Dhh times Edmonds School District Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program

From the Desk of Alicia Carter

Dear Families,

Welcome to Spring! It’s hard to believe we are already two-thirds of the way through the

school year, and traditionally, the last trimester is when we see tremendous student

growth. Talk to your child’s teacher(s), visit the classroom(s), provide support for home-

work activities, and encourage your child to be a part of school activities. All of these ac-

tivities will support further growth of skills, academic and social, that naturally occur dur-

ing spring months.

This school year there have been a lot of initiatives that the staff have been learning

about. The teachers have been working collaboratively on professional development ac-

tivities centered on the new teacher evaluation system. This new evaluation system re-

quires a much more specific set of standards and expectations for teachers to study and

perfect. It also requires hours of observation and meeting time for the Program Director/

Principal with teachers.

Our paraeducators have received two days of training provided by the Center for Child-

hood Deafness and Learning (CDHL) on Bi-lingual and Bi-Cultural Development, Social and

Emotional Development, Tutoring Strategies, and Self-Advocacy Development. As a full

program we had CDHL provide a learning opportunity about the Common Core State

Standards and the Smarter Balanced Assessment that is connected to the new state

standards and will start officially next school year. This year, Madrona will be piloting the

Smarter Balanced Assessment (literacy and math) but no scores will be provided.

As a full DHH Program and through our leadership committee we have been working on

updating our vision and mission statement within the DHH program. This will be shared

with staff, families and community in the fall.

Spring Break is the week of April 7th, just around the corner!! Our high school Deaf Aca-

demic Bowl team will be competing in the National Competition. Let’s send them all of

our support and great vibes. Go DHH Warriors!

Alicia

In this issue:

Program Director 1

Pre-School 2

Primary 3

Intermediate 4

Middle School 5

Counselor 6

High School 7

Other News 8

Spring 2014

Volume 3; Issue 2

CONGRATULATIONS!

Edmonds-Woodway DHH student, Alicia Teasley for being awarded as February Student of the Month! She was chosen for her Educational Excellence, Responsible Citizenship, Compassion and Integrity! Please congratulate her when you see her!

Animal Crackers Page 2, Volume 3; Issue 2

Greetings from Animal Crackers! We’d like to welcome Angely to our class! Angely and the other kids have

become fast friends! They enjoyed getting to know each other better.

We went on two different field trips in the month of November. The first one was to the Edmonds Center for

the Arts. We watched the play called, “Before the People Came.” We really enjoyed the play. It was a very

colorful and energized play. The second one was to the Spin Alley in Richmond Beach for our annual DHH

Thanksgiving gathering. The kids really enjoyed bowling, eating pizza, and talking with friends.

We had several parties since December. The first one was our annual Holidays party. We made several

crafts: 2014 hat, Hanukkah star ornament, Kwanzaa bracelet, and Holiday Wreath. We wrapped up our Hol-

iday party by eating a yummy and healthy “candy cane” snack which consists of bananas and strawberries!

Our next party was our annual Valentine’s party in February. We exchanged Valentine’s cards and candies

with TXT. After we exchanged our cards, we made several crafts: Valentine’s cards, a puzzle heart, and a

yarn heart. We also made a Valentine’s sign as a gift for the parents. After we made the crafts, we made a

bag of Valentine’s trail mix (marshmallows, Chex mix, and M&Ms).

Our last party was to celebrate the 100th day of school on Wednes-

day, February 19th! We made 100 fruit loop necklace, 100th day

hat, “100” glasses, and 100 toppings on our “class pizza.” We also

made 100th day Trail mix (10 of each – fruit loops, marshmallows,

Chex mix, cheerios, graham crackers, M&Ms, gummy worms, pret-

zels, raisins, and popcorns).

Not only have we had a few of our annual parties to be celebrated,

but we also celebrated three of our classmates’ birthdays! We

celebrated Henry’s in January, Violetta’s in February, and Talitha’s in March. It was so much fun celebrating

our friend’s birthday each month since the beginning of 2014!

Besides our fun field trips and parties, we’d like to share a few things we learned in our class. We had a few

new weekly themes after the Winter break, which were Time/Clock, Opposites, Sizes, and Health. Time/Clock

was one of our favorite weekly themes. We really enjoyed reading the story about time / clock, making

crafts, and learning how to identify what time it is. Our “Health” theme was beneficial for us, because we

learned so much about how to take care of ourselves. We

learned why it was important to have a good sleep, eat balanced

meals, and exercise. Many of us shared one thing in common:

we love to play outside, which was a very important part of our

well-being!

We are learning about various authors: Dr. Seuss, Kevin Henkes,

Eric Carle, and Jan Brett this month. We cannot wait to share

what we learn about these authors in our next newsletter!

Happy Winter! - Brittney, Elise, Leila, and PJ

TXT Page 3, Volume 3; Issue 2

Hello DHH Madrona community,

I continue to enjoy the TXT students this year. We have an amazing group and I have seen growth and ma-

turity in each child.

We have two new individuals working with us in TXT. The first is Debra. She specializes in working with deaf

and hard of hearing students who also have a vision loss. She modifies materials to make sure students with

various vision challenges have equal access to the curriculum. She also helps all of the other students in the

class as well by providing extra support to them when needed. We also have a new volunteer named Car-

melita in our class. She started volunteering during times that do not conflict with her work schedule. Both

she and Debra are deaf. We are so fortunate to have so many professional adult deaf role models for our

students! Welcome, Debra and Carmelita!

Did you know Madrona provides sign language instruction to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children,

relatives, and interested community members? Currently, this class is taught by Corey Clark. We are so

thankful for Corey’s service to our program and willingness to give his time and expertise to Madrona families

in order to support the dhh students. Corey’s ASL classes are on Thursday evenings from 5:45-6:45pm at Ma-

drona School. Spanish interpreters are also available to interpret for Spanish speaking families. Please con-

tact Alicia Carter if you wish to request a Spanish interpreter. Don’t hesitate to contact me with more infor-

mation about taking sign language classes as well.

Sincerely,

April McGill

mcgilla@edmonds.wednet.edu (425) 431-2942

LOOK: what’s NEW! SEATTLE CHILDREN’S THEATER www.sct.org “Art Dog” Age Recommendation: 5+ Public ASL Interpreted Performance 5/17/2014 @ 2pm

mailto:mcgilla@edmonds.wednet.edu

Etoiles Clercs Page 4, Volume 3; Issue 2

Hello from Étoiles Clerc Center!

This winter has been wonderfully busy.

In math we have been improving our multiplication skills by leaps and bounds! We are very proud of all of our

math achievers. Learning these multiplication facts will help students throughout their entire lives. Students who have

a strong foundation for math facts are more likely to enjoy math and take on the challenge of future math topics.

There are so many different ways to make practicing these facts fun and enjoyable. We love our X-tra Math computer

program and practice it every day. Nolan recently completed the entire program and received a certificate for fluency

and speed. Congratulations, Nolan!

In science we worked with K’nex to build models of cars to learn

about motion and force. Students were challenged with the task of making

their own cars and working in teams to perform different experiments. We

used our science notebooks to document our progress and put down our

findings. We concluded that as force increases there is an increase in speed

over the same distance when we propel our K’nex cars down the hall. We

loved doing these hands-on activities and had a great time seeing science in

motion. Kassandra and LeAnna added a little creative spin on their cars and wanted to see what would happen when

they modified the structure of the car. They had fun playing with the K’nex model and seeing the differences in speed

when they modified the height of their cars.

Back in February we invested a lot of time preparing for Deaf Awareness Week. We created a news video using

our wonderful class talents. Included in our show was a biography of Derrick Coleman, playground safety tips, and a

cafeteria care-taking segment. In addition, Cameron interviewed Keelan about his experience growing up in a Deaf

family. Keelan explained to us how his family uses a Video Phone and how proud he is that everyone signs at home.

Allison treated us to a visit to the Étoiles Clerc Art Gallery where she highlighted some fabulous student art and gave

us a bit of background on the inspiration for the art. She did a tremendous job teaching us about Chuck Baird and ex-

plaining how he continues to inspire Deaf artists nationwide. We are all so proud of Étoiles Clerc students and the final

product of their news program.

Looking forward to April, we would like to send a very warm welcome to our new student Charlie! Charlie joins

us as a 5th grader. We are very excited to incorporate him into our classroom dynamic and show him the ropes at Ma-

drona.

As the sun becomes a little more present in our days and the flowers add color to

our surroundings, we look forward to having a great spring here in our center.

All the best,

Emily, Janeen, and Barbara

Middle School Page 5, Volume 3; Issue 2

Hello again! It's been an exciting few months in middle school, with Deaf Awareness Week at Madrona just wrap-

ping up. The middle school DHH had a great time going into other middle school homerooms and leading ASL games and I was so proud of their presentation at the assembly to the whole school of all the service DPC has done so far this year.

As this goes to press, we have exciting opportunities for two of our students: Adrian Benitez will be debuting as Uncle Henry in the Madrona Children's Theater production of The Wizard of Oz, and Darby Baker was one of 40 students selected from Edmonds School District to attend an international leadership day for teenagers at Key Arena in Seattle called "We Day." I know she will go on to do amazing things!

Finally, thanks to all the parents for their help and support for the large Immigration Journal project. They will be coming home soon and the stu-dents are so proud of their accomplishment, as am I. Erica Villa and Joe Williams were also able to attend the middle school "Immigration Night" and they looked great!

Coming up will be our large Model Congress and American Government unit to end the year, as well as the new Smarter Balanced Assessments. I can't believe spring is just around the corner! A reminder that our Madrona's Vineyard graduation ceremony will be held on after school on Friday, June 6th for the DHH program. The entire 8th grade class will also be graduating on the last day of school to make plans to attend either accordingly! :)

Finally, DHH students' work in the Global Art class continuously gets critical acclaim by staff, visitors and students alike! Teachers will literally interrupt class when walking by the displays to comment on how breath taking the quality of art they are consistently producing is. There will likely be some submissions to the Edmonds Art Festival so keep your eyes peeled for the opportunity to see your child's art displayed in a museum.

Thanks for a great year so far in middle school! Hillary H. and Nancy E.

Jennifer’s Counseling Corner Page 6, Volume 3; Issue 2

Back by popular demand:

Coming to a School near you!

Deaf Community Panel facilitated by Jennifer Luce, MA, OSPI certi-fied School Counselor

When: Wednesday, May 21st

Where: Madrona K-8 School 9300 236th SW Edmonds, WA 98020. We will assemble in the Library.

Time: 6-7:30p

More details and flyers coming soon!

Thank you so much, Olive Garden at 4221 196th St SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036 for their generous donation of an evening meal for approximately 45 students and volunteers at our Madrona Vineyard on January 31st. This is the 2nd year in row that Olive Garden pro-vided these generous donations for our organization.

The Madrona Vineyard Committee

EWHS Warriors! Page 7, Volume 3; Issue 2

The Deaf Academic Bowl team (Grace, Casey, Alicia and Jake) along with Lori Seago and Paul Glaser went to

California School of the Deaf in Riverside, CA to attend regional competitions. They had a great time and did

very well in the competitions coming in 2nd. They will attend Nationals in D.C. in April. Big thanks to several

parents who went to California to support the DAB team!

ADWAS sponsored an event called “Spread the Love” and our DAB girls ran mock competitions for community

members which was one of the highlights of the event.

Our Community Living class (Abraham, Oscar, Mel, John and Allison) completed First Aid training presented by

Anna who is from NOAA. The class had the opportunity to practice on dummies and learned critical techniques

to save lives.

Michael-Liam is currently part of the Ro- botics club at EWHS. He attends classes 2-3 times a week. His team

made a video of his class project and you can check it out on Edmonds School District website under Team

4077 EWHS Robotics. There is a local competition this weekend and if they win they will go to Portland, OR for

the regional championship and the national championship will be held in St. Louis, MO.

Sheilyn is on varsity fast pitch softball team. Come and show your support when the game starts in two weeks.

Casey had the leading role as a mom (Mrs. Drayton) on a play production “Life on the Bowery”. It was a huge success!

ASL Club and Dhh students will be hosting annual carnival at Edmonds-Woodway H.S. on May 28th 2 – 3pm

and there will be prizes for every winner. Pizza and pop will be available for a cost. Please come and join the

fun! Flyer will be sent out soon.

deafREVIEW is a website for deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing and hear-ing allies to rate, review and find deaf-friendly businesses. Currently open in 11 large deaf hubs around the USA, deafREVIEW will launch na-tionwide this Spring. Starting in May, anywhere you go, you can write a deafREVIEW about whether a business was deaf-friendly or deaf-challenged. Almost 1,000 businesses have been reviewed in all areas such as theaters, banks, restaurants, salons, legal, banking, education, government agencies, entertainment and many more. deafREVIEW also provides resources in educating businesses and venues in becoming more accessible through literature, trainings and 1:1 dialogue.

Robotics Club: The Edmonds-Woodway Robotics Club competed recently at the PNW Glacier Peak District event. Out of 32 high school First Robotics teams and after 64 matches, our team won 3rd place.

They also won the Judge’s Award, which recognized a strong team that has been built over the past three years. Congratulations to the Robotics Club and their advisor,

Carmen Marshall!

These girls have been involved in Girl Scout Troop 42606 for the past few years. Some stayed all 4 years and some decided to not return. All of the have had a huge impact on the Cedar and Sound service unit. Because do their spirit to try new hangings they have participated in archery, fire building, first aid, knot tying, survival skills, camping, menu planning cooking and in all of that team cooperation. As this troop ends this year I just want to say how much I have enjoyed their enthusiasm and creativity while they were in my troop. So proud of them as young women and Girl Scouts!

Kathy Jackson