examples of strange items in novels and textbooks

Hi out there to all you experienced braille transcribers. I'm developing a braille transcription course. As I was talking to a transcriber this morning about a "tricky" part of a novel I thought it might be a really good idea to have a resource file of excerpts from novels/handouts/excerpts from textbooks that might be a little tricky to transcribe into braille that makes sense to the reader. If you have something you can send me, please either email me the reference (what textbook the information comes from) and either send by email the pdf version of the page, if you don't work at RIDBC and want to contribute to the file. However, if you are a colleague or studying at Renwick please send hard-copy document in internal mail with a reference attached and also send me an email explaining the example and giving me the reference information so I can keep it for my own records, but also will have some real-life problems/examples to refer transcribers to as they will be learning how to transcribe a book into braille, so real-life examples would certainly help.

 

Any teachers are also welcome to contribute to my resource folder. The more we learn together the more students will be able to participate in school activities on a more equal footing with their sighted piers.

 

Happy brailling!

Nicola

finding a mentor

Hi again everyone,

 

Today in block class I learned a lot about mentoring and networking. One of the things that people seem to think is so hard about braille is that they think they have to learn it all themselves and that only their teacher can answer their quesitons. This isn't really so. When I thought about the students studying braille this semester and the students I've had study braille in the past I reealised I had a great opportunity to be able to help people to support each other.

 

If you'd like to contact someone who's already completed the Braille For Educators course, please see me and I'll be happy to put you in touch with someone who's completed the course and that uses braille in a similar way to the way you will be using it. For example, I know a lot of braille transcribers, one teachers' aid who's completed the UEB course and a good few teachers who've now be certified in UEB.

 

If you would like more information on mentoring or contact details of someone you might like to have as a mentor, please email me at my work email address:

nicola.stowe@ridbc.org.au

 

Happy brailling!

Nicola

tailoring the course to your needs

Hi all,

 

Today I've spent at UTS doing a block class. I've got lots of ideas/thoughts, so you'll probably see two posts close together from me.

 

Firstly, thank you to those of you in this course who have submitted work. I hope to finish marking your work early next week, so you'll have plenty of time to make any necessary corrections and to re-do those braille exercises that need resubmitting.

 

For those of you who feel you're already a long way behind and that you'll "never catch up". Maybe at this time braille for Educators is not for you. However, if this is the case please see me and together we might be able to arrange something to better suit your immediate needs. (For example, if you are a braille transcriber it is good to know the mechanics of braille, however, within a few short lessons I can show you how to transcribe a simple novel in braille using the Duxbury Braille translator.) This will not get you your braille certificate, but could greatly benefit braille-using students in schools. You might need some help to correctly label the cover of the book, because you won't necessarily know how to use the Perkins or other types of braille writers, but you could produce the bulk of a braille book and this would be greatly appreciated. It won't take much more, once you know the basics of Duxbury to produce a whole braille textbook.

 

I started teaching braille because I truly wanted people to "love braille rather than hate it", so maybe there's a different way for you to be able to love it too.

 

Happy Brailling!

Nicola

answers to lesson 4

By now you should be familiar with the alphabet and getting used to using wordsigns. The document I sent by email contains a braille passage for you to transcribe into print. Here is what you should have written.

 

I like to go to a play, so does Claire. I sit close to up front to see all that goes on. I do not want to miss any important, visual clues. I like to go to plays, but I love to come home too. At home I have a table by a wall. A table fits by it well. I will come home from a play, eat fruit, my dog will sit by me as a companion.