As I venture into the next chapter of my career I think about educational technology. I’m about to start a journey into the world of integrated dance.

How can technology benefit me and my future students in this field?

Students with whom I’d be working with will likely have some sort of assistive technologies in their everyday lives.

How can I utilize that in order to most effectively impact their education?

For many students with cognitive challenges, being able to use technologies can be extremely beneficial. So as I take my first steps into this new chapter of my life I will be also taking into account how educational technologies and software can be incorporated.

For those of you who have never seen a performance of integrated dance I recommend you check this video out. Hope you enjoy it!

If you have any suggestions or answers to the above questions please share below:

Who should your resolutions benefit? Melanie shares with us her new look at making resolutions.

As I sit here during a snow day, I reflect back a week or two ago to a time when i was making resolutions.  There’s always the typical ones…health, money, and the like.  But is that all I have to think about nowadays?  Now I am a teacher…my students come first.  What are my resolutions for myself in relation to them?  What are my resolutions for them.  I stare out to the snow and wonder what’s the best for them…

I resolve to…

• Use my prep time wisely
• Be 100% ready to teach a lesson
• Smile at every student when they enter my classroom
• Tell them each how important they are to me at some point during the class
• Thank them for their hard work, even if they had an off day
• Remember that I may be the only person smiling at them that day, so throwing in a hug can’t hurt
• Pay attention to their questions or comments
• Answer their questions, whether i know the answer or i have to look it up
• Find something exciting to put in the lesson every day

…

Am I suddenly an adult to think this next thought? How do kids have the chutzpah to speak back to teachers the way they do today? I say this with respect to a class I teach who have no problem making consistent inappropriate comments to me and their peers. Every once in a while they will apologize or change their ways for a day, but it doesn’t seem to last. They roll their eyes and feel like their so cool for speaking that way, and the response we all know the teachers want to give, is held back so that we don’t get fired.

One would hope that the lesson of respect would happen at home, but that is not always the case, and particularly it is not a point of accountability at a residential school for students with special needs.  65% of the students are away from their families for 4 days out of the week, and are told what to do by residential advisors who are ‘in loco parentis’–but not the real thing, nonetheless.  And what if there is simply no reinforcement at home for the respectable behaviors?

I personally like to take the approach of keeping a…

As the summer comes to an end (just metaphorically for the South, as it will literally be hot until December…) I reminisce about my first full year as a real live school teacher, and my first full-time job summer vacation. How did it all fly by so quickly? What did I do during that blink of an eye? A lot, it seems!

No wonder the year raced by; I jumped right in to two buildings on campus during the school day and a third for after school hours.  All the running around will surely make for a quick day…never staying in one place for too long.  Could that be foreshadowing for my career? Doing a million things in a million places and loving it all?  Part of me hopes that is the case.

Summer vacation is a time, I now officially know, that students are not the only ones who turn their brains off from school thoughts.  The break from that mind-set was much needed. However, I’ve been just as excited to turn those thoughts back on.  This year will bring many exciting adventures about which I am very happy.  Is the pressure on to top myself from last year?…

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandee…

Being a Northerner in the South wasn’t quite as akward as it may once have seemed. After moving down to South Carolina, everyone I met, my colleagues especially, took me under their wing to help me get situated and comfortable in my new surroundings.

I took it upon myself to investigate the ways and goings on of the South Carolina Educational System.  It seemed to be pretty typical.  Most importantly I observed the expectations of faculty and staff for the students in the school.  I was happy to notice that there were high expectations and students were being challenged just as in any other public school.

My boss is the nicest woman, I really couldn’t have gotten luckier.  She advised us to read a book about the first year as a teacher.  I took advice from this book, so I’m thankful she requested we read it.  I began my first class not with an activity but by having a dialogue with my students about who I am, who they are, what I expect, what they expect, and how can we have a successful year.  The students responded well, and I felt I gained their respect…

Melanie shares with us her story of why she wanted to be a teacher of the deaf and the arts

….what do I want to do with my life?

The question that haunts us all as young adults!  What do I truly want to spend the next 20-30 years doing?  Plenty of people could give you an answer, although that answer may change during each phase of college.  And how many people, when finally deciding for sure, get to actually do what they’d be most happy doing?

I am proud to say I’m one of those lucky few!

How did I get here??….

When I was in 8th grade my school had a deaf program in which students who were deaf and hard of hearing were included into some mainstream classes.  I was curious about the students and became friendly with a few of them who were my age.

In order to communicate with them I learned their language, with the help of their interpreter.  I was quickly mesmerized by the beautiful dance of hands before me and anxiously wanted to learn more.  I seeked out a Deaf Community in my neighborhood and lo and behold there was a…

Hi Everyone, I’m Melanie!

I am a movement-minded, New York woman who can’t stand still when there’s music playing. Even in the silence I feel the creative energies overcoming me. That’s probably why I’ve become what I’ve become. After enduring some hardships (surgeries) as a pre-professional dancer, I focused my energy on music, while still dancing as much as I could. As I got stronger again, I incorporated dance into my music world as much as possible while still abiding by the courses’ guidelines.

I graduated from Hofstra University, having transferred from University of Buffalo, with a BS in Music Education. All the while, still dancing in musicals and broadening my horizons. Towards the end of my college career, a love and fascination of American Sign Language and Deaf Culture came flying back into my life. This was not just a side interest any longer, but a love in need of pursuing.

After taking a year to rest my brain after college, I attended NTID @ RIT for my Master’s Degree in Deaf Education. While there I focused on teaching the performing arts to deaf and hard of hearing students. I was able to assist drama directors as my…