Insights

Insights

The Braille Monitor_______November

1997

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Denise Mackenstadt

Insights from an Instructional

Assistant

by Denise Mackenstadt

From the Editor: One of the most puzzling

figures in the educational landscape of blind children in public schools today

is the instructional aide. Parents and teachers are often uncertain what the

role of these aides should be. Denise Mackenstadt has been doing this job intelligently

and knowledgeably for several years. Her husband Gary is a long-time leader

in the NFB of Washington, and Denise herself is a leader in the National Organization

of Parents of Blind Children. At the 1997 seminar for parents of blind children

in New Orleans she spoke to the audience about what should and should not be

part of an aide's responsibilities. This is what she said:

I live about twenty miles northeast of

Seattle and am an instructional assistant, as we are called, in the Northshore

School District. We have about 20,000 students in an area of sixty square miles.

There are approximately twenty blind and visually impaired students on our caseload.

I am assigned to a normally developing fourth grade blind boy. He is totally

blind and a Braille user. There are some additional problems that affect his

learning, but they are not directly related to his vision. I spend four hours

a day at the school. I am a member of the school staff, which is an important

part for me to play, because, in order for our student to become an integral

member of the school community, I have to do a lot of PR, a lot of educating.

My presence really helps allay the fears and anxiety that are frequently seen

in a general education staff. I think that we have been very successful over

the last two and a half years. The fourth grade teacher he will have this fall

has actually requested that he be in the class. I view that as a real asset

and something we can be proud of.

I've been with the National Federation

of the Blind since 1970 in a variety of roles, so of course I've brought that

experience to this job. However, my job description does not really require

anything that you would recognize as specific to working with a blind student.

My job description says that I am to follow directions given by a certified

teacher, that I keep accurate records, that I know how to operate office equipment

like the photocopier and rhisograph, and that I have some knowledge of technology.

The certified teacher that I work for is the teacher of the blind--the vision

teacher. She happened to want me to have this position even though she was warned

not to hire me. She stipulated in the job announcement that an applicant must

have a basic knowledge of Braille and white-cane use. Since I was the only applicant

who had those skills, I was hired.

A year ago Washington passed a Braille

literacy bill, due to the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. Part

of that bill is unique in that one of the legislators, who was a former school

board member, stipulated that the Braille competency requirement must also apply

to any assistants producing Braille materials or instructing a student in Braille.

So I was required to take the National Library Service Braille Competency exam,

which I did last year and passed.

This provision of the Washington law

reflects the influence that instructional assistants have on the educational

program of blind students. Frankly I see my student more often than the certified

teacher does. I have more interaction with him. I see him in areas that are

critical to his social development, such as playground, lunchroom, PE, music--the

times he interacts socially with his peers. I have a tremendous impact on what

he does every day.

The thing I appreciate most is that the

classroom teacher, the vision teacher, and I have agreed that our ultimate goal

is to work me out of a job. Our goal is that this student will become increasingly

independent so that by middle school he will be able to meet a good number of

his own needs or will be able to get the materials he needs through transcription

services, readers, working with his teachers, etc. That has to become the goal

for all of us who work with these children because, if they are mainstreamed

into a regular school program, they have to acquire those skills. As parents

your goal is to enable your children to handle their own lives and to determine

their own destinies. As educators that must be our goal also.

I am very cognizant of my own limitations.

I am not certificated. I really try to maintain close working relationships

with all the certificated staff. I eat in the teachers' lounge in order to talk

to other teachers, to hear what's going on, to work with other teachers on their

projects. I work in the lunchroom so that I really get to know the custodian.

As all of us who have worked in schools know, the people who truly run the school

are the secretary and the custodian. I was gratified to see that I had been

successful in that effort. At my end-of-the-year evaluation my principal noted

that I still work in the lunchroom even though our student doesn't require my

presence. Aides have to mingle with the staff because we are an itinerant program.

Most of the regular educational staff has no idea of what we do, so part of

our job is to make it very easy for them to accept this blind student as a regular

student in the classroom.

As a non-certified staff member, there

are some experience and knowledge in instructional skills that I just do not

have. I don't necessarily know the progression in reading instruction or mathematics

instruction. These are areas in which I need to learn from and work with the

classroom teacher and vision teacher. I am there to adapt the regular education

program for our blind student and to teach the specific blindness skills he

needs. In addition I provide all transcription services. I come to school in

the morning, check with the teacher about what is happening in class, and look

at her plan book. She may tell me that she is going to give a four-page reading

exam that day, it has to be Brailled by 11:00 a.m., and it's now 8:30 a.m. This

means that I have to have the test transcribed into Braille that this student

can actually read by 11:00 a.m. That's the reality of a public school program.

The responsibility for instructing the

blind student in the standard curriculum belongs to the classroom teacher. At

times, out of misunderstanding, the regular classroom teacher will expect me

to instruct the blind student in areas that are not my responsibility or within

my expertise. Avoiding these misunderstandings can be a difficult task. My goal

for the coming year is to learn how to avoid these confusions of responsibility.

The classroom teacher must be willing to accept the blind student as just one

more student in a class of fourth graders. I must sometimes go to the instructor

and say, "this student is in need of help on this math problem." Then

I walk away to assist elsewhere in the classroom so that the teacher can spend

time with the blind student.

This past year my office was too accessible

to the blind student. He needs to stay in the classroom more. He performs better

in the classroom because there he wants to be like the other kids in the class.

And, if he is going to be like the other kids, he will have to meet classroom

expectations behaviorally and instructionally. I'm locking my door this coming

year. He's not going to be able to wander in and out quite as much.

Those are some of my goals for the upcoming

school year. This past year my professional goals were to pass the Braille Competency

Examination and to learn more about computer technology for the blind in education.

My goal for my student was to develop and improve his self-esteem. I took from

the National Federation of the Blind and from what we've done at our rehabilitation

centers in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Colorado the understanding that I couldn't

accomplish a lot just using a self-esteem curriculum. I could do all the talking

I wanted, but what was really going to build his self-image was his feeling

of competence using his blindness skills. That, I am very pleased to say, has

happened. His feeling of competence as a Braille reader and as a blind traveler

and his ability to communicate his needs to his sighted peers or adults has

improved his self-esteem as much as--no, more than--any of the head talks he

and I could have had.

The advantage of being married to a blind

man has been that, when my student comes to me saying he can do or not do such

and so, I can say, "Hey, don't talk to me about it." I can say "I

know my husband." Even if I weren't married to a blind person, as an instructor

I would have to know adult blind people for my own education, for mentoring

him, for helping him to understand that there is an adult future for him to

dream of and be a part of. That is really what our goal has to be as educators.

In conclusion I would say that I have the best job in the world because I am

working with kids, one on one.