Mrs. Egli's class is starting to give oral presentations. This is a great way of getting the students use to getting in front of peers and giving a speech about something they love. This week they were instructed to bring in something that had to do with Christmas break. It could be a gift or a picture or something that they love. For the student/students I work with, I just interpret what is being said and then, at question time, I interpret what each question is and also the answer that is given. This process is very rewarding for the students, and they love to share with each other!!

During Readers Workshop we are working hard on our fairy tales! We are perfecting our stories and publishing them into our books. Here students are hard at work!! This is such a great way to learn!!

FAIRY TALES

In early January we started to read (during Readers Workshop), fairy tales. The students would get to enjoy the fairytale and then we would discuss the story. What helps make up the story, example: characters good and bad, a problem, a solution, some magic, things seem to be in threes, like maybe three characters or three things happened., and the words "Once upon a time" and "Happily every after. Now that the student know what to look for in a fairytale, they have started to write their very own. This process is slowed when you have to sign all the stories, add visuals and make sure the student understand the fairy tales. and make sure the student can see the process of how a fairytale is created. Now it is the students turn.

Mrs. Egli gave the students two brainstorming worksheets, this help organize the ideas the students have for their fairytale. On one sheet there was room to write and draw small pictures of their good characters and bad characters. Also a place to come up with some magic, a problem, a plan, a solution, and a setting. Then on the next sheet, is a character building worksheet where the students can add describing words that help build their characters. Here you can see some of the students work and imagination. Through out the next few weeks we will perfect the story and then copy(publish) this fairytale into a book. We will end this study with an after school program that the parents will attend.

Students hard work of visualization.


Weekly Poems

Each week Mrs. Egli's class reads a poem. We spend a whole week working on the poem...we talk about what the poem means, look at sentence structure and punctuation, and use visualisation to help us connect with the poem. We use the poem as a writing model for creating their very own poems sometimes. As the HI, for my student, I help him/her understand what the teacher wants and give examples of the right answers. Then the student interacts by following the information given. Also I make sure the poem is in sign so that the student can sign right along with the class, when they read the poem out loud everyday. (This help with adding new
language to the students vocabulary.) Each day we do something new with the poem...sometimes we look for words that rhyme, sometimes we look at punctuation, sometimes we use schema to understand the poem and we always use visualisation! In the pictures above you can see the class at work with their visualization. How the material is presented, to the HI student and, some of the work from the student....This student's work this week was so wonderful and I wanted to share the poem the was written by him/her.


Happy Birthday

Birthday cake...
Ice cream hot dogs and pop!

Very, Very, Very good party.
I love my Harry Potter
Birthday cake!

Fun, Fun, Fun...
For everyone.

Schema really played a roll in this understanding of the poem... because the student can relate to this birthday party, he/she just had one.

Signing 101

Wow, we finished our second and third week of Sign Club! The students have been perfecting the finger spellings of their names and their ABC's. They learned how to say hello and good bye to each other. It is so cute to see them signing their names and greeting each other in the hallway, with their new language. They are so excited and love using the signs. They are not afraid to sign to the hearing impaired students either! As a mater of fact they are asking these students to teach them new signs...how great is that!! For all you interpreters out there if your school will let you start a sign club...do it!! The students love it and it encourages conversation for all the students, hearing, hearing impaired, and or deaf. Next week we are going to learn the Pledge of Allegiance...The student are really excited about that, they will have a chance to practice every morning !!

January 20,2009 Inaugural day

Mrs. Egli's class started the day off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we read a book about Presidents of the United States. We then had a really interesting packet about the Inauguration...what it was, who attend it, and why we have an Inauguration. We talked about the Presidents first day and his parade, his party, and the formal Balls he would attend. Then around 11:00 am we watched some of the Inauguration take place...What a great lesson in History...the second graders will have a wonderful memory of watching Barack Obama take his oath and become the forty-fourth President of the United States.

Signing Club???

Last Monday, I started a Sign Language Club for the second grade (this encourages communication with all students), I hung up a sign-up sheet for all students who were interested...I couldn't believe the response, almost all the second grade signed up for the club!!! My original idea was to meet 2 times a week with a group of 20-30 students, but I had to come up with a more creative idea when 82 students wanted to learn. So now on Tuesday I have a group of 28 students, on Wednesday I have a group of 33 students and then on Thursday I have a group of 19 students. We are practicing, our ABC's and finger spelling our names...This is our second week and the students are working so hard!! They have learned how to finger spell their names and sign the simple sentences, "What is your name?' and "My name is______." I really got excited when one of the students in the sign class went to a hearing impaired student and signed these sentences and the hearing impaired student signed his/her name back...there are no words to describe the AWE of it all!!! I LOVE SCHOOL!

I was invited to speak with the Lakeview Middle School students during a disabilities program in early December. It was a wonderful opportunity to share information about Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.

I had a group of 40 -45 students with 4 rotations, a total of about 120-150 students that day. I started our session with, introduction of myself and what I do. We then touched on some history of sign language and talked about Gallaudet College.(The only liberal arts college in the world for Deaf students, and it is in the United States.)

Then we talked about sign languages, the differences between ASL (American Sign Language) and S.E.E. (Signing Exact English) and why the public schools us SEE.
Then we did an interesting experiment with earplugs. Depuy donated the earplugs for the experiment! THANK YOU DEPUY! We started the experiment with listening to soft music and
everyone could hear...then we put in our earplugs and listened to the same sound level of music, not many could hear, then by turning up and the volume, the students would raise their hands when they could hear the music, and then we did the same for when the volume was lowered again.

In the next part of the experiment, (earplugs were still in ears) I played soft music for background noise and I began to talk, first, facing them as I explained something, then I would move around the room and as I was explaining I would turn and end up with my back to them ... this simulated what it is like in the classroom with a teacher and background noise (being students talking in the back of the room) or (an extra sound in the room like water running). This brought lots of discussion on what it felt like to that student to be hard of hearing and deaf.

The last part of the experiment, the students took out one earplug and left one in, and then they were to talk to each other. This simulated what it is like to have a hearing aid in one ear and be hard of hearing. Again this brought about much conversation on what it felt like to the students. This experiment help create empathy for the Hard of Hearing and Deaf.

I then shared with the students some famous Deaf and Hard of Hearing actress and athletes. We learned finger spelling and how to sign some simple sentences. It was such a great group of students and the day was a success! Later I received wonderful Thank you letters from some of the students. I LOVE MY JOB!

As an interpreter in the class, I like to be as involved as I can...I will stay after school to help the teacher who's room my student/students are in. I enjoy helping when needed and growing a relationship with each wonderful teacher I get the privilege to work with!! Here I got to help behind the scenes with some of the students moms and Mrs. Egli. We made these very cute gingerbread houses! The next day the students decorated the houses. This was related to all the Christmas stories that we read in the month of December. What a "yummy" craft...the students loved the activity...and the memories are forever!!!

WOW!! Time to play catch-up...The month of December went way to fast!! Mrs. Egli's class rang the "bell" for the Salvation Army on a Wednesday night, in early December, to help bring in money. This was a great class activity to help students realize that they too can make a difference! It really was so much fun!! The students loved singing Christmas carols and watching all the people share their money! I enjoyed signing some of the Christmas carols, and helping my student/students with communication during the evening. By the end of our time spent there, we were FROZEN... but really warm and toasty on the inside:)