A Step Forward

Feeling burnt out is felt by almost everyone in this day and age. But the thing about feeling burnt out is that you may or may not even realise it. As teachers you may feel that your learners are not making any progress or that you can’t separate your personal life and your work life. In this week’s episode, I will be sharing all about how I felt burned out and how I eventually overcame that feeli...

Balance is always important in everything that we do. It is always a hot topic when it comes to balancing personal life and work life as it helps fuel our creativity. In this week’s episode, we have Joan Brobeck as a guest who’s going to be sharing how she uses her clarity membership to help her learners to get to their full potential while making sure that she could balance both her work and pers...

It's the 100th episode my friends! And with summer also coming along, in this week's episode, I will be sharing 5 things that you can prepare for you to teach O&M in the summer heat. I will also be sharing a few tips that you can take note of to be able to manage your time well and be the best teacher you can be for your students. Hop on into the podcast now! Links: Allied Independence, Websit...

There are always pitfalls and drawbacks when it comes to starting a new thing. Starting a contracting business definitely has its pitfalls and drawbacks as well. In today’s episode, we will be diving into 5 pitfalls of contracting. But don’t you worry friend, I will also be sharing some tips that will hopefully help you survive and get better at what you are doing and not make the same mistakes th...

Hello hello friends! Can you feel Summer coming? Because I definitely feel Summer coming! I’m so excited to bring you this week’s episode where it’s all about parties! In this episode, I will be sharing with you the power of creating units in our ECC classes, with parties in mind. We’ll be going through a few party theme ideas and how you can plan the parts by breaking down into what you can do pe...

Are you thinking of starting your own contracting business but you’re not sure where to start? Maybe you’re thinking that you should’ve known A, B, or C before you get started or that you would want to know everything before you do get started. Don’t worry my friends, I’ve got you covered on this. In this week’s podcast, I will be sharing from my point of view, what you need to know and prepare to...

It's a different kind of experience to travel with your head up at all times to take in all the information of the environment around you. With soundscape, you can do exactly that. This week's episode is a conversation with Jarnail Chudge and Amos Miller, who are both developers working on Microsoft Soundscape. Tune in now to find out how you can use Soundscape to experience a 3D spatial audio, cr...

Are you having a bad day? A bad month? Or even just a bad moment? This episode is here to remind you that everyone goes through the same thing and that everything will be just fine. I will be sharing all about the growth and its inconvenience in this week’s episode and it will be a very raw, real, and vulnerable one. I hope this podcast could help you be kinder to yourself and give yourself some g...

Working with anyone has it’s challenges, especially working with the people who care for and possibly gave birth to your learner. Do you love it? Do you hate it? One thing for sure, they are not the enemy. In today’s episode we are going to discuss all about working with parents. I will be sharing about the benefits of working with parents, for both the parents and students, as well as for us O&am...

Teaching learners with autism spectrum disorder can be quite tricky for both new and even experienced O&M specialists. There are a lot of key things that we should always keep in mind. There are also a few things that we should know to do differently. In this week’s episode, I’m so excited to be sharing all about teaching strategies for your learners with autism spectrum disorder and visual im...

Evaluation tends to be the less prioritized thing that we do when we are in our day to day activities. However, that should actually be one of our priorities because it acts as the foundation, the guiding force, the exact map that drives all of our lessons today. Many evaluations ended up being very subjective and incomplete. In this week’s episode, I will be sharing ways on how you can make your...

With all the different kinds of technologies around us, our phones now play such a huge part in our day to day life. Keeping a few apps that can help us in terms of our work and personal life can really change how we do things. I’m excited to bring you this episode where I will share with you 5 apps that changed my work and personal life. I’m obsessed with these apps and have been using them every...

Being an advocate for someone is not an easy thing to do. We’re often so affected by our fears that we tend to also degrade ourselves in the process. But all that is normal. It’s normal to feel fear, it’s normal to feel anxiety, it’s totally normal to feel all those feelings. In today’s episode, I will be talking all about becoming a better advocate. I will be sharing why it’s normal to feel those...

Can you believe it’s March already? It’s the beginning of springtime! This is the time of the year where we are getting back outside, away from the indoors that kept us during the winter. With the arrival of Spring, I have some cool themed-lesson plan ideas that you can take away from this episode to help keep your learners engaged and motivated to learn. There are a lot of national days coming up...

Hey friends, I’m sure we all wanted to see our learners grow to their full potential. But I’m sure there are also times where you feel like your learners are not making the progress they deserve to be making. What could possibly be the reason for that? Is it because of your teaching? Or does the problem lie within your learners? In this week’s episode, let me share with you a few possible reasons...

It’s always great to feel all motivated and inspired right after a conference. Sometimes that feeling lasts for a few days, sometimes a week, sometimes it only lasts for a while. How do we maintain that momentum and implement it in our teaching? In this week’s podcast episode, I’m going to share a few ideas on how you can keep that momentum after a conference and have you feeling great all year lo...

We all know how tough it was, transitioning from being a teen to an adult where you have more responsibilities in life and are expected to be independent as an individual. In today’s episode, I’m so excited to be bringing back Dr. Nicholas Casias and introduce you guys to Hangameh Aubuchon where we will be talking all about the pilot program on transitioning to adult life. You will get to hear all...

Do you know that one in three individuals who has a visual impairment is over the age of 65? And yet they often receive the least amount of funding services for that population. Having said that, there’s also always something that we can do about it. I’m so excited to be bringing back Anna Peskin in our podcast. She has been working on new things since the last time we spoke to her. Today, you wil...

Hey friends, this week's episode is a little bit special and it will only be aired for a limited time only. We got 4 guests sharing all they know about cane skills and mobility skills. This is a replay of the webinar that happened recently. So for those of you who missed the webinar, this is your chance to find out what it was all about. Let's hop on to the show! Links: Allied Independence, Websit...

Looking past the pandemic, how else can we make things easier for ourselves while constantly increasing the independence of our learners? What if we can put our emotions aside and look at things from a scientific perspective, as heart-centered professionals? Would it be more successful? Telehealth and O&M has been an ongoing topic recently and while some people love it, some people have no car...

It’s January 2022, my friends! This is going to be our year. We all know that during this time of the year, most of us would create a list of resolutions or goals that we wanted to achieve throughout the rest of the year. In this year’s first podcast episode, I would like to share with you 3 things that you must do in the beginning of the year for you to take steps forward to become a successful t...

We are an interdependent species. We often say we want to be “independent”, but we can’t do things without other people. In this podcast episode, we will be talking all about soliciting assistance, where we can allow our students to learn the power of both self-determination, Independent living skills, and social skills all in one. I will be sharing with you a few lesson plan ideas that you can ta...

Intercultural communication, creation, and innovation is always something that we strive to achieve, especially as teachers, in order for us to successfully reach our students. Being able to do just that, we will be able to adapt our teaching into their perspectives, allowing them to excel faster. I’m so excited to be bringing Genein Letford, who is an award-winning educator, best-selling author,...

I can’t be the only one to think that 2021 is actually crazier than 2020. So much has happened in 2021 and most of us are just trying to get through it, trying to avoid burning out. I’ve also started to realize that COVID may not actually be a good thing that is happening to us but I’m still going to stick with my positivity; just with a bit more of a realistic view. On that note, in this week’s e...

Organisational skills and being able to plan and manage your time properly is super important in order to avoid feeling burnt out. If you’re able to keep things organised, you’ll be able to also set aside time needed for you to rest. I’m sure during your first year of teaching, that was one of the struggles that you’ve experienced. Well fret not because in this week’s episode we have Kristen Sharp...