≡ Libro Free Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers Laura Fogg 9780979715204 Books

Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers Laura Fogg 9780979715204 Books

Download As PDF : Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers Laura Fogg 9780979715204 Books

Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers Laura Fogg 9780979715204 Books

This book is amazing! For anyone interested in becoming a teacher of the visually impaired or an orientation & mobility specialist this is a must read. I should warn you it will bring tears to your eyes and fill your heart with joy from start to finish.


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Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers Laura Fogg 9780979715204 Books Reviews

What I most admire about this book is the absence of presumption and the clarity with which the author illuminates those students she learns from. The heart ache of the teacher is all there. To teach is to yearn for and when they go off and do--or not!--we are left on the curb, sometimes without having said enough of good luck and goodbye.

it is a book for teachers who just can't get enough teaching in.
I am a first year orientation and mobility instructor, working with students much like those of Ms. Fogg's. Most of my students have other impairments as well, which makes mobility training all the more challenging, both for them to learn and me to teach. It's not quite as straightforward as the series of cane techniques we were taught in class. Laura Fogg's stories made me feel like I am not alone out there, and I even picked up a tip or two I want to try with some of my kids!
I am a mobility instructor myself, working with adults--not with kids, as Laura Fogg does. I find the stories of her teaching/learning experiences fascinating, touching, and inspiring. I always learn from my students, and I'm delighted and enthralled with what she learns from her students and their families. I am also impressed with her expressions of the magic she finds in her surroundings as well in her work and in her students.
This book reads like a novel, that begs to be read from cover to cover. I highly recommend this book for professionals like me, as well as those who are totally uninitiated about this fascinating and highly specialized nook in the education profession.
I found each story in this book compelling in its own way. Written in a strong and engaging manner, I enjoyed each chapter so much it wanted me to read the next. What fascinated me was the altered states of perception of the various children with different disabilities and abilities, and the creativity Laura brought to each situation.

Dana Bagshaw
Leicester, U.K.
Laura Fogg, the author of Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers, was all set to teach her various degrees of sightless children throughout Mendocino County but instead they all taught her lessons. Her descriptive text reaches out to every reader and makes one more insightful into the lives of those who are visually impaired, and as you will learn, many with multiple handicaps. It is fascinating reading and as one is absorbed in each story of a child, you get a glimpse into their world and are filled with great admiration. This book puts you into the REAL world as this is how much of the population lives. The knowledge you gain from Traveling Blind will make you a better person...and an advocate for them. You will not be the same.
Upfront disclosure the author of this wonderful book is a good friend. That said, I will tell you a bit about what I learned about Laura, her profession, and her students. I don't know what I expected, but I couldn't put down the book. I became engrossed in the stories.

Laura is a mobility instructor, meaning that she teaches children who are missing one or more senses how to get around in the world How to walk around town with a cane, how to order a meal, how to shop, and, perhaps most important, how to have friends. I had never heard of a mobility instructor before meeting Laura. Now, having read her book, I am an advocate for such instructors. Below are some excerpts to give you inklings of what to expect.

Nicole.

Overcoming a blind baby's fear along with that of a young mother's fear is a major undertaking, and without accomplishing both, a blind baby will only grow more inward.

"I knew I'd never get Nicole out of the apartment for a real mobility lesson if Marie couldn't enjoy the sight of her little daughter having a good time at home in my company. I got down on the floor next to Nicole, telling her that I was coming near her. I tried talking in a low voice and making a small amount of noise with a rattle within easy reach of her hands. I waited silently until she moved a tiny bit, and then repeated my action as quietly and non-intrusively as I could. When Nicole indicated her interest by becoming totally still so she could hear every sound I made, I picked up the toy, rattled it quietly again, and touched her fingers very gently with it. Then I waited, without moving or talking, to see what Nicole would do. . . . I had to allow her to call the shots on every move, and respond only to what she did . . . when Nicole finally responded by patting the rattle with her fingers so she could hear the beads shake inside it . . .."

So, a mobility instructor has to learn patience, to slow her pace as a prerequisite to getting a small child to learn. That patience, the key to reaching individual children, seems overlooked in today's hub-bubb of teaching to the test. Some children still manage to survive in the testing scenario, but clearly a blind child would not. How fortunate for Laura's blind students that she understands this. How fortunate for my community.

Then there is Forrest, who at three weeks contracted meningitis and for his short life, could only respond to light occasionally.

"It always makes me uncomfortable to realize that the difference between a normal illness or accident and a life-threatening disability causing emergency is impossible to quantify or control. Why did Forrest end up having all the bad luck? Why have my own children managed to avoid catastrophic events so far. . . . When I heard the news that he had died in the night . . . I had a vision of him dancing through the sky with angels, gleefully flapping and swinging his arms and legs that hadn't worked when he was alive. For me, Forrest's tragedy was his life, not his death."

Bratty children.

"I met a pretty and energetic girl, tall for her age and extremely talkative. She was loud, impulsive and easily frustrated, although she was quick to laugh at the silly things I said to break the ice. I liked that, and I like bratty kids in general, so Michelle and I hit it off immediately. . . . No sooner did she learn a new way to cope with her present state of vision loss than she deteriorated some more and needed a completely different approach. All of our movement was in the wrong direction. Little pieces of me died with every skill that Michelle lost . . . . She barely appeared to notice when something she had been able to do became impossible." When Laura learns that Michelle's condition is fatal, she realizes that she "would have to look at this eight-year old child knowing that her life had already gotten as good as it was going to get. Any changes in her life from now on would be for the worse instead of for the better, and none of my skills and no amount of my love could alter the brutal process for a second. . . . I still had to get up in the morning and take a shower and go to work and cook meals for my own children, even though Michelle was dying."

Laura's own close call with death.

I won't reveal how this happened, but you will learn how she comes to relate her own experience to Michelle's dying and how she comes to learn perhaps the hardest lesson, that her sorrow for Michelle was more for her own spirit, really her own ego. This book is nothing if not brutally honest.

Telling Michelle's story, and her own, are examples of what sets this book apart. This isn't a book for budding mobility instructors. Rather, this is a book for anyone who wants to dig deeply into the human spirit in its many manifestations.
Such a great story. I was a required reading book for my O&M Masters course and turned out to be one of my favorite books! Very good!
This book is amazing! For anyone interested in becoming a teacher of the visually impaired or an orientation & mobility specialist this is a must read. I should warn you it will bring tears to your eyes and fill your heart with joy from start to finish.