As an Hearing Interpreter I stay busy educating myself. I surf the web for articles that can help with learning issues that might arise. I also surf for interesting articles about Deaf Culture, Deaf History and the Deaf community gatherings. I am also looking for websites that I can add to my blog to help link anyone interested in these areas of study. As I continue to attend classes to receive my CEU's (in both categories) I find the more I learn...the more I need to learn. Every two years you have to obtain 4.0 CEU's in each category (1 and 2) As my second year comes to an end I have achieved the CEU's needed to reapply. I am excited about the work I do and love working in the educational field!!

I have found a wonderful website that the, Deaf students of American School, for the Deaf in West Hartford, Connecticut have created. Please take a moment and check it out! http/www.deafis.org/

On Friday February 13, 2009 the Madcap Puppets came to visit our school and put on a program!! They were AWESOME!! The students loved their stories of far away places, scary monsters and funny characters.

When I go places like this with my student/students I like to have the story book in my hands to show visuals of what is going to happen or what is happening...but the Madcap Puppets have their very own tales. So I interpret when the student ask questions or says he/she doesn't understand what is going on in the story. The show is creating a interest in reading. Helping students have the stories come to life is a sure way of getting them to read more.

In the pictures above you can see our Principal getting involved in the program...the students went wild, they loved this part of the program! In the next picture you can see one of the monsters and in the last picture you can see the characters that brought it all to life! What and Awesome program!! I can't wait to read another book!

In these pictures you can see Mrs. Egli's class enjoying one of their very favorite "Specials"...PE!! Here they are black light bowling. In the previous week during class they practiced their bowling skills, now it is time to celebrate with Black Light Bowling. As an interpreter, I interpret what the P.E. teacher is saying and demonstrate the skill or skills, help the student/students achieve the skill and then step back and watch the success!! Here you can see that learning truly is fun!!!

Students worked hard to finish up their fairytales and you can see the finished product!! What and fun and educational unit of study!

February 12,2009 we celebrated all of our hard work...we ended the fairytale unit of study with a big bang!! Our Fairytale Celebration.

In this unit of study during Reader's Workshop, we are learning about the differences in fiction and nonfiction. We studied the differences and then we read a few biography. We then created a poster about our biography, a person that we read about and ended the unit of study with a sharing time and presentation. As an interpreter I made sure that my student/students understood the differences between fiction and nonfiction. This was somewhat easy because of the visual clues you can use to determine the differences. For example pictures taken vs. pictures drawn. Labels and titles are also an easy visual...Glossaries, indexes and table of content also are great give aways to the fact that the book is nonfiction...so getting the student to look for those visual clues really help him/her understand that the book is "real" and not "pretend". This was a very fun study and all the students couldn't wait to share their posters with the rest of the class.

Mrs. Egli's and Mrs Cooksey"s classes are celebrating the closing of their fairytale unit with a big BANG! They are having an after school program where the students get to showcase their talents and hard work on this unit of study!! I have been ask to help by helping a group of students learn sign to go with their fairytale poem about Goldilocks...We started practicing yesterday. The student are so good! They are all going to be so cute! Some students will read their fairytale (that they wrote), some students will preform fairytale skits, with a twist, some students will give information on all that they learned, and some will sign. It will be a really cute program!! The Parents will love it!! In the pictures above you can see some of the dress rehersals, lots of fun and practice!!

With all the cancellations of school (because of the bad weather). Sign Club makes up the days missed that week or the next week to make sure all the students get the same amount of time and information. The students love learning the Pledge of Allegiance and are excited about going to computer lab in the next couple of week....during computer lab the students will visit the website aslpro.com and watch ASL Pledge of Allegiance and The Star Spangle Banner in sign. This a great group of students!!