Fall back in love with being a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments/ Orientation and Mobility

Welcome back to the podcast, my friend. Happy VD! Valentine's Day. If you're listening to this, on the exact day that it comes out, which if you do, I love you. I like you either way, but I super duper love you if you listen to this on the actual day that it comes out because that's really fun and really cool. Not that we're trying to rank on the podcast… I don't know platforms, but super adorable.

Today's episode is going to be a little bit of a personal episode. A lot of times I come on here and I share steps to whatever A B C or three ideas for lesson plans or something of that nature. And sometimes we do have conversations with other people. But this one is really going to be personal. Because I'm taking you a little bit behind the scenes of my personal life to bring these anecdotes to you as I've been really looking at myself, who I am, and I've had some time to reflect on teaching in and of itself in general. 

In this podcast episode:

• The Concept of Thingness

• How to fix a problem that we know?

• Bringing out the most impactful version of yourself

Transcript of the Episode:

You know, it's not a secret. But education has been really tough the past few years. Like worlds off. And I think that there are some reasons why it's been really tough from a critical theory standpoint, that we can finally put our finger on. And I also think that our field, the field of visual impairments, is getting even more tough because we are so scrunched for teachers.

And I think at a proportion, that other teaching professions aren't because we have a lot of retirees happening. It seems like some big grants aren't getting filled as much as they used to be on the university side. Marketing on the university side is definitely not working but then also from the bottom up or just getting more learners.

I did the math the other day… Well, a smart speaker did the math for me, thank you smart speaker, and realized that for every one orientation and mobility specialists that we have certified in the United States, there are roughly 247 students, this isn't people, students with visual impairments.

Now not every student needs orientation and mobility. And their definition of visual impairment is different than what we would consider needing O and M but that's a big difference. You don't have room for 247 students, do you? I don't. So no wonder that we're feeling this way. And I think that what we're going through is really normal, but the way that we've been looking at it, I think we can put some fun twists on it.

So you're ready for some fun twists because I got some. It's Valentine's Day is all about love. And today we just got to be fun, personal like grab your tea cup because I've got the tea. Let's go on a walk, sit down for happy hour or wherever you are and just let's chill and hang out for a hot second.

The Concept of Thingness

You know, I've been dating. I'm like single single right now. And it's real fun. It's real fun to be single single with this level of maturity. So if you are past that stage in your life or just not in that stage, for whatever reason, it's not really like a past, there is no end goal, there's no finish line for me, so to speak. You can live vicariously through me.

So as I've been going on first, sometimes second dates, I'm getting to know a lot about myself, because I have to talk about myself a lot. And getting to know new things from other people and other people's perspectives. Okay, so one person that I went on a few dates with, he taught me this concept of thingness, which I think is where we are with education in and of itself. And I'm gonna botch the concept a little bit. So forgive me for that. But basically thingness or thing theory, and you can look it up on Wikipedia, it's really cool. It's the relationship between an object and human, how we view that object, how it works, its purpose in our life. And when it breaks, we have a breakdown, we have a disassociation between ourselves and the thing.

You know, kids have this amazing ability to pick up a rock and act like it is King George, or, you know, somehow turn an Amazon box into a sword. How that happens? I don't really know. But they do. And we, as adults, somehow have lost that. We expect something to be the same all the time. And when it's not, we tend to get grumbly about it. And the fact that we're grumbly about the education system not working, doesn't do us any justice for this reason, specifically. The education system has broken down a little bit, its thingness has been disassociated a little bit, we are having a hard time wrapping our heads around, what are you? How do you work? How do you function?

So in an example, on Wikipedia, they talked about a drill. When a drill stops working or like what then does it become a paperweight? Do you like… Does it become a doorstop? What do you do with this thing, if its purpose in your life changes. If its functionality changes. Let's think back to education and where it started.

Education started, as we know it now the system in and of itself at the boom of the industrial era. The purpose of the education system, was to produce factory workers. And now we have a situation where we don’t want to be factory workers. Do you want to raise your students to be factory workers? No. We want to raise our learners to be people who are paid not just for what they do, or how many hours they work, but the thoughts that they think. I'm going to repeat that. We want to raise our learners to be paid not just for the work that they do, or the amount of time that they work, but the thoughts that they think.

That's where vocation in and of itself is going. Who are the highest paid people besides entertainment? It's the thought leaders. It's the people who think different thoughts than the norm. So that in and of itself tells you that in order to continue to serve the learners, education system has to break. It has to disassociate from itself. And it has to disassociate from what we expected it to be.

A lot of us went into this profession, wanting to be teachers, wanting to give our hearts to our learners and we do that every single day. If you're listening to a work podcast right now, that's you, but it's not a bad thing. Education breaking right now is good. It means it gets to be rebuilt. The issue is that it's getting rebuilt by people who are so stuck in the system and so jaded that they are… tend to screw things up.

I'll give you a prime example. I took my dog to the vet. I don't know if you know this, but my dog, lovely, amazing dog and best dog ever. Probably not as good as your dog. Okay, but very good dog. She's allergic to grass so I have gotten to know my vet very well, we were pretty friendly. At this point. You know, we can like banter a little bit. It's only taken two years of my dog going to the vet every month to have that happen. That’s adulthood right? But that's okay.

Anyway, so she was telling me her husband is a teacher and how he is basically just there until retirement. Because he's so tired. relatable, yeah, relatable. One of the reasons he's so tired is because for the past two years, they have given him his lunch hour… he doesn't get a planning because of his job title or something, so his lunch hour is first period. That makes for a really long day and somebody else has first period as your lunch period. I get that. But part of me wonders if this person that they know isn't going to leave, get stuck with a crappy lunch period? Because I know he's not gonna leave.

It's decisions like that, that we can't control on our end as teachers that really make it difficult. For this to happen multiple years in a row for this teacher, yeah, I think it says something about the value of tenured teachers. I think it also says something about where admins’ heads are sometimes. And it's, it's gotta be hard for them. I do not envy that role whatsoever. Because they also don't get paid that much. But I do think that there's room for other voices right now.

How to fix a problem that we know?

Okay, so we know we have this problem. All right, how to fix it? How to fix it? I have a couple of ideas that I've been playing with and we're just going to write in pencil and pencil on it. Doesn’t have to be a marker, Sharpie or anything like that. But these are some things that I've really been thinking about and looking at and taking my own thingness, and really looking at, how can I become more of that? The thing that makes me sparkle. The thing that makes me the best teacher. What is that? How can I become a better teacher by leaning into myself more?

So, as I just mentioned, I've been going on lots of dates. And that means I talk a lot about myself. There's no shared anything at that point. It's a date, it's the first time sometimes meeting the person. And I've noticed a pattern in parts of our conversations that have been happening, which is really funny. And mostly, I've noticed their reaction around it.

So somewhere along the way of us chatting, whether texting or in person or however, I will say I don't like cooking, which in my head is very true. I don't like cooking. But then we'll go out to dinner also, like something you do often in this stage of things, and I will somewhere along the way mention, oh, I tried to make this at home. But I can't so I'm going to order it here. Me, personally, I have this thing when I go out to certain places. There are a few things that I order. Because I like doing the same things over and over again. It brings me great joy.

Anyway. That's not the point. The point is their reaction. Multiple different people, different conversations, different places. have said Oh, you must be really good at cooking. And I want to be like Did you not hear that one time I said I don't like cooking? But to them. What they see in here is she tries new recipes. She tried to make this thing and you know what? They're right. I'm a good cook. I do. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy baking. I think it's a fun activity when I want to do it, do I want to do it three times a day? No, it becomes monotonous, I don't like it. I'm not gonna make a casserole. I'm not gonna make anything for dinner that has more than five ingredients. And I will probably be eating the same bowl of rice for a week. And that is fine, because I don't like that type of cooking.

But I really do enjoy cooking as an activity. So what I noticed, as I turned into it. Instead of it being this thing that I don't like, or that I say that I don't like, I turned my attention in towards it. And I made it fun activity for myself, for myself and my children, and now you're welcome if you're in clarity, because this is kind of where it came from. And now in clarity, clarity this whole month is about cooking, and being in the kitchen and learning about utensils. And we're gonna have our first live learner lesson this week, I think it's tomorrow, after this episode drops. And it's gonna be all about in the kitchen, falling in love with the kitchen, falling back in love with the things that light us up.

And so I wonder for you, is there an area in your life, in your personal life, that you may have not recognized how good you are at that, that you've been either ignoring or setting to the side or neglecting because you don't like certain parts of it. And maybe you want to turn back towards that thing. Maybe you want to look at that thingness and how it relates to your life. 

And to take it a step further, is there a way to bring that part of you into your teaching? Because when you feel lit up about something, your learners more often are going to be lit up about that same thing. So if there's a way for you to bring something that you love into your teaching, your learners are going to catch on to your love of it. And they are going to be able to explore it from your eyes. And ultimately, you're in a relationship with your learners, not a romantic one, but still a relationship. And just as much as you love learning about life from their perspective, they may also enjoy learning about life from your perspective.

And on that same note about bringing things that you love into your work, is there something about work that you love that you haven't been exploring as much? Is there an area that you could become an expert in if you aren't already? Do you love technology? Maybe you love apps, or making maps or Braille or Nemat? Or working with students with multiple impairments?

And if right now, you're saying, Kass, I don't have learners like that on my caseload or in my area? How can you find more learners like that, who need those things? Can you volunteer? Can you observe in somebody else's classroom? Can you like, if you love reading books, can you start a little book club? Can you join up with somebody else who does have those types of learners and just take a step to get your feet wet. You don't want to say hey, I'm going to become an expert. I'm going to write a book, I'm going to read, you know, 10 articles tomorrow. Nothing like that just you have a free planning period, hop on PubMed. Look at what's happening outside of the field of visual impairments. You will find so many ways that it connects. oOr get on JVIB or get on the AR mailing list. And just look up, look up things. Research. Enjoy. Learn.

Bringing out the most impactful version of yourself

Will Smith has this saying that says stay ready so you don't have to get ready. And when I have free time, I like to just do things or learn about things that I eventually want to be able to do even if I can't do it right now. Are there any areas within those ideas that you could lean into, that you could fall in love with. And just bring those little bits of joy with you into work as much as you can.

One of those areas for me has been leadership. Honestly, I love being a leader. And I would have never thought that before. But I do. Leaning into the things that you love, becoming lit up about them becoming what we, in our Allied circle, call an Impactful Irene. If you're not familiar with Impactful Irene, she is a personality that we like to embody within our Allied community. And she makes a lot of impact within her learners. And then she also leads a balanced life.

So how can you embody that, the most impactful version of yourself? How can you bring that more into your work life? How can you bring your thingness, the thing that makes you sparkle into your work, and light that up through you? I mentioned leadership and that leadership allows you to have your voice heard. You know, a lot of times we can get grumbly about things, because we feel powerless. But if you don't feel powerless, and you get to pick and choose which rooms you walk into, and where your voice goes. As your friend, I have to say it's one of the most empowering feelings.

And as somebody who's like, I'm not an academia, I'm not fully involved in a lot of things right now yet, that I would like to eventually be. I can say that, just knowing that if I see an issue, there's somebody that will listen to me, and will help me come up with ideas to create change. That's you, right? You and I, that feels really empowering. And it kind of gives me my power back.

Another thing in dating is not giving your power away too much. And I think that's really important for us, as we look at our relationship with teaching right now. There's a saying from Brooke Castillo, she runs the Life Coach School, I love, love, love, love, love, love, their thought model. But she says, get happy and then leave. We're looking at education and teaching as a relationship, if it hasn't been giving you back what you want from it. And if you've also been feeling a little disassociated or discord within your relationship, and you're really looking at how does this fit into my life, just like when the drill stops working, you have to think, what do I do now? Does it become a doorstop? Do I like… use it as a hammer? But what do I do? What do I do with this? Do I just throw it away?

In this instance, it's a lot bigger. It's your profession. And going on that theme of love and relationships and all of that. And of course, you know, these are just analogies and metaphors. If you can get happy, and then make decisions, you'll make much better decisions. So what we looked at today, what ways to get happy to fall back in love with who you are, as a teacher, and as a person.

Now in the real world, I can like, date myself. I can take myself out. I can treat myself I can celebrate who I am. And teaching can't really do that. Well, I just haven't really thought about ways to do it. But there are ways to lean further into who you are, to be more of your thingness. To be more of your sparkle.

This week, we got to rest a lot when we had the ice storm here in Austin. And typically, that decrease in productivity would drive me insane. But it was the first week of my cycle, honestly, and I was tired. I looked at my to-do list on Monday and I was like woohoohoo. We are back there. So a lot of stuff to do. And I don't know how I'm gonna get it all done. And then when it came time, I was like, can't, you can't get it done.

It was actually a reprieve for me. Maybe that, allowing yourself to come back to who you are, for me it was rest. And remembering that, for me, what works really well is being productive around my cycle, planning my weeks around that, planning my food around that, that can also be another idea for you. So we've got your thingness, maybe you're thingness is something that you've turned your back on, or that has come so easy to you, that you don't really think about it anymore. Leaning into things that you love. Bringing your personality into your work. And allowing that sparkle to be seen by your students. Stepping into leadership, allowing yourself to have some more power, and allowing yourself to rest all of those ideas, right, take them with a grain of salt. Play with them. See how they fit into your life. Maybe you say that worked for you Kass, but not for me. Or maybe you say, you know, that spark to this other idea. I'm gonna go all the way over here and try something else, the casting chair.

No matter what it is, as long as you focus on getting happy, falling back in love with yourself as a person and as a teacher. That is what's going to create the change for education. It has to start with us. We cannot expect it to come from the top down. It has to start with us, which means on a day to day basis, no pressure. But it has to start with you. Were the ones that are going to make the change down here at this level. It's us and from there stand step by step we can begin to slowly fall back in love with teaching in and of itself.

I really hope you enjoyed this lesson. Thanks for hanging out with me for half an hour. I love you. And I hope you have a great Valentine's Day. I hope that you continue to take a step forward into being your very best self because the world needs it. I'll talk to you next week, or maybe in two weeks. We might be going to every two weeks very soon. Whichever one, I'll talk to you soon.