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Category Archives: Deaf Kids
A perfectionist in the making
From Sarah over on Confessions. On Friday, just as I was about to leave, I got a call from the office.It was ‘Julie’s’ dad, and he wanted to talk about how she was doing since he missed Parent-Teacher Conferences.Did I … Continue reading
a healthy injustice
From Sarah over on Confessions. My school got this grant for a fruits and vegetables program. It means that every day, at about 2 o’clock, the lunch ladies visit each classroom and drop off a baggie of cut fruits or … Continue reading
Posted in Classroom Life, Deaf Kids, School Policy
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I should really start closing the door when I teach
I was teaching similes and metaphors to my fifth graders this morning. It was a rather difficult concept for them to grasp because of vocabulary and overall language issues. But I tried my darndest. I had a wonderful PowerPoint presentation complete with response cards that the students held up to identify which sentence was a simile, and which was a metaphor.
I was feeling pretty proud of myself and my kick-butt lesson.
And then we got to the end. The last slide said to get with a partner and come up with as many metaphors and similes about chocolate as they could. When the timer beeped, I checked their papers and it was pretty disastrous.
Exhibit A: “The chocolate is melty as a cow”
Exhibit B: “The chocolate is so good I like it and I also like chips and cookies and pizza and hamburgers….”
You see what I was dealing with here. I overestimated their readiness for this kind of activity.
So I quickly backtracked and explained in detail how to create a similes and metaphors. First, we made a list that described chocolate. We came up with: yummy, hard, brown, smooth, melty. Then we took the words one by one and thought of something else that was also smooth (for example) that we could compare it to. Then we made a simile: “This chocolate is as smooth as a feather”.
Then we got to “brown”.
“Okay”, I told my kiddos, “think of something brown”. All of my students looked around the room. Then I said: “Okay, now let’s fill in the blank: ‘This chocolate is as brown as…..”
Silence.
Then my whitest kid turns to my blackest kid and (very innocently and triumphantly) points at him and says “YOU!”
Modern day miracles
After nearly five years as a teacher, there aren’t very many “firsts” left for me. But recently I found myself in the midst of quite a “first”: the mother of one of my students claimed he had been miraculously cured of his deafness.
“Sean” is a fourth grader who is profoundly deaf in both ears. He wears a cochlear implant and does quite well with it (without it, he cannot hear ANY speech sounds). He is quite intelligible, bright, and friendly.
Three weeks ago, he took off his cochlear implant and declared loudly (in slightly less intelligible speech) that he could hear and he didn’t need it anymore. Thinking he was just messing around, I pointed for him to put it back on and then explained that the doctor/audiologist said he must wear it to hear. He grinned sheepishly and put it back on.
Later that day, my colleague told me that she had run into his mother at church and she had told her that Sean had been miraculously healed over spring break!
Now. I believe God still does miracles. But I also believe that miracles are not the usual way that He reveals himself. So over the next few days, every time Sean had his cochlear implant off (changing batteries, or what have you), we would loudly shout his name from varying distances.
No response.
Since Sean was obediently wearing his implant at school every day, I forgot all about the issue and went on with life.
Until Friday. Friday, his mother was at school to pick Sean up and we had a conversation in the stairwell. She told me that Sean had something to tell me. He told me that he had misplaced something and then we had the ODDEST conversation with him repeating himself and never directly answering my questions.
Then his mom turned to me after he had walked away and asked me, beaming: “Did you notice anything about Sean? He had that whole conversation with you without his implant on! He’s been healed! We’ve had a miracle!”
I was at such a loss, I think all I managed was “Oh!”. Thankfully, I had to give my attention to my other students so I was off the hook.
About twenty minutes later when the final bell had rung, she came into my classroom to expand further on this miracle. Something about a prophecy and three days and some prayer. I was quiet for a minute and she said: “You look amazed!”, to which I replied: “This is an amazing situation!”
I put on my warmest smile and asked as tactfully as I could if the audiologist had confirmed his new hearing. Her response? “God doesn’t need an audiologist to confirm his miracles!”
True. Since there was nothing appropriate left for me to say I quickly changed the subject, and Mom left as happy as she was when she came in.
I’m not a parent, and I’m obviously not a parent of a child with special needs. But I can understand wanting your child to be healed. I don’t know how long Mom is going to hold on to this miracle, but I do know it’s not my place to contradict her hope.
Posted in Deaf Kids, Disability Awareness
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Red and yellow, black, and white…
Nothing noteworthy happened today at school, so I will relay a story from about a month ago. I would have related it at the time but I was too busy railing against my job back then to be in the mood.
So we were reading a story called “Sees Behind Trees” about a Native American boy who can hardly see but needs to prove himself with a bow and arrow in order to become a man. Before reading any story, I start by tapping prior knowledge and building background. I didn’t get very far before I realized my 8 fifth graders didn’t know what “Native American” was.
At that point, I realized I had to define and give examples of “race”. (I have two African American students, five Hispanic students, and one Caucasian student). So I gave examples using my students because they already know what “African American” is and what “Hispanic” is. I also said that different races and cultures are known for different things. Like Asians eat a lot of rice. And Hispanics eat a lot of tortillas. And… before I could go any further, an African American girl piped up in the back with “I LIKE FRIED CHICKEN!”
But it gets better, folks. I was pointing out which students were what (you know, to make sure everyone knew what “race” is. You can never be too explicit when you’re dealing with kids with language impairments!). And I said: “Alice and Martha are African American. Jose, Norma, Gabriel, Luis, and Roberto are Hispanic”. Then before I could say another word, my one Caucasian kid shouts out: “WHAT AM I? I know, I’m WHITE”. And I said “White isn’t really a race.”
Then, he ventured: “….French?”
Musical intelligence in action
We were reading about the Iditarod Race, held in Alaska every year. We came across the word “champion”, and because students who are deaf/hard-of-hearing usually have vocabulary difficulties, I stopped to see if anyone knew what that word meant.
“Does anyone know what ‘champion’ means?”
(No one did).
In a fit of inspiration, I sang this line (hamming it up, as I usually like to do): “Weee are the champions, my frieeeeeends…..”
Eight faces stared at me blankly, some clearly confused as to why their teacher had just broken into song. There was deadpan silence for about two seconds.
Then, from the back, one of my fifth graders stated matter-of-factly: “Queen”
Ahhhh, there is hope for this generation after all!!
