[nabs] P.E. experiences
Ashley Bramlett
bookwormahb at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 3 12:23:13 EDT 2011
Things like that have to be done with a soft surface so no one gets injured. There are blind gymnists out there.
I don’t know how they learned. Its hard to describe acomplex move like a cartwheel. But now I can kind of see why it might look like a wheel in the air.
I think I did sumersaults but don’t remember what they were like. But I won’t forget the days of PE when we were in small groups for gynmastics move practice. I also remember people climbing up a rope and I was afraid to get on the swinging rope.
My brother’s wife is quite athletic. She says she could be a personal trainer and I think she might have been an athletic trainer prior to her current physician assistant job. She might be able to show me some of these basic moves.
Ashley
From: Zack Olson
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 1:07 AM
To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
Subject: Re: [nabs] P.E. experiences
Ashley,
Yeah, it was kind of difficult to describe a cartwheel. Thing like that remind me of how visual many of my concepts of things really are. I could do a pretty decent cartwheel when I was younger and head more vision, and thus was less apprehensive about landing on my skull and turning my brain into jelly. LOL. Cartwheels are kind of off the menu for me these days.
From: Caitlin Lynch - ACBS Second VP
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 7:57 PM
To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
Subject: Re: [nabs] P.E. experiences
Ashley, the camp was Helen Keller Camp. It's a day camp here on Long Island. I attended from 8 to 14. It's also where I started learning that I wasn't the only blind kid alive and that blindness was different for all, so an integral experience for me. The camp has more campers with low vision than those who have almost no, or no vision at all. Those of us who couldn't differentiate our team mates vs. the other team, or who would be in danger of running into others, had sighted counselors guide us. Each team wore a different color pinny; one wore bright yellow and the other dark red. This made it easier for kids with low vision to identify their team mates because of color contrasts.
Also, I'm not sure how to explain a cartwheel better than Zack did, except to say that you don't land on your hands and knees. Its very springy and body diagonal. And also I know my lazy body hasn't ever done one, lol.
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 2, 2011, at 8:41 PM, "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
Caitlin,
Which blind camp was this? Wow, you actually played the game with adaptations. How cool. How did you avoid running into each other?
Thanks for describing capture the flag. Zach, thanks for describing a cartwheel. Still I can’t picture it fully. I don’t see how you flip overif one foot only meets the ground. And do you land on your hands and knees? Cartwheels looked fun and students performed them on the gymnastics mats.
Caitlin, a class of movement exploration sounds good. They should offer such a class instead of PE. As I’ve said, not all kids benefit from team sports; a class focused on yoga, dance, etc would probably be more fun for many students and would make it easier to integrate a blind student into class. As you point out, a teacher’s cooperation can make all the difference. If they
explain things and help include you, you can have a good time.
From: Caitlin Lynch - ACBS Second VP
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 7:12 AM
To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
Subject: Re: [nabs] P.E. experiences
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 teh 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 wiith 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 unb
_______________________________________________
nabs mailing list
nabs at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
nabs mailing list
nabs at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
nabs mailing list
nabs at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.acb.org/pipermail/nabs/attachments/20111003/f5e0be50/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the nabs
mailing list