The Clipboard
| Spring 1997 | VOLUME IV | Susan Lindsey, Ed. |
It has been seven months since we closed Convocation V and left the halls of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In that time many of us have returned to classrooms and ushered in a new school year, greeting new students and reminiscing with those who left us just a few short months ago.
Our students arrived in the fall full of questions and eager in their search for answers. Returning with these students were the familiar staff meetings, interpreting assignments, and IEP conferences. Some of us have questioned the future of our programs, and others have had to make difficult decisions concerning the students or professionals under our supervision. Each of us has probably taken some time to think about the upcoming months and to consider the things we have done in the past. Our thoughts have been filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation for new opportunities.
Members of the PESDHH Executive Committee have had similar thoughts since the beginning of the new year. We welcomed new members and expresssed our grattitude to our departing officers. Jean Saunders and Valerie Houser have dedicated the past few years to creating a strong and proud organization, and their contributions will be recognized by the membership for years to come. Returning officers and members bring their experience and assistance to those of us who have been recently elected to serve you. Together we look back with appreciation at the accomplishments this organization has brought into being, and ponder the role of PESDHH in the coming years.
This is a time of change for our organization. With new challenges come new questions, and with new questions musht come answers. How will PESDHH continue to grow and improve in the future? The officers who have served before us set a model for dedication and initiative which we need to follow into the coming century.
My hope is that PESDHH expands beyond the geographic confines that have challenged our depth as an organization up to this point. The planning committee is already hard at work preparing for Convocation VI and doing a wonderful job. Past convocations have allowed us to share a great deal of information with one another, and we need to explore additional opportunites which would spur further interaction among our membership.
Becky Plymale contributed a great deal of her time n the past year to compiling a membership directory. With the assistance of Anita Iurlano, she was able to complete the directory for distribution at the last convocation. Hopefully you have found this booklet to be a useful resource in networking with colleagues in your area as well as across the commonwealth.
Susan Lindsey has challenged our members to use the Clipboard to share our ideas and opinions, and I see this publication as an excellent vehicle for professional development. With the help of our members I hope we can take advantage of technology and connect to each other more frequently via the Internet, possibly through the use of a home page on the World Wide Web. Technology alone will not define our future, though, and opportunities exist in every district across the state. Inservices or short panel discussions could be hosted by PESDHH members, allowing for local gatherings throughout the year. This would allow us to discuss topics outside of the theme for the annual convocation or expand upon themes from a past convocation session. We can reach out to our colleagues who are preparing the next generation of interpreters, teachers, administrators, audiologists, and speech/language patholog8ists by sharing our experiences and inviting new members into our organization.
The next two years will be an exciting time for PESDHH. Working together we can ensure that a strong and useful organization continues to thrive in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I thank you for the opportunity you have given to me to serve as your president. I aim to serve you to the best of my ability. As you look into your future, I hope you will consider the degree to which you can help our organization grow. Enjoy what I hope will be a rewarding and memorable year for each of you.
Scott Dougherty
President
At the conclusion of Convocation V in Indiana last summer, Jean Saunders, then president of PESDHH, asked Scranton State School for the Deaf (SSSD) to take a lead role in planning Convocation VI. SSSD, under the direction of Dorothy Bambach, with support from Susan Lindsey at the Eastern Instructional Support Center (EISC), has done exactly that. The convocation will be held a t Dorothy's alma mater, Marywood College, which is just a block from SSSD in Scranton.
This year, for the first time, PESDHH members will have the opportunity to register for two courses to be taught by Gallaudet University instructors. Dr. Thomas W. Jones will teach Prevention and Management of Problem behavior for Teachers of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students on August 12 and 13 from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm.
Dr. Richard Lytle will teach Emotional Intelligence: How Schools and Teachers Can Promote Self Discipline on August 15 and 16 from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm. Each course will cost $274.00 and will be worth one graduate credit.
The call for papers left the EISC in mid-January. In addition to the 500 names in the PESDHH mailing list database, the announcement was sent to approximately 150 individuals and programs in the states surrounding Pennsylvania in the hopes of generating some new presenters and topics. But that doesn't mean that you're not wanted and needed! The annual convocation is PESDHH's primary reason for existing, according to its members. It remains a grass roots effort. Please take advantage of this opportunity to share your ideas with your fellow educators--classroom teachers, itinerant teachers, interpreters, paraprofessionals, audiologists, administrators, and parents. Help to make the convocation everything you want it to be. No one can represent you nearly as well as you can represent yourself.
The summer of 1996 saw a number of changes within the Instructional Support System of Pennsylvania (ISSP). Programs were combined and, in some cases, renamed to reflect the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) desire to increase "the capacity of Pennsylvania school districts to provide meaningful educational services and programs to ALL of their children (inclusive of those with disabilities) within their local school communities."
Under the new structure of support services to local intermediate units and school districts, five managing directors (James Duffey at the Eastern Instructional Support Center; Fran Warkomski at the Central Instructional Support Center, formerly known as PennTech; Maryan McCormick at the Central Instructional Support Center; Danielle Houser at the Central Instructional Support Center; and Carol Gottron at the Western Instructional Support Center) and three program directors (Joseph Kovaleski, Timothy Knoster, and Jeannine Brinkley) will provide leadership to support all phases of the new structure. These directors and the staffs of the three instructional support centers are part of the Accommodations for Learning Framework which has been established to increase local capacity and to provide ongoing support to meet the needs of all students.
As one of the PDE support initiatives, Educational Resources for Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ERCDHH), still often referred to as ERCHL (Educational Resources for Children with Hearing Loss), continues to function under the direction of Dorothy Bambach and Managing Director Maryan McCormick. The members of the ERCDHH Committee meet during the academic year to discuss issues of concern and importance to educational programs for students who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the Commonwealth. Based on members' discussion and input from other individuals in the field, ERCDHH provides information and suggestions to PDE for action and implementation.
This new structure, the Accommodations for Learning Framework, will support progress in a responsible manner to enable the Instructional Support System of Pennsylvania to continue the expansion of local capacity-building which has already taken place through the regional resource system in Pennsylvania. For additional information contact the local ISSP hearing consultant who provides technical assistance to your area: Anita Iurlano, WISC; Thomas Clouse, CISC; or Susan Lindsey, EISC.
Are you a classroom teacher? How many times have you said to yourself, "Itinerant teaching? Nope. Nuh-uh. Not me." Maybe you are an itinerant teacher. How many times have you said the same thing about classroom teaching? The two roles seem miles apart from one another. Well, meet someone who took the plunge--Melissa McGhee.
After twenty years as a classroom teacher of elementary students who are deaf and hard of hearing, Melissa McGhee suddenly found herself without a classroom due to changing enrollment patterns. So she did the unthinkable. She became an itinerant hearing teacher.
"At the beginning of the year, I got myself all worked up," reports Melissa. "I was soooo nervous. 'I've gotta get there on time,' I'd say to myself. I'd get really disappointed if I'd get to a school and find that I didn't have everything I needed. It still happens, but I'm learning to improvise. Now I'll grab a book and just go with it.' Tom Clouse reassured me. If he had faith in me, I figured I could do it."
In a way Melissa has the best of both worlds--some itinerant work, some classroom work. She spends her mornings at Smethport Intermediate Unit (IU) 9's early intervention site working with two preschool children who spend some time in an inclusive setting. Her afternoons are spent on the road working with hard of hearing kids who range in age from preschool to high school level.
So tell us the truth, Melissa. Are the roles really that different? "Yes!" she exclaims without hesitation. "I'm not responsible for teaching academics anymore. Instead I concentrate on curriculum support, as well as on language comprehension, auditory training, and speechreading."
"In my classroom I was in control. I was responsible for all of my students all of the time. Now I'm not in control. I only see some of my students once a week."
"As a classroom teacher, I knew exactly what to do when a student's hearing aid needed repair. Now I see kids in many different school districts, each of which has its own repair procedures, and I've had to learn them all."
"Now I evaluate kids as they're identified. It took some work getting to the point where I could, especially with the age range of my students."
Are there advantages to being an itinerant teacher? "Having the freedom to come and go makes the days go faster. It also forces me to concentrate on remembering where I need to go today and who I need to see. All of a sudden the week's over! But with the independence comes the potential for abuse, something I never thought about when I was a classroom teacher."
It doesn't happen often, but once in awhile each of us encounters a student we don't especially want to see. "Now I know that I'll only spend 30 minutes with him rather than the whole day!"
Melissa enjoys roaming from school to school and having the opportunity to sample delicious foods prepared by and for teachers. In recent weeks she has learned to appreciate the serendipity of discovering upon arrival an early dismissal due to inclement weather. "Darn!"
Are there things Melissa misses about being a classroom teacher? "When there's a problem with a child, I'm right there to take care of it immediately. Now a teacher says, ĪThis happened a few days ago,' so I don't have a handle on what really occurred."
This year I have a few kids I wish I could put together so I could focus on one small group of teachers rather than a large group. I can make suggestions to teachers, but they don't really understand what I'm talking about until they work with the kids awhile. I'm not there to guide them as much as I'd like to be. But I did hound some of them for a while. They'd see me coming and roll their eyes," laughs Melissa.
"Itinerant teaching is a little escape for me. I enjoy it immensely; it's less pressure; I'm learning a lot; and I'm having fun. But I do miss the classroom. I'll look forward to having one again."
Melissa told her supervisor that the job has an unexpected perk. She has learned to enjoy the smell of gasoline. He warned her not to inhale too deeply!
Montgomery County Intermediate Unit has the rare fortune of housing all of its classrooms for students who are deaf and hard of hearing in Wissahickon School District. One of the keys to its success is Jan Josiassen, who teaches at Shady Grove Elementary School in Ambler.
For two hours each week Jan works on an Internet project with a profoundly deaf student named David Monahan, age ten, who is fully mainstreamed with interpreter services at Shady Grove. David's goal is to establish weekly email correspondence with a student living in a different climate zone as a means of tracking the weather patterns in one another's regions. Simultaneously the search affords him the opportunity to explore computer access as a communication mode. At the conclusion of this venture, projected for the end of March, David will chart the data he has collected over a period of two months in ClarisWorks 4.0.
After having learned the basics of utilizing computer technology, David immediately began corresponding with Ben Williams, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit Program Supervisor. His next contact was Marilyn Galloway at Gallaudet University, who helped him make connections with students in Australia. Surprise! The students in Australia were in the midst of summer vacation, because their seasons were the opposite of ours. David's next stop was the Kids' Pub website, where he sought correspondence with students his own age. All of his responses were from hearing students, which brought David to the realization that he really was looking for a deaf student with whom to correspond.
David is committed to making discoveries for himself, and Jan supports his aha! philosophy. David began keeping a log of his activities after getting lost on the Internet repeatedly. The desire to return to previously visited sites led him to the discovery of bookmarks as a means of doing so.
David now visits several websites regularly. One such site is operated by the New Mexico School for the Deaf. Another is the Silent Apple for children of deaf adults and teachers of students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Jan advises teachers to explore websites in advance to determine where the questionable sites are located and to establish rules about where students can and cannot go on the Internet. She has created a contract with David which specifies goals, activities, and restrictions, and she has shared it with his parents so that they can monitor his activities at home.
Jan was no computer novice when David's project began. Still, she reports that she and David had to learn many things that she thought she knew. Alan "how bad is the damage" Rothman, a Wissahickon School District technology support staff member, has been invaluable to her in troubleshooting technical glitches.
David is an "exceptional kid with extraordinary self-esteem," according to Jan. He functions well in a hearing environment, but his deafness is a part of him, one which he relishes exploring. On one occasion, David was so sick that he needed to go home, but he was so absorbed by his computer that he didn't want to leave! As David moves into the work force, computer technology will serve as his connection with hearing people. For now, it's a way for him to learn about his deafness, one which leads to "so much richness." In David's words, "I like to explore the Internet because there are no deaf people who live in my area. having the Internet is like having many deaf people living right in your home."
Jan and David recommend the following sites to PESDHH members:
 | Deaf World Web |
| NTID High Technology Center |
| Yahoo! Education |
| Pre-College National Missions Programs, Gallaudet University |
| Linking Education and the Internet |
| KidPub WWW Publishing |
| Welcome to Silent Apple (Silent Apple has been temporarily/permanently discontinued due to lack of time on the editor's part) |
| Deaf Kids' Penpals |
Is there a need for deaf role models in public school programs? Do students being educated in public school programs need to develop a sense of identity as deaf or hard of hearing? If so, how does on nurture that identity? In the Capital Area Intermediate Unit (IU) 15, there are answers to these questions.
Three years ago Karen Ruddle and Kathleen Eich began a program known as The Deaf Spotlight. Their first step was to scavenge the northeastern United States for individuals who were deaf and hard of hearing. The two of them were looking for people with stories to share, stories not just about being deaf but about tackling life, stories which could inspire in their very simplicity.
Karen and Kathleen's next step was to invite these individuals, one at a time, to visit their program. Their third step was to begin preparing their students for these visits. That's when the real work began.
For six weeks prior to an anticipated visit, Karen and Kathleen's students would study a theme connected to the visit--community service, discrimination, setting personal goals, taking risks, the role of heroes in the lives of the common man--a theme which tied into the classroom curriculum content. They created a bulletin board connected to the theme. They wrote a letter to the guest asking for an autobiography and photographs. They determined the kind of information they wanted to acquire from this individual and the kinds of questions they needed to ask in order to get this information. What's your favorite color may have been an appropriate question to ask a new student, but it wasn't appropriate to pose to an adult, particularly a stranger. The students practiced interviewing one another. They invited their parents to be with them on this auspicious occasion.
Each date was awaited with much anticipation, and finally it arrived. One class would serve as host on this day. These students would assume responsibility for refreshments. How much will be needed? How much will it cost? How will it be set-up? Why must the guests always eat first?!
The other class would have the more difficult assignment this time. Two students would serve as interviewers, two would serve as videographers, one would serve as photographer, one would welcome the guests, one would introduce the person in the deaf spotlight. Before the program ended, the parents would be invited to join in an informal dialogue with the presenter and with the students.
At the conclusion of each program, thank you notes were sent, photographs were captioned for placement in a scrapbook, what-did-I-learn summaries were written. Pervading these activities was the importance of effective communication in all of its forms, in all aspects of life.
Denise Brown visited the IU 15 Deaf Spotlight program and shared her Peace Corps adventures. Michael shared his experiences with discrimination as a post office employee. Richard, a commercial pilot for a packaging company addressed the topic of setting goals and reaching one's dreams. Joe Hilbish invited the classes to his farm where he spoke to them about striking out on one's own, taking risks. Libby Pollard, Sandy Duncan, and others shared their experiences and perspectives.
Janet Parker asked the students to think of their best and worst experiences ever and to assign colors to these experiences. One day an individual is on top of the world, and the color is light and airy. Another day he's really scared, and the color is frightful. Another day he's feeling his absolute worst, and the color is equally so. But if all of those colors, representing all of life's events, are placed on the wall together, over time they become a beautiful mosaic.
Do you know of an individual who could enrich the lives of IU 15's students? Or your own? Are you one of these individuals? Well, what are you waiting for? Contact Barbara Chubb, IU 15 supervisor, at:
Capital Area Intermediate Unit 15
55 Miller Street Box 489
Summerdale, PA 17093
717-732-8400
Archbishop Ryan School for Children with Hearing Impairment has undergone a tremendous change this year. In August, 1997, it moved its operations from west Philadelphia to the suburbs of Delaware County. Ryan's oral/aural program is housed at St. Gabriel School in Norwood. Its total communication program is housed five minutes away at St. George School.
Why the move? Judith Sexton, Archbishop Ryan's principal, explains that a growing enrollment and an expansion of oral/aural and total communication program offerings prompted the change. The need for space was compounded by the fact that there were no opportunities for inclusion with hearing students at the west Philadelphia site.
The Ryan School staff wanted to find locations which would enable its students to be together so that the students would derive support from one another and wouldn't lose their deaf identities. The search committee spent three years combing the five-county Philadelphia area for new locations. It chose the two sites out of which the school now operates for three reasons:
"I love it here," says Judy. "We have been embraced."
Judy describes her program as a school within a school. She stresses the fact that she runs one program, not two. The St. George program mirrors the St. Gabriel program. Joint faculty meetings, joint parent meetings, and joint principal meetings reinforce this philosophy.
"The child is always first," Judy continues. "Ultimately, the child chooses his/her own communication method." If a child's needs change, the transition from one building to the other is facilitated by Ryan's uniform operating procedures. This reduces the likelihood of such transfers having devastating impact upon children and families.
A move of this nature takes advance preparation and continued nurturing. The Ryan staff began preparing its students for the move a year in advance. The teachers wanted to make sure that their kids would survive in classes of 25 students. Regular education classroom expectations (when and how to ask for clarification and repetition), communication strategies, and strategies for fostering relationships were addressed and continue to be addressed. Last spring all of Ryan's students were brought to the two program sites for a day filled with picnics and socializing.
In June the Ryan School faculty arrived at both sites to offer an intensive day of training for the existing faculties. Staff members were trained in the use of There's a Hearing Impaired Child in My Classroom (Gallaudet Press) and Ryan's own inclusion manual. All regular education staff members were trained in the use of FM systems as well.
Judy's staff has worked hard to convince the regular education staff members that their deaf and hard of hearing students should be held to the same behavior standards as their hearing counterparts. If they show up in sneakers or forget their copy books, they get detention like everyone else! Grading policies and absenteeism (How does a student make-up work when he/she misses a regular education class?) are two issues the three staffs continue to address.
In September Judy began making weekly visits to all of the hearing classrooms in both schools to answer questions about hearing loss. She vowed that no deaf or hard of hearing child would be placed in a hearing classroom until the students in that classroom had undergone extensive instruction.
Inclusion is a slow process which must be addressed one child at a time by a team of parents and teachers who know the child well. As its roots take hold, teachers begin to experiment. At the St. Gabriel Campus, for example, the gym and art teachers decided to team-teach their classes with the Ryan staff. One week the St. Gabriel teacher takes all of the students. The next week the Ryan teacher takes all of the students.
"Our experience shows what can be accomplished f you believe in something," says Judy. "Support has come from unexpected directions, and it amazes me. Our kids are thriving. And I'm so happy to find that I'm still sane!"
For a copy of Archbishop Ryan's inclusion manual, contact Judy at the following location:
Archbishop Ryan School
St. Gabriel Campus
233 Mohawk Avenue
Norwood, PA 19074
610-586-7044
Picture this: You are an educational interpreter working in a rural area of Pennsylvania. Even though it's a trek, you travel an hour and a half each way to the closest "big city" and the interpreter training program at the community college to finish your associate degree. You interpret for five junior high schoolers who are included for math, gym, art, home economics, and social studies. You think you're doing a good job, but you have very little opportunity for feedback. Where do you turn?
One alternative is the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA). The EIPA is a tool which assesses the skills of want-to-be and working educational interpreters and which provides feedback for improvement.
Here's the process: Contact your regional educational consultant for a free copy of the EIPA Manual which will describe for you the rationale behind the test and an outline of the application steps to be followed. Complete the requisite paperwork, return it with a check for $100.00, then schedule an appointment to have a videotape made of your sign and voice performance. You can elect to use a simulated assessment videotape or to have a live recording made of yourself in the classroom with the student(s) with whom you work. Either way, your videotape is sent to a team of two raters (one deaf and one hearing) trained in the EIPA. The raters view and score your performance and make suggestions of how to enhance your skills. A rating from zero to five is given in each of 45 categories. These raw scores are averaged together to produce a final score. An overall score of 3.5 (70%) has been determined to be the minimal standard for working interpreters.
The scores are important; the feedback is critical. The results can be used to chart a plan for personal and professional development. For some educational interpreters the EIPA has served as a stepping stone for taking the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) certification examination.
Did the description at the beginning of this article sound familiar to you? It's a true story about a PESDHH member (Judy Young) an educational interpreter at Cranberry High School near Franklin, Pennsylvania. At the end of the last school year, Carol Niznik, supervisor of hearing support, and Tom Finlan, special education director for Riverview Intermediate Unit 6, financed the taking of the EIPA by their entire educational interpreting staff and all of their substitute interpreters. Carol reports that, "The EIPA has allowed us to identify the strengths and needs of our interpreters and areas where we can provide professional development for them." Judy says, "I have a long way to go before attempting the RID exam, but this assessment has helped me to focus my efforts on key skills that I am missing. It was nerve-wracking, but I survived. Try it!"
In February, 1996, the Pennsylvania Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) formed a subcommittee to study the issue of universal hearing screening for infants. Thanks to the efforts of ICC members and Lou Sieminski, an audiologist, Senate Bill (SB) 1640, which would mandate universal screening, was introduced into the Pennsylvania Senate health and Welfare Committee by Senator Lemmond on July 3, 1996.
By the close of the Senate session in late fall, the proposed bill had not moved out of committee. Election year priorities took precedence over infant screening, and time ran out. However, Senator Lemmond's office has indicated that it will reintroduce the bill this session. When that happens, the bill's supporters will be working to gather community support for the bill. Letters have already been solicited from PESDHH, Educators of Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ERCDHH); Pennsylvania Speech, Language, and Hearing Association (PSHA); Self Help for Hard of Hearing (SHHH); the A.G. Bell Association; and local ICC's from across the commonwealth.
The first four years of life are critical to the development of communications skills in all children, including children who are deaf and hard of hearing. No matter what form of communication a family chooses, early intervention is critical to the child's well-being. If parents know that their babies are deaf and hard of hearing at birth, they can access support services for their infants, as well as for themselves. Yet the average age at which hearing loss is diagnosed remains 2 1/2 years.
If universal screening were mandated, there would be additional benefits. Opportunities could arise in the newborn nursery to alert medical personnel and parents to the impact of hearing loss on the developing child. Parents of normally hearing babies could be taught to recognize the symptoms of otitis media before it develops. Ironically, however, not everyone supports the idea of universal screening. Organizations which do support the concept of universal screening include Healthy People 2000; the American Academy of Pediatricians; the American Academy of Audiology; and the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association.
The AdHoc Committee on Universal Hearing Screening is chaired by Myra Yingling and Sheila Coyne. Sheila is a parent-infant specialist for Delaware County Intermediate Unit (IU) 25 and a PESDHH member. For additional information or to lend your support of the committee's efforts, contact Sheila at 610-325-0396, x45. Look for committee members at PESDHH's roundtable discussion on universal hearing screenings in August.
In the last few years Kevin Miller's name and face have become familiar to convocation participants. In July Kevin leaf his position as assistant professor of special education and education of the deaf and hard of hearing at Trenton State College to become supervisor of hearing and vision support at Bucks County Intermediate Unit (IU) 22. Recently the Clipboard had the opportunity to catch up with Kevin in his new capacity.
What prompted the change in position, Kevin?
In my classes at Trenton State College, I was talking about the way in which service delivery should operate, and I started questioning the ivory tower mentality. Is college relevant? Could the things I believed in survive in the real world? What is the real world? I had a doctorate in administration which I had never used, and I wanted to know about administration first-hand.
What do you like about being a program supervisor?
In addition to the immediacy of the job, I like seeing staff members believe in themselves, and I like helping them bring their ideas to life. They're very talented, and it's fun to say, "What you did was neat. That was a good idea." I like the fermentation process, the way in which ideas come to the surface - a resource room for students who are hard of hearing, for instance. Public education is very much alive and vibrant.
Is there anything you dislike about your new role?
Responding to fires takes energy, so there's little time left to look down the road, to reflect upon the big picture, but I'm beginning to get some opportunities to do so.
What are your goals for the program?
I'd like to get the teachers to make presentations and to teach college courses. They should be talking and writing about the neat ideas they have.
I'd like to reexamine the philosophy of total communication. What do people believe it means? How do we meet the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students in public school settings when their needs vary so widely and their numbers are so small?
I'm not sure that I believe in the goal of full inclusion. Integration is successful at some schools. There is a true esprit de corps at Armstrong Middle School, for example. The general education teachers there really like having our kids, and our students have true hearing friends. A couple of kids have made the football and basketball teams, so their interpreter has become a coach of sorts. Clearly, the chemistry is right. How do we replicate that? How do we capture that essence in a bottle and avoid those situations in which kids become isolated?
Itinerant teachers need to find time to reflect. I'd also like them to meet with general education teachers and possibly to team teach with general education teachers. I want them to touch bases with each other, to visit one another's programs, to have mini staff meetings of sorts. I encourage them to use their time creatively. To demonstrate. To get away from pull out programs. To think of a way to still serve kids but indirectly.
What are your goals for yourself?
In July my goal was to survive!
I don't see much in the literature about working in a far-flung cooperative program. Finding the time to put ideas about the good things that are happening on paper is difficult, but I think it can happen.
My main regret is that I can't be everywhere in a county this big. I do a lot by telephone, so the teachers end up fending for themselves. They're perfectly capable of doing that, but I feel guilty.
Is there anything you'd like to say to the PESDHH membership?
Ten years ago, if you had asked me whether Pennsylvania would have any meaning for me in the future, I would have said, "Not at all!" Yet even during my time in New Jersey most of my contacts were from Pennsylvania. I wouldn't be who I am, professionally or personally, without the support of a variety of people from Pennsylvania over the last four years.
In may ways Archbishop Ryan School has had an incredible impact on me. I would like to emulate what it does, that degree of enthusiasm. In fact, I try to hire its student teachers!
I don't want to sever my relationship with teaching, although I don't miss grading tests! I'd like to teach graduate level administration classes. Now I can talk about what really goes on from experience rather than from reading about it.
Help Wanted Desperately
The Clipboard is in need of some regular columnists to write about innovative technology, terrific instructional materials, and upcoming events. Even if you are not willing to write, you could give Susan Lindsey a call and suggest ideas to her. If you value this publication and wish to see it continue, please lend a hand. Thanks.
Scranton State School for the Deaf (SSSD) is in need of a school guidance councillor. For more information contact Dorothy Bambach, SSSD Superintendent, at 717-963-4040 (V/TTY).
Linda Burik: Your shoes are much harder to fill than I realized. What was I thinking?! Thank you for setting such a high standard. -- Susan Lindsey
The following individuals have contributed to this publication (most of them voluntarily):
| Judith Ball |
| Dorothy Bambach |
| Barbara Bateman |
| Barbara Bricks |
| Linda Burik |
| Barbara Chubb |
| Thomas Clouse |
| Sheila Coyne |
| Scott Dougherty |
| Anita Iurlano |
| Debra Jordan |
| Jan Josiassen |
| Melissa McGhee |
| Kevin Miller |
| Jeanne Sandusky |
| Judith Sexton |
| William Soldano |
If your school, or individual classroom has news of interest to our members, write an article for the next issue of the newsletter. Send a copy to
Susan Lindsey
Eastern Instructional Support Center
200 Anderson Road
King of Prussia, PA 19406
VOICE (700) 441-3215, ext. 243
TTY (610) 768-9723