Training the Teachers Of NAB

“We never thought numeracy concepts can be taught to children using Braille card games”,

said teachers of the National Association for the Blind (NAB), Haldwani after attending the teacher training.

Vision Empower conducted a Pragya Teacher training at NAB Haldwani, Uttarakhand on 23rd and 24th May 2022. The sessions were conducted by Jyoti, Anshumaan and Rajagopalan from Vision Empower. Attended by 16 teachers, both sighted and visually impaired, the training focused on introducing them to interesting yet accessible ways maths, science and computational thinking can be taught to children with visual impairment.

Day 1

The training started with an overview of the work Vision Empower does and its various interventions. This was followed by a presentation on Project VICT (Computational Thinking for the Visually Impaired) highlighting the resources available and ways to use them. To give a practical understanding of the same, the teachers were divided into two groups with each group playing 2 CT games for 45 mins. The teachers enjoyed playing pebble sorting and card games.

Subodha, VE’s learning management system was also introduced to the teachers where each teacher was given a login ID to access the content available on the Subodha platform. The second half of the training on the 23rd focussed on Hexis, the Electronic Braille Reader where the teachers were briefly introduced to the functions and usage of the Hexis device.

Day 2

The training kickstarted with a presentation on VE’s Teaching Aids and Methodologies where the teachers were briefed on the resources we create like Teacher Instruction Kits (TIKs), Tactile Diagrams, Braille Books along with the curriculum we follow. They were given an understanding of how we equip teachers with adequate resources that helps them in teaching Science and Maths to children with visual impairment. This was followed by an activity on understanding the functioning of an Electric Circuit using a tactile model. The teachers were also taught the usage of VE’s accessible geometry kits. The teachers were engaged in drawing various lines and diagrams using the stylus.

This was proceeded by a round of CT games using braille cards and game boards. In the second half, the teachers learnt how to upload content on the Antara platform that can be accessed using Hexis Braille Reader.

The teachers enjoyed learning the new concepts that were practical and accessible in nature. They were enthusiastic about putting this learning to use as they go on about teaching students with visual impairment.