racking my brain on how I could make that accessible to students outside of sticking their hand in the tank and stressing fish out feeling them and stuff still still working on that one honestly but I will let you know what I figure out one day can I chime in that just taking them to a if you can a zoo with a touch tank cuz there's animals trained to be I guess that the more appropriate Shadow Tennessee Aquarium all right well I didn't have access to a zoo with a touch tank but I did have a student who was in a biology class and they were talking about animal modifications and so they're like bird beaks and fish mouth and like call the shape of their mouth related to what they ate and I had a blind student and he said I don't understand this at all fish mammals or fish mouth and I don't even know what a fish mouth is so I just went to Whole Foods and bought a whole fish and brought it in the next day and so he was like he said this is the first time I've ever touched a fish that wasn't breaded that's really good eye medication true dedication and willingness to deal with the fishy smell I love it that that honestly pushes me in terms of my comfort zone so maybe we can all learn from that I said we are going to pivet now to dr. Li who's part of our Outreach team here at the SB Susan you want to introduce yourself and will have introduced what you you and the rest of our team who was out East was able to put together cuz they was really really cool a lot of package me thinking about project-based learning this was kind of like a all in one event that had so much that was taken away from it so take it away thank you and I've been working with a TSB Outreach for 6 years and I am based in East Tennessee along with Allison, white and I guess the beginning of this attempt at College visit began when I had the opportunity to work with the blind in there inside program to Chicago and it just got me thinking about how we need to approach and instead and preparing our students for a successful College transition so I sat down with Allison and Wendy and we started brainstorming about what we're supposed to do and so also at that time my son was in a beginning to look at colleges being recruited and I was pretty adamant that you're not making a decision unless you step foot on a college and so oh I think she got the boot outfit reservations.com maybe she keeps her video off it'll help with bandwidth Susan can you hear us she had text me that she having issues do you want to keep your video off and maybe that will help that would be great are we good yes I think so how I approached this College Tour was starting with ended line what did we want to accomplish what was the goal in Argo was that the students who let's see we lost after leave Dan I don't know why it keeps kicking me out yeah I was going to I'm trying to see what the easiest way to get the phone number for you to call in can you hear us now champion I can just on the mobile you want to try that. Do you have the number on there yeah are with us everybody I'm in Walla Walla Susan's doing that I had a quick question going back to our first topic thinking about making time for PCC I was reminded that aren't you getting there going to be really bad feedback as soon as I needed her computer alright we'll look for her to be able to make it in there are Vision programs course codes as far as classes are concerned to any of you while we're waiting for Susan do you guys use that or have use that in the past I feel like I've encountered some do I think possibly in mnps here Nashville they've used that before which gave them a flex. At the students to get credit for while allowing a wide breadth of opportunity for what they can teach you or anybody use this I used to use them in mnps in Memphis but it was just roadblock after roadblock it was all so I wonder what's going on there but I'd love to that's one of the best ways that we can help our students out you know listings right now there's a k-3 course Kota 46 course code in a 11:53 court code including one for each of those that specific to a conclusion so yeah and then Janae said we're trying to get his start in Hamilton County I think Knox County does something to look into and maybe we can um you know fine get in touch with somebody at a t o e speaks about and just kind of what you know that that can be done work is that yes I think it was Kim and she had that anyways I see a phone number dr. Lee Canyon I can are you able to hear me alright that's all address for that when you live on in the middle of two hundred acres sometimes you don't get really good internet signal okay I'll pick up where I left off if you all are ready okay so what we did was just focus on what we wanted the end result to be which was a successful tour of a college campus and a successful meeting with disability services office once I establish what my end goal is for my students especially when it's a big project like this I kind of scaffold back and asked what skills are needed and so the skills for this particular tour was going to be self-advocacy being able to manage personal correspondence through an email making sure that they had an interest in even attending college and they were driven by what their interest was as far as a major or a minor and then making sure that they had some travel skills and that their travel skills were equivalent to being independent oh I'm back to self Annika see what I typically start with my Later Elementary student with self-advocacy is we start talking about anatomy of the eye and knowledge of their eye condition and by the time that they are entering 8th grade I want them to be completely independent and having a conversation with appear and with an adult about who they are and what best supports would meet their needs and I have my student develop a data letter than fell that when we go before school starts and we're tearing the building and meeting teachers they can hand that teacher a letter to introduce is the student and just really serves as a tool for self advocacy and I want that being placed because I ate grade usually they're pretty confident in their field and that that's just a good time cuz you're not worried about learning a whole new building and a new staff as far as that goes so still have the kids knew that just kind of how I planned those those listen I also noticed as far as personal correspondence I noticed that a lot of high school student don't check your emails they don't check their personal email they don't check their email so I started making a requirement for my high school student that they have a personal email separate from their school account and I notify them along with their parents in their teacher about when I will be in their building for their next session and then they have to respond to me within 24 hours that seems to have kind of feel that void for them and just to let them know that when people ask you a question or let you know that something's happening you do need to respond it's not a text this is a different type of communication also along this line of skills that were needed and just basically thinking about the students that we had at this time we needed to make sure that the students were on course for being able to complete a college application and on college application you all know one of the questions they ask is what your major info in 8th and 9th grade what I do a lot of interest inventories and one that I really like is called o-net it's all caps oneto net online and it's basically a series of question that will the end result would be college majors and then colleges in your state that have that major so that's eight the ninth-grade we do interest inventories 10th grade I have been to college search and we may begin doing chores I also need to know the difference between a TA and ID and they need to take a Practice Act and then 11th grade they definitely need to be taking college tours they're going to be completing act as far as skills needed for travel are they going to be driving that the whole nother whole many more sessions about driving are they app to speed with their travel skills as far as public transportation are they able to read a map and how do they what do they need to be able to access the information on the map the all of those were killed that are needed for this particular tour to take place and what I did was I reached out to East Tennessee State University and also with her disability services and I just coordinated a date and a time and a schedule for a group of students in her parents to attend a college tour and for the students they were invited to attend and in order to attend they had to submit application and every piece of information that was on the application is information that would be found on a college application and with a disability services accommodation plan it wasn't lengthy but they did have to stop and take the time to complete it along with that application they had submit a copy of their unofficial transcript and if they had ACT scores than they had to submit that to me as well and so once we got a complete packet and we looked at the students that we had we let them in her parents know when this was going to take her and we just happened to and be able to hold it on the election day so all the Spencer I didn't know if they were absent that day and the parents were sent information in addition to the students information and we basically met on campus that day and the first thing that we did once everybody got parked and the students got their Starbucks and fix then we met with the touring great and operated the students from the parents and the parents did their own thing and then Allison windy and myself were were with the students as we toured the campus and one thing that ETSU did was provide a golf cart and it was a golf cart mean it was like I don't know a 15 passenger vehicle so it was interesting and would be all of the climbing in and out of that over the course of the tour but on the college tour as many of you know they took us through the different parts of campus and so where most of the dorms were they got the two or three different dorm room including the kitchen in the laundry facility they got 52 or the library the cafeteria and if some of the academic building if we tour to the Athletic Facility where students can go and work out and they also take take courses in so during that time we the instructors the sort of step back and let the students kind of take charge and really have a conversation with the college students that I'm taking them on a tour in at first the students were pretty quiet but as they grew more comfortable and then they begin to ask questions and of course we would try me in and ask questions and then as the day progressed state that grew more and more chatty but after the tour we met up with the parents at the office for students with disabilities and the director and the person that was over transcription in Braille production they met with us and took us on a tour of their testing facility and then we sat down and they just went through the application process and what it took to develop an accommodation plan and parents ask questions didn't that questions and that was a really good piece of the day because that was that very different then anything else that they have experienced before whereas we always approach with information and suggestions on what this could be this is more you're in the driver's seat now and you need have a conversation about about what you need and one thing that they emphasized again email and correspondence and making sure that you check your email and that you correspond with your college for and with them when there is an issue so after we met with the disability services ETSU actually provided a lunch baucher for everybody that was in attendance and the students in her family got to go through the cafeteria and I'm experienced a College cafeteria and thankfully it was not super crowded and the food was excellent and the parents had already spent by this time you know two hours together as well as the students and so I just observed some connections being made questions being asked a lot conversation back and forth that initially hadn't happened after we finish lunch then this is where our orientation and Mobility lesson really took hold I actually had a real schedule and I forgot it a copy to each of the students along with a campus map and the students were given the task with finding the building in the classroom that schedule had provided info at that point there was a little level of uncertainty with the high school students and because there were used to us driving their lessons and so I basically had to look at him and say you all need to ask if you need something and after that then they knew okay it's up to got to get this done so they started working together one of them pulled up their GPS on their phone and one of them had a magnifier so that they can access the map and so from that point they work together and this is the  to find a different classes on the schedule and when we were finished with that we met back up with a parent and this at this point was where I really saw the special outcome of this particular and collaboration you know not only did the students get an understanding of just the enormity of the size of campus and compared to their high school but they also got to have knowledge of when an actual dorm room was like you know how big was it what was the furniture like was there a bathroom in the room or was it down the hallway they got to experience the cafeteria the bookstore where the clinic was and all those other different facilities on a college campus I think a majority of the students really understood what we were what we have been trying to tell them that you can't really compare high school campus with a college campus because it's so much larger and I finally got it because they had actually stepped foot on the campus and another kind of cool thing how they actually saw Alice Wendy and myself not that we were you know cutting up a whole lot but they got to see us kind of in a different environment so our I guess the manor was a little bit more relaxed there was a trapped on campus that had chocolate-covered doughnuts and Wendy bought some for for the students to try and there was an extra one and I wasn't about to let it go to waste anyway some of that chocolate got on my face and I may or may not have been by my co-workers but the student got to see that it was it was just fine you know the parents I think everybody one of the group of parents already had older siblings that had attended college so they were familiar but the others this was their first visit with her weather statement and it just kind of help them realize okay we can do this and we've got this but the biggest takeaway that I received was when we were all it was time to go and everybody was saying good they didn't want to leave each other the parents started exchanging contact information in the student started exchanging contact information and so I got a really cool picture of all of them kind of hubbub around each other talking before we broke up and from that are from this tour that was very successful each of the students that went came back to their home school and either scheduled individual doors themselves and asked us to go along 4 definitely took into consideration how they approach those interest inventories and college majors and their college search more seriously so overall with successful and I we plan on doing another when in the spring and I have a couple of different colleges and mine so if that's something you're interested in you can definitely email me and let me know if you have a student that you think would benefit from attending that awesome Susan and I just typed your email into the chat or those who might want to reach out to you about that that was really cool thing you know see hear about that you guys at open up last year and you know we talked at the time and it definitely is something that we we need in the state because I think if you take those students who are most have the greatest opportunity mood and I'm Kim go through that out of initial application and if you want to call it a screening process that are really serious about going to college but you know need the experience of getting onto a real campus you know this could be a really really meaningful positive experience with them so we're going to definitely be looking for ways to in some ways formalize and expand this kind of thing moving forward to just look out for that as far as something that may be available down the line but I am informed you guys can actually recording these kinds of things together because there's a lot of good they'll come out of it any questions for Doctor Lee in terms of what does Mi nombre es for you guys in terms of the college experience four seasons of Rachel you were going to I just wanted to say that it sounds really awesome and I'm thank you Susan for sharing it with us what one thing Susan I remember you mentioned how one of the students had commented about size of campus am I remembering or was that a real thing like that ETSU vs. other school if it's if I'm remembering correctly yes and this particular I had been having a healthy discussion which could also be known as the argument with me about the size of college campuses and I just I just finally said you know do you know what we're just going to have to step campus and we're going to walk from one end of campus to the other and you can tell me which is bigger this high school or college campus of course it was raining so we didn't walk from one end of the but they did finally understand that you're not just going from one hallway to another hallway you're actually going from a building to another building that could be a 10-minute walk and I'm someone who we know is totally blind that was it's just a concept that until you experience that you just really don't know and high school student their smart a lot of them just have that natural progression where it's it's time for them to be no become independent and I'm thrilled that most of them have confidence in themselves but it's up to us to provide the author in a Safeway in support of that they can have those experiences and know that they can be successful in the next chapter of their lives but we have to let them go ahead and start having some experiences before get there thank you Susan I love that so with that I'm going to stop the recording here

Listed in RCVI(Resource Center for the Visually Impaired)

Video Gallery

ECC Showcase: Practical Strategies for Implementing Quality Expanded Core Curriculum Instruction

Popular Videos