Controlling Classrooms With Little Vision

One of the greatest challenges for any teacher today is to maintain control in the classroom. It’s also more challenging when legally blind, although it was easier for me than lesson-planning.

Living with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease, didn’t deter me from becoming a special education teacher, nor from home educating my youngest all the way through, and other children and grandchildren for shorter times. It also hasn’t prevented me from teaching  Children’s Church or Sunday School at Trinity Worship Center, where my husband and I co-pastor.

Behavior is behavior.

Discipline isn’t punishment only, and is rarely required, although necessary at times. Therefore, poor eyesight isn’t much different than my sighted peers. Well-explained rules and expectations and the use of rewards go a long way.

I learned how easily behavior could be shaped when doing my student teaching at Rainbow Mental Health Center in Kansas City, KS. Preschoolers who had already attempted suicide were severely overstimulated, bringing new meaning to “bouncing off the walls,” yet I watched them settle down with the right incentives. Who knew peanuts and raisins could get a child to sit down?

Teaching elementary special education, I remembered the following:

• Make expectations clear
• Know humans of all ages need reminders, or in this case, a warning
• Use a great reward system. If improvement isn’t seen relatively soon, you don’t have the right incentives.
• Start with the smallest incentive first, in regards to time, effort, and money. Praise goes a long way.

A colorful poster board held by a cartoon character listed my rules, which I went over in detail the first day. For the next several days, I read each positively stated rule aloud. Instead of writing, “Don’t touch others,” I wrote, “Keep your hands to yourself.”

Another asset to me has been having a paraprofessional or other helper in the room. Trust me, when they’re not around, children are always eager to assist.

Prevention is as important as rules and expectations:

• Keep things lively so children won’t get in trouble.
• Make sure materials are readily available so time isn’t lost.
• Use different voices or inflections when talking to get their attention, or ask them questions.
• Be willing to change plans when things aren’t going well.
• Make sure your environment doesn’t lend itself to distractions, tempting space to move, or anything else creating temptation.

Disability finally stopped my teaching at public schools, but I then married and eventually started teaching Children’s Church and Sunday School. Soon thereafter, homeschooling began.

Teaching at Church. Discipline was probably the most challenging at church. Ages varied week to week – not allowing me to learn their behaviors. Introducing themselves gave me a chance to learn where to look, as well as to associate a voice with their name. Utilizing preventive techniques was imperative with the bus kids we ministered to.

Homeschooling

New challenges faced me in this arena. Knowing their likes and dislikes was advantageous, but the fact you were mom or grandma made them feel they had an edge over you. Amazingly, my family respected me and never tried to take advantage of my poor sight. Instead, they bragged on me.

A separate area for school with posted rules and displayed work set the mood. It’s pretty easy to tell a pencil has quit moving. Shifting bodies and foot-tapping indicate poor listening if listening at all. These don’t require sight.

Praise is frequent, stickers are heavily utilized. Giving free time is a favorite. Even earning the ability to choose what is for lunch works amazingly. Children don’t always need new toys, games, videos, and the like at least mine didn’t.

My youngest dealt with many fears and anxiety causing stomach issues. To help her overcome, I developed an individualized behavior program for her using black and white buttons. She helped by sharing her likes and dislikes, which I turned into rewards and consequences.

Black signified broken rules and had a consequence. White buttons indicated a reward of some sort. All started small and worked their way by degrees. The beauty of this system was she could see it and we built in a redeemable function. Two white buttons canceled out a black, giving her hope. We used this for months, but it changed her understanding and built better habits.

When two grandsons joined us, I had three ADHD children to educate of varying ages and issues (hyperactivity, attention deficit, dyslexia, and oppositional-defiance disorder). A new behavior system and schedule changes were in order.

One idea was to create “Caught Being Good” cards where I could reinforce good behavior by writing it on the card. I got this idea from a school I taught at where teachers caught students to be good and put their names in a drawing for the end of the semester where winners received donated prizes.

My kids held on to their cards, competing with each other. Occasionally, they’d sneak them out to count. My smaller prizes excited them as much as winning a cruise.

In addition, I created a system that would center around a special word. Each week, they would write the word O-B-E-Y on the dry-erase board. After a warning of any kind, they lost a letter, but I wanted a redeemable component to teach forgiveness and grace since Christ did that for us. When they earned two “Caught Being Good” cards, they earned a lost letter back. There were no daily consequences, but rather, a personal weekly reward. An even bigger reward awaited if all three ended the week with the word. Special snacks, eating out, and desserts go a long way.

It is so important to obey God and His Word as adults, too.

Sometimes we feel hopeless when we do wrong. Sometimes we want to flaunt our “Caught Being Good” cards in front of others to hide our disobedience or uncommitted hearts going through the motions. Whatever the case, we need to remember the importance of obedience and strive toward it as the steps of grace allow us to.

When we obey God, He will give us what we need to do His job, so it doesn’t matter if you’re blind or visually-impaired, or feel something else is holding you back physically, or emotionally. With God, all things are possible when we love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans. 8:28)

Feel free to share your thoughts with us and this post with your friends. I really appreciate your taking time to stop in. Blessings.

© 2019, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.