January 31, 2017

Met with Elizabeth Shaeffer, Principal

5 classes of deaf/ hard-of-hearing

Come from all over the city-its a challenge for students to get to
the school

Some students commute for over an hour

Students cannot hear the announcements

Rely on interpretation to convey announcements to students

Only school in the city for the deaf

Faywood is the new home of the Metro School for the Deaf, which
was previously located at Davisville Public School

Students use Google Hangouts for social interactions

Sharon Mitchell, Deaf teacher, joined meeting

Low literacy level in students( Varying levels of ability)

Smart Boards in all classrooms

Announcements are less dependent on pre-recorded videos

Deaf students also think the announcements are an issue

Currently teachers interpret announcements for students

No interest by staff to pre-record announcements

Deaf classes have 8-10 students

Kids that can partially hear are usually mainstreamed

Teacher (Sharon) believes in signing and speaking English at the

same time (uses Signed English as a bridge between English and
ASL)

Interpreter support within classroom

 ASL literacy can also be low (varying levels of ability)

Some hearing students are learning ASL

The interpreter asked for us to be more specific when speaking
(because she couldnt sign exactly what we were speaking due to
the differences in English and ASL)

February 7, 2017
Lights alert class to announcements

Interpreter is only in the classroom for novel study

Announcements force teachers to sign unexpectedly

Florence (a deaf Education Assistant) cant hear the

announcements (and therefore cant convey them to students)

At previous Metro School for the Deaf, announcements were closed

captions

Gesture to get attention of others

Undivided attention is important in communication

The school has integrated geography, math, history, and English

classes

Some students have deaf siblings very few have deaf

parents/parents who know how to sign

Families of Deaf students are often of lower income

Many students are new Canadians (one is from Jamaica and one is
Brazil), and did not have access to any previous form of
communication

Some students have Cochlear Implants - Helps to increase hearing

capabilities of DHH students

Students crave being able to communicate with a deaf adult (their

teachers) Daily Moth, DPAN ( deaf information sources on youtube
and tv)
 This kind of information can be difficult to find for students to find
on their own

Staff at Faywood (3 interpreters-2 of which are deaf, 4 EAs-1 of

which is deaf, 2 deaf Special Needs Assistant)

February 14, 2017

$1000 budget for hardware

Increase staff capacity to use technology to eliminate

communication barriers between students and staff

Must be usable by someone already within the school

Maintenance preferred to be performed during summer vacation

Project must be completed by the end of the school year

Could you use a survey with the students to see the effectiveness
of the system?

Observed ASL lesson with class

Lessons incorporate teaching regarding accessibility

Announcements happen at 8:50 am

Staff spend about 10 minutes preparing announcements in the

morning

Announcements throughout the day are often unrelated to the Deaf

classes, but time must be taken to interpret the message anyways

Announcements go through many mediums in order to get to the

students

Sharon said that

TVs present in each class, however they do not work due to faulty
wiring

Approximately 12 announcement interruptions everyday (as

explained by Sharon)
 Every deaf teacher is supplied with a blackberry that the
announcements are supposed to be relayed to, but the
administration does not follow through with this.

Students have conversations amongst themselves in ASL while the

lesson is happening

Webpages on the Smart Boards took long to load, potentially slow

wifi

If the parents cannot sign, the students get no language exposure

at home

Some of the parents are not supportive of their children accessing

an ASL environment - want them to attend oral programs

Students have no Deaf friends in their community, rarely get to see

other Deaf peers outside of school

Lesson teaching them to stand up for their rights, students dont

learn self-advocacy at home

Students get no exposure to family values or culture at home

Sharon said that the students tell her everything because they have
no one to tell at home (due to not being able to communicate with
their parents)