Summer 2015

Who?

The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NMSBVI) will again be running a series of summer camps around the state for academic students with visual impairments. Eligible students will have a diagnosed (educational) visual impairment, be enrolled in a participating New Mexican school district during the 2014-15 school year, be a minimum of 6 years of age, be capable of managing their behaviors while at the camp, and not require medications during the hours of the camp with the exception of the Alamogordo camp. (We will have a nurse during the day for the Alamogordo camp.)

What?

During the summer of 2014 NMSBVI ran a series of four day long camps in Gallup, Farmington, Santa Fe, Clovis, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque. NMSBVI collaborated with local districts and Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVIs) and Orientation & Mobility Specialists (O&Ms) to secure a site in the local community, identify students and address VI specific skills that can be challenging to teach during the school year. NMSBVI will again collaborate with local districts, TVIs and O&Ms this summer to help meet the needs of New Mexican students with visual impairments.

When?

Plans are being made with local districts to set up camps this summer. The schedule is still taking shape. Local TVIs and O&Ms will have the latest information as to the weeks that NMSBVI will be in various districts. The camps, regardless of where in the state they are, will run Mondays-Thursdays. The daily hours vary from district to district. Several districts make use of the same facility – generally a school building – as their Extended School Year (ESY) program which determines both the week of the camp and the daily hours for the camp. The Alamogordo camp will be the only one that students stay at overnight.

Where?

NMSBVI has tentative sites for 2015 in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Gallup and Farmington. An additional camp is being arranged for students in the Las Cruces/Gadsden area, possibly on the Alamogordo NMSBVI campus. NMSBVI hopes to schedule an additional camp at another location in the state.

Why?

Students with visual impairments need to master all of the standard core curriculum concepts as their peers but also have to master an extensive set of skills that comprise what is commonly referred to as the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). Many students with visual impairments require adaptations and VI specific skills to fully benefit from standard classes such as math and science. NMSBVI’s summer camps place an emphasis on math and science – two of the most difficult to modify academic classes – and VI specific technology which enables students to better access all of the standard academic classes. NMSBVI also provides instruction in ECC areas such as Independent Living Skills (ILS), O&M and braille. The camps supplement instruction that students with visual impairments receive from TVIs and O&Ms during the school year. Due to the competing demands of academic and VI specific skills it can be difficult for a TVI or O&M to fit it all in during the school year. The NMSBVI summer camps can help.

As an added bonus:

NMSBVI is in the planning stages of a fun and exciting trip to the beach -- tentatively scheduled for July 17th-20th. To be eligible for the trip, students must:

·  Successfully participate in one of the camps that NMSBVI will hold around the state

·  Have the maturity necessary to be away from home for four days

·  Be able to manage their behaviors while away from home for four days

·  Be cleared to attend by NMSBVI’s Health Services

·  Have transportation to and from the trip departure point, most likely the NMSBVI Preschool for the Blind in Albuquerque, if the student doesn’t attend the weeklong camp in Alamogordo.

For more information:
Ron Later,
NMSBVI Summer Program Coordinator
rlater@nmsbvi.k12.nm.us
800-437-3505 #4478

Summer Programs Brochure For Parents 2015- (PDF)


Short Term Programs