Special Education Today

I wanted to talk in a little more detail about how this is going for my student and I. I sent a box of materials via Canada Post on Wed. of last week, and expected that they would reach their community by Tue. or Wed. of this week. I was delighted and surprised (if you have any experience with Canada Post you know why) when I received an email from the student's mother, L, saying they had the box on Friday! We went over the contents in the box together using Ichat, and then we planned a start time for Monday. In the meantime, I set up our Macbook on a table about six feet from the magnetic white board, and was pleased that the camera picked up the whole space I was going to be working in, and that the lighting was good (right by a sliding glass door). L set her computer up about the same distance from their whiteboard, and set the materials out.
The first day, as I expected, took a little longer than usual to do, because L had to sort through things she was not familiar with, to be able to move with me through each part of the lesson. The shape of the lesson hung together really well though, and the internet connection was good. It worried me that there might be a lag between me making a sound, and the sound actually coming from my mouth- which would be a disaster in a phonemic awareness program! That didn't happen. My student, E, could hear and see me in realtime, and I her. My biggest problem was a ringing feedback from my computer, even with speakers. I tried various things later that night, and came up with a headset and microphone on my end worked really well.
Yesterday, we moved faster as things became more familiar for everyone, and the feedback problem was corrected. E is a very attentive student and I am confident now that she will be able to get the same results as my students "in person" do.
In my clinic, we do lots of work at the whiteboard. I get kids to do a quick sound check, several times in the lesson. I point to various cards with letter/groups that represent phonemes, and the students say the sound, and then I say various phonemes and the students point to their corresponding letters. So, when it came time for E to point to the cards as I said the sound, she then turned and worked from her own whiteboard. Her mother was making sure they had the same phoneme cards and in the same position as mine on their board. I asked her to look at my mouth when I said the sounds, until I was sure that the sound set up was good, and that she could hear what sounds I was making. She continues to look at my mouth when I say some sounds that are hard to distinguish without visual cues: f and the voiceless th, for example.
Yesterday we spent the full 2 hours together (over several hundred kilomoetres!)
I can't wait for today's lesson!

Well, I had my first ever reading lesson over the internet today and it was great!
I have some feedback issues to try to fix, but other than that it worked really well.
I sent a box of duplicate materials to my student ahead of time, and her mother sat with her and acted as my hands on the other side of the camera- but for the most part I could do everything I normally do with "in person" students. I was excited to learn that I could even conduct a phonemic awareness test this way!
I am hoping I can deliver this instruction to people in remote places one day- some of our Northern communities have trouble finding services. It was a great day- and I can't wait to do lesson two tomorrow!