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We recently had a three afternoon workshop for public school teachers, at the request of the local public school district. It was basically an orientation to deafness. One of the recent issues in deaf education here has been the new buzz word "inclusion." In a developed country, it means that everyone is allowed in the classroom, and you include the necessary aides, interpreters, and specialists. Here, what it means is that you open the door, push the special ed student in, and close the door. He is now officially "included."
The teachers had a lot of complaining to do. "They expect us to work with a full class (30 or more) of the children we already worked with PLUS kids who are blind, deaf, unable to walk, mentally challenged...having any kind of special needs in their education." These teachers not only don't have the training for this, they don't even get so much as a teacher's aide, or a planning hour!
While there are some children previously excluded who will do fine in the regular education classroom, when it comes to deaf children, putting these kids in a class with hearing children simply dooms them to failure. Worse than just academic failure; they probably never even learn a language at all, as they are isolated from Sign Language, and they don't have speech therapy.
So a lot of what our workshop was about was telling them how it was not a good idea to have deaf children in their classroom, and to send them to us! But that if they must have them, here are a few tips. (Don't talk to the class while you are writing on the board, etc.)
A visit to Elias Piña followed on the heels of that workshop. Elias Piña is right on the Haitian-Dominican border. You can throw a rock to Haiti from a few blocks away from the house I stayed in. There are lots of deaf kids. According to the deaf in the capital, the deaf in EP don't know Sign Language.
I visited a family with a five year old son who is deaf. There is no school for deaf children in EP. His parents don't want to send him away to the capital at five years old. They want to learn to communicate with him, but there is no one available to teach them how to Sign.
I worked with them for a few days on Cued Spanish, knowing that they could learn that on their own in much less time, if necessary. But it is a difficult situation any way you look at it.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Teacher workshop
Monday through Wednesday we had a workshop for teachers of the deaf, sponsored by Vision Trust. There were teachers from all over the country. Each of the three days we had about thirty participants.
The team that came did an excellent job. This kind of training is much needed, and much appreciated. The teachers participated with enthusiasm. All went away from the workshop with new teaching materials in hand, many of which they had made themselves at the workshop, and fresh ideas for teaching their deaf students.
There was a lot of interest in having more workshops next year.
Maria and I have been asked to present three days of afternoon workshops for the public school teachers in Northern Santo Domingo, many of whom are Christians, interested in working with the deaf. Those will be next Wednesday through Friday. A few of these teachers actually have deaf students in their classes, with no interpreters or support services at all--not a good idea. There are also a couple who have deaf children themselves.
Now you cannot prepare teachers of the deaf from scratch in three days, but we will give them a basic orientation to deafness, and some survival signs. We hope that we can pique their interest to follow up and get more training.
The team that came did an excellent job. This kind of training is much needed, and much appreciated. The teachers participated with enthusiasm. All went away from the workshop with new teaching materials in hand, many of which they had made themselves at the workshop, and fresh ideas for teaching their deaf students.
There was a lot of interest in having more workshops next year.
Maria and I have been asked to present three days of afternoon workshops for the public school teachers in Northern Santo Domingo, many of whom are Christians, interested in working with the deaf. Those will be next Wednesday through Friday. A few of these teachers actually have deaf students in their classes, with no interpreters or support services at all--not a good idea. There are also a couple who have deaf children themselves.
Now you cannot prepare teachers of the deaf from scratch in three days, but we will give them a basic orientation to deafness, and some survival signs. We hope that we can pique their interest to follow up and get more training.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
New Location
It looks like the school will have a new location. It is, in fact, the same place they were talking about before. They keep changing their minds! Last I heard, however, is that there are going to be some offices there for their education dept., and the school will have the needed classrooms, all day long. Keep this in prayer, because the time is getting short; at this point Maria, the director, needs to know for sure that she has classrooms.
Now that place is in very very bad shape. But if they are going to put their offices there, the chances are pretty good that they are going to give it a once over. They even had an engineer over looking at it the other day. This is another one of those times that I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch! Things change too much here to depend on them until someone has signed on the dotted line. :)
The place is on the market however, so if it should be sold sometime during the school year, next year the school will be looking for yet another place. I told Maria that we should call it the Mobile School for the Deaf, since we move so much! :)
Monday-Wednesday Vision Trust is sponsoring a workshop for teachers of the deaf. We've invited teachers from as far away as the Haitian border, and expect to have a good group. Teachers from the US will be sharing some of their teaching techniques, and also helping the participants to make some of their own teaching materials.
Now that place is in very very bad shape. But if they are going to put their offices there, the chances are pretty good that they are going to give it a once over. They even had an engineer over looking at it the other day. This is another one of those times that I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch! Things change too much here to depend on them until someone has signed on the dotted line. :)
The place is on the market however, so if it should be sold sometime during the school year, next year the school will be looking for yet another place. I told Maria that we should call it the Mobile School for the Deaf, since we move so much! :)
Monday-Wednesday Vision Trust is sponsoring a workshop for teachers of the deaf. We've invited teachers from as far away as the Haitian border, and expect to have a good group. Teachers from the US will be sharing some of their teaching techniques, and also helping the participants to make some of their own teaching materials.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Summer camp, upcoming workshops, location search
Thanks for your patience. The blog didn't get much activity because I had no internet at home for a month, due to my move, but I'm finally back on line, PTL>
We ended the school year as planned, with a five day camp for the children. It was great having deaf people and some signers come through Vision Trust; they also helped us out with transportation. And we sure do appreciate the folks from Florida who sponsored the camp.
The kids absolutely loved it. It was wonderful for them to have a whole week where they knew they had enough to eat, were surrounded by friends and adults who could communicate with them, including some deaf adults, and that they were able to have daily exposure to God's word.
Swimming was a big hit. The kids cheered, and the adults cried, when Leslie, who is wheelchair bound, came down the pool slide.
There were the normal VBS activities of learning Bible verses and making crafts. One night there was bobbing for apples and another time a team had to find bubble gum in a pie-plate full of whipped-cream---no hands allowed! Elizabeth was the first to blow a bubble, winning the race.
We thank the Lord that there were no broken bones, and no homesick kids. One of my favorite things was to see how loving the kids are to one another. Oh, they have their little spats, but for the most part, they take care of each other, and accept each other's strengths and weaknesses. The older ones watch out for the younger ones. Our students are mostly obedient to authority as well, which made for a very pleasant time for all of us. We did have a few new students who haven't quite gotten that part down, but are confident that the example of the others will be their best teacher.
If you'd like to see pictures of the camp, drop me a line and I'll send you a guest pass. You can reach me through gmail. My account name is deafschool.
Now we are looking forward to a small group of teachers who are coming here through Vision Trust to do three days of teacher workshops for us in July. We are inviting Christian teachers of the deaf nationwide to this activity.
Maria is actively looking for a place for the school. This is a very big issue. It is hard to find a location, given our special needs and limited funds, and we don't have much time. to do it in. Please pray that something will open up. The government had offered us some classrooms previously, but it seems the person who owns that private school they were to rent for us, has put it up for sale, so we are back to our search.
Please pray for: a good location, workers for this harvest, and our upcoming teacher workshops.
Blessings!
We ended the school year as planned, with a five day camp for the children. It was great having deaf people and some signers come through Vision Trust; they also helped us out with transportation. And we sure do appreciate the folks from Florida who sponsored the camp.
The kids absolutely loved it. It was wonderful for them to have a whole week where they knew they had enough to eat, were surrounded by friends and adults who could communicate with them, including some deaf adults, and that they were able to have daily exposure to God's word.
Swimming was a big hit. The kids cheered, and the adults cried, when Leslie, who is wheelchair bound, came down the pool slide.
There were the normal VBS activities of learning Bible verses and making crafts. One night there was bobbing for apples and another time a team had to find bubble gum in a pie-plate full of whipped-cream---no hands allowed! Elizabeth was the first to blow a bubble, winning the race.
We thank the Lord that there were no broken bones, and no homesick kids. One of my favorite things was to see how loving the kids are to one another. Oh, they have their little spats, but for the most part, they take care of each other, and accept each other's strengths and weaknesses. The older ones watch out for the younger ones. Our students are mostly obedient to authority as well, which made for a very pleasant time for all of us. We did have a few new students who haven't quite gotten that part down, but are confident that the example of the others will be their best teacher.
If you'd like to see pictures of the camp, drop me a line and I'll send you a guest pass. You can reach me through gmail. My account name is deafschool.
Now we are looking forward to a small group of teachers who are coming here through Vision Trust to do three days of teacher workshops for us in July. We are inviting Christian teachers of the deaf nationwide to this activity.
Maria is actively looking for a place for the school. This is a very big issue. It is hard to find a location, given our special needs and limited funds, and we don't have much time. to do it in. Please pray that something will open up. The government had offered us some classrooms previously, but it seems the person who owns that private school they were to rent for us, has put it up for sale, so we are back to our search.
Please pray for: a good location, workers for this harvest, and our upcoming teacher workshops.
Blessings!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Moving
Friends,
You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been in the process of moving.
I haven't had internet for close to three weeks, and probably won't have it for another couple of weeks at least, despite the fact that I'm told "3-5 working days" each time I go to the phone company. :( Please pray that I'll be able to get that soon. I have a friend who has been waiting two months for hers!
The apt. I moved into had some major problems upon my arrival. During the first week, as the landlord was putting finishing touches on the plumbing, he managed to cause a major water leak which caused water damage to every single room--ruining the recent paint job. So the whole place needs repainting! It took about a week for the walls to be mostly dry. During that time, every door in the house, and the refrigerator grew a fine dust of mold over them. But thankfully, the walls didn't. So a little lysol did the trick, getting them back to normal.
Next there was a power surge that burned up my refrigerator motor. That took three days to repair, because the electricity must be on when the technician comes. The electricity is very unpredictable. Unfortunately, he would come, and it would go off. He would leave, and it would come on again!
Then came dealing with the rats, cockroaches, and the swarms of mosquitoes with bug spray and rat poison. The rats are still there, and they are big ones. I have found that they like spaghetti, crackers, and pretzels, because that is what they opened in my closet.
After that, the pump that pumps the water up to the rooftop tank needed fixing...I was using buckets meanwhile, in place of running water.
All of my plumbing had to be pretty much redone, with external tubes running around the outside of the house, and the plumber is only a part-timer, so he could only work on weekends. So every weekend he comes over and does a little more. Most of it is done, although dripping pipes and faucets remain.
And so it has gone, on and on.
In school news...
School is over at the Ozama campus, and on its last week, doing final exams at the Sabana Perdida school.
The kids are very excited about their week of camp coming up the 15th through 19th.
One of the children came to school with welts across his back from being beaten by his dad. There isn't much you can do about that here, except talk to the parents.
Another child was in an automobile accident in which his eye was injured, but I understand that he will not lose the vision in that eye, thankfully.
Our current biggest prayer request is for a new location (or locations) for the two schools. We definitely will need to leave both places. Sabana Perdida is no longer going to offer afternoon classes, and their mornings are full. The school in Ozama has needed to move for a couple of years. The Secretary of Education insists that we have more space, in order to have an office and a library. That's not possible where we are at.
We've been offered some space at two different small private schools, which the public school would pay for. Maria went and looked them both over, and said they were not adequate to the needs of the school. One was located in a high drug area. The other was simply too small.
Dominican schools generally pack kids in with large numbers in small spaces. You cannot do that with deaf children, because each has to be able to see the other children, as well as the teacher. (Imagine this: the teacher asks a question. A student in the back row answers it, but those in the rows in front of him/her are unaware of the answer.) So classrooms for deaf children must be larger, to allow more of a semicircular seating.
Prices for renting have skyrocketed, but parents have less money than ever, because of the tremendous inflation going on here. Many of our students have a partial scholarship through Vision Trust. This is a tremendous help, but for deaf students this does not pay the entire cost. Deaf students are much more expensive to educate, both because they need smaller class size, and because they need much more visual materials, as opposed to the normal chalk and chalkboard method used here. Specially trained teachers must be paid reasonably or they will move on to the public school. The parents pay an additional supplement to tuition as they are able. Many pay nothing at all. It is hard to raise the payments when most cannot even afford the minimal charges. This very much factors into finding a new location.
Eventually, we will either need to get our own classrooms, or we may end up having to close the schools, as the economy worsens. All these are in our thoughts.
I'll try to get another blog post up in the next month. :)
Thanks for your prayers.
You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been in the process of moving.
I haven't had internet for close to three weeks, and probably won't have it for another couple of weeks at least, despite the fact that I'm told "3-5 working days" each time I go to the phone company. :( Please pray that I'll be able to get that soon. I have a friend who has been waiting two months for hers!
The apt. I moved into had some major problems upon my arrival. During the first week, as the landlord was putting finishing touches on the plumbing, he managed to cause a major water leak which caused water damage to every single room--ruining the recent paint job. So the whole place needs repainting! It took about a week for the walls to be mostly dry. During that time, every door in the house, and the refrigerator grew a fine dust of mold over them. But thankfully, the walls didn't. So a little lysol did the trick, getting them back to normal.
Next there was a power surge that burned up my refrigerator motor. That took three days to repair, because the electricity must be on when the technician comes. The electricity is very unpredictable. Unfortunately, he would come, and it would go off. He would leave, and it would come on again!
Then came dealing with the rats, cockroaches, and the swarms of mosquitoes with bug spray and rat poison. The rats are still there, and they are big ones. I have found that they like spaghetti, crackers, and pretzels, because that is what they opened in my closet.
After that, the pump that pumps the water up to the rooftop tank needed fixing...I was using buckets meanwhile, in place of running water.
All of my plumbing had to be pretty much redone, with external tubes running around the outside of the house, and the plumber is only a part-timer, so he could only work on weekends. So every weekend he comes over and does a little more. Most of it is done, although dripping pipes and faucets remain.
And so it has gone, on and on.
In school news...
School is over at the Ozama campus, and on its last week, doing final exams at the Sabana Perdida school.
The kids are very excited about their week of camp coming up the 15th through 19th.
One of the children came to school with welts across his back from being beaten by his dad. There isn't much you can do about that here, except talk to the parents.
Another child was in an automobile accident in which his eye was injured, but I understand that he will not lose the vision in that eye, thankfully.
Our current biggest prayer request is for a new location (or locations) for the two schools. We definitely will need to leave both places. Sabana Perdida is no longer going to offer afternoon classes, and their mornings are full. The school in Ozama has needed to move for a couple of years. The Secretary of Education insists that we have more space, in order to have an office and a library. That's not possible where we are at.
We've been offered some space at two different small private schools, which the public school would pay for. Maria went and looked them both over, and said they were not adequate to the needs of the school. One was located in a high drug area. The other was simply too small.
Dominican schools generally pack kids in with large numbers in small spaces. You cannot do that with deaf children, because each has to be able to see the other children, as well as the teacher. (Imagine this: the teacher asks a question. A student in the back row answers it, but those in the rows in front of him/her are unaware of the answer.) So classrooms for deaf children must be larger, to allow more of a semicircular seating.
Prices for renting have skyrocketed, but parents have less money than ever, because of the tremendous inflation going on here. Many of our students have a partial scholarship through Vision Trust. This is a tremendous help, but for deaf students this does not pay the entire cost. Deaf students are much more expensive to educate, both because they need smaller class size, and because they need much more visual materials, as opposed to the normal chalk and chalkboard method used here. Specially trained teachers must be paid reasonably or they will move on to the public school. The parents pay an additional supplement to tuition as they are able. Many pay nothing at all. It is hard to raise the payments when most cannot even afford the minimal charges. This very much factors into finding a new location.
Eventually, we will either need to get our own classrooms, or we may end up having to close the schools, as the economy worsens. All these are in our thoughts.
I'll try to get another blog post up in the next month. :)
Thanks for your prayers.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Moving
A personal note...Not only are both schools moving next fall, I'm also moving into a new apt. shortly. This one is larger, which is a good thing. We have very little storage room at the schools, so my house ends up being a repository for our materials. I take them back and forth, swapping them around between the two schools and my house. The school stuff has been slowly but surely taking over my place.
Last week I was given the opportunity to look through bunches of boxes and take what we could use at the school. We got some picture books--okay, they are in English, but mostly pictures--and some math manipulatives, wooden toy trains...lots of cool stuff for the kids. Most of it is sitting in boxes in my living room right now! I don't want to take it to the school just to have to bring it back, as we are nearing the end of the school year.
Moving in the DR is tricky. There are all kinds of pitfalls you have to watch out for, and strange things you have to arrange. For example, I have to buy a pump to pump my water up to a storage tank. This is because we only have water for maybe an hour or so every day or two. Then I have to buy and arrange to have a meter installed for my electricity. Oh, and the hook-up to the house. The electric company doesn't do that last little bit, to hook it up; you have to get an electrician to do that. Then there is the inverter, which is my back-up system, that has to be installed through the breakers, so that when the lights go off, mine stay on--except any kitchen appliances. These days almost everyone has inverters.
I can hope that the phone company will take less than three weeks to actually install my phone this time.
The new apt. is a short walk from the church that I've been attending, where we have a new deaf ministry. The location seems like it will be good, based on the areas I expect to work in next year. A friend from church lives just down the block.
There is a hair salon the next apt. over, and that is about as good as having a security guard. The neighborhood is supposed to be fairly calm. The place is on a dirt road, so it is muddy when it rains, and dusty when it doesn't, but probably doesn't get much traffic coming through.
Some of the boys from the school have promised to come over and do all the carting of boxes for me, and that will be a great help.
Thanks to all who have been praying for an appropriate apt. to turn up. Please pray that the move will go smoothly now.
Last week I was given the opportunity to look through bunches of boxes and take what we could use at the school. We got some picture books--okay, they are in English, but mostly pictures--and some math manipulatives, wooden toy trains...lots of cool stuff for the kids. Most of it is sitting in boxes in my living room right now! I don't want to take it to the school just to have to bring it back, as we are nearing the end of the school year.
Moving in the DR is tricky. There are all kinds of pitfalls you have to watch out for, and strange things you have to arrange. For example, I have to buy a pump to pump my water up to a storage tank. This is because we only have water for maybe an hour or so every day or two. Then I have to buy and arrange to have a meter installed for my electricity. Oh, and the hook-up to the house. The electric company doesn't do that last little bit, to hook it up; you have to get an electrician to do that. Then there is the inverter, which is my back-up system, that has to be installed through the breakers, so that when the lights go off, mine stay on--except any kitchen appliances. These days almost everyone has inverters.
I can hope that the phone company will take less than three weeks to actually install my phone this time.
The new apt. is a short walk from the church that I've been attending, where we have a new deaf ministry. The location seems like it will be good, based on the areas I expect to work in next year. A friend from church lives just down the block.
There is a hair salon the next apt. over, and that is about as good as having a security guard. The neighborhood is supposed to be fairly calm. The place is on a dirt road, so it is muddy when it rains, and dusty when it doesn't, but probably doesn't get much traffic coming through.
Some of the boys from the school have promised to come over and do all the carting of boxes for me, and that will be a great help.
Thanks to all who have been praying for an appropriate apt. to turn up. Please pray that the move will go smoothly now.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Good progress
Some of the teachers have begun to use Cued Spanish with their classes during the part of the school day they teach Spanish, reading and writing. Sign Language is here to stay--that goes without saying. The students have a great desire to learn to read, which is the point of their becoming bilingual via Cued Spanish. All the teachers are reporting surprising progress for just a few weeks of work. The kids themselves, are enthusiastic and hungry for more.
Today a mother came in and asked about signing her son up for classes. He is ten years old. He's never been to school. But the unusual thing is that he became deaf just a year ago, due to a high fever.
According to the mom, he is of normal intelligence. She will bring him in on Monday so we can get acquainted, and evaluate what his particular skills and needs are.
The new deaf ministry in Invivienda is doing well. It is totally Deaf-led. I attend the hearing church which meets at the same time, and my role is to be the interpreter as needed for communications between the hearing members/leadership and the deaf members/leadership. The church is also asking me to teach a Sign Language class. I've agreed to do that once I find an apt. and get moved in.
One of our teachers has volunteered to be the Sunday School teacher for the students who attend church in Sabana Perdida.
Most, but not all of the students are back from Easter vacation. It's not at all uncommon for parents to keep them out an extra week at both Christmas and Easter.
Today a mother came in and asked about signing her son up for classes. He is ten years old. He's never been to school. But the unusual thing is that he became deaf just a year ago, due to a high fever.
According to the mom, he is of normal intelligence. She will bring him in on Monday so we can get acquainted, and evaluate what his particular skills and needs are.
The new deaf ministry in Invivienda is doing well. It is totally Deaf-led. I attend the hearing church which meets at the same time, and my role is to be the interpreter as needed for communications between the hearing members/leadership and the deaf members/leadership. The church is also asking me to teach a Sign Language class. I've agreed to do that once I find an apt. and get moved in.
One of our teachers has volunteered to be the Sunday School teacher for the students who attend church in Sabana Perdida.
Most, but not all of the students are back from Easter vacation. It's not at all uncommon for parents to keep them out an extra week at both Christmas and Easter.
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