Teacher of Tomorrow Program
To truly become an effective teacher of blind students, you need exposure to many blind people from all walks of life. Exposure to blind children, interactions with successful blind adults, and contact with families of blind children will help you gain a deep understanding of the social and emotional factors that will impact the education of many of the students with whom you will work. Further, this exposure to blind people will help you answer many of the questions that you may have about how blind people succeed in school, how they contribute to their communities, how they obtain employment, how they raise families, and many other questions. Although you will work with blind children during their school years, having an outlook towards the future is crucial. As a teacher of blind students, you will not only prepare your students for success in school, but you will also help shape the attitudes and behaviors that they will need to overcome the social and emotional factors that they will encounter in the world as a result of their blindness. To provide you this first-hand experience with blind people, the National Federation of the Blind has created the Teacher of Tomorrow Program. Founded in 1940, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and oldest organization of blind people in the United States; therefore, it is well-positioned to facilitate a rich and authentic experience that will help you become closely acquainted with the true experiences of blind people. The organization was formed to improve the quality of life for all blind people, and it can serve as a highly valuable resource throughout your teacher training.
The NFB Teacher of Tomorrow Program will:
- Pair you with a current teacher of blind students to provide you mentoring and support during your teacher training.
- Connect you with a blind adult or parent of a blind child to help answer some of your blindness-related questions, and to see how what you are learning in your courses relates to the real-world experiences of blind people.
- Offer you a blindness skills tutor that can help you further your skills in the areas of Braille, orientation and mobility, access technology, and daily living skills.
- Give you a chance to try out your emerging teaching skills by offering you opportunities to work with blind students.
- Help you attend the largest gathering of blind people in the world—the NFB national convention.
- Give you an opportunity to attend Washington Seminar, an annual gathering in Washington, D.C., where blind people and other interested individuals educate members of Congress on key national issues to the blind community.
- Help you access a wealth of blindness-related literature that reflects the authentic experiences of blind children, teachers of blind students, parents of blind children, and blind adults.
- Notify you of scholarship opportunities.
- Invite you to participate in weekend education workshops at the NFB headquarters, in Baltimore, Maryland.