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From the TSBVI Archive to the Media Minute

Spanish Version Available

Authors: Suzanne Becker, TSBVI Digital Archivist

Keywords: Media Minute, Archive, Braille Challenge, gardening, animal care, yoga, fitness

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Abstract: Learn about the Media Minute, a new campus resource on the TSBVI website which uses current and historical media to create posts that highlight programming in various TSBVI departments - Comprehensive (Instructional and Residential), Short-Term, Outreach, and Curriculum.

Amazing instruction happens daily across every department at TSBVI. Staff members regularly collaborate to create meaningful learning experiences. For example:

  • Students in Comprehensive Programs Residential Venture Club clear plots outside their dorm in the Fall and then build planters to house Spring gardens. 
  • Job Coaches in Career Education establish a long-term relationship with the Austin Humane Society where students in Comprehensive and Short Term Programs volunteer to socialize and care for animals.
  • The Recreation department coordinates weekly tandem bike rides with community volunteers on an 8-mile journey through residential neighborhoods around Austin.
  • Students learn yoga routines from a TSBVI Curriculum publication and an Outreach webinar series that they can then take home to do with family or into an adult life setting.

Often the documentation of these rich experiences remain isolated in TSBVI yearbooks, in PowerPoints presented to a student’s team in their district, in reports prepared for the legislature, or in an email exchange between staff.  As the TSBVI Archivist it is my responsibility to collect the media and stories associated with them, catalog them, and make them available so they can encourage learning and awareness about the field of visual impairment and be shared again and again! During the 2021-2022 school year I created monthly posts called the “Media Minute” about TSBVI programming that provided in depth information about campus activities, galleries of images, accessible video examples, and links to related TSBVI projects like webinars, Coffee Hours, or Curriculum publications. I shared these posts internally on campus. After creating the posts over two school years the Media Minute now has a public home on the TSBVI website. The posts can be found under Campus Resources > Media Minute or search “Media Minute.” 

The Media Minute incorporates media about TSBVI from recent and historical times. The latest post is about our involvement in the Braille Challenge, a feature I created prior to the February Central Texas Regional event. Braille Challenge Regional competitions take place from January through March throughout Texas and across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom so with the Braille Challenge Media Minute my hope is to shed light on this event and celebrate the participating students and their network of supporters. Other Media Minute posts focus on gardening and horticulture, animal care, fitness,and yoga. The overall goal of the Media Minute is to preserve and tell TSBVI stories and deepen learning and awareness of the amazing community of students we serve who are blind, visually impaired, or deafblind.

Please continue to check the TSBVI website frequently for new Media Minute posts, which will also be announced on TSBVI Facebook and Instagram. Who knows, you may just show up in one!

TSBVI Gardening and Horticulture Gallery

  • Adolescents and adults work together to clear a garden plot outside.
    Students in the Venture Crew and Residential Instructors pull weeds to create a garden plot outside the dorm.
  • Three adolescents stand in front of a table with plants for sale. A sign reads
    Plant Sale 2016: Students happy to sell the plants they grew during Career Education.
  • Two students and two adults wear aprons and stand around an island in a commercial kitchen overflowing with fresh greens.
    Students in Career Education along with staff dry a bounty of fresh greens they grew in the kitchen of the Bistro on campus.
  • A ranger with a shovel addresses a large group in a bare field with burnt tree stumps. All wear hard hats.
    MLK Day of Service 2015: TSBVI students and staff listen to a ranger before planting trees after a forest fire in Bastrop, TX.
  • An elementary student and adult explore plants growing out of planter that grows plants in a four square foot vertical space.
    Clipping flowers growing in the Farmstand from Lettuce Grow during Short Term Programs.

TSBVI Animal Care Gallery

  • An adolescent lowers a piece of lettuce into a cage with three guinea pigs.
    A student in Short Term Programs WALIC feeds lettuce to guinea pigs Hocus, Pocus, and Boo.
  • An adolescent walks a large dog in a big field.
    A student in the EXIT Program serving as a volunteer at the Austin Humane Society takes a large dog out for a walk.
  • An adolescent holds a stick with a stuffed animal attached in front of a dog wearing a cone in a large indoor space.
    A student in the EXIT Program serving as a volunteer at the Austin Humane Society trains a dog.
  • An adolescent gives a bottle with milk to a baby goat being held by an adult in a barn.
    A student in the EXIT Program feeds a baby goat during a visit to Safe in Austin, a rescue ranch for animals that have been abused or have special needs.
  • Two elementary students pet a lamb on a farm.
    Two elementary students pet a lamb on a field trip to Sweet Eats Adventure Farm.

TSBVI Fitness Gallery

  • A group of adults and adolescents on tandem and standard bikes ride through a residential street.
    Students, staff, and community members of Social Cycling Austin on the "Lend Your Legs" 8-mile ride through residential neighborhoods
  • An adolescent using a walker runs on a track with an adult running beside him.
    A student races on the track while his Coach shadows him during SCASB 2023 in Austin.
  • Two cheer coaches train students in cheerleading moves while other teams practice in the TSBVI Big Gym.
    The TSBVI Cheer Team practices during the 2020 SCASB competition.
  • Two adolescents with white canes sit in a gondola as it climbs up a snowy mountain on a clear day.
    Students smile riding the gondola to the top of the mountain during the ski trip to Arapahoe Basin Colorado.
  • A group of adolescents wearing matching shirts that say
    TSBVI students and students from the Girls' School of Austin at the start line of the 2018 Duo Dash 1K race.
  • Eight adolescents kick up their knees while standing in place in a weight room.
    Students in SBOE for credit stretch as a group in the weight room.

TSBVI Yoga Gallery

  • Two adults and three students stand on yoga mats on an auditorium stage and balance in tree pose holding onto each other's shoulders in a circle during a yoga routine.
    Instructors Linda Hagood and Valerie Alvarez engage in a yoga routine with students on the old auditorium stage and balance in a tree pose holding each other's shoulders for support.
  • An adolescent sitting on a yoga mat reads a strip with 9 tactile symbols.
    A student reads the yoga sequences on a tactile symbol strip.
  • Nine adolescents lie on their bellies on mats in a gym shooting their arms and legs off the mat in varying heights. The mats are arranged in a circle around an adult who demonstrates the pose.
    STP staff member, Phoebe, leads the Junior Access to Academic Skills class in striking the "superman" pose on their bellies during yoga.
  • A student kneels on a yoga mat and reaches over to touch the head of her peer who lies on her belly on the yoga mat in a carpeted room.
    During yoga on the dorm a student touches a peer tenderly on the head.
  • An adolescent sits on his knees on a yoga mat and takes a deep breath while feeling his belly.
    A student practices deep breathing during yoga in the gym in the STP Elementary Access to Academics class.

TSBVI Braille Challenge Gallery

  • Six adolescents wearing matching gray Braille Challenge 2014 shirts stand in a group.
    The Varsity group poses at the Central Texas Regional Braille Challenge in 2014.
  • A group of adolescents seated at large tables use Perkins Braillers while an adult speaks to them in a microphone.
    Students compete in the 2020 Central Texas Braille Challenge Regionals.
  • An adult sits at a table in a library presenting on
    During the 2022 Central Texas Braille Challenge Regionals, Bill McCann from Dancing Dots presented to families on the benefits of the braille music code and demonstrated music braille production.
  • An adolescent smiles while holding a trophy.
    A student smiles holding the Harley Fetterman Award for Excellence in Charts and Graphs received at the 2020 Central Texas Regional Braille Challenge.
  • An adolescent wearing earbuds checks Braille he wrote on a Perkins Brailler.
    A student competes in the 2023 Central Texas Braille Challenge Regionals.
  • A student pours cream into a cauldron under the guidance of an adult while peers watch.
    A student does a STEM activity under the guidance of a volunteer from the University of Texas while peers watch during the 2020 Central Texas Braille Challenge Regionals.
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