ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) - When Taylor Achterberg, Kira Whitmore and Nicolette Schmidt took a spring break trip to Louisville, Kentucky, last month, the Northern State University sophomores didn’t expect to get job offers.
But they did.
“I always thought I was going to stay in South Dakota, but then after going to Kentucky,” said Achterberg, who is from Watertown. “I don’t have to stay in South Dakota.”
And it’s not just Kentucky that’s hiring.
Schmidt said that Jessica Vogel, instructor at Northern’s school of education, told her that Texas is also looking for people to work with others who have visual impairments.
The three were inspired to take the trip by their coursework for a blind and visually impaired endorsement that will complement their special education degrees.
The endorsement is 18 credits of classes to prepare students to teach blind and visually impaired students. It includes two semesters of Braille, learning about the eye and orientation and mobility.
While in Louisville, the women toured the American Printing House for the Blind and its neighbor, the Kentucky School for the Blind.
“It’s cool seeing their campus and everything they have to offer,” said Whitmore, who is from Bismarck, North Dakota. “There was more space and the building was larger. But I do like the one here, because it’s smaller and more of a family setting.”
They went with Braille I and Braille II instructor Tevan Fischbach, who also teaches Braille and reading at the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
The Aberdeen American News reports that all over the country, teachers of the blind and visually impaired are in high demand, said Marjorie Kaiser, superintendent of the school for the blind.
That’s why, as building projects move forward at Northern, officials at both schools hope to build and strengthen the relationship between the regent schools. The two are more than just neighbors. They have been working together since the school for the blind moved to Aberdeen in the early 1960s.
A new school for the blind will be built on the Northern campus where Jerde Hall now sits. Jerde will be razed after graduation, then ground will be broken. Where the existing blind school is just south of the Northern campus will eventually be a sports complex with a football stadium and softball field.
Achterberg, Whitmore and Schmidt go to their Braille class at the school for the blind, something officials hope happens more often in the new school for the blind building.
“We like the idea, though, in the new (school for the blind) building, of having an embedded classroom for Northern,” Kaiser said. “Usually, the courses actually have been on (the school for the blind) campus, and we’ve just met in one of our conference rooms, but I think this makes it a little more clear.”
“With the Northern classroom that we hope to have in this (new school for the blind) building, it won’t be just these particular courses in the endorsement that would be taught in that classroom,” said Kelly Duncan, dean of the Millicent Atkins School of Education at Northern. “We would hope to have some of our regular ed and special ed classes over there, depending on how scheduling works.”
But it’s more than just proximity.
“Having the program here and expanding it more is maybe going to help out with the national need and really puts Northern in a position to really be a huge leader in the education field when it comes to this area,” Duncan said.
Getting more Northern students inside the school for the blind more often will hopefully lead to more creative teaching, she said.
“I think that there are some neat things that they’re going to think about in a different way in terms of how a classroom is set up, how they do different things, just by having the opportunity to have this experience in a building that’s not set up like a traditional school,” Duncan said.
Graduates earning the blind and visually impaired endorsement go on to work all over the U.S., Kaiser said.
There are usually 20 to 30 students who live in dorms at the school for the blind, but more than 250 get services from the school each year, most in their home districts via outreach. Others, Kaiser said, might visit for a summer or a semester.
“So these teachers, even these general elementary teachers or (special education) teachers, there’s a pretty good chance somewhere in their career they’re going to have a blind or visually impaired child,” she said. “I think breaking down those whole barriers between elementary ed over here and we have special ed over here, and we (act like) that those aren’t going to meet, that’s just not the case anywhere in education.”
At Northern, the school of education hopes to eventually offer a master’s degree in special education with a concentration in low-vision students, Duncan said.
That, Kaiser said, should help teachers garner more knowledge about students with vision problems.
“So they’d be looking for master’s programs to make sure that they have those extra courses,” Kaiser said.
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Information from: Aberdeen American News, http://www.aberdeennews.com
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