June 2, 2018
The sun was shining today for our first scheduled interaction with the children at the NAB School for the Blind. The early afternoon was spent with the younger children, between the ages of 5-11, playing some music, singing nursery rhymes, and just getting to know one another a bit. We had planned well for these children, learning several children’s songs which I played on the guitar while Becca Sang. We brought along with us an empty plastic bottle, and some grains to fill them with, so each of the children could make their own makeshift maraca to play along with. They enjoyed this activity, however quite a mess was made with only a minority of the rice grains making it into the bottles; this was to be expected. As we sang the songs, the children did well with any tunes in a “call and answer” format, or where the shaking of their new instruments was required. Although a struggle at times, we felt the morning portion of the day with the smaller children was a success. As the younger children were just over 10 in total, and we had staff members standing by to help us with any translations, things went relatively smoothly
The later portion of the day was with the older children at the school. We were initially told that these children were competent English speakers and we would be able to communicate. We therefore planned activities which primarily involved basic English speaking. The reality was few of these children spoke any English at all, never mind being close to conversational. Miscommunications happen, so we did our best to improvise, however this group was quite large at almost 30 students. We attempted to teach a bit of conversational English including introductions and basic salutations; however this was a slow process. We came to learn that many of these children not only suffer from visual impairment, they are also developmentally behind, or have another mental disability along with a lack of vision. Under these circumstances, it was difficult to achieve the response we had hoped for. Becca and I felt at times that we were unqualified, and taking such a large portion of their day to be spent under our strict direction felt as though it may not have been the most productive use of their time. The school although not as thoroughly staffed as it would like to be, does have professionals who are well versed in how to best educate and interact with these kids. As the staff patiently and respectfully watched and did their best to assist as we struggled to work throughout lesson plan, we couldn’t help but feel maybe we would be more useful assisting them. We were feeling a bit defeated at the end of the day, and potentially it would have been more successful had we gone in with a more practical plan, however we still are planning to have a conversation with the head of the school in regards to our role with the older children going forward. All in all, we were glad to have spent the day at the school, and we look forward to returning and improving our efforts going forward.
The sun was shining today for our first scheduled interaction with the children at the NAB School for the Blind. The early afternoon was spent with the younger children, between the ages of 5-11, playing some music, singing nursery rhymes, and just getting to know one another a bit. We had planned well for these children, learning several children’s songs which I played on the guitar while Becca Sang. We brought along with us an empty plastic bottle, and some grains to fill them with, so each of the children could make their own makeshift maraca to play along with. They enjoyed this activity, however quite a mess was made with only a minority of the rice grains making it into the bottles; this was to be expected. As we sang the songs, the children did well with any tunes in a “call and answer” format, or where the shaking of their new instruments was required. Although a struggle at times, we felt the morning portion of the day with the smaller children was a success. As the younger children were just over 10 in total, and we had staff members standing by to help us with any translations, things went relatively smoothly
The later portion of the day was with the older children at the school. We were initially told that these children were competent English speakers and we would be able to communicate. We therefore planned activities which primarily involved basic English speaking. The reality was few of these children spoke any English at all, never mind being close to conversational. Miscommunications happen, so we did our best to improvise, however this group was quite large at almost 30 students. We attempted to teach a bit of conversational English including introductions and basic salutations; however this was a slow process. We came to learn that many of these children not only suffer from visual impairment, they are also developmentally behind, or have another mental disability along with a lack of vision. Under these circumstances, it was difficult to achieve the response we had hoped for. Becca and I felt at times that we were unqualified, and taking such a large portion of their day to be spent under our strict direction felt as though it may not have been the most productive use of their time. The school although not as thoroughly staffed as it would like to be, does have professionals who are well versed in how to best educate and interact with these kids. As the staff patiently and respectfully watched and did their best to assist as we struggled to work throughout lesson plan, we couldn’t help but feel maybe we would be more useful assisting them. We were feeling a bit defeated at the end of the day, and potentially it would have been more successful had we gone in with a more practical plan, however we still are planning to have a conversation with the head of the school in regards to our role with the older children going forward. All in all, we were glad to have spent the day at the school, and we look forward to returning and improving our efforts going forward.
Michael
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