"Applause" for taking a risk

Let me start by saying I am THRILLED that we have a positive blog topic, because I need a little pick-me-up! One of my proudest moments thus far in teaching actually took place last week and I am so eager to share it with everyone, because of how happy it made my student. Our high school has the highest hearing impaired population in the district. I have a deaf student in my class, and for the sake of privacy we will call her Z. She is the first hearing impaired student to take a broadcasting class, so the two of us are working together in regards to accommodations and modifications. At our school we have a morning announcements show, and Z has expressed to me her frustration in not being able to hear or understand what is going on in the school because we do not have closed captioning. Her frustration led to an amazing idea. The last week of September was National Hearing Impaired Awareness Week and I thought that in an attempt to include our hearing impaired school population, we would do an all deaf morning announcement show. I asked Z how she wanted it formatted and she said “we suffer every day, let’s make everyone else suffer for one day”. The show was completely silent as Z sat on the news desk and signed all of the announcements (she did allow me to put subtitles at the bottom of the screen). Shooting and editing a completely silent show certainly had its challenges, but Z was so excited to be a part of it made it worth it. On the day the show aired, I grabbed Z and her classmates out of their room and brought them to my classroom to watch. It was the most silent a room full of teenagers has ever been. All eyes were glued to the screen and the hearing students were blown away by Z’s performance. She absolutely lit up while watching herself on the big screen! I had previously taught my students the sign for “applause” and when the show was over the class all “clapped” for Z. I was so excited that our experiment worked, and it absolutely warmed my heart to see how proud Z was of her contribution to her deaf classmates. I have had several students and teachers tell me it was the best morning announcement show yet, and they would love to see more of her.

One week Later

Well, this week has been interesting as well. I did not write up any students this week. :) The suggestions that Jennifer give me are working. The lights are down, I stop the students at the door one or two at a time because some classes I have 28 students and the greeting was taking too long. The student have come to expect me at the door and some will wait for their personal greeting. My sponge activity is "The Quote of the Day" and the student are writing it down and writing their thoughts down. One student's writing was nice or at least sometime on the paper, so I asked him is if he was a writer? He said "No" then I told him that he had to be a secret writer because what he wrote was beautiful and that I was going to tell his English teacher that she had a greater writer in her class. He smiled and looked very proud. I love that about teaching and being with my kids.

Progress report card were due this week. I realized that I have 151 health science students in 6 classes that meet every other day--class size 25, 24, 25, 24, 28,25 then I have an advisory group of totally different students class size 17. I started to cry because I there is about 300 students in the whole school and I by myself teach 1/2 of the students in the small learning community school.

Stacy

Spring Break May Lead the Blog Entries

Hello All,

This entry is coming to you from very late within the Boyland household. BUT, myself and a little girl of 9 years of age are excited because we have the following week off. My fellow teachers have asked me what I am going to do to relieve the stress from first year teachers' blues. And when I respond.........I will complete assignments due to NTI and promise to have no fun, they are sympathetic and cordial. I had an unscheduled observation by my Principal yesterday, that went very well. My daughter was very proud when I posted my "report card" on the refrigerator next to hers.

My proudest moment was when my Principal walked into the TV studio, with a Coke in his hand, and every student whispered..."Mr. Shaw has a drink in the studio area." And then the Principal walked into the Control Room and the students yelled...."Mr. Shaw has a drink in the Control Room!" Mr. Shaw wondered about the excitement. I explained that he was in trouble and...........I was very proud that my students recognized that no food or drinks were allowed in the studio or control room. If anyone from NTI is on Spring Break this week...................Please Enjoy! If you are not on break or have had your break.................I hope your brain and body recovered.