Grace+Gargus,+Deafness

Hello, my name is Grace, and I am a graduate student in the 2-year MAT program at SOU. I am from Ashland, but moved away shortly after graduating high school to pursue my bachelor's degree at the University of Oregon. While there, I studied journalism but I have always been interested in Spanish, and took many Spanish classes as well. I studied abroad my Junior year in Morelia, Mexico, which was a transformative experience for me. When I returned to Oregon, I realized that I wanted to get a second degree in Spanish and also pursue a higher degree in teaching.
 * INTRODUCTION**

After graduating in 2009, I moved back to the Rogue Valley and met the love of my life, Isaac. I also went on an amazing backpacking adventure all over Mexico with my brother and best friend. These experiences in Mexico have fueled my desire to work with the ELL population and after volunteering in an ELL classroom at Talent Elementary School, I found my passion.

In the winter of 2010, I found out I was pregnant! We, as well as our families, were all very excited. Little miss Josephine came into the world on a full harvest moon on September 13th, 2011. The past four months have been a whirlwind but I would not have it any other way because she has brought such joy to my life. Other things that bring me joy are spending time with family and friends, exploring nature, traveling to new places, and running. Travel is especially important for me and I often get the "travel bug" and need to get out of town, even if it is just to the Oregon coast or Portland.

A time in my life when I have had trouble learning in school was last year in the elementary math classes. I thought that learning about elementary math would be easy but I found it difficult to be able to explain WHY math processes work. Often times I had to get extra help, which is something I was not used to in college. This experience made me realize what it is like for a student who is struggling to learn. I believe this experience will help me as a teacher to better understand students who need more time when learning challenging material.

What I fear most about becoming a teacher is failing to recognize when a student needs extra or special help in the classroom. I am hoping that this course will help me be able to identify those signs in my students and I am excited to learn more about how regular teachers and special education teachers can collaborate.

I am very excited to become the best teacher I can be and devote my life to helping children of all languages, cultures, and backgrounds. Josephine and me on Christmas

**Inclusion Strategies Resource Assignment: Deafness** My research assignment is on deafness. I do not find this topic personally relevant, but I chose it because I wanted to find out more about deaf people and resources available to them, their families, and their teachers. I hope that I will be able to understand and serve any students with hearing impairments in the future. Things I learned from researching this topic: 1) There is a large deaf community and they are proud to be deaf. They find comfort in other deaf people and love to socialize and interact with each other, because they are better able to understand where they are coming from. 2) Cochlear implants can help deaf people to hear again, however, it is a fairly invasive surgery. Also, the younger a person has a cochlear implant, the better their speech will be. 3) Deafness can be caused by many different factors, such as illness, genetics, traumas, and problems during pregnancy. 4) Deaf people may look down on those who received cochlear implants and ostracize them from the deaf community. 5) There are many other types of sign language used besides ASL. For example, there are French, British, German, and Plains Indians Sign Languages. There are also regional variations of sign language throughout the U.S. and Canada, such as the Black American Sign Language. I also learned that not all deaf people use sign language. **Resources** MY TOP RESOURCE: A YouTube Video. []

This video, called //Sound and Fury//, is about the struggles of a family who is deciding whether to give their child a cochlear implant. What is the impact on deaf culture when many deaf babies are now receiving cochlear implants? Will ASL be lost if nobody continues to learn it? These are some of the common questions that families of deaf children struggle with. (5 out of 5). 8 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

1) The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities website. __[]__ This is a great website with general information about hearing loss and deafness in children. It would be a great first resource to point parents and teachers to so they can get some basic information about this disability. I like it because it is easy to navigate and also has many links where you can go to find more information about additional resources, IDEA, communication, and interventions. (4 out of 5).

2) A PBS website called "Sound and Fury". [] This website is very informative. It gives very interesting accounts of deaf people with and without cochlear implants, and allows them to share how they live on a daily basis. It also has a section about cochlear implants and the debate surrounding them. This website is linked to the film //Sound and Fury//, and provides updated information about the families in the film. Another resource that this website provides is lesson plans for teachers who want to teach their students about deafness and the deaf community. (4 out of 5).

3) National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. [] This is a website dedicated to providing current information about deafness and communication disorders. It provides lots of information regarding health and current research being done. This is a good place to go for quick information about the scientific reasons behind hearing loss and deafness. This website is not very well laid out and it is helpful to use the A-Z index to find what you are looking for. (3 out of 5).

4) Deaf Life Magazine. __[]__ This is the website that goes with the magazine //Deaf Life//, which is a monthly publication for those who are hard of hearing or deaf. From the website, you can read some articles that are published in the magazine. It has articles featuring current happenings in the deaf community, new technology, deaf art and theater, as well as essays written by deaf readers. I really liked reading a few articles in this magazine because it gave me a unique perspective on the deaf community. (4 out of 5). 5) Bauman, H-Dirksen L., ed. (2008). //Open Your Eyes.// University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis. This book is a great resource for those looking to gain information about deaf culture and daily life. It also has a section about language and literacy, and how deaf people learn to read and write. It would be a good book for a deaf person to read to help them answer the question: //where do I fit in?// (4 out of 5). 6) Burch, Susan; Joyner, Hannah (2007). //Unspeakable, The Story of Junius Wilson.// University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill. This is a non-fiction story about an African American man in the south who was born deaf. His story is unique and interesting because it tells about his life in a school for the deaf when he was a boy and how his introduction into deaf culture was so powerful, but it also tells about how he was expelled and lost that connection with the deaf community, and all the trials that followed. This is a great book to learn about the history of deaf culture and community in the U.S., and specifically from the perspective of an African American deaf person. (4 out of 5). 7) Marschark, Marc; Spencer, Patricia Elizabeth, ed. (2003). //Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education.// Oxford University Press: New York. This is a reference book that covers a wide range of topics related to deaf people. Topics in this book include psychology, culture, community, social issues, familial issues, language, mental health, education, and assistive technologies. This book would be great for professionals of many disciplines to have. (4 out of 5). 8) A documentary about a community of deaf children in the Philippines and how the IDEA organization set up a school for the deaf in their town. [|http://www.ideadeaf.org/documentary/#.T1u6OWDGxD0] This is a very heart warming movie and I highly recommend it! (4 out of 5).

**Community Based Learning Projec**t 1/31/2012 For my Community Based Learning Project I observed an IEP meeting at Talent Elementary School on January 27th, 2012. The IEP team consisted of a special education resource teacher, a general education teacher, a speech language pathologist, as well as the aunt of the student who is also his legal guardian. It was held after school in a quiet room near the library. This meeting was also a meeting to discuss the student’s elidgibility for special education services by reviewing the results of extensive testing that the staff at his former school did on him. The student had come from a very bad family environment and was determined by the assessments to be one to two years intellectually delayed. The resource teacher led the meeting and opened the meeting by giving the parental rights brochure to the aunt and explaining that the team is there to help her and they will not do anything regarding her nephew without her consent. She then went over the assessments that were previously done and told the aunt that the student was significantly delayed and was elidgible for special education services. She also explained what kind of and how much extra academic help the student is currently receiving. After this was explained to the aunt, the resource teacher explained the learning problems that she had seen with the student, and laid out goals that she thought would be resonable for the student to achieve over the next year as far as his reading, writing and math. Then, she asked the student’s general ed. teacher to comment on what she has seen in the classroom and how she has been modifying lessons to fit his needs. Then, the speech pathologist explained what kinds of speech problems he had seen in his work with the student and what kinds of things he would like to do with him to improve his speaking abilities over the next year. The meeting concluded with the resource teacher asking the aunt if she had any concerns and she shared that she wanted her nephew to be able to keep his Spanish language. The resource teacher explained that if he is struggling in school and receiving extra help in English, that he should be in an English-only classroom. I had never attended an IEP meeting before, and one thing I noticed right away was how informal it was. I was expecting a very formal, serious atmosphere but the resource teacher made the aunt feel welcome and at ease even though the reason for the meeting was a serious matter. Another thing I learned is that it really is a team effort. Each of the teachers involved in the student’s education had to make sure that their goals for him were able to work cohesively to achieve the same results. All the teachers must work together throughout the whole school year to see improvement in the student. Also, the teachers must consistently work and be in touch with the parent of the student because the parent has an important role in the process. Another thing that surprised me was the fact that the teachers did not only focus on the student’s weaknesses, they also highlighted his strengths as a student. They talked about how the student had come to TES already knowing all his colors, some shapes, as well as a few numbers, and that this was something they were proud of, as well as a hopeful sign that he would make quick progress. I do not think that it would be very helpful or encouraging to a parent if teachers were to only point out their child’s weaknesses. Focusing on their strengths puts the parent a little more at ease and gives them hope that progress will happen. During this meeting I also learned about how the IEP process works when a student is transferring schools from another state and they already are on an IEP. I think it was easy for the team at TES to determine that this student needed and was elidgible for special education services because he had already been receiving extra help and already had extensive testing done. I would be curious to see what an IEP meeting would be like when the student was going to receive services for the very first time. One thing I wonder about is how the IEP process would go if the parent does not want to be involved? It seemed like in this meeting the aunt was very vocal about her concerns and the teachers worked with her to create learning goals, so what would happen if a parent decided that they wanted services for their child, but would not attend the IEP meeting? I noticed that all three of the teachers involved in the meeting laid out very specific learning goals for the student. For example, one of the goals was that he would learn how to add and subtract numbers 1-10 in the next year. Why did they choose that goal? Also, I wonder if goals are always this concrete in all IEPs? When teachers are laying out goals for a student new to the IEP process or a new student at the school, how do they know that the goals are realistic? If they do not meet their goals in a year, were the goals too difficult to meet? These are some of the questions I was left with at the end of the IEP meeting. Some things I learned: - IEP meetings can be a combination of the elidgibility for special education and also the IEP goals. - It is a team effort, including the parent. - There is a lot of paperwork and legal matters involved. - The student does not have to be present.