Things have been crazy over here. Good but crazy.  I really enjoy the people that I work with each day.  This has become such an incredible learning experience.  Dr. Vold comes tomorrow to observe.

Last weekend Sarah and Neil took Kylie and me to Bath and it was gorgeous. I've been there before, but enjoyed seeing it all again, especially going into the Roman baths and doing the whole audio tour thing.  Claire's birthday party was that Friday as well and was a good time :)

I literally just walked in the door a few minutes ago and had to update this thing before people starting questioning my whereabouts.  Kylie and I took a train into Paddington on Friday and stayed with my family friend, Mrs. Spencer, in Chelsea.  She claims she is the poorest family in the area because Mick Jagger lives next door and Eric Clapton lives down the road.  Her house is also 5 stories high and once belonged to a famous 16th century painter and has an electric gate that you need to buzz in order just to get on her front lawn.  Needless to say it was GORGEOUS.  I cannot wait to go back in 2 weeks with my sister.  Kylie and  I took an open top bus tour yesterday and tried to cram a bunch of site seeing in but Kylie is extremely sick and is actually going to the hospital later because she can't eat or even stand up without feeling pain in her stomach.

Went out last night and saw Helen and Katie! It was so good to see them and I wish I had more time to catch up with them but Kylie was feeling awful and it wasn't fair of me to drag her around.  I also have a pretty nasty chest cold and wasn't feeling great either.  Oh, and money...yeah didn't have a lot of it.  I hope to see both of them towards the end of April so I can have a proper English night out with them :)

Kylie and I leave Saturday for Ireland so I am praying that she starts to get better because she has been looking forward to this for a long time.  My sister arrives on April 9th and I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!  I know she is going to love London simply for what it is--a foreign city that she gets to explore and go nuts with her camera and her big sister.  YAY!!!!!

I am going to try to upload pictures from the last few weeks and then head over to Tesco's later with Meg and get them printed so I can start making an album and deleting stuff off of my memory card. (I know they are saved to my computer but I like having them in my hands)

Bye for now!

Tomorrow's Thursday already, which means a lot has happened since the weekend.  Warwick Castle was beautiful.  Stratford was gorgeous as well and I remembered it perfectly from when I was there four years ago.  Kylie and I took the long walk around the river and spent some time in Holy Trinity Church.  Something about old historic churches just puts me in such a serene mood and I really enjoy them.  I'm looking forward to visiting many more.  Sorry I am short on the details, but I've been pretty tired this week.  Yes, it sounds lame, but traveling all over via car and train and being with a different teacher everyday and seeing tons of kids gets kind of exhausting.  I am also just starting to become more involved with the lessons and LOVE Wednesdays because I get to work with Lesley, the educational audiologist.  I love observing and taking notes on how she tells students certain things.  A lot of kids are resisting wearing their hearing aids and the way that Lesley deals with them is amazing.  I hope to be able to be that firm and supportive when I get into the field, even just as a teacher of the deaf.

I've met so many different children and still can't get over the amount of children that have cochlear implants.  It is simply AMAZING to see the progress that these children have made.  I have seen proof that when a child is implanted under the age of 2 that their speech is at an age-appropriate level or very close to it.  The more I am exposed to cochlear implants and how well they work, the more I feel that I was sort of forced/pushed/brainwashed into believing (when I was a freshman and sophomore) that being manual and an important part of the deaf community was the only way to be.  I find that to be absolutely not true anymore.  Don't get me wrong, if you are manual and go to a deaf school and are happy, that is FINE.  All I'm saying is that there is another side to the issue that I feel I wasn't fairly exposed to (Don't worry DK, not you!).  Now that I have studied more and have been taught and experienced oral education, the more I feel that it is an equally important aspect to being deaf.  Young kids need the chance to be able to have age-appropriate speech, vocabulary, and language (expressive and receptive) in order to function as well as hearing kids. Its all just been very eye-opening.

***NOTE: If you are in the field, in NO WAY am I putting down manualism or sign language AT ALL. I'm just expressing my feelings on what I've been recently exposed to.  Some children are better suited in deaf schools and benefit more from sign language.

All else in Worcester has been lovely. I just think its awesome waking up in the morning knowing that you are in a different country and not knowing what you will face that day.  Claire's birthday and party are on Friday and she is having a get together at the house with a lot of the teachers from St. Barnabas.  On Saturday, Sarah is taking Kylie and me to Bath! I am so pumped! It is absolutely gorgeous there and I can't wait to see it again.

So half-term (2 weeks off from school) starts on Friday April 3rd.  I've decided to go to Ireland with Kylie until Wednesday the 8th.  My sister flies out to Birmingham on Thursday the 9th.  I will let her rest for the day and then we are heading to London for a few days.  After hitting all of the good touristy spots (and pubs!), we will head over to Paris for the rest of the week.  I need to start making travel arrangements soon!  I am so excited to see Paris.  I think it is going to be beautiful.

Tomorrow I am going to a school for higher education and observing/possibly helping out in a basic skills literacy class that consists mainly of profoundly deaf students who do not wear hearing aids.  I will see some serious BSL.  It should be interesting. Another learning experience!

Well, time for dinner. Bye!

First Real Weekend

Here are pictures from this weekend's visit to Warwick Castle and Stratford. You can view pictures that I add from now on at the website below. Enjoy!

http://england2009.shutterfly.com/

(You have to cut and paste it into your browser. Sorry!)

Much has happened since the last time I posted.  I know it was only a few days ago and tomorrow will mark one week that I've been here, but there has been so much going on!  I am REALLY enjoying the family that I am staying with.  They are extremely welcoming and I'm starting to let my real personality (which mostly consists of sarcasm) surface.  

Wednesday- I spent the day at Fort Royal Special School with an educational audiologist named Leslie.  We spent the entire day conducting hearing/speech tests.  I was able to see an extreme range of students with special needs, from Downs and attention problems to confining wheelchairs and spastic muscle disorders.  I really enjoyed seeing all of the techniques that Leslie used to test the children.  Much like I did with Margaret, we had to turn the assessment into a game.  Leslie has this small wooden boat with 10 holes in it and when the child heard a noise they placed a little wooden man in it.  It was so cute! She also had peg boards, stuffed animals, and important equipment like sound level measurers, a machine that ran tests on hearing aids, etc

Thursday- Caught the train to Malvern Link and met up with a teacher of the deaf named Jane.  We saw these adorable deaf twin girls who are in year 2 and have cochlear implants.  They requested that I bring pictures of my house and family to the next session.  I met some other children too, but all of the kids and days start to blur together because I am not with just one teacher.  Had dinner at Sarah's last night with her two sons and Kylie as well.  Good times because Sarah's sons are hilarious and love having two older girls as their audience.  After Sarah's, Claire picked me up and we went to her friend's house for tea, etc.  I entertained Meg and her friend Hannah. Good times.

Friday-Took the train to Kidderminster and met Geoff, another teacher of the deaf.  He then dropped me off with another ToD named Pat and we went to see two students.  I am pretty sure the one girl on Pat's caseload is the worst case I've ever seen.  She is an 8 year old Bangladeshi student that has the vocabulary (some spoken, mostly BSL) of a two year old.  She was implanted at the age of 2 per her parent's request and her relatives didn't even know she had had the surgery until 2 years after!  Like many parents with deaf children, they must have thought the cochlear would "fix" their child.  She has never learned to properly use it (and by that I mean wear it long enough and learn sound discrimination).  Her mother takes her receiver off when she gets home from school, on the weekends, and during holiday.  This child is so far behind and from what I hear its a boarder-line case of neglect because social services have been involved and the mother refuses to pick up the phone or answer the door when they visit or call.  The hearing team has made a request that the child go to the Birmingham School for the Deaf but the parents refuse to send her.  The team is trying to make it mandatory that the student attends and is providing transportation as well.  The child also has poor hygiene and a consistent case of lice, which I witnessed first hand today because she would not stop scratching her head.  It was really quite sad.  I seriously hope she gets a chance to go to a deaf school so that she can communicate with children her own age and acquire a strong and appropriate language base.

So I know many of you might not find this interesting, but to those involved in the field, I want to know what you think about the following.  Almost every child that the hearing team has (maybe 70+ students?) has at least one cochlear implant.  All of the students were candidates, meaning their loss was profound.  For the most part, the language of these students is age appropriate and about every implant is being used appropriately (minus one or two cases).  The success rate has been phenomenal. The hearing team finds it strange that I have not come in contact with many deaf students in the US who have implants.  I can't give a definitive answer.  Is it because most of them are in deaf schools?  Are implants not pushed as much by doctors?  Was their just a lack of children in western PA with cochlears? Is it because the health system in the UK pays for everything?  They were surprised here because they thought that in the US MANY deaf students had CI's and felt as if their country was actually behind.  I just find all of this incredibly interesting because the equipment and approach used towards deaf students with CI's is much different than what I am used to.  AND I've now been exposed to BSL and I have to say its quite different.  It honestly is so weird.  It seems like it just doesn't make as much sense as ASL.  Yes, thats me being biased, but seriously!  The two-handed alphabet is so confusing and the signs in general just don't seem practical.  I don't know if it is because I actually "see" the sign I am doing when using ASL and most of the signs actually look like the word you are trying to sign.  Catch my drift?  Probably not if you don't know ASL.  I have picked up some basic signs but I just wish it was ASL. (Again, I am favoring America. Oh well.)

I love the fact that I am able to experience another side of Deaf culture.  I learn something new everyday and I think it is giving me incredible exposure to deafness in general.

ANYWAY.  Going out to dinner with Kylie tonight to one of the one jillion Indian restaurants in town.  Tomorrow Claire is taking us to Stratford (home of Anne Hathaway and Shakespeare) and also to Warwick Castle. So excited!  Then at night we are going to Keystones Pub to see a band that Dave knows. 

Well, leave comments if you wish. Bye!

Don't Chew Your Hearing Aids

So today was my first "real" day of student teaching, which consists mostly of observing at this point.  The whole itinerant ("parapatetic") aspect is still the same.  I traveled with a lady named Jo today and we get on so well.  It turns out I have to take the train 4 days a week, which wasn't incorporated into the money I was saving to come over here.  Dave is contacting IUP in order to have those fools pay for my travel because I would end up spending a fortune.

For those of you that understand and actually do care, the hearing aids here are pretty much the same, a lot of Phonak ones.  However, their FM systems (they call them RHA's--radio hearing aids) are very different.  The also call hearing aid boots "shoes".  Anyway, the FM systems are the ones that the child wears in a little fanny pack that has two wires sticking out that attach to the boots on the hearing aids.  It looks so 80's but Jo explained that they will only give out their best equipment to students who can properly manage it and to those who are not "heavy handed".  I mean, one year 2 student we saw today CHEWS ON HIS HEARING AIDS.  What?! It's not like casually chewing the ends of your glasses when you take them off and twirl them around.  You actually have to take the hearing aids out of your ears, undo the tubing, and then place them in your mouth. UM?!? Tomorrow is another day.  Each day I work with a different hearing teacher so there should be plenty of good stories.

Anyway, just got back from Tesco with Claire who has been so amazing.  The whole family is great and have hooked me up with a phone, converter, and a ride to work everyday.  All the teachers from St. Barnabas are meeting down at the pub later so I'm going to join in order to see Kylie.  Kylie had a day off already!  Its only been 2 school days.  Her school had meetings all day so it would have been pointless for her to be there.  Alright, off to get ready for the pub. Bye!

Arrival and my "Family"

I arrived at the Birmingham airport yesterday morning at 7am "their" time.  Ironically, Kylie (the other IUP student) was sitting in the row behind me on the plane! We didn't even know that we were on the same flight.  I sat next to a guy named Mark who is a little older than me and will be here in the UK for the next year.  The plane ride wasn't bad and went relatively fast.  Kylie and I were met by Dave Kling, the man who corresponds with people from IUP and sets up our teaching placements.

We were then dropped off at our host family's houses.  I live in a small community-type area where most of the houses are connected.  The house is tall and narrow with a kitchen, small dining area, sun room, and family room on the first floor.  Upstairs there is Meg's room (Claire's 14 year old daughter), my room, the bathroom, and Claire/Carl's room. (Carl is Claire's boyfriend) Such a lovely family!  They have been amazing.  Claire and Carl took me to the Tesco around the corner to pick up some groceries.  I love all of the simple differences, even in a food store!  A little while later, I thought I was going to fall asleep standing up so I caved and took a one hour nap, woke up for some baggets for lunch, lounged for a little bit, and then had to sleep for another 3 hours.  After that I watched some TV with Carl and Claire's parents, who are here for the weekend from Wales.  I've been bombarded with questions about EVERYTHING from Obama to the population of PA, which I don't even know.

Last night we went to Sara's for dinner.  Sara works with Claire at a school and is Kylie's host.  We had an amazing time and even more amazing food!  Roasted red peppers, fish w/ lemon and pesto sauce, fresh vegetables, (4 glasses of wine...I thought it would help me sleep!), and two types of chocolate desserts.

Tonight, Dave is taking Kylie and me out to a pub to catch us up on important school information and find out what places we are interested in seeing while we are here.  So far, everything is going so well! I need to buy a phone card to eventually call my parents. (They have this blog address so hopefully they are checking up on it!)

So long for now. I am so excited about this new experience!

-Lisa

PS- My family has an adorable cat named Millie!

So much to do!

I finally got around to making a blog for my trip to England. So much has happened in the last couple of months. I lived with strangers in Butler, PA, who turned out to be wonderful and automotive experts. I ended up spending well over $1,000 on my stupid car. I had the privilege of working with Margaret for 7 weeks and meeting/teaching a very interesting case load of students. My eyes were definitely opened to the world of itinerant teaching and I couldn't have had a better teacher to work with! I spent my weekends at IUP with my friends who were more than generous when it came to letting me stay with them and who, as always, provide good times on the weekend. Whether we were glued to the couch watching hours of Nip/Tuck, playing games, or at the bar, I knew I was always in good company.

Some random things about my first deaf ed. placement:
-Because of the amount of driving involved, I used 14 full tanks of gas in 7 weeks.
-I drove over 3,000 miles
-I needed to rent a car twice
-I learned EVERY single word to EVERY single pop/rap/r&b song that is out on the radio because I don't have an adapter for my iPod to use in the car
-I watched 5 complete seasons of Nip/Tuck
-I learned what it really meant to be cold when my heating system broke in my car and the high temperature for the day was 5 degrees
-I worked with THE BEST CO-OP EVER!!!
-I met some pretty interesting students to say the least

So I have 2 and a half days to rearrange my life and get ready for ENGLAND! I am so happy I am taking advantage of this opportunity. While financially I am already in the hole, I figure a chance like this doesn't come about too often so I might as well go for it.

I still have to find a suitcase and figure out how to get two months of my life into it. I contacted my host family yesterday and they said they are really excited to meet me, which makes me feel a little bit better. The lady (Claire) has a 14 yr. old daughter and the only thing they asked for in the email was for me to bring them Hershey bars and Skittles. HA! I think we will get along JUST fine.

I am going to Boarders today with my sister to look at travel books because she is flying out April 10th and we are probably going to France and Spain. I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Ok, enough of this. I have lots to do and not a lot of time. The whole family is coming over tomorrow for dinner and I can't wait to see them all! (and Duke!!!)

-Lisa