Before you can even ask...

When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them that I am a teacher of children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing. And then I brace myself for the inevitable question that follows: "Oh, so you know sign language?" The answer is that while I do know some, I do not use it in the classroom. I teach in an oral program; that means that every child wears hearing aids (or has a cochlear implant) and my job is to teach them to listen, as well as to narrow the gap in their language delay.

I am also a brand new teacher. This is my first year out in the "real world". I meant to start this blog at the beginning of the year, but time slipped away from me, and here we are in March! I have learned a lot of valuable lessons so far this year--stuff they apparently can't teach you in college. To make an education major more practical to college students everywhere, I propose the following curriculum:
"Copy Machines 101"
"Dealing with well-meaning, yet incompetent administrators 210"
"Paperwork Management 101"
"Avoiding Teacher Lounge Gossip 220"
"Colleague Mediation 201"
And finally, maybe the most important:
"Catering to Psycho Parents 310"

I guess that was my little way of summing up the last few months :). I hope to keep this site up-to-date for my parents and friends across the ocean, as well as for my family in the arctic Midwest, because Max is really hogging our other blog :)