Dreaming for the Future:
Growing in the Shade
Hearing loss is classified as a low incidence disability in the world of education. This means that professional development offered for teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing (TOD), colleagues well versed in hearing loss, and opportunities for continued learning are extremely limited, especially within a public school district. Due to this reality, often times I, as a TOD, am left looking elsewhere to find appropriate resources to meet my professional development needs. As I grow as a teacher, I begin to look for ways to develop better communication skills with others, and expand my learning on unfamiliar topics in order to best help my students. These skills and information can be vital to my students success as I am often the person advocating for their unique and uncommon needs. However, this can also be difficult since issues of hearing loss are not in the limelight of special education, as other more prominent topics are.
Despite the challenges, I have identified three main areas where I would like to see growth in myself as I continue working as a TOD. These include, inservicing other teachers, literacy for students who are deafblind, and assistive technology. With these specific areas in mind, I then chose resources that would help foster growth and learning. I chose recourses based upon reliability, recommendations from other teachers, and what I could realistically see myself using on a regular basis. This means these resources needed to be widely available and easy to access, especially on the go.
First, a big part of my position as a TOD is to inservice other teachers to help them learn how to prepare and support their students with hearing loss. This is can be a difficult task when working with more experienced teachers compared to myself. However, it is essential that I provide this specific and specialized information. I would like to become more competent in communicating with these teachers and providing these inservices. A resource I am going to explore and use in the future is the blog section on professional development at Edutopia.org. This is a collection of videos, blog posts, links, and articles all about effective professional development and collaboration.
Secondly, many students with hearing loss have additional disabilities, which can include deaf blindness. Having previously done intervener training from Utah State University, this is an area I am interested in continuing my learning. A topic in particular that I would like to focus on is literacy for children with deafblindness. There is a wonderful website, Literacy for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss, whose goal is to provide information and resources for teachers working with children who have complex learning challenges. This site provides checklists, resources, and guidance to help determine what resources or strategies will be most influential for the student you are working with.
Third, due to hearing loss and potentially other disabilities, many of the students I work with face difficulties accessing the resources available to their nondisabled peers. This may mean that a student has a need for assistive technology. It is important to me to continue to learn what assistive technology is available, what advances are being made, and what needs exist that are still unmet. In order to do this, one of the places I am going to turn to Assistive Technology, the official journal of RESNA. This journal is a multidisciplinary publication for the field of technology for people with disabilities. Thier goal is to promote communication between those working in the field of assistive technology including everyone from researchers to educators.
Not much light shines on the issues of students with hearing loss, their needs, and best practices for their teachers. However, I believe through these goals, resources, and dedication I can grow in my profession as a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing. By growing, even if it is in the shade, I can continue learning, and striving to serve my students as best as possible.
Despite the challenges, I have identified three main areas where I would like to see growth in myself as I continue working as a TOD. These include, inservicing other teachers, literacy for students who are deafblind, and assistive technology. With these specific areas in mind, I then chose resources that would help foster growth and learning. I chose recourses based upon reliability, recommendations from other teachers, and what I could realistically see myself using on a regular basis. This means these resources needed to be widely available and easy to access, especially on the go.
First, a big part of my position as a TOD is to inservice other teachers to help them learn how to prepare and support their students with hearing loss. This is can be a difficult task when working with more experienced teachers compared to myself. However, it is essential that I provide this specific and specialized information. I would like to become more competent in communicating with these teachers and providing these inservices. A resource I am going to explore and use in the future is the blog section on professional development at Edutopia.org. This is a collection of videos, blog posts, links, and articles all about effective professional development and collaboration.
Secondly, many students with hearing loss have additional disabilities, which can include deaf blindness. Having previously done intervener training from Utah State University, this is an area I am interested in continuing my learning. A topic in particular that I would like to focus on is literacy for children with deafblindness. There is a wonderful website, Literacy for Children with Combined Vision and Hearing Loss, whose goal is to provide information and resources for teachers working with children who have complex learning challenges. This site provides checklists, resources, and guidance to help determine what resources or strategies will be most influential for the student you are working with.
Third, due to hearing loss and potentially other disabilities, many of the students I work with face difficulties accessing the resources available to their nondisabled peers. This may mean that a student has a need for assistive technology. It is important to me to continue to learn what assistive technology is available, what advances are being made, and what needs exist that are still unmet. In order to do this, one of the places I am going to turn to Assistive Technology, the official journal of RESNA. This journal is a multidisciplinary publication for the field of technology for people with disabilities. Thier goal is to promote communication between those working in the field of assistive technology including everyone from researchers to educators.
Not much light shines on the issues of students with hearing loss, their needs, and best practices for their teachers. However, I believe through these goals, resources, and dedication I can grow in my profession as a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing. By growing, even if it is in the shade, I can continue learning, and striving to serve my students as best as possible.