First week of Prac!
Well today I had my first week of Teacher of the Deaf prac and every night when I came home I just couldn't be bothered writing anything in here, so that's why you've had to wait until the weekend now for me to update :P Terrible shame I know... so here's my week in summary:
Monday
First day of prac. My mentor teacher was away in Melbourne so the head of Deaf Ed. at the school showed me around and gave me some classes to sit in on. I saw year 9's, year 10's and 2 Ed Support deaf kids. There are 24 deaf kids at the school overall so there were 5 year 10's and 5 year 9's and I watched their English lessons. The kids are not exactly ALL in age-appropriate year levels, it depends on their literacy and all that sort of thing. Then the other 3 kids I watched, the Ed Support ones, were years 11 and 12. They're the kids I'm going to be spending the most time with. When I say Ed Support that means they have disabilities as well as being deaf. I'm not allowed to explain in any more detail because of confidentiality, but they're great kids and I think I'm going to have a good time!
Tuesday
My mentor teacher was back and when I met her I was like "Oh hi!!!!!" cause I knew her~!! She's been working at WAIDE for the last 2 months and I've seen her there while I've been doing assignments and having classes and stuff. So that was good. As well as her, my Auslan teacher (who is deaf) works at the school as a Teacher of the Deaf too and I saw some of her classes as well. But she's with the Middle School (years 8, 9, 10) and my mentor teacher is in the senior school. So I'm working with her kids most of the time which are the 3 Ed. Support kids and a few more. Spent most of the day with the 3 ES kids. They're great :) We also had a yummy morning tea. Was delicious!
Wednesday
Spent most of the day with the 3 ES kids again. All of the deaf kids are Auslan users, although some are newer to it than others cause they've been brought up to communicate orally. Some are very good orally, some are unintelligible, but they know Auslan. So it's been great to watch and practice and build up my sign vocabulary.
Thursday
My mentor teacher goes to other schools and to homes to visit deaf-blind kids on Thursdays and Fridays. So I went with her because Thursdays are school-visit days. We were going to see 3 deaf-blind kids today, but ended up only seeing 1 because 2 of them were sick. Once again I can't say anything specific about the kids and their conditions but it was a great experience and I'm lucky to have had it cause most of my uni friends wont see anything like it on their pracs. I got to see an aided speech audiogram and a mapping of cochlear implant taking place. Such a great privilege~!
Friday
Friday is my mentor teachers' home visits day and I'm not allowed to go with her on those days cause it can be intrusive on the parents/chidren. So I spent the day with my Auslan teacher's relief teacher and her classes down in the Middle School and that was great. Such a slack day. We had DOTT for 1 period and the 2 boys who we had at the end of the day watch movies at that time every week. So I practiced my Auslan with her and the dictionary. Oh yeah and we had an awesome spread for morning tea too! I get to go to 2 morning teas every week because the Senior School one is earlier in the week when I'm there and the Middle School one is every Friday - when I'm there! I'm gonna get fat again if I'm not careful!! eeek!!
Today I am going to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephew after lunch, then I'm heading over to
moof_mum's and were going to basketball. She's playing and I'm watching and playing with Hannah :) Then were going back to her house and
simple_graces,
lil_tinkerbelle and another friend of ours (who doesn't have LJ) are coming over and we're having a girly night in! Can't wait!!! We all used to go to church together and haven't had such a cool reuniony thingy for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages. I hope
lil_tinkerbelle can come cause I haven't seen her for years!! :) I think
bubbleberri might be coming too? But I'm not sure! But that would be awesome too!!!!! Wooohoo!!! :D
Monday
First day of prac. My mentor teacher was away in Melbourne so the head of Deaf Ed. at the school showed me around and gave me some classes to sit in on. I saw year 9's, year 10's and 2 Ed Support deaf kids. There are 24 deaf kids at the school overall so there were 5 year 10's and 5 year 9's and I watched their English lessons. The kids are not exactly ALL in age-appropriate year levels, it depends on their literacy and all that sort of thing. Then the other 3 kids I watched, the Ed Support ones, were years 11 and 12. They're the kids I'm going to be spending the most time with. When I say Ed Support that means they have disabilities as well as being deaf. I'm not allowed to explain in any more detail because of confidentiality, but they're great kids and I think I'm going to have a good time!
Tuesday
My mentor teacher was back and when I met her I was like "Oh hi!!!!!" cause I knew her~!! She's been working at WAIDE for the last 2 months and I've seen her there while I've been doing assignments and having classes and stuff. So that was good. As well as her, my Auslan teacher (who is deaf) works at the school as a Teacher of the Deaf too and I saw some of her classes as well. But she's with the Middle School (years 8, 9, 10) and my mentor teacher is in the senior school. So I'm working with her kids most of the time which are the 3 Ed. Support kids and a few more. Spent most of the day with the 3 ES kids. They're great :) We also had a yummy morning tea. Was delicious!
Wednesday
Spent most of the day with the 3 ES kids again. All of the deaf kids are Auslan users, although some are newer to it than others cause they've been brought up to communicate orally. Some are very good orally, some are unintelligible, but they know Auslan. So it's been great to watch and practice and build up my sign vocabulary.
Thursday
My mentor teacher goes to other schools and to homes to visit deaf-blind kids on Thursdays and Fridays. So I went with her because Thursdays are school-visit days. We were going to see 3 deaf-blind kids today, but ended up only seeing 1 because 2 of them were sick. Once again I can't say anything specific about the kids and their conditions but it was a great experience and I'm lucky to have had it cause most of my uni friends wont see anything like it on their pracs. I got to see an aided speech audiogram and a mapping of cochlear implant taking place. Such a great privilege~!
Friday
Friday is my mentor teachers' home visits day and I'm not allowed to go with her on those days cause it can be intrusive on the parents/chidren. So I spent the day with my Auslan teacher's relief teacher and her classes down in the Middle School and that was great. Such a slack day. We had DOTT for 1 period and the 2 boys who we had at the end of the day watch movies at that time every week. So I practiced my Auslan with her and the dictionary. Oh yeah and we had an awesome spread for morning tea too! I get to go to 2 morning teas every week because the Senior School one is earlier in the week when I'm there and the Middle School one is every Friday - when I'm there! I'm gonna get fat again if I'm not careful!! eeek!!
Today I am going to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephew after lunch, then I'm heading over to
moof_mum's and were going to basketball. She's playing and I'm watching and playing with Hannah :) Then were going back to her house and
simple_graces,
lil_tinkerbelle and another friend of ours (who doesn't have LJ) are coming over and we're having a girly night in! Can't wait!!! We all used to go to church together and haven't had such a cool reuniony thingy for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages. I hope
lil_tinkerbelle can come cause I haven't seen her for years!! :) I think
bubbleberri might be coming too? But I'm not sure! But that would be awesome too!!!!! Wooohoo!!! :D