I am Renee Wolf and work in Minnesota as a TVI and DCD teacher. I started this amazing career in 1990. The most exciting thing about being a TVI is that there is always new information to learn and strategies to try. I look forward to learning this summer and bringing those new things back to my teams in August.
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My name is Terri Lane, Special Education teacher/TSVI, Knob Noster Missouri, I serve student in a special education classroom and I am a related service provider for students that are Blind or low vision. I have worked with a few students in the past with CVI. I am excited to learn new ideas to help me me better support my students.
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Hi Kelly! What a tough question! I have been in the field for close to 40 years and am not really sure I can answer that one! It’s ALL important but to determine which is most important, I just don’t know. I used to think social skills and if I had to put the ECC components in order of importance, that was at the top for me. I ran programs to help develop these skills and remember the first time I witnessed natural interactions amongst a small group I had worked with. Though I still feel strongly that social skills are important, I really think the priority is student specific. Some come to us with great skills in some areas and needs in other areas. AT is huge though and I find I cannot keep up!
I think I will go back to my initial statement of I am not sure how to answer that question!
Lynn
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Hello all, My name is Melinda Lance.
I am currently a Teacher of the visually impaired in rural southern middle Tennessee. I serve eight schools in my district and currently have 14 kids on my case load. Theo of my students have a diagnosis of CVI, but I suspect CVI in two of my other children. I am hoping on learning ways to better serve these students and help their teachers understand how to include them in the classroom.
Hi everyone! My name is Lauren Allen. I’m a TVI working in Wyoming, where I travel around the state, serving 8 districts and 11 schools. The main district I serve did not have a TVI for quite some time, so, as you can imagine, CVI kids are popping up left and right (great news that they’re getting services, but what an assessment frenzy it’s been!). I’m the only TVI for a few hundred miles, so I work with students ages 2-21!
The range of students I work with has stretched my brain in new ways (part of what I love about this job–and as we all know, overwhelming)–I have students in residential programs for behavior support, with additional disabilities, in advanced classes, braille readers, and students who use tactile symbols or object symbols. All the things! I love working with kids who have higher support needs, but I’m really enjoying learning how to support students who spend most of their day in the general education classroom setting.
Before working in this role, I spent 8 years at the Texas School for the Blind, where I worked with students with multiple disabilities, including DeafBlind students, as a classroom teacher for several years and as a behavior specialist and new teacher mentor for several years.
When I moved to Wyoming, something I didn’t plan for was that my non-stop access to ongoing learning/training would go from 100 to 0 (a smidge dramatic, but it felt true at the time). I’m so excited to learn more about best practices with CVI. I’ve been trying to keep up, but with the busyness of each day, I admittedly get behind.
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Greetings! My name is Amy. I work in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. We serve 9 districts. I am a TVBI, but also a DHH teacher as well. The students we serve (we have 9 TVBI’s) vary from low vision, total blindness, and students with multiple disabilities that have CVI or other brain based visual disorders. I serve several students who are DeafBlind or Deafplus. I am excited to learn more about how to support my students and their families!
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Hi Laura! I thought I drove a bunch.. but only about 50 miles each day! I am so happy to hear that your students have you to provide services for them! If you are the only TVBI do you have a braillist to support you as well or other support systems?
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Yeah for Minnesota! I work for 917… where do you work? And.. btw.. my maiden name is Wolf!! 8)
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Susan Matznick
• License Occupational Therapist that serves on the Assistive technology team
• Greensboro, NC
• I serves on the counties A.T. team supporting all EC students at 53 schools serving students age 3-22.
• Just to develop a better knowledge base to and hopefully add some tools and techniques to my toolbox.
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Hi, Emily, your case load sounds a great deal like mine. I travel to at least three different schools a day to support my students. Are yours all in the same building or like mine in different schools. I feel my CVI kiddos are getting left behind, due to me being stretch between different schools and having 3 braille learners, two are in general ed. I do have an assistant I trained last year on one of the braille kids that has even picked up transcribing her simple materials for me. So this summer I want to learn more ways to support my CVI kids in general ed and CDC classes.
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Wow what a huge change. I feel your need to travel between schools, but mine case load is not as large as yours and it only encompasses one county in Tennessee. What was some things that you are able to use from your experience working at a school for the blind? Do you have any advice on helping a team understand what the students needs are when you are not present?
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Hi!
I am Kelli. I am a TVI in Washington. I serve students with multiple disabilities and low vision students. I am excited to learn more about CVI and how to help serve my students. I would love to learn more ideas to work with them on.
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Wow! 8 districts is a lot! I am also seeing more CVI students so am excited to learn more about how to help them.
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I also have a lot of students on my caseload with CVI.
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Robyn Casillas- O&M Specialist (COMS) from sunny Southern California. I am a practicing orientation and mobility specialist with over 20- years in the field. I provide services within a large secondary school district in Anaheim, CA. I serve students from 7th grade through adult transition who are visually impaired, with and without additional disabilities. I typically have approximately 20 students on my caseload, with about half of that being long white cane users.
I also have been ‘practicing’ O&M for 33 years in my everyday life as I have an adult son who is totally congenitally blind.
I am excited to learn how best to assess and provide service to my students with CVI.
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Hi Everyone, I’m Nazanin Poirier, a TVI from Halton Region, Ontario Canada. I work with students from kindergarten to high school, with various visual impairments, including CVI. I also have braille and pre-braille students. I’m really looking forward to learning more about CVI and building on my strategies to best support my students with multi needs and CVI.
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Hi Susan, so nice to meet you. As a TVI I work with OTs at various schools. It would be very helpful for me to learn from you as to how you support students with CVI and multiple needs, when it comes to accessing technology when fine motor skills are also very limited.
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Hi Lauren, wow it sounds like you have an incredible amount of experience and your students are so lucky to have you! I would love to be able to teach one term at the Texas School for the Blind and just learn as much as I can. You must travel quite a bit with supporting 8 districts. I am with one school board and travel between 3 different cities in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada. Looking forward to learning from you and together.
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Hello! My name is Lacey Long. I am the Project Director for the North Dakota Dual Sensory Project, the state’s DeafBlind project. I also work as a contracted TSVI, TOD, COMS, and CATIS. There are about 40 students, age 0-21, on North Dakota’s DeafBlind child count, and many of them have CVI, or have a visual impairment and multiple disabilities. I am excited to connect with others to learn more about educational programming and specially designed instruction, specific to students with CVI, and how the field can continue to advocate to better serve our students and meet their unique needs.
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Becky Lowrey, TVI from Asheville, NC: My history is varied. I worked as a TVI for the NC birth to five VI program for many years, including as a Lead Teacher for the last six years I was with the program. I did both home and school visits with my students and served children who had moderate to profound visual impairment, typically developing children with VI, as well as multiple-challenged children with VI. I have experience with low vision, braille, assistive technology, and CVI. I also took a 2-year stint with a public school system, teaching K-12 VI. However, my heart was with the little ones, and I returned to the early childhood program in NC. After retiring from the EI/preschool program with the State of N.C. in 2022, I went to work for a private contracting company as their Lead Teacher of the Visually Impaired. I just re-retired as the Lead TVI for this company, but I will continue to do assessments for them (FVA/LMA and CVI). I have been working with children with CVI for many years. I’m excited to be in a learning community with VI professionals and family members of children with CVI. In my spare time, I read (a lot), play guitar and sing with a group, travel, and chase after my beautiful 2-year-old granddaughter.
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