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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
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current certification regulations, but they also had to plan for the possibility of
future state certification in this area. Through a collaborative effort between
both the member district's program leadership for auditory and visual
impairments and its human resources department along with the Region 4
Education Service Center, a worthy job position description was written.
Once the district found the right candidate, a powerful guiding coalition
was formed: the Region 4 RDSPD Sensory Team. The team consisted of the
itinerant teacher of students with deafblindness (whose certification was as a
teacher of students with visual impairments), a teacher of the deaf, and a
certified orientation and mobility specialist. While the journey of transforming
educational opportunities for students with deafblindness began with
overconfidence because it "provided the courage to begin," as Dan Rockwell
says, "leadership is sustained by confidence in others" (Rockwell, 2016). The
team needed to feel confident to do the work they needed to do. To build
such confidence, the team received ongoing assistance from various
education specialists from Region 4 Education Service Center. Team
members were provided the opportunity to participate in the Texas Teacher of
the Deafblind (ToDB) Pilot Project, a 2-year grant-funded venture in which the
team would have the chance to collaborate with and learn from Deafblind
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