Welcome back to the podcast, my dear friends! We’re already here with the third part of our exciting collaboration series! If you haven’t listened to the first and second parts, no worries at all, if it’s between July 18th and 25th just stick with this one. However, if you have a spare time, feel free to go back, catch up and listen to our earlier episodes highlighting the best parts of these collaboration series where we talked about what is multidisciplinary approach, interdisciplinary approach and transdisciplinary approach. 

I also do hope that you enjoyed the collaboration series with one of the most dynamic – truly a rare gem, and expert Rebecca Taylor who’s been 5 years in the field as a certified teacher for the visually impaired and an Orientation and Mobility specialist. 

If you haven’t registered yet, we have an upcoming webinar on July 20th 2023, feel free to sign up, just go to alliedindependenceonline.com/training and secure a spot because we have amazing presenters who has 57 years’ experience right there! Isn’t it exciting?

Let’s make a quick recap of some of the helpful tips and simple strategies that helps teachers to listen more, that you can actually use and implement one step at a time to help you achieve your shared goal with your students and develop personal growth within your teaching career. 

Tip Number One: Communication

Remember my story of writing long emails? Well, as hurtful as it may sound but nobody’s reading long emails especially when emotions are involved, right? So, how can you improve communication? How can you make it quick, make it simple, effective and efficient? 

Tip Number Two: It’s About Your Learner

Always remember your learner’s needs and your goals, don’t make it about you. Bottom line is, it’s always about your learner and ensuring that their needs are provided and met.

We are here for our students, keep them in mind and keep that in mind. 

Tip Number Three: Have Empathy

It always pays to be empathetic. To have empathy, rather than being straightforward, being rude to the learners or again, putting your own needs before them.

Students will feel it and will do a fantastic job if they feel that you are putting a lot of effort in sharing and thinking about them. Again, we have to understand where they’re coming from. 

Tip Number Four: Consistent Communication

Lend a helping hand. You are always one step ahead when you reach out to them. Send a quick text, just check them in, how are they doing? So that communicating with them results to a positive impact rather than giving them a spike in cortisol when you only reach out to them when issues arise. 

Tip Number Five: Compliment Your Students

Students do really appreciate it when they are being complimented. Make a simple effort for your students to know that they’re doing a job well done. Again, it all comes back to you, the way you handle things and teach your students. 

I hope that you will be able to implement even just one with these things that I shared to you, I believe that it will go such a long way. 

Remember, we are help to students with visual impairments around the world to live lives that are independent, successful, and fulfilling.

Again, I encourage you to join our webinar on July 20th, 2023 and deep dive even more with these ideas with Rebecca Taylor, Jill Brown and Diyana Ahmad.

For more information go to alliedindependenceonline.com/training, see YOU there!

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PODCAST

TRAILER/PREVIEW

KASSY:

Those TVIs that are coming to talk with us about this, those people are the ones that really have their wealth of knowledge. I mean, there’s 57 years of experience right there, that you just get to distill.

You don’t have to spend all that time trying to figure it out. And oh my gosh, how glorious is that? I love that for you. I do. 

INTRO

KASSY:

Welcome to A Step Forward, a podcast for ambitious VI Specialists who are challenging the status quo. I’m Kassy Maloney, your new work bestie. With over 15 years of experience as an O&M specialist, author, professional development junkie, mom, and owner of Allied Independence. I have been through the wringer. And now, I’m here to bring you a boost of inspiration, information and our favorite innovation. As we treat feeling overwhelmed for overjoyed while we create a significant impact in the lives of our learners and still lead more balanced, fulfilling lives. So, grab your favorite beverage because we’re about to take a step forward. 

PODCAST BODY

KASSY:

Welcome back to the podcast, my friend. This is part three in our collaboration series. I know, it is the most unique innovative name ever, I’m not the best at making names fruitful or fun. It is what it is, The Collaboration Series. If you haven’t listened to part one, or part two, and it’s between July 18th and 25th, just stick with this one. Otherwise, if you have time, and you want to go back and listen to the other ones, you’re more than welcome to do that. You’re more than welcome to do whatever you want, let’s be real. But, I think this one has a lot of the gems that you’re probably looking for anyway. 

When I was in high school, I think that’s when SparkNotes came out. I’m going to date myself either way. When I was in high school, we definitely had internet, everyone was still on desktops, the idea of putting a computer lab was absurd. And somebody created a website, because it was the 90s, right? We had lots of random websites, we have more now. Okay. But you could get- oh, was it SparkNotes or CliffNotes? Either one, CliffNotes, SparkNotes, you could get the CliffNotes, the too long; didn’t read, for my Redditors. That part, that’s where you are right now. That’s where you are. So, you can listen to this and then go back to the other ones, that would be totally fine. Especially because this episode leads right up to the webinar that we’re having this week. This week, July 20th 2023, we are having a webinar entitled “What’s Working For TVIs, Working With Students With Multiple Impairments, and is specifically on collaboration and routines, and getting out learners with multiple impairments to be more independent through collaboration and routines, and getting them more involved in the Gen Ed curriculum.

In part one, we talked about what is a multidisciplinary approach, what is interdisciplinary approach, and what is a transdisciplinary approach. So, that way, you could look at your own cases, your own students to say, okay, where am I? And, where should I go to get better? Understanding and accepting where you are, that’s the first part. And then lastly, we got to talk with Rebecca. Oh, my gosh. What a gem of a human. Golly. I could just talk to her all day. And then today, we’re really diving into how do you fix it? What do you do? So, I’m going to give you some ideas and examples. And I’ll be 100% honest with you. The real gems are going to come from the TVIs themselves. I’m going to give you my information, but I’m just like, I don’t know, I’m just like the host of the party. I’m not the Beyonce. Rebecca is the Beyonce. Jill Brown, she’s the Beyonce. Diyana Ahmad, she’s the Beyonce. Those TVIs that are coming to talk with us about this, those people are the ones that really have their wealth of knowledge. I mean, there’s 57 years of experience right there, that you just get to distill. You don’t have to spend all that time trying to figure it out. And oh my gosh, how glorious is that? I love that for you. I do.

So, I’m going to give you my fun ways, but I encourage you to go to alliedindependenceonline.com/training and go sign up for the webinar. If it’s already past, you can watch the replay for a few days, that information will be on the website. And it’ll be on the confirmation page and the all access page, I believe, it’ll be places, you’ll know. So, stay on top of that, because the replay will come down at some point soon. And you definitely do not want to miss this information, it is worth the listen. And we are offering a Certificate of Completion for it. So, that way, you can send it off to your professional development office, we can’t guarantee for you to get recertification points, but we are happy to fill out whatever paperwork you need us to, in order to make that happen. So, just keep in touch with us, let me know. Because I want this to be worthwhile for you. And you know, paperwork is paperwork, we’ll do it. Are you ready to get into some simple fixes, like real simple, you’re going to be like, oh, I didn’t think of that. And the reason that I’m sharing this, is because it’s much easier to get out ahead of something before it turns into an issue. Most people think that, if they don’t need the information right now, like if it’s not a glaring issue in their face, it’s not worth their time. And for a lot of things, you could be right. Do you need to download every single navigation app that there is and learn all of them, and use all of them all of the time? No, probably not. But do you need to learn how to speak to people so that they’ll listen? Yeah. And do you need to be able to do that on top of teaching? Yeah. And were you taught that in college? Probably not. 

A lot of the things that I learned, I learned them the hard way. I learned them from being the annoying person or the passive-aggressive person. I learned them from not communicating directly. And I learned them from having all of those experiences where I would send an email. And I’ve told this story before, I don’t know if you specifically have heard it, but I went from being the person that would send an email and get eyes rolled at  me, oh, you send another email, like, literally that. Two, I send an email to- it was like sixty to a hundred people, okay. And I asked them to do more work and then I got a bunch of people thanking me. I was like, where were all of you years ago? You treated me horribly. It wasn’t that they changed. It was that I changed. And because my approach changed and how I look at them changed. They couldn’t help but show up differently to me. 

I think a lot of people sit on certain pain points, like a dog on a nail, and they don’t get up until the pain of the nail hurts more than the fear of getting up. Have you ever heard that parable? So, there’s a story of, businessman is going door-to-door, and he stops by this older gentleman’s house. The older gentleman is on his front porch on a rocking chair and his dog is whimpering next to him. And the salesman says, oh, why is your dog whimpering? And the old man says, oh well, he’s sitting on a nail. To which the businessman of course replies with like, why doesn’t he get off the nail? And the old man says, because the pain of staying where he is, isn’t greater than the pain of what he thinks he’s going to have to do to change. Getting up. We know getting up isn’t that big of a deal. But to the old dog, he would have to move his body and do new things. And I think a lot of times we do that. We’re much more apt to take pain pills, like Advil, or medicine rather than take vitamins to avoid it altogether. So, the fact that you’re even here and listening shows that hopefully, hopefully things aren’t too bad for you right now. But if they are, if this is a pain-pill situation, if you’re taking the medicine, then I hope that something that I say today actually resonates and that you can take action. And then you do come on Thursday, on July 20th and listen to what our presenters have to say about collaboration and routines. And you implement some of it, maybe not all of it, all of the time, right away. But one thing at a time, every single day, just one small, small thing, new or getting better at something that you’ve done. And if you’re not, then you’re in the perfect place. Because you, my friend, are able to look at it all from a spot of possibility, you’re not tarnished yet, you’re not jaded. You’re not thinking about Karen, who’s obviously not going to like what you have to say anyway. And the goal is to stay there, to stay in this place where our collaboration efforts are ongoing, and that they’re working. As we go through these, just to give your brain a little like, step 1, step 2, step3, I’m going to give you 1,2,3 like that, because my brain likes an outline and listening auditorily is very hard for me to figure out what exactly they said if they don’t do it. So, I’m going to offer that to you as assistance for your brain to categorize the things that are coming its way. 

So, number one, remember when I said that email situation? Yeah, don’t do that. Don’t write long emails. I see you, you have a lot to say. And you don’t have a lot of time. And making phone calls is hard. And you probably won’t catch them anyway because they’re busy. They’re teaching, not just sitting at home. I mean right now, summer time, maybe we are, maybe we’re not. But during the school year we’re definitely not.

Here’s the thing my friend. I’m going to say something very tough, lovey. Nobody’s reading your long emails. Nobody. Nobody. Think about the last time you got a long email, especially if there was emotion involved. You didn’t read it all the way through, you read until your emotions got spiked. And then you stopped reading except to come up with your argument. Our attention spans right now, I believe are 8 seconds long. Longer than 10-15 seconds to skim through your email, it’s too long. We are in the TikTok era, and it’s not looking like it’s getting any better. So, overall communication, how can you make it short, quick and effective? Can you text people? I have a Google number that I use for all my parents. And then I take that Google app and then I put it in a work folder. So, that way, if a notification comes on from that work folder, I can be like, nope, not going there. If a notification comes on for other folders, I might go there. I don’t actually have notifications on. So, that’s a lie. But I might if I did have notifications on. I just don’t believe in notifications, because it bombards me and it stresses me out. But my work folder gets notifications and I like it hidden, like hide that, hide it, you don’t want to see it. And then, what I like about a Google number, if you’re allowed to this, is I can easily make phone calls from my computer. I don’t even have to have my cellphone. So, it doesn’t even have to come home with me. I don’t even have to have the app on my phone. If you’re a W-2 employee, or whatever, I don’t know you do you. But I really like that. And it feels when I make the phone call from my computer, it feels very work like, I do have the option on my phone, sometimes I work on my phone. A lot of times I work on my phone.

Tip number two, don’t make it about you. Because it’s not. It’s about your learner. You guys have a shared goal. What is that shared goal? Because they don’t care about your needs, they care about their needs. So, as you are not making it about you, think about how can I make this about their needs and our shared goal? 

Two things, right there.

Nobody in the teaching fields is here to make millions, none of us. I mean, a lack of purpose is not our issue. Sometimes, lack of money is our issue, but lack of purpose? No, don’t resonate with that whatsoever. The teaching is way too hard for us to stay in it without loving it. Gen Ed teachers, Special Ed teachers, Resource teachers, speech pathologists, PTs, OTs, all of those people, even administrators, nobody’s here for a quick buck. So that kind of at least ensures that we’re all here for the right reasons. We’re here for our students. And we all have different backgrounds, and we all have different ways to look at things. If we come in and start acting like, oh, I know what needs to be done and you don’t then no one’s listening to you.

Number three, is do come from a place of empathy. That is going to get you so much further than scolding them or being rude to them, or again, putting your own needs first. Going back to that email thing that I mentioned before that example, the way that I was communicating and writing emails was, I need you to do this for me, XYZ, here’s the information, blah, blah, blah, very straightforward. But then when I switched it to having empathy for people, hey, I know you’re really busy, hey, thank you for all the work you’re doing, hey, the student is doing fantastic because of you and I see how much effort you’re putting int sharing with them, that you understand where they are coming from, that you’ve taken time to think about what their perspective could be, is going to get you so much further in the long run, than being rude, or being condescending or being needy without giving.

Some time last year, I can’t remember when exactly it was, I read The Dance of Anger. If you are a female, I think this applies to everybody. But she markets it just to females and I think that’s just for a marketing purpose. And she talks about it in the book. So, if you know a woman, if you enjoy having women in your life, or if you are a woman, I recommend the book Dance of Anger. It really helps to bridge the gap between why women feel the way that they do and how they’ve been socialized to act and behave, and then how it comes across in adulthood and how we can change it. So good.

Number four is to make your communication consistent and not dependent upon there being an issue. If you’re only reaching out when there’s an issue, it’s kind of like, if your boss only reaches out when there’s an issue. Anytime you reach out, good or bad, they’re going to get a spike in cortisol. We talked about having short conversations more often over email, I think this would be a really great way for you to implement that. Send a quick check-in text. How’s this person doing? Do you need my support anywhere? Okay, great. I’m just checking in, hey, just checking in. Setting up recurring meetings, which Rebecca will talk about more in the webinar. And I think that, that will be fantastic to teach us how to overcome all of the objections that we have about setting up recurring meetings. So, that way our communication isn’t just talking about the negatives.

And number five, one of my best things I’ve ever done as a teacher, especially when I’m working with students with multiple impairments, is if I’m working with them in an area that is more pullout, instead of push in, I will make like a brochure, or maybe like a quick video or something and show the teachers and the parents what this kid can do.

Because a lot of times, kids act different for us than they do for their teachers or their parents. And we want everybody to be on the same page. So, in the past I have used a quick student brochure. And it just has a picture of what the student actually is practicing. On the left side, it talks about what they can do, and on the right side talks about how to help them, what words I used exactly, what prompts I give them, where I stand, just bulleted, it’s super simple. It’s just a three-fold brochure, you can make it in Canva these days, I just used Google Presentation or Google Slides, because we didn’t have Canva back then. But that works really, really well. And then you can put it up on the bulletin board or wherever they put class information that can also go into a sub-folder, really easily. It’s a quick scan, nothing long, no jargon, no nothing, very simple. If you start implementing one, just one of those things that I shared today, it will go such a long way.

But I encourage you to come to our webinar on July 20th, where you will be able to deep dive even more into these ideas with Rebecca Taylor, Jill Brown and Diyana Ahmad, and they will be going over what’s working for them right now. And we’re keeping it simple, we’re keeping it creative, we’re keeping it really, really fun. I don’t want you to think, oh, I’m already doing this, so we don’t need to do it. Because you’re in a different place now than whenever you would have heard, whatever information you had before. So, you’re going to be able to take away more. And you’re going to be able to implement things at a much deeper level, just like that routines metaphor that I gave you before. That’s exactly what this will be. You’ll be able to look up similar information and implement it at an even faster and better rate. If you already have things down perfectly, you can go to alliedindependenceonline.com/training to get more information about that.

Early bird registration for the TVI Symposium closes on July 27th I believe, that Thursday. If you want more information about it, come to the webinar, or just send us an email or DM, we’re happy to help you. And I hope you can take this information to help you take one step forward today.

Alright friends, I’ll talk to you next week. Bye.