Louis Braille School

We’re always glad to see the DGs (members of the Delta Gamma Sorority from UW) at the Louis Braille School. Alumni and current collegiate DGs have volunteered in the past. Their projects include making large and tactile Valentine Day cards, helping us set-up displays for our annual benefit auction, and assisting with a book signing and lecture.

On Saturday, October 25th, nine DGs came to the Louis Braille School and volunteered to organize our new library holdings. They arranged books according to category, alphabetized them, and color coded them with dot-shaped labels.

The DGs are good company. They’re industrious and work with a smile, and that’s a hard combination to improve on.

Our next door neighbor, Pagliacci Pizza, donated a couple of large pies to serve as lunch for the volunteers. We and the DGs thank them.

Thank you, DGs! We appreciate your willingness to give generously of yourselves by working as volunteers. Your spirit touches us. The work you do at the Louis Braille School makes learning a little easier and life a little better for the children.

Pictured in the Louis Braille School library are the women of Delta Gamma Sorority, University of Washington, Beta Chapter.

Top row, L to R: Brooke Williamson, Anna Fox, Jeni Ayers, Dani Schoener, Rachel Hollcraft, Jenna Tamkin

Bottom row, L to R: Claire Sunderland, Cecilia Jeong, Katie Bengston

Knowledge flows in more than one direction at school. It’s a place where everyone learns and everyone teaches.

Today a student asked me to help him and I said, in my best accent of Mexican Spanish, “No problema.”

His face told me he didn’t know the meaning of the words.

Adults who don’t understand the meaning of foreign words can stare at you blankly, or with a puzzled expression.

A child, however, can look quizzical. And that’s a big difference. The quizzical want to know.

“You don’t know what ‘No problema’ means?” I asked him.

“No,” he said.

“It means, ‘No problem’ in Spanish” I explained. “Listen carefully to how much the English and Spanish words sound alike: “No problem. No problema.”

He smiled and said, “No problema.”

Later in the day he told me everything was fine. “Perfecto,” I replied, with thumbs up.

We went through the same steps as we had with “No problema.” Before leaving, I asked him if he remembered those earlier words.

“No,” he said.

“You have half of it,” I laughed. “‘No’ what…? No problema,” I reminded him.

“No problema,” he said.

“And what else?” I asked.

“Perfecto!” he shouted, and then laughed.

Louis Braille School teacher Dianne Ferrell has an impressive collection of stories and a gift for spinning everyday wisdom.

Her background information follows the short piece, below.

This is just one of many articles about Dianne that you’ll have a chance to read as the Louis Braille School Blog continues…

Cultivating In and Out of the Garden

Teachers of young children have interesting stories to tell.

Often they think back to their own youth and remember things they did that are similar to what their students do now.

Sometimes they think about experiences that have shaped their approach to teaching.

Dianne recently told me of a time when she was around 9-years-old and helping her mother in the garden.

“I picked up an earthworm,” she said, “and put it in my hand. The ability it had to burrow in the earth, and the feel of it, fascinated me. I wanted to talk to it.

“So I started moving my other hand in a chopping motion against the hand that held the earthworm, and it began to bounce up and down. The worm rapidly curled and uncurled its body. I said, ‘I can’t talk to you, earthworm, but I know you react to what I do.’ Then I gently put it back on the ground.”

Dianne paused and smiled while I waited to hear how she would relate the story to her teaching (as I knew she would).

“Not being able to communicate in one way doesn’t mean we can’t communicate in another way,” she continued. “When I think about that time in the garden, it reminds me of how important it is to be sensitive to other people’s feelings. I try putting myself in other people’s places when I’m teaching. It helps me to remember kids must be taught to be considerate. They may have a considerate bent, but it needs to be cultivated.”

Dianne Ferrell joined the teaching staff of the Louis Braille School this year. She got her start in special education as a vocational/rehab counselor to young people in Philadelphia.

After noticing many of them experienced declining vision that made reading large print impossible, she asked why they hadn’t learned braille. “Our teachers said it wasn’t necessary,” they told her.

Dianne saw it differently. “They were functionally illiterate,” she says, “by relying on tape recordings or having their spouses read to them.” Her initial thought was to wish she had been their teacher—so she could have had the opportunity to teach them braille.

Wishful thinking changed to reality after she continued her education and eventually became a teacher of the visually impaired (TVI), a degree she earned at Hunter College in New York.

Dianne has taught in New York, Los Angeles, Los Alamos, and in Washington State.

Over ten years ago she met Carolyn Meyer, who was then head of the Louis Braille Center in Seattle. Carolyn told Dianne of her dream to someday start a private school for blind and partially sighted students. “If you start that school,” Dianne said, “I want to work there.”

Dianne finds the Louis Braille School very different from any other school she’s taught in. “The time I can spend with each student is very important,” she says. “It allows me to take a holistic approach to education. I’m able to incorporate social and daily living skills within the academic program. For example, if a student sneezes and doesn’t cover his mouth, the lesson stops and I tell the student the importance of covering up when sneezing or coughing.

“In other schools where I have taught, time with each student was at such a premium I couldn’t pause, even for something as important as that.”

Please join members of the Everett Central Lions Club for an entertaining evening of pops music of the world famous Boston Pops Orchestra, performed by the Everett Symphony Orchestra.

This FREE concert, presented especially for people who are visually impaired, is sponsored by the Everett Symphony Orchestra and the Everett Central Lions Club.

The concert is on Thursday, November 6th at 7 pm at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Avenue, Everett, Washington.

All are invited. There are 800 seats available, first come, first served. And, it is free, courtesy of the Lions and the Symphony.

The Everett Symphony, founded in 1935, is Snohomish County’s oldest and largest arts organization.

The Historic Everett Theatre, originally built in 1901, is the oldest operating theatre in the state of Washington.

Louis Braille School students ended the week with a hibernation party. The celebration completed a study of why some birds and animals migrate or hibernate during the winter months.

During the week, students made bird feeders of pinecones, peanut butter, and birdseed for the birds that frequent the woodsy area behind the school. They also strung popcorn and draped the strings on branches in the school’s back yard. The birds discovered the popcorn right away.

At the end of the week, the children wore their pajamas to school. After a special pre-hibernation snack, each went into the library and curled up in caves made by blankets draped over tables.

As they settled down for a long winter’s nap, the library became very quiet except for an occasional humorous “snore” from the would-be hibernating bears.

Easy Bird Feeders

Pinecone
Peanut butter
Bird seed
Knife for spreading
A few feet of strong twine or fishing line

Tie the string around either the large or small end of the pinecone, leaving enough of a tail to tie it to a tree branch.

Using a knife, thoroughly spread peanut butter all over the pinecone.

Put the birdseed in a pie pan or on a cookie sheet. Roll the peanut butter-covered pinecone in the seed until it is well-covered.

Hang the feeder from a tree branch.

Refill the pinecone with peanut butter and seed as needed.

Note: To attract a variety of birds, try a seed mix that contains black sunflower seeds, millet, and cracked corn.