TA Live! Thursday March 9th at 1:00 PM, Topic: Online DeafBlind Resources

Join RMTC: D/HH for TA Live!

Topic: Online DeafBlind Resources

When: Thursday March 9th at 1:00 PM

Where: http://connect.fsdb.k12.fl.us/rmtc

Presenter: Michelle Pearson, M.A., Technical Assistance Specialist for Florida & Virgin Islands Deaf-Blind Collaborative (FAVI-DBC)

Our presenter, Michelle Pearson, will share with us a multitude of resources that are available online that relate to language development, communi-cation, reading, sensory integration, family networking, interpreter training, and more - all related to children who have both a vision loss and a hearing loss. Michelle is part of the The Florida & Virgin Islands Deaf-Blind Collaborative, which serves the entire state of Florida providing training and consultation services to the families and educational teams of Florida's children and young adults (ages 0-22). As the project's Deaf-Blind Education Specialist and Technical Assistance Specialist, Michelle provides technical assistance and consultation to families, public school programs, educators, and service providers who have children and youth who are Deaf-Blind. The FAVI Deaf-Blind Collaborative is committed to promoting the full inclusion and participation of persons with deaf-blindness as active members of their communities. FAVI strives to build the capacity of families, schools, districts, and teams by providing training and disseminating information on sensory loss, multiple disabilities, and best practices.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mandy Longo at mandy.longo@rmtcdhh.org

Regional Focus Groups for ESE Directors

The Resource Materials Technology Center for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (RMTC-D/HH) will be conducting regional focus groups on issues related to educating students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing. As a state discretionary project and statewide specialized FDLRS Center, these focus groups are important tools to allow the Center and the State to gather information that can be used to plan future programming and support for your district and other districts.

RMTC-DHH would like each district to be represented in the regional focus groups. If the ESE Director cannot attend, please send someone to represent your district. If your district is unable to attend the focus group in your region, you are welcome to attend any other regional focus group.

There will be a total of five regional focus groups across Florida. Data from all of the sessions is analyzed and a combined report is produced documenting the results. District and/or individual comments are never tied to a specific district or person in this report. The district is simply listed as being a participant in the focus groups in order to ensure anonymity.

The focus group at each site will take place from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. That same day, in the afternoon, we will also offer an optional Hot Topics Discussion from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. This will be a more unstructured discussion where you can bring issues or topics of concern to troubleshoot or simply discuss. We have conducted several of these around the state in the past, and they have proved very popular with administrators, coordinators, and teachers of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing.

RMTC-DHH will be asking each district to attend a specific regional focus group. However, if your district cannot make that particular focus group, please feel free to attend any other session if you can.

The focus groups will be conducted on the following dates at the following locations:

Monday, March 20 - FDLRS NEFEC - Palatka, FL
Wednesday, March 22 - FDLRS Heartland, Lake Placid, FL
Thursday, March 23 - Lake County Public Schools District Office, Leesburg, FL
Wednesday, April 19 - FDLRS PAEC - Chipley, FL
Thursday, April 20 - FDLRS Miccosukee - Tallahassee, FL

We want to thank you in advance for participating, as the information collected is very useful in helping to determine what services, supports, and training will be helpful to districts across the state. The focus groups also serve to assist both RMTC and FLDOE in better understanding regional and statewide issues, concerns, and needs involving the education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing in the state of Florida.

More information will follow soon regarding the session your district is requested to attend. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mark Keith at keithm@fsdb.k12.fl.us or (904) 827-2731.

Language Learning through the Eye and Ear Webcast
Tuesday, March 14 at 1:00 pm

http://www3.gallaudet.edu/clerc-center/learning-opportunities/webcasts/language-learning-through-the-eye-and-ear-webcast.html

This webcast is produced by Clerc Center and is designed to increase knowledge among early interventionists. This research-based webcast addresses how deaf and hard-of-hearing babies acquire language and why one should sign with babies as early as possible. Babies are busy learning language from birth, even though they may not be signing right away. From the moment they arrive, babies are seeking patterns in human language, whether signed or spoken. This webcast will give early interventionists a foundational knowledge to engage in dialogue with parents and professionals about the neurolinguistic benefits of early exposure to visual language for all babies.

As a result of this webcast, you will be able to:

Explain how babies' pattern seeking abilities help them acquire language
Understand how early sign language exposure benefits deaf and hard-of-hearing children and how this provides building blocks for social and academic engagement
Describe the importance of joint attention, child-directed language, and rich conversation with deaf and hard-of-hearing babies
Counter common but inaccurate assumptions surrounding dual language learning in deaf and hard-of-hearing children with research-supported data

Summer Camp Opportunities

Upcoming summer camps for high school students who are deaf and hard of hearing and entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grade in fall 2017 - Droids & Drones and Health Care Careers Exploration Camp (HCCEC). The Droids & Drones Camp will be held at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, AL, while The Health Care Careers Exploration Camp will be held on our beautiful NTID campus. Some scholarships funds are available to those who need support based on their financial needs. For more information about the two camps, please see below.

Droids & Drones Camp

Droids and Drones summer camp, FREE for qualified deaf and hard-of-hearing students who are residents of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. and will be in grade 10-12 in fall 2017. The camp is sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf and will be held June 18-23, 2017 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama. Your students will:

Build their own drone to take home
Learn about various careers in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and robotics
Discover what types of careers fit their interests
Be part of hands-on demonstrations in robotic engineering and drone technology
Enjoy field trips to related facilities
Make new friends and have fun!

Space is limited, so encourage your students to apply at http://www.ntid.rit.edu/camps/droidsanddrones. All required application materials must be in by May 15.

Flyer for Droids & Drones Camp

Health Care Careers Exploration Camp

The healthcare field is one of the fastest growing employment fields today. If you are working with deaf or hard-of-hearing college-bound students who will be in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade in fall 2017, and who are interested in the health care field. They can get exposure to health care careers when they join us at RIT/NTID's Health Care Careers Exploration Camp. The camp will be July 22-27 at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf campus in Rochester, New York. During the camp, your students will

Discover which health care careers fit their interests
Attend medical demonstrations and field trips
Be part of hands-on demonstrations in biology, physical therapy, medical laboratory sciences, nursing, nutrition, and more
Become CPR/first aid certified
Make new friends and have fun!

Interested students can apply at http://www.ntid.rit.edu/camps/healthcareers/. Room, board and other program costs are included in the camp fee of $700. Learn more at http://www.rit.edu/ntid/healthcareers. Space is limited so encourage interested students to apply today! All required application materials must be in by May 15.

For information or questions, call 585-286-4602 (videophone) or email aajnsl@rit.edu.

Flyer for Health Care Careers Exploration Camp

Signing Shadows and The Orlando Shakespeare Theater

Signing Shadows and The Orlando Shakespeare Theater will be offering another ASL Shadow Interpreted Performance this spring, with their production of Pinkalicious: The Musical. There will be just one show on April 29th at 2:00. Learn more on their Facebook event page.

Free SignIt ASL Online Class

SignIt ASL Online Class is now available FREE to families with young children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Who qualifies for this program?
If you are a parent living in the U.S. with a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, age 36 months or younger, submit your application at http://www.MyDeafChild.org.

What if I don't qualify?
We're working to expand our free distribution to even more families, while funding and creating new Lessons. If you have connections with a potential funding partner, please let us know at http://foundation@signingtime.com.

Can I still get SignIt ASL?
Yes, you can purchase SignIt ASL online class. Your purchase helps fund new Lessons! Get Unit 1 and Unit 2 together and save 20% - regularly 99.99, now just 79.99 (that's less than $8 per lesson!).

If you have questions about this program, please email us at foundation@signingtime.com

Dr. Naomi Caselli awarded NIH grant to research language

deprivation in deaf children

Dr. Naomi Caselli, lecturer in the Deaf Studies program, has been awarded a $503,999 three-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant from the National Institute On Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).

"The goal of this project is to develop three tests of early American Sign Language vocabulary," Dr. Caselli said. The tests will aim to address a need for early detection of language deprivation in deaf children.

(Click to read more)