WQED Weekly
Ceinwen King-Smith - A Blind Teacher at Hillel Academy
Clip | 4m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment features an interview with Ceinwen King-Smith, a blind teacher at Hillel Academy.
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with Ceinwen King-Smith, a blind teacher at Hillel Academy. Ceinwen talks about her difficulty getting a job, and how she manages her classroom. One of her fellow teachers talks about her work ethic and her position as a role model for the students.
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WQED Weekly is a local public television program presented by WQED
WQED Weekly
Ceinwen King-Smith - A Blind Teacher at Hillel Academy
Clip | 4m 35sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with Ceinwen King-Smith, a blind teacher at Hillel Academy. Ceinwen talks about her difficulty getting a job, and how she manages her classroom. One of her fellow teachers talks about her work ethic and her position as a role model for the students.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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y should be 3/8 right?
So four minus.
Okay.
Four times two.
That makes minus eight plus 16.
All right.
And what do you end up with there.
Right.
Y is equal to three.
They are bound and determined that a blind person will not teach in the city of Pittsburgh.
They are afraid that bad things will happen in class.
They're afraid of suits for things that would go on in class.
They are, I think, a little bit afraid of having the entire school for the blind, which is right down the street from the board, deluged them with applications.
They're afraid the people who are less qualified than I will want to teach.
And, that they will then have to give them jobs.
If they give me one.
16 minus 16 to 16 is four y. Right?
16 is four y, so y is four four.
So when x is four, y is also four.
Agreed?
I'm glad I've got Hillel.
They were desperate and so was I. I figured that any school that needed a teacher the week before school started might be desperate enough to hire a blind teacher, and it worked.
I found all the schools in the Yellow Pages, and Hillel needed a calculus teacher.
This was last year.
So I came for the interview.
Of course, without having mentioned my blindness.
Shocked the Rabbi something awful.
But he did give me the job because he had nobody else, and he asked if I would teach on a trial basis.
And I said yes.
And how long?
And he said two weeks.
He said three weeks.
And after two weeks he called me in and gave me four more classes.
And then shortly after that he gave me two more.
So I guess he figured I could teach.
Seven.
Is that seven?
Yeah, seven.
It is Monday.
I can't count it.
Okay.
And when x is minus two, Y is also 7.
Is this beginning to look at all familiar?
Yeah.
- I would consider the results to be very very positive, not only from the standpoint that she's a good educator and a fine teacher, very devoted, dedicated teacher.
But the fact that many of our students who felt that they had problems, that were keeping them from being effective in their studies, realized that, gee, if Mrs.
King-Smith could overcome a problem of this magnitude, then I can certainly do it.
So it's been, I would say, very, very motivating for a number of our students who themselves have felt inadequate in many areas.
And this should look like one of our friendly parabolas with one problem.
That is, it's not very nicely centered.
Well, blindness is a handicap, I suppose, but it doesn't need to be a disabling one.
And there are certain things I can't do.
For example, I don't write on the blackboard.
But I have somebody else do that so that there's a way of compensating for that problem.
You see, its vertex is at two three and it goes on from there.
You see, if I could move my origin over two and up three, well, I would have a much nicer equation.
They assume that Well, Mrs.
King-Smith is blind, so therefore will be able to chew gum or eat potato chips in the back of the room, maybe, or even pass notes.
Well, of course they're in for a rude awakening.
Mrs.
King- Smith is very acutely aware of what's happening in the classroom.
Her hearing is attuned to what she has an extra sensitivity.
I can't really explain what it is.
She's intercepted more notes than any other teacher here.
I would like to say that I never have any problems in class, but I do have people that pass notes and things like that, and it does happen.
I just try to deal with it as it comes.
I mean, my main purpose here is to try to teach and as a whole, judging from the way students grades have improved and from their questions in class and some class participation comments, they are learning, which is the main thing I'm worried about.
All right.
And you would know that these other points would automatically fall right?
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