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Universities
Recruitment
There is a shortage of teachers of students with visual
impairments and orientation and mobility instructors. PaTTAN
has produced a DVD titled Exploring Careers in the Field of
Visual Impairment and other display materials with information
about the field and how to obtain certification. The DVD has two
parts. One part addresses exploring careers in the field of
visual impairment. The second part contains interviews with
teachers of students with visual impairments. A copy of the
DVD or video can be obtained by contacting Debby Holzapfel at
dholzapfel@pattan.net. Click on this link to access the two
parts of the DVD via streaming media on this website.
Exploring Careers in Visual Impairment
Spring Vision Conference Volunteers Needed
Hello everyone. I want to inform you all about a professional
conference opportunity that I know you’ll not only find
interesting, you’ll also find it fun and potentially personally
rewarding. Before I tell you about the opportunity, I’d like to tell
you about your professional community and organization.
Please bear with me during the commercial.
The area of study you are pursuing (TVI, O&M, and RT) is
considered, by federal definition, to be low incidence in nature.
It is considered that because of the low incidence and
prevalence of blindness and visual impairment relative to other
areas of special education and rehabilitation (e.g., autism). By
definition, and for all practical purposes, the number of
professionals serving individuals who are blind or visually
impaired as a whole is small (again compared to others areas
of study). Being small certainly has its advantages. For
example, you make really close positive connections with
colleagues both professionally as well as personally on a local
and statewide level. Your colleagues locally as well in other
areas of the state and country, often become part of your
extended family. Attending professional conferences is similar
to attending a really fun family reunion so to speak. From time-
to-time though, being small has its disadvantages. Without large
numbers of professionals, we sometimes are overlooked
legislatively because we don’t have the numbers needed to
make our voice heard by policy makers and others.
This is where you come in. You’ve already begun the process of
becoming a professional simply by electing to be a graduate
student in service to individuals who are blind and visually
impaired. I am very grateful that you chose this field as your
career path, and am excited about being your colleague soon.
But being a student is only the first step in this road to
professionalism. The next step is for you to become a student
member of your professional organization, the Association for
Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
(AER) http://www.aerbvi.org. AER is THE ONLY membership
organization in the United States for professionals serving
individuals of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. Let me
say it again, AER is THE ONLY membership organization in the
United States for professionals serving individuals of all ages
who are blind or visually impaired. While CEC is a wonderful
membership organization in special education, and has a
division of visual impairment, it is not dedicated to the
professionals (you) serving individuals who are blind or visually
impaired.
So why should you care or even worry about being a member
of AER? Well, bottom line, the organization and the field in
general can’t survive without you. Honestly, no joke! You as an
individual matter in this low incidence field. It probably doesn’t
matter too much in larger fields of special education or
rehabilitation, but in this field your membership makes a huge
difference. But, being a member of a professional organization
such as AER is not just about receiving tokens or trinkets, it is
more about the subtle contribution you make to preserve the
integrity of the service you and other TVIs, O&M Specialists,
and Rehabilitation Teachers deliver. It is simply about protecting
your right to provide the best and most appropriate service you
can to the children and adults you’ll be serving. The
certifications of TVIs, O&M Specialists, and RTs exist because
of the lobbying efforts on the part of the leadership of AER, not
CEC, not any other organization. AER is your ONLY legislative
voice when debating service delivery issues in Washington, as
well as within individual states. Again, without you there is no
AER and without AER there’s no voice. It’s simple really. I
encourage you to visit AER’s website (www.aerbvi.og) to learn
more about your professional organization.
So we welcome you as future colleagues and encourage you to
join AER as students. The membership fee to join AER as a
student is significantly reduced ($55 for one year) and you gain
much by joining. The membership fee during the first year
(Transition Year) of teaching is slightly higher ($100) than the
student fee, but still reduced. You don’t pay full membership
until your second year teaching and that is only $130/per year).
Obviously, you get tokens and trinkets (i.e., ACVREP O&M
Study Guide, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness,
reduced rates for membership fees, etc.), but it’s the
contribution of your voice that really matters. If you care about
the opportunity to practice as a certified TVI, O&M Specialist,
and/or RT as well as the provision of that service in the future,
you’ll join AER now and continue to be an active member
throughout your career.
Now to the point. Every year, your state chapter of AER hosts
a professional conference that is extremely popular, known not
only within the state but nationally for it’s caliber of program
content. The conference is called the Penn-Del AER Spring
Vision Conference (SVC). This coming year’s conference, which
will be held at the Holiday Inn in Grantville, PA, is scheduled for
April 21-23, 2010. This conference promises to be as
successful as many of the conferences in the past.
Every year, each of the three universities in the Commonwealth
is allowed to identify six students who will serve as volunteers
during the conference. As a student volunteer you will receive
compensation from Penn-Del AER for your participation. The
compensation includes free registration, free accommodations,
and meals (which includes Thursday’s lunch and banquet). To
receive compensation though, you must be available for all days
of the conference and you must come as early as possible. The
conference begins at 1 p.m. on Wednesday so we’d like you to
be there by 10 a.m. that day to assist with the set-up of the
conference rooms and materials. It ends on Friday, around
noon but you must stay until everything is packed up, which is
typically no later than 1 p.m. Below is a list of some of the
duties of a student volunteer. Please consider volunteering. It is
a great way to network with other students and future
colleagues, as well as make contact with potential employers.
Besides, you get to participate and attend a wonderful
professional conference, with nationally recognized speakers,
dedicated to topics related to serving children and adults who
are blind or visually impaired.
This is a first-come, first-serve basis offer. I’m alerting you to
this opportunity now so for those of you working, you might be
able to make other work arrangements to attend. Contact me
ASAP (gjz@pitt.edu) should you want to volunteer. For those of
you have volunteered in the past, this offer is still good to you,
but let’s see who wants to be a first-timer before I commit to
repeaters. I will pull your name from the “reserve” list as we get
closer and I see what the newbie responses will be to this offer.
Penn-Del AER SVC Student Responsibilities:
- assist with set-up of conference rooms and materials (e.
g., stuffing conference folders prior to the beginning of the
conference)
- familiarity with set-up of equipment
- assist with distribution of equipment to rooms
- check to be sure correct equipment is available for each
speaker
- check room sign for time and session correctness
- distribute handouts (keep one copy for conference chair)
- check speaker is in room and her or his AV needs are
addressed
- make sure that there are sufficient ink pads and stamps
- stamp attendee conference form
- collect and tabulate individual session evaluation forms
- redd-up for the next session
- collect and tabulate overall conference evaluations
- assist with the tear-down of the conference (e.g., help
pack up all materials and load the vans/cars)
Sincerely,
Dr. George Zimmerman
University of Pittsburgh
gjz@pitt.edu
412.624.7247
Recruitment
There is a shortage of teachers of students with visual
impairments and orientation and mobility instructors. PaTTAN
has produced a DVD titled Exploring Careers in the Field of
Visual Impairment and other display materials with information
about the field and how to obtain certification. The DVD has two
parts. One part addresses exploring careers in the field of
visual impairment. The second part contains interviews with
teachers of students with visual impairments. A copy of the
DVD or video can be obtained by contacting Debby Holzapfel at
dholzapfel@pattan.net. Click on this link to access the two
parts of the DVD via streaming media on this website.
Exploring Careers in Visual Impairment
Spring Vision Conference Volunteers Needed
Hello everyone. I want to inform you all about a professional
conference opportunity that I know you’ll not only find
interesting, you’ll also find it fun and potentially personally
rewarding. Before I tell you about the opportunity, I’d like to tell
you about your professional community and organization.
Please bear with me during the commercial.
The area of study you are pursuing (TVI, O&M, and RT) is
considered, by federal definition, to be low incidence in nature.
It is considered that because of the low incidence and
prevalence of blindness and visual impairment relative to other
areas of special education and rehabilitation (e.g., autism). By
definition, and for all practical purposes, the number of
professionals serving individuals who are blind or visually
impaired as a whole is small (again compared to others areas
of study). Being small certainly has its advantages. For
example, you make really close positive connections with
colleagues both professionally as well as personally on a local
and statewide level. Your colleagues locally as well in other
areas of the state and country, often become part of your
extended family. Attending professional conferences is similar
to attending a really fun family reunion so to speak. From time-
to-time though, being small has its disadvantages. Without large
numbers of professionals, we sometimes are overlooked
legislatively because we don’t have the numbers needed to
make our voice heard by policy makers and others.
This is where you come in. You’ve already begun the process of
becoming a professional simply by electing to be a graduate
student in service to individuals who are blind and visually
impaired. I am very grateful that you chose this field as your
career path, and am excited about being your colleague soon.
But being a student is only the first step in this road to
professionalism. The next step is for you to become a student
member of your professional organization, the Association for
Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired
(AER) http://www.aerbvi.org. AER is THE ONLY membership
organization in the United States for professionals serving
individuals of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. Let me
say it again, AER is THE ONLY membership organization in the
United States for professionals serving individuals of all ages
who are blind or visually impaired. While CEC is a wonderful
membership organization in special education, and has a
division of visual impairment, it is not dedicated to the
professionals (you) serving individuals who are blind or visually
impaired.
So why should you care or even worry about being a member
of AER? Well, bottom line, the organization and the field in
general can’t survive without you. Honestly, no joke! You as an
individual matter in this low incidence field. It probably doesn’t
matter too much in larger fields of special education or
rehabilitation, but in this field your membership makes a huge
difference. But, being a member of a professional organization
such as AER is not just about receiving tokens or trinkets, it is
more about the subtle contribution you make to preserve the
integrity of the service you and other TVIs, O&M Specialists,
and Rehabilitation Teachers deliver. It is simply about protecting
your right to provide the best and most appropriate service you
can to the children and adults you’ll be serving. The
certifications of TVIs, O&M Specialists, and RTs exist because
of the lobbying efforts on the part of the leadership of AER, not
CEC, not any other organization. AER is your ONLY legislative
voice when debating service delivery issues in Washington, as
well as within individual states. Again, without you there is no
AER and without AER there’s no voice. It’s simple really. I
encourage you to visit AER’s website (www.aerbvi.og) to learn
more about your professional organization.
So we welcome you as future colleagues and encourage you to
join AER as students. The membership fee to join AER as a
student is significantly reduced ($55 for one year) and you gain
much by joining. The membership fee during the first year
(Transition Year) of teaching is slightly higher ($100) than the
student fee, but still reduced. You don’t pay full membership
until your second year teaching and that is only $130/per year).
Obviously, you get tokens and trinkets (i.e., ACVREP O&M
Study Guide, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness,
reduced rates for membership fees, etc.), but it’s the
contribution of your voice that really matters. If you care about
the opportunity to practice as a certified TVI, O&M Specialist,
and/or RT as well as the provision of that service in the future,
you’ll join AER now and continue to be an active member
throughout your career.
Now to the point. Every year, your state chapter of AER hosts
a professional conference that is extremely popular, known not
only within the state but nationally for it’s caliber of program
content. The conference is called the Penn-Del AER Spring
Vision Conference (SVC). This coming year’s conference, which
will be held at the Holiday Inn in Grantville, PA, is scheduled for
April 21-23, 2010. This conference promises to be as
successful as many of the conferences in the past.
Every year, each of the three universities in the Commonwealth
is allowed to identify six students who will serve as volunteers
during the conference. As a student volunteer you will receive
compensation from Penn-Del AER for your participation. The
compensation includes free registration, free accommodations,
and meals (which includes Thursday’s lunch and banquet). To
receive compensation though, you must be available for all days
of the conference and you must come as early as possible. The
conference begins at 1 p.m. on Wednesday so we’d like you to
be there by 10 a.m. that day to assist with the set-up of the
conference rooms and materials. It ends on Friday, around
noon but you must stay until everything is packed up, which is
typically no later than 1 p.m. Below is a list of some of the
duties of a student volunteer. Please consider volunteering. It is
a great way to network with other students and future
colleagues, as well as make contact with potential employers.
Besides, you get to participate and attend a wonderful
professional conference, with nationally recognized speakers,
dedicated to topics related to serving children and adults who
are blind or visually impaired.
This is a first-come, first-serve basis offer. I’m alerting you to
this opportunity now so for those of you working, you might be
able to make other work arrangements to attend. Contact me
ASAP (gjz@pitt.edu) should you want to volunteer. For those of
you have volunteered in the past, this offer is still good to you,
but let’s see who wants to be a first-timer before I commit to
repeaters. I will pull your name from the “reserve” list as we get
closer and I see what the newbie responses will be to this offer.
Penn-Del AER SVC Student Responsibilities:
- assist with set-up of conference rooms and materials (e.
g., stuffing conference folders prior to the beginning of the
conference)
- familiarity with set-up of equipment
- assist with distribution of equipment to rooms
- check to be sure correct equipment is available for each
speaker
- check room sign for time and session correctness
- distribute handouts (keep one copy for conference chair)
- check speaker is in room and her or his AV needs are
addressed
- make sure that there are sufficient ink pads and stamps
- stamp attendee conference form
- collect and tabulate individual session evaluation forms
- redd-up for the next session
- collect and tabulate overall conference evaluations
- assist with the tear-down of the conference (e.g., help
pack up all materials and load the vans/cars)
Sincerely,
Dr. George Zimmerman
University of Pittsburgh
gjz@pitt.edu
412.624.7247
Kutztown University
http://www.kutztown.edu/acad/coe/s
pced/visprog_ugrad.htm
Salus University
http://www.salus.edu/cer/index.html
University of Pittsburgh
http://www.education.pitt.edu/vision
studies/