Archive for April, 2014

I would like to thank Donna Chanasyk for her invitation to present at the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association Conference on October 17 & 18 in Calgary. Because I have already committed to the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference on October 15-17, I am unable to attend. Ms. Chanasyk also offered to share my ideas and contact information with her colleagues. I have asked Ms. Chanasyk to notify me when the 2015 conference forms become available; hopefully, I can make the trip “North of the border!”

I have been corresponding with Carmen Willings, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments, Forsyth County Schools, Georgia, after I visited her website Teaching Students with Visual Impairments. We have been able to schedule a demonstration at her school system on Wednesday, May 28th. I am looking forward to meeting Carmen and her colleagues. I also appreciate her willingness to post my VI manipulatives on her website.

I received confirmation from DeeDee Bunn that I will present at the upcoming Institute Designed for Educating All Students Conference (IDEAS) on June 2-6. The Georgia Department of Education’s Division for Special Education Services and Supports, along with the Georgia Tools for Life and Georgia CEC, are sponsoring the conference. My presentation time and date will be posted in the near future. Please check my website at a later date for more information.

I shared my math manipulatives with Dana Tarter, deafblind high school resource teacher at Model High School in Rome, Georgia. With the assistance of her interpreter, we discussed different strategies in how to teach life skills such as elapsed time, money, weight, and fractions to her students. Ms. Tarter used my braille manipulatives while I used the student versions during my demonstration. During my demonstration, Ms. Tarter asked me if I had  manipulatives for other academic standards because her students have several academic gaps.   After her request, we discussed my number line to 10,000,000.

I have demonstrated my manipulatives to students who are blind or deaf as well as to teachers of blind and deaf students.  This was a great experience because she is a deafblind teacher, not a teacher of deafblind students.  I left her classroom with an order and an opportunity to help her students.  However, I also left her room with something much bigger than her order – the priceless observation of a  teacher who truly wants to be in the classroom and teach her students. This was very inspirational!

I am going to include the observation of Ms. Tarter using my manipulatives during a lesson in an article for the Canadian Deafblind Association’s quarterly magazine in September.