Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

A Learning Celebration I Evaluation Center makes some changes! I Hard of Hearing Mentor Pilot Program I The Vermont Interpreter Referral Service I Big News!! I Ninth Annual Golf Tournament I A Hearing Aid and FM Simulation I Informational Tidbits: Experience Journal I Educational Oral Transliterator Training Workshop I Additional Summer Trainings I Vermont Deaf Expo I Changes, Changes: The Future of Outpourings

 

A Learning CelebrationAs mentioned in the previous issue of Outpourings, the Vermont Center will celebrate its tenth year anniversary during the 08/09 school year. There will be several in-house activities to mark the occasion as well as some community events.Of particular note, is the conference that will take place Wednesday, November 19th at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier. The morning keynote speaker will be Marc Marschark, Ph.D. Marc is a Professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a College of Rochester Institute of Technology, and the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He also is Director of the Center for Education Research Partnerships at RIT. Active in research concerning deaf and hard of hearing individuals since the 1980s, his primary interest is in relations among language, learning and development. His current research focuses on relations of language and learning by deaf and hard of hearing children and adults in formal and informal educational settings. He has a special interest in literacy and examines the myths and realities of educating deaf and hard of hearing students and discusses the implications of various teaching methodologies.In addition to Marc’s presentation the day will also allow VCDHH an opportunity to showcase all its programs with displays. Program staff will be available to answer questions and share information.

The plan for the afternoon is to share information about classroom acoustics and begin a discussion regarding improving the classroom listening and learning environment. Recognizing how challenging a noisy environment can be for students, add hearing loss to the mix and the situation can become frustrating and tiring for students as well as teachers. Improving classroom acoustics is good for all students not just those who have a hearing loss. In an effort to increase awareness of this issue and offer support to Vermont schools, Ken Kaliski from Resource Systems Group plans to present on this topic. He will discuss how to assess the acoustical environment in the classroom, identify problems and create affordable solutions to maximize learning for all students.

These presentations on November 19th will be especially informative for anyone who is a case manager of a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, as well as teachers, school principals and Special Ed Administrators. These workshops will be offered at a minimal cost. People are welcome to come for all or part of the day. More information and details will be available in the fall. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

VERMONT CENTER SERVICES
Evaluation Center makes some changes!
The busy spring/summer season is in full swing. BethAnn Jacques defended her thesis on May 14 and received her Clinical Doctorate in Audiology on May 23. Soon after that all the paperwork will be finished and she will become a fully credentialed audiologist. Way to go BethAnn!!! We are very happy that she will be continuing her work here at VCDHH. Alexandra Tully returned to the center on a part-time basis as of June 2. Welcome Back, Alex! The biggest change this summer is the departure of Jennifer Audette. She has worked at VCDHH for nearly seven years and as an audiologist for almost eleven years. Although she will maintain her Audiology license, she is looking for a change and will be taking a break from Audiology for now. She says she will miss being on this lovely campus and working with such great people. But more important we will miss her and we thank her for all her good work and wish her all good things for the future…wherever it takes her. Thanks and Good Luck, Jen!

In addition to all of the above, another exciting development in the Evaluation Center is that BethAnn will travel to Arizona this summer to participate in a training sponsored by the National Center for Hearing Assessment & Management (NCHAM). This is an opportunity for participating audiologists to enhance their knowledge and skills in the assessment of hearing loss in infants and strategies to ensure appropriate amplification and intervention for infants and toddlers with hearing loss. Her participation in this training is made possible through VT’s EHDI (Early Hearing Detection & Intervention) program run by VT Department of Health. Many thanks to them.

Hard of Hearing Mentor Pilot Program. The Regional Consultants have been successful in securing grant funds from the VT Developmental Disabilities Council to support a pilot program of mentoring services to students who are hard of hearing. The pilot funds will cover some of the costs of developing the program, curriculum and materials and mentor fees for the students involved in the pilot. The mentor program is modeled after the Deaf Mentor program but specifically addressing the needs and issues faced by students who are hard of hearing. The student will be paired with an adult who is hard of hearing. It is expected that through this program a student will be given the opportunity to establish a relationship with an adult who is “just like me and through that relationship have the opportunity to develop a positive attitude and a better understanding of what it means to be hard of hearing. If successful we hope to be able to offer the program as a service available through the IEP process. Once again we appreciate the Council’s support of our initiatives in addressing the needs of the students and families with whom we work.

The Vermont Interpreter Referral Service (VIRS) held its 3rd Annual Fundraiser for the Yolande Henry Community Fund on Saturday, May 17th in the gym at Croker Hall. This year’s entertainment was “The Rosa Lee Show” starring Rosa Lee Gallimore, a Deaf performance artist now residing in Massachusetts. Rosa Lee’s brilliant blending of poetry, story-telling, music and video — dealing with subjects both serious and hilarious — had the audience cheering and hand-waving for all they were worth. A number of people said that it was the best show they had ever seen !
Between the proceeds from the spaghetti dinner before the show, the tickets sales, sales of desserts, water and raffle tickets, the Community Fund raised $2,600. The VIRS Advisory Committee did a superb job selling tickets, helping with set-up, clean-up, and other organizational activities.

Special thanks to Bert Carter and VCDHH for their generous sponsorship, also to VT RID and Sorenson Communications for additional sponsorship funds. Eric Annis, Bill Dickman and Doug Lehane did a great job setting up the gym; Lucy Spahr-Blazej was a lifesaver with the sound and tech equipment; Rick Beam and Pat Printon made a fabulous spaghetti dinner; Anne Potter was a marvelous Mistress of Ceremonies; and super extra thanks to the interpreters, Virginia Clark and Elizabeth Bjerke for the wonderful job they did !!

Big News!! Two huge newsworthy items from Austine School. The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) has selected the Austine School as 2008-2009 NASET School of Excellence. This distinction has been bestowed on only a few qualified private special education schools in Vermont and is presented to schools that meet rigorous professional criteria and have demonstrated truly exceptional dedication, commitment and achievement in the field of special education.

The second piece of news is that starting this September, the
Austine High School academic program will be housed at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS). The goal of this collaboration is to provide our high school students with access to the resources available at BUHS while maintaining our program, as an independent School for the Deaf.

Austine will maintain its identity as separate from BUHS.The school will still have its own sports teams and after school activities.We are not changing our philosophy or our mission. We are striving to offer our students all the tools they need to get the best education possible.

If you have any questions or concerns about this undertaking, contact Bert (bcarter@vcdhh.org)

Ninth Annual Golf Tournament will be held Friday, June 27th at the Brattleboro Country Club from 8:00am until 1:00pm. All proceeds go to the Student Life Enrichment for all students served by VCDHH. For info contact Barb—258-9500 or bmassey@vcdhh.org.

A Hearing Aid and FM Simulation. VCDHH consultants Jim Bombicino and Paige Russell reproduced an educational DVD on hearing aid and FM use to demonstrate to teachers, parents and services providers the benefits of FM assistive technology. We hope to make it available on the VCDHH website in the near future.

Informational Tidbits
Experience Journal. Children’s Hospital Boston at Waltham is pleased to announce the creation of the experience journal website. The website is a welcoming environment created to entertain, explore and educate readers about deaf and hard of hearing children, adolescents, young adults and their families. It is a collection of stories, pictures and personal accounts contributed by people of all ages who are deaf or hard of hearing. There are also links to stories from families who must contend with significant physical and emotional illnesses. All family members are welcome to enter and explore any or all of the Experience Journals.

Educational Oral Transliterator Training Workshop. The Mainstream Center at Clarke School will be sponsoring this 5 day training August 18-22 at the Clarke School in Northampton, MA. This workshop is designed for beginners who will be working in educational settings and all activities, discussions and materials will focus on the school/classroom settings. For more information contact Claire Troiano (413) 582-1147 or via email at ctroiano@clarkeschool.org. You can find more information at the website www.clarkeschool.org under
Mainstream Center.

Additional Summer trainings are available a little further from home through the Clerc Center at Gallaudet University. Check our those offerings at http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/

Vermont Deaf Expo for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Late-Deafened and Deaf-Blind will be held Saturday, October 4th at the Red Roof Inn in Brattleboro, VT. The event will include exhibits, workshops, evening banquet, magic show and more. For more information, contact Will via email at William.pendlebury@ahs.state.vt.us. Hope you can make it!

Changes, Changes….

The Future of Outpourings. In many issues of Outpourings we have made reference to VCDHH’s new website in an attempt to direct interested people to it as a resource for what’s happening in and around the organization.

Last summer we contracted with a web master and transported all the information on the old site to a new, updated one.The result is a much more attractive, colorful and easy to navigate site. We have been slowly adding links but our work is far from done. Websites to be effective have to be dynamic. There was turnover within the company with which we contracted and that has slowed us down. During this summer we will enter discussions with the web master to either renegotiate our contract or look for a new provider.

All this just to say that this will be the last edition of Outpourings in its current format. VCDHH publishes several periodicals and there is some overlap. We are striving to be more efficient in our information sharing. The plan is to move Outpourings to the web site perhaps in the form of program blogs or a different links from the one that currently connects you to the Outpourings articles. We hope you bear with us in this transition and periodically check out our webpage, VCDHH.ORG for information and updates.We appreciate your interest and patience during the transition.

In closing out our last printed version I would like to thank all our readers. I hope you found the newsletter worthwhile and will look for us in our new format on-line, VCDHH.ORG.

I would especially like to thank the Outpourings proofreader, Kim Messer. She always managed to catch the extra or forgotten comma or period or the sentence that just did not read correctly.

Thanks to this and every issue’s contributors. Terry Keegan, Editor