[AERNet] 19 ways to step back

[Jim and Denise]

Carol, Here goes...I use this all the time...give to my teachers...post in 
my office and also any vision room I have at a school...excuse 
mispellings...mostly they are typos.
Denise

19 Ways to Step Back
It often feels right to give help to students with visual impairments, but 
this may not be in their  best interest. Use this list to helpyourself step 
back.
1. You're stepping back so your students can step forward and become 
independent. Keep this in mind.
2. Clock how long it actually takes for students to start zippers, pick up 
dropped papers, or find page numbers. What's a few more seconds in the 
grander scheme?
3. Sit on your hands for a whole task while you practice giving verbal 
instead of touch cues. Hands off the hands!
4. If you need touch cues, try hand under hand instead of hand over hand. 
This gives students much more choice.
5. Let your students make mistakes and get into trouble. It's part of the 
human experience!
6. Acknowledge your own needs. There's a reason you chose the helping 
profession.
7. Sit further away. If you've been within arm's reach, sit just within 
earshot. If you've been sitting just within earshot, sit across the room.
8. Pat yourself on the back every time you help with seeing, not thinking. 
Your job is to give information.
9. Even though helping can feel right, be aware that too much assistance is 
short sighted. Sometimes less is more, less is better.
10. Catch yourself before you correct your students' work. Don't cover for 
them. This is about their skills....not yours.
11. Commit to no intervention for a whole activity. Take data instead. 
Things might not fall apart as much as you had expected.
12. "What page are we on?" "What's for lunch?" Have students ask their 
classmates instead of you, both during school and on the telephone.
13. Assign student learning partners and sighted guides.
14. Teach students to decline assistance, "Thanks, but please let me try it 
by myself."
15. Whenever you add prompts, include a plan to phase them out.
16. Let the boss know that you need to step back so that your students can 
be more independent. You're not shirking your responsibilities.
17. Collaborate with other adults to break your habits of helping too much. 
Agree to remind each other to step back.
18. Try helping only when classroom teachers give you a signal. They may 
prefer to respond directly, or to give students longer to work it out alone.
19. Post a sign, "Are there any other ways I could step back?"

Adapted from Classrooom Collaboration, by Laurel J. Hudson, Ph.D. Perkins 
School for the Blind





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carol Evans" <braillepsych at yahoo.com>
To: <aernet at lists.aerbvi.org>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 2:35 PM
Subject: [AERNet] 19 ways to step back


> Does anyone have this poster. I need the content of it
> faster than I can get it by ordering the poster.
>
> Hoping someone is willing to send that content to me,
> back channel if you prefer.
>
> Carol Evans
>
> Carol Evans
> "This dissertation brought to you by Centrum Silver."
>
>
>
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