[nabs] P.E. experiences

[Olivia Norman]

Hi Everyone,
I think I'm another one, with proof that inclusion does work well.  I don't know if I was just lucky, or what, but I never had any problems with social skills, finding friends, etc.  The only exception to this was my freshman year of high school, when my vision teacher sent me to my county's high school which had a vision resource room and suggested that I spend two periods a day in there that I absolutely didn't need.  This was undoubtedly the most miserable year of both my parents, and my, lives.  We were exhausted, I was unhappy, because I'd been taken away from my home district, friends, and instead of doing electives with my peers I was forced to take resource periods with a vision teacher that I got no value from and didn't need at all.  I have always been in honors classes, and was still in honors classes that year, but had to have vision resource twice a day which made me feel stupid, different, and sad.  I noticed that my peers in the vision resource room were functioning at a much lower level academically than I was, and that they'd been in  vision resource and lower level classes all their school careers.  I know that I was extremely fortunate to be fully included in my local schools until high school, because I was functioning on the same level as my sighted peers educationally, and I am not sure that this was the case with students in vision resource in my county.  During elementary and middle school, I met with a vision teacher twice a week after school, and once during reading, so that I'd miss as little as possible.  I had O and M once a week after school, and saxophone lessons once a week with a friend.  I didn't love having to have vision and O and M, but knew that I needed to have the services in order to succeed, so went along and learned what I could from them.
After that disastrous year of high school, my parents moved me to a small private school, where I made friends, did well academically, and no longer got vision services.  My Dad contracted with a wonderful O and M instructor who I spent many hours with after school each week, and who taught me more than I'd ever learned in the school system.  She and I did public transit, developed my cane skills so that I felt comfortable doing things I'd never tried before, and she ultimately convinced me to get a guide dog my senior year once she felt I was ready for it.  I started getting home from school using busses and subways, which was a really liberating experience which stood me in great stead for college and beyond. 
As far as PE experiences, my elementary PE teacher was fabulous, and adapted games for me.  He put a beeper on the basket in basketball, showed me how to use a balance beam, and had classmates help me with other games.  I was always picked for teams, never experienced that issue, and I just did my best and learned what I could.
Middle school was OK, but not great.  I warmed up like everyone else, with a classmates help, and after that, honestly, many of the girls in my class who weren't athletic would just jog around the field and socialize.  I was part of this group of girls, they were my friends, and we'd watch the athletic kids playing football, basketball, etc.  The only thing we took part in was wrestling, and we mostly ended up in a laughing heap during that, anyways.
One important thing to note, that I haven't seen in this thread so far, kids with disabilities aren't the only ones excluded from PE. It was my experience that so much of PE was centered around traditional team sports, and those kids, disabled or not, who weren't good at sports found themselves excluded.  My group of friends just weren't athletic, they weren't disabled either, but sort of jogging and being a bunch of gossiping, giggling girls, was  deemed completely fine by our PE teacher because we just didn't have the skill or ability to play team sports.  I guess what I'm saying is that the problem extends beyond kids with disabilities, and that it would be great to see some changes to the PE system as a whole, with less focus on team sports and more focus on other areas of PE, so that everyone, not just kids who are considered good at team sports can take part in PE classes. 
Remember that group of giggling seventh grade girls I talked about earlier?  Well, fourteen years later, many of us are still friends. I was recently on a work trip to Silicon Valley, and had the chance to catch up with one of them who now lives in San Francisco.  Perhaps nothing's changed, but we had a good laugh over our middle school PE classes, where all we did was talk about hot boys, they gave me great descriptions, while I know we should have a better PE experience, I will always value my friendship with those girls, and in some way, I guess that PE class was worth something. 
In high school, I had no PE for the first year, because I spent all that time in vision resource.  When I changed schools, we didn't have a PE requirement, so I had no PE one year, and did yoga for the next two, which worked well, because it was a small class, and a classmate showed me the moves.
I recognize that I was very fortunate because my family had the resources to provide the best possible educational experience for me, but I really do believe that full inclusion works, and, in most cases, is a better solution than schools for the blind in residential settings.
In college, I had no major social issues.  I was fortunate to have a good group of friends, and certainly did my share of normal college  stuff, partying, etc. :)
When health issues forced me to transfer schools my junior year, I had different experience, because I lived at home and commuted, so found it harder to make friends in the huge  state school environment I was suddenly thrown into.  I really don't think that was due to my blindness, though, it was other health stuff, and mostly the fact that I was a commuter and not into the fraternity seen.  Sighted people at my school who were commuter students and transfers were in the same boat, and those individuals eventually became my friends.
Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes, I feel that there's a tendency  to blain blindness for things like social issues, when there might be more at play than simply being blind.  Sure, blindness contributes, but sometimes there are multiple factors at play, and it's important to remember that.
Sorry for the book, Just wanted to chime in and share my thoughts and experiences!
Olivia
 
"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.", Steve Jobs

On Oct 2, 2011, at 4:12 AM, Caitlin Lynch - ACBS Second VP wrote:

>  Zack, that was an amazing description of a cartwheel! :)
>    I think I can help a bit here with capture the flag. Picture a field or gym floor divided in half, with a line of cones or something marking the dividing line. there are two teams, one per side. Each team has a flag, which they store at some chosen point on their half of the court. The flag is visible to the other team and is normally stored as far away from the dividing line as possible. There is a guard to watch over the flag. The point of the game is that members of opposing teams run across the dividing line to try to grab the other team's flag. They can be chased down by members of the opposing team and sent to 'jail', which complicates the game some. The only way they can be released is if someone from their team comes over the line to tag them out. If someone from one team makes it over to their own side of the court with the other team's flag, they win the game. I remember loving it as a kid.
>    I played it in blind camp. The dividing line was always made with very thick tape,  so that you could feel it under your shoes as you ran. The flags were beeper balls so you could target the sound as you tried to obtain them. Its quite an easy game to play and quite an easy game to adapt.
>     In terms of p.e., I took adapted p.e.e until the eleventh grade. It was always in my iep, but I was never pleased with it. I went to public school and wanted to take regular gym like everyone else. In eleventh grade, I swtched over. We had gym electibes in my school, since it was so big, like net sports, team sports, weight traianing, etc. I took a movement explortation class in 11th grade, which was all about dance, yoga, karate, etc. the teacher was great and would explain things like moves to me in great verbal detail kif I didn't understand them. I was successful though in that class because i had a friend who I'd known since I was seven or so who would be my partner and help mold my body physically if need be. In 12th grade, I took a project adventure course that emphasized team building skills. it involved a lot of ropes courses, rock climbing, and really different activities. I made a good group of friends in the course, but the teacher was really unhelpful and the class was really big, which was overwhelming. I had hoped to get a lot of the course, but it didn't work out well at all for me.
>    In terms of inclusion, I think I'm proff that it does work. I was mainstreamed all along. When I was in elementary school, I went to a resource room in 1st grade, where I could focus my braille skills. This was a service mostly for kids with learning disabilities, which I didn't have, and it didn't really work for me. Most of my tvi services were right in the classroom, where I could learn the skills I needed right along with my classmates, with my tvi serving as almost a co teacher. When there weren't lessons she could seamlessly integrate those skills in to, I got pulled out. But I never felt like I missed anything of importance. When I was in middle and high school, I would take a study hall period. Normally, we had room for one elective in middle school, so I used my tvi time in lieu of an every other day elective. The same went for high school, and then I had more opportunities for electives, so it isn't like I missed out on that experience either. In high school, I normally took a full 9 period schedule. In high school in my district lunch was something you could opt out of, and I did, to get as much out of my day as I could and I'd just eat in a sympathetic teacher's class or with my tvi, who is still to this day one of my most favorite people alive.
>    I wish I had more to say on the residential vs. public school debate. It's always been a subject that fascinates me. I know that here, in New York, our services for the blind are excellent. I live in Long Island, the quintessential suburbs, and we're quite well known for tvi and o and m services. There is a school for the blind near Manhattan, where the services can be a bit lack  luster at times. There is also a school near Buffalo, fairly close to the order with Canada. I was always told that schools for the blind, at least her in New York, are mostly for multiply disabled students. It was never an option for me to attend one, because I got great services and actually had a solid group of friends in my home district. I'd love to see Perkins or ISVI or WCBVI where I have heard really positive things about programing. I haven't heard so much about our residential schools here.
> Caitlin
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Oct 2, 2011, at 1:58 AM, "Zack Olson [ACB Student Advocate Editor]"<editor.acbstudents at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Ashley,
>>  
>> Not sure if my description will do any good, but a cartwheel is sort of like this:
>>  
>> From a running start a person turns their body sideways.  If the last forward step was on the right foot, they would sort of throw their left foot outward and both arms up and outward diagonally. They would pivot their body sideways and downward, transferring their weight from their right leg to their right hand—which could then be placed flat on the ground. The transference of weight then continues ina circular motion, from the right nad to the left hand, then to the left foot, and than back to both feet.
>>  
>> From: Ashley Bramlett
>> Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 11:58 PM
>> To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
>> Subject: Re: [nabs] P.E. experiences
>>  
>> Hey Zach,
>> Wow, that was nearly a novel there. I, too, was ignored in school and
>> was during college as well. But I found students were at least pleasant and nice in college; I mean they’d say hi at least. And I was in a few clubs and felt more included than I did during public school activities. I guess the students I hung out with were more mature; after all they were in campus ministry with me; it was a catholic school.
>> Good luck with designing a program of study. I made my own degree too: a BA in liberal studies; was going to study psychology  but was afraid of doing statistics and really did not want to risk failing it.
>>  
>> I see what you mean about residential schools. The students who I know opted to go to them had other challenges. They got some academics but a lower standard and the extra curricular activities.
>> They got to have sports clubs and feel included. I’ve known students in  track, wrestling, and cheerleading as well.
>> I guess there’s not a perfect answer.
>>  
>> As to the sports in PE, they did play capture the flag in elementary and  middle school. I recall it was on a field, maybe the football field.
>> Now that I have a little more knowledge of the games, I believe they could be adapted. For instance, for kickball, you’d just need a beeping ball like they use in beep baseball and someone to talk at the base so you know where to run. Sounds like a fun game.
>>  
>> I' wish I could see a cartwheel. Someday, I’ll get someone to show me in slow motion using a doll. I cannot exactly feel a person flying through the air doing one. The only gymnastics  move I got okay was a forward roll.
>>  
>> Anyway, we’ll see if others chime in later.
>>  
>>  
>> From: Zack Olson
>> Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 12:38 AM
>> To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
>> Subject: Re: [nabs] P.E. experiences
>>  
>> Ashley,
>>  
>> You make a lot of very good points, and I agree with a lot of them.
>>  
>> As far as inclusion goes, I was mostly an inclusion student, and like you I rarely ever felt included. In fact, for the years of my educational career up until high school, I was bullied pretty mercilessly. The bullying was much less in high school, especially because I was never afraid to hit back. It may not have been the smartest way to handle the situations, but it kept people off my back more than the diplomatic approach ever did. In high school, the other students largely ignored me, the same way they do here at college, though these days it doesn’t really bother me. There’s a lot of people here I wouldn’t want to hang out with anyway. <wlEmoticon-smilewithtongueout[1].png>
>>  
>> I also spent two years at one of the residential schools that were *far* worse than my time in public schools. The problem with residential schools is that if you throw together a bunch of kids that have been neglected and bullied by their peers for so many years and give them some semblence of control by putting them in a residential school where everyone is “the same”, they will sometimes misuse that control, and bully each other as mercilessly as any sighted kid ever did. Hell, sometimes the staff is so emotionally immature that they get involved as well. It’s a self-contained community, a microcosm of the larger educational system and the larger society, but it has the potential to be much more damaging. After all, if the people who are “just like you” don’t accept you, who will? There’s a lot of sighted vs. blind talk that goes around, but blind people can be just as damaging to one another as sighted people can.
>>  
>> In  my opinion, residential schools are great for students with multiple disabilities, because employees at the residential schools are better trained to attend to their specific needs, but residential schools are not necessarily good for students who are just blind or visually impaired. There are very few of the students that graduated with me or in the years directly before or after me that have gone on to find gainful employment or attend college. I can count them on my two hands and still have fingers left over.  The residential schools set a lower standard for students, and that is as unacceptable as the public schools setting a lower standard for them. Also, their poor socialization and lack of knowledge about things that they would have been exposed to in public schools sets them further apart from “normal” people. Sometimes, the residential schools just aren’t any better suited to teach students with blindness or visual impairment than the public schools.
>>  
>> I try to take a professional and unbiased stance on the concept of inclusion. It may not have worked entirely for me, but I have seen it work for some students, and those students are the ones that will end up making a great deal of difference in the fight for acceptance and equality. It is true that you cannot make nondisabled students be friends with disabled students, but some of them will end up liking the disabled students, not all of them, but some of them. Some kids are just jerks, and they don’t grow out of it as adults. Others do grow out of their egocentrism and when they do, it will make a difference that they have had experience in being around people with disabilities.
>>  
>> Onto your other questions.
>>  
>> I’m sort of in between majors right now. I have been a psych major, journalism major (for one semester), an education major (studying to be a TVI), and thought about being an English major. Right now, I am in the process of designing a contract program that would allow me to major in assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired. Basically, I have to select a list of classes along with independent studies or internships, plus a capstone experience (like a thesis project or something of that nature) that would fall into the area of study that I am interested in. I also have to write a proposal justifying my choices and send the whole thing through two different advisory committees before it’s official.
>>  
>> I wanted to work possibly as a rehab teacher specializing in assistive tech, but would have had to get my undergrad in education first, as the RT program here is just at the masters level. I didn’t want to deal with all the student teaching, classes I would never use, and ridiculous Illinois state certification standards—that don’t make better teachers anyway—and then have to come back for a masters degree.  This way I can skip all of that garbage and avoid taking the GRE as well. Plus the field of assistive tech is really more about experience and skill, and I have both of those already. I am hoping to work in training people to use assistive tech, as a consultant on assistive tech/web accessibility, or possibly in R&D with one of the assistive tech companies, though my ultimate goal is to be a writer (novelist/journalist/nonfictionist/political commentator).
>>  
>> I graduated in 2004—though I would have graduated in 2003 if I had decided not to stay for a fifth year of mostly ADL-related classes at the residential school.  So I also avoided the ridiculousness of standardized testing. Quite happy about that actually. 
>>  
>> As far as the statement about math and reading deficiencies in students with visual impairments, I don’t have an exact article or source to cite. In the field of education for the visually impaired, it is a generally accepted fact. That fact is based upon imperical information, but as I said, I am not positive of the sources. The head of the Visual Disabilities program here at NIU owns his own research firm, and I could ask him for specific citations if you’d like.
>>  
>> The reason that so many children with blindness and visual impairment develop deficiencies in math and reading is that they do not receive adequate early intervention or pre-school services from qualified professionals. It is also because—not necessarily through any fault of their own—many parents of children with visual impairment or blindness do not know how to adapt early childhood activities for their children and are not receiving the right instruction on how to do so from qualified professionals.  Any person with a visual impairment or blindness that is not good in math or reading need not be too hard on themselves.  Both reading and math are highly visual concepts, and the spatial concepts involved in math need to be adapted in very specific ways in order to be properly conveyed to a person with blindness or visual impairment.
>>  
>> I myself am very lucky. I have always been very intelligent. I was usually one of the two or three smartest students in my classes throughout most of my educational career, at least until I got to the university level. I have always been pretty good at math, but find that since my vision has started to decline (I have retinitis pigmentosa) math is more difficult. I end up teaching most of the concepts to myself with the use of a CCtv and notes from class. In all the math classes I’ve taken in college, I’ve felt that going to class has been a waste of time about ninety percent of the time, since I end up just sitting and listening—or falling asleep—and then teaching the concepts to myself using the textbook later.
>>  
>> About the observations I did during the course of my time as an education major: I do still have a sufficient amount of sight that I can gather some information visually.  Any other information I felt I needed to know, I would ask about directly.  The teachers I observed were very willing to spend a bit of extra time with me working out and discussing different aspects of whatever I had observed on a particular day. I also think I had one up on some of the other students doing observations becauseunlike them, I am a visually impaired student, and know the ropes.
>>  
>> Now onto sports and adaptations.
>>  
>> I can’t really tell you how to adapt racket ball, since that’s one I’ve never really played. Although, from my general concept of the game, I’m not sure that it would be easily adaptable for persons with visual impairment or blindness. I know it involves rackets ad bouncing a ball off the walls of a small room, but not much more than that.
>>  
>> Dodgeball could be fairly easily adapted by putting a bell or a beeper in the balls.  Basically in dodge ball, a court is divided into two sections, one team on each side, There are a certain number of balls—usually four to six I believe—that are split evenly between teams at the beginning of the first round. Basically when the whistle is blown, the teams just throw the balls at one another. If you get hit, you are out. It’s very willy nilly actually. I used to stand behind other people and wait until they got hit, and then retrieve the ball from them as they left the court. LOL; If the ball had a bell or beeper in it—more likely a bell than a beeper—than a person with blindness or visual impairment would have a better chance of dodging it.
>>  
>> Can’t help you with capture the flag. We never played that one in gym.
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