Szeto,+Stacy+Deaf+Students

__1. Personal Introduction__
Hi, my name is Stacy Szeto. That's me and my dad in the picture above. I grew up in Roseville, California, which is a suburb of Sacramento. I have officially gone from a city to a country person. I am also making my being an Oregonian official by changing my California plates to the tree this month. __Explain your education and career goals.__ I graduated high school in California. I graduated from Southern Oregon University with a business administration degree and a focus in management. I minored in mathematics education and then pursued to enter the Masters in Arts of Teaching program at SOU. I will be teaching both business and math in the middle or high school level. My career goals would simply be to be the best teacher I can. As a teacher, I want to change the minds of any student who thinks that they are a failure. I want all students to have an opportunity to succeed because frankly, so many do not and shut themselves down. I also would like to be a soccer coach, most likely as part of the high school, but perhaps outside as part of a club as well. I am currently a JV coach, so I'm on the right path. __What brings you joy?__ I competed in horse riding shows and also played soccer, which is what attracted me to Southern Oregon. I came here to play soccer and played all four years of eligibility and am now coaching the junior varsity team at Eagle Point High School. At first I hated it in Southern Oregon, but I have really become to love it here. One of my favorite things to do is fish on our boat when it is warm outside and just relax with my boyfriend and our two dogs. I enjoy being outdoors and camping, fishing, hiking, shooting, etc. __What is your greatest fear about being a teacher?__ I fear that I will fail a student; that I will do everything that I possibly can, and yet the student will still be unable to understand a concept. __Did you ever experience a time when something was extremely difficult to learn? Explain that time and how it made you feel?__ It was my business capstone, and while I knew all of the information that I was going to put into my capstone, the whole project was entirely overwhelming. I had roughly 70 pages of my own typed writing and for some reason, I could not figure out how to do the correct format to save my life. I was stressed, I cried, I screamed, and with all of this plus a condition that I have, it all made me hyperventilate. I hated that time period and was and am still glad that it is over. __How might this piece of history help you connect to students with learning differences?__ This helps me connect to students with learning differences, because that one piece of history that I encountered with difficulty, is something that they encounter every single day. I can't exactly relate, but I definitely can connect and help them to the best of my ability so that they are not stressed, or want to scream or cry everyday. I know the trouble they must go through to learn, but comparing my one piece of history to their daily environment, I know that difficulty and I will do everything I can so that they can learn. __What do you want to gain from this course?__ I want to know how to help those students who struggle everyday. I want to know what it feels like to be in their shoes, because honestly, I know little. I also want to know the laws; what rights these students have and how I can ensure that these rights are followed.



__2. Deaf Introduction__
I chose the disability deaf because it is something that is familiar to me, yet is also something that I know very little about. I have distance family that are deaf, but I still do not know much about it. To be honest, I knew very little about a lot of disabilities when we first chose our topics, so any one of them could have done the job of giving me the opportunity to learn, but I am especially glad that I chose this one.

__3. Top 5 Things I learned__
(Not in any particular order)
 * 1) I learned that there are all sorts of technology out there that can assist students who are deaf and more technology is being created. There is also some controversy with some technology, such as the cochlear implant, which is a device that allows some people to hear. People debate as to whether it is a threat to the deaf culture.
 * 2) I also learned that as of Fall 2008, there were 78,000 students who were deaf, which qualifies for 1% of the total students under IDEA. Roughly 53% of those students are in a general education classroom over 80% of the time, which means that we can easily have a student who is deaf in our classroom and should know the accommodations that can really help the student that may not be listed in their IEP.
 * 3) I learned what some of the capabilities are of students who are deaf. Of course it ranges from student to student, but there are some students who can talk, but can’t hear. There are also students who can read lips really well. It is important to work with the advantages of the student. For example, if a student communicates by reading lips, than you probably do not want to talk really fast or stand behind them in any lectures.
 * 4) I learned that often students who are deaf, do not have much of a social life at school because when their peers are speaking, they do not know what they are saying and feel left out. In my opinion, it is very significant to ensure that the student feels included in the classroom, not simply academically, but socially as well. Things such as pairing the student with a partner or having them teach the class sign language related to the vocabulary that the class is already learning can really help bring everyone together and learn new information.
 * 5) I learned that there is an entire deaf culture that is not only in America, but is also an international culture. Some people who are deaf really embrace what they have, and do not consider it to be a disability one bit. I think that this is so cool. People throughout the world in big cities and small towns meet annually to be with people who have their same uniqueness. There were approximately 25,000 people from 73 countries that met in 2010 for the Deaf Nation expo. For a lot of people who hear, thinking of being deaf can be really depressing. However, for some people who are deaf and live with it daily, it is a celebration and a reason to embrace who they are.

__4. Top Resource__
__[]__Teaching_Strategies.pdf

My favorite resource is actually a British article, but it is very informative. It is a long article, but the information is blunt and can really help with a student who is deaf in your classroom. I can learn a lot about the disability, but what is important to me is the application of the information into the classroom environment. I want to know how I can best teach and communicate with this student so that their current and also future academic life is easier, and not a complete challenge every single day. I want to know how I can teach this student to learn to help self-advocate for themselves so that they can apply these strategies into a college, work, vocational environment, etc. This article gives some good strategies and that is why I really liked it.

__5. Eight Additional Resources__
1. http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-im-deaf/1590956/playlist.jhtml Stars: 5 out of 5. I know this is a MTV resource and is pretty long (appx. 43 minutes), however I think that it gives good detail as to what life is like for some people being deaf. It gives a depiction of a student in high school, who sometimes feels socially outcasted because he can’t hear people talk and also a college student who can somewhat hear, but still needs special needs to communicate. For someone like me, who knows little about people who are deaf, it gives me a good idea as to the challenges that they encounter in every day life.

2. http://www.hearinglossweb.com/tech/tech.htm Stars: 4.5 out of 5. I liked this website because it lists the technology that assists people who are deaf, followed by an easy to read description. It gives all sorts of information, that I would have never known existed or helped like a two-way pager, which I thought had dropped in the 1990’s. However, with a modern twist, it can really help people who are deaf and even demonstrates its use through a true story, once you click on that particular link. It is a helpful website to learn what is out there. I gave it 4.5 because the only downfall is that it doesn’t list the most latest technology that is being tested, when I was doing research such as the glove that will follow your sign language and text what you are saying through your hands.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puK8PtsL1DU media type="youtube" key="puK8PtsL1DU" width="405" height="336" align="center"

Stars: 5 out of 5. This is my inspirational video. It’s about a 27 year old who has made a big difference in the music industry. He can’t hear music, but he can feel the beat and knows every syllable to every word. He makes his own music, and also has made a huge difference for people who are deaf to be able to understand the latest music by translating popular artists’ music videos into ASL. He has taken music videos like Eminiem’s, “Lose Yourself” and has translated it into sign language for people who are deaf to understand. His producer argues that videos are translated to all sorts of languages like German, French, etc. so why hasn’t ASL happened yet? This is very true, and thankfully, this young person has.

4. http://www.deaf-culture-online.com/deafculture.html Stars: 5 out of 5. This is a great website about the culture of deaf people. The author has great writing and gives distinction to the differences between deaf culture and pathology. To me it was great insight and he is not opposed to anyone who wants to hear. I only read about deaf culture, but this is a great site to just explore all sorts of different links as well.

5. http://deafnation.com/joelbarish/ Stars: 4 out of 5. The idea that Joel has is great. Being a new learner to people who are deaf, I only thought of one thing - Americans who are deaf. But what about the rest of the world? This man travels the world and explores the life and cultures of people who are deaf. I found this so intriguing. It ranges from people in popular cities to people in remote tribes living life with no sound. Joel is deaf himself and explores what it is like in other cultures. I gave this a score of four, only because you have to explore a little bit, but other than that, the videos are great.

6. http://www.uclan.ac.uk/schools/education_social_sciences/files/Teaching_Strategies.pdf Stars: 5 out of 5. This is a lengthy article but it is great advice for effectively teaching students who are deaf. It details teaching strategies, good communication, ways to assess tests and work, etc. This article even illustrates how to sign basic sign language. This is a great article to read for any teacher with interaction with students who are deaf.
 * Note: to access the website first enter [|__http://www.uclan.ac.uk/schools/education_social_sciences/files__] and then click onto the Teaching Strategies link

7. media type="youtube" key="yXvdi0e0yrU" width="405" height="336" align="center"

Stars: 4.5 out 5. This is a great video that states ways to boost and maintain a student’s self-esteem, which may be low because they are deaf and may have a hard time communicating. The video gives methods to ensure that the student is in an inclusive classroom, and what we as general education teachers can do to help with a student who is deaf. The only downfall is that the video is geared toward elementary students and has a couple of references to the lower levels, but certainly most ideas can still be applied to middle and high school students.

8. http://juneauempire.com/neighbors/2011-10-23/virginia-school-deaf-teacher-learning-language Stars: 5 out of 5. I liked this article because it is inspirational to teachers. This man had taught a general education math class for 11 years. He then wanted to teach in the deaf department and endured a two-week rigorous course of learning sign language and how to teach with sign language. If any ‘students’ were to speak in this course, they were immediately kicked out. The article follows him as the instructor, who can hear, attempting to communicate and teach several math courses to students who are deaf. It is inspiring and shows the capability of how we could learn to adjust if needed so.

__6. Community Learning Project__
For this project, I shadowed a special education teacher at Eagle Point High School. It was a great experience! If you want to learn more about it, please click on the word attachment below. Enjoy!