“How can you communicate in different ways?” was the question Mrs. Hjelmar’s class wanted to answer after reading biographies on the lives of Helen Keller, Alexander Graham Bell, and Anne Sullivan.
The readings sparked her students’ curiosity so much that she invited Alicia Sherman, a TVI teacher from WSWHE BOCES, to help answer this question and others. Mrs. Sherman told the children that her job is to give children, who have a difficult time seeing, strategies to make it easier for them t
o do their school work. She showed the children Braille books and how they could use their fingers to ‘read’ the Braille letters. She also brought in a Braille machine and each child was given a chance to try it out.
As an added bonus, Mrs. Sherman made each child’s name in Braille. “Thank you, Mrs. Sherman, for an amazing visit,” adds Mrs. Hjelmar. “This unit taught us how important communication is and that there are many different ways to communicate with people everyday.”