I am currently at 358/440 hour internship. But who’s counting!
(I realize I think a lot about this, but don’t write it down sadly.)
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to be done. I think I am just officially burnt out. I have been for a while. I try to figure out what exactly it is that I think will be so different when I finish, since I’m obviously planning on working a little bit in this field. But I think I’m just so burned out with school in general. Really, I’ve been going for most of the last 5 years (teaching credential and Master’s).
The internship has been priceless and taught me SO much. I think I’m also done feeling “on the spot” or proving myself, if that makes sense. I’m done with course work and I have less than 90 hours of the internship left (SHOULD be done by Christmas) after which I will be qualified to take the final exam to get the Nationally recognized credential/certification to teach Orientation & Mobility. YAY!!!
Karen is my master teacher for the 220 hour child portion, and Peter is my master teacher for the 220 hour adult portion. I am in Clovis/Fresno pretty much every Tues-Saturday. Some days are full days, some are half. But my house is sorely missing a human being here to actually clean or organize. I’m definitely ready for my Saturdays back! I see adults most every Saturday, often all day…so between school/internship…I have not had Saturdays to myself/our family since August 2011.
I work with newly blinded adults, adults who have been blind their entire life, children who lost vision due to traumatic brain injury, children who were premature, and children with a myriad of other health issues and very multiply disabled. One thing I will say about this profession is that it’s hard not to leave a client/student very humbled and realizing that we all have our trials…but at least (for now!) I have vision!!! I love so many of the people I’ve met. They are all SOOOOO different.
Here is an example of a cool story: My client John was telling me how he only takes off his sunglasses for people he trusts and feels really comfortable with. He mentioned this while we were walking, as a part of another topic. (this is after about 8 lessons together) So when we got to his apartment he sat on the couch… and as we were talking, he took off his sunglasses and smiled. I asked “so does this mean you trust me?”, and he gave me a big smile and said “yes”. I thought that was really cool and made me feel good.
Karen using the ipad in the Special Day Class – we use it as a sound source to get them to be motivated to move toward. Or, if they have low vision, they love the bright colors.
I’ve had the chance to return to class at SFSU now to be a teacher’s assistant helping the new group of O&Mers during lessons. I get internship hours for this, it looks great on a resume and it’s a “free” refresher of what I’ve already learned. It’s so fun to see them and realize how far I’ve come.
Karen made these cool flashcards to remember the key steps to analyzing an intersection. We label them with braille for braille students, or emboss the shapes to raise them for a tactile reminder for non-braille readers.
Using the iPad for a student (she is extremely low vision and it was too hard for her to see it outdoors)
Cute little 7 year old low vision student with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia.
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