Thursday, April 26, 2012

ZoomNews contest reminder

ZoomNews contest reminder

Image of someone buried in a pile of papers at her deskJust a reminder that you only have a few more days to enter the ZoomNews contest - the deadline is April 30th. All you need to do is reply to this email and answer the following question: "What is your best tip for sightless organization? How do you keep track of clothes, food, desk objects, etc.?" If you send in your entry by 4/30, you'll be entered into the drawing for a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate!
Take a few minutes out of your day and send us your best tips for organization - and look for all the suggestions in the next issue of ZoomNews, due out in June.
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Visual Impairments Specialist Scotlandville Elementary http://lee.ebrschools.org/kathynicholslee
http://www.kathyskids.org
http://teacherweb.com/LA/RobertELeeHigh/MrsMichael/t.aspx
http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com

Zoomed In Blog Summary

Here's what you missed in the Zoomed In Blog!
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In case you haven't been checking our Zoomed In Blog religiously, here's a summary on what you missed in the last two weeks.

If you want to know what we talk about on the blog sooner, you can send an email to Becca at rwhite@aisquared.com and she'll subscribe you to the blog itself via email - you'll get an email every time we put up a new post!

Here's what's been added in the past two weeks:

Happy reading!


Visual Impairments Specialist Scotlandville Elementary http://lee.ebrschools.org/kathynicholslee
http://www.kathyskids.org
http://teacherweb.com/LA/RobertELeeHigh/MrsMichael/t.aspx
http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Monday, April 23, 2012

FLY!

One of my friends, Nick Sigur has a Christian blog where he notes his progress in his walk. Lately Nick has been feeling a bit useless because of a bum knee. In his last blog he discovered " Every day is work day. Don't judge your capacity. It is not about what we can do. It's about what He can do through us. The more useless we appear, the greater His glory."
Working with disabled kids, I replied "I 'coulda tol' ya' some o'that!"
 Sometimes it's my job to advocate for them and explain what they CAN do in a class of sighted peers when the teacher and sometimes a principal is assuming what they cannot do at first glance. Some of the kids I have will try anything because no one ever told them they couldn't. Like  a handful of my former students who were told "Hey! You can't run track!"  and they did!
But when I get a parent who is still grieving the 'loss' of that 'normal' child they were expecting and instead they received a 'damaged' child they fail to see the gift and put limits on the child before they can even grow to understand their own differences. Those are my handicapped kids--the ones who have been told all their lives what they cannot do--and are not allowed to get dirty, bump into things, play with other kids, cross a street. It's like the story my dad used to say about the bee: aerodynamically the bee is not built to fly. But bees don't know their build is s'pose ta be a limitation. So they fly.
Some of my kids have multi-disabilities and when people look at them, they get sad and say, "Oh poor thing!" But if you should ever step into the classroo and if they can see you--or if you should touch a hand and sing a song, their faces light up as if you're the most importan person in the world! To me their faces are a reminder of God who looks at each of and smiles. That's a gift!  No matter what you think you look like, he is smiling on you and wants you to feel  His smile.
Sometimes he sends an angel or two to smile at you and remind you that you are worthy of his love, his forgiveness, his loving care. Hebrews 13:3 tells us that. So I believe I am blessed to see angels in my life every day! I do believe they come in the bodies of multi-disabled children to teach us about ourselves and our connections to others through Him.
My babies that don't see, walk or talk are very often happy. They don't know they are disabled. They don't dwell on what they cannot do and don't know that some people think they should be sad because of their disabilities. In that way they have so much to teach us and I have learned so much from them over the years.
If one of these is your child, continue to let them fly. If you're one of my friends, reading this and feeling sorry for what you can't do--take a lesson from "The Kids and the Bees." Stop bemoaning what you think you can't do because someone told you that you couldn't!  Fly!

Visual Impairments Specialist Scotlandville Elementary http://lee.ebrschools.org/kathynicholslee
http://www.kathyskids.org
http://teacherweb.com/LA/RobertELeeHigh/MrsMichael/t.aspx
http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Famous African Americans with Visual Impairments

Click to open:

Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
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What is Albinism? http://www.foroyaa.gm/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9436


Coin of the Realm Exhibit

Teacher Friends,
Here's a good field trip idea. Once you get there, sign up and you will be sent information on all the events at the beautiful Old State Capitol Building.

Coin of the Realm Exhibit 
Come see our exciting and fascinating new exhibit about the currency of Louisiana.  There is something for everyone - from the beginning coin collector to the expert.
And visit our Gift Shop for old coins for sale and a wonderful book by Paul Hollis titled American Numismatist
Louisiana's Old State Capitol | 100 North Blvd. | Baton Rouge | LA | 70801


: ‘Noah’s Hope’ 5K race set for May 20 in Downers Grove

Monday, April 9, 2012

Resurrection Day!


We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday! We call it that rather than Easter because Easter is the pagan holiday of fertility and the "rites of spring" that celebrates rabbits and colored eggs which have nothing to do with the Risen Savior. 

Good Friday before, the associate ministers did mini-sermons on the "Seven Last Sayings of Christ." It was an awesome presentation. My husband had "Son, behold thy mother." Later, he attended the same type presentation service at King David Church where Pastor and several other pastors do the seven last sayings for the community. There was a Resurrection Day Parade on Saturday but we didn't go this year because we'd had too much to do to get a prison ministry float together. I'd made posters for the Daughters of Naomi float, though.

My husband and I started Resurrection Sunday at the special 5AM service celebrating the resurrection and ultimate expression of love for us and all humankind. Afterwards we had breakfast at IHOP where half our church seemed to have the same idea so we had a lot of hugs and kisses with breakfast. 

It was my turn to teach our Higher Ground Fellowship Hour Class which is what we call our Sunday School. I have a class of seven- and eight-year-olds that I co-teach. The class, as usual, was awesome. We had one little girl who was wondering why we didn't say "Easter" instead of "Resurrection Sunday." Of course our lesson was about the Ultimate Love Expression though and the children were so into it!

That evening, my mother had dinner at her house and we watched "Passion of Christ." So our day was quite full. Back to the grind and to my diet today!
MsKathyssLogo2.gif picture by mskathy0724
Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/