Academic Life

While I attended Radford University for Speech and Hearing therapy, we had several professors, speech therapists, audiologists and students in the Speech and Hearing program that worked with me and my parents in developing better listening and language skills.

When I was three years old, I attended a pre-school program at Blacksburg High School, where I started receiving services from speech pathologists and teachers for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  There were a few times that student interns from Radford University came to my home to work with me.  

I was five years old when I completed my time at the pre-school program at Blacksburg High School. My parents enrolled me in a Montessori pre-school where I continued to receive services for my hearing loss.  Pat Jones worked with me developing language and listening skills.  She was the first Teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing I had.  She used sign language with me to bridge spoken language (i.e. she signed preposition words to help me understand the differences of on, off, under, above, beside, etc.).

When I entered kindergarten, I had my first sign language interpreter with me half day.  Starting first grade, I had an interpreter throughout the day in all classes.  Ever since, I have used interpreting services for academic purposes.  Without interpreting services and the visual support, I would have had a harder time succeeding in my classes.  When I was a junior in high school, my interpreter was offered a different job position and decided to take it.  It was a struggle to find an interpreter who had the qualifications to match my needs.  After going through several interpreters, I felt that there was no one who was skilled enough for me.  I felt that I was better off focusing on my teachers and lip-reading.  I was provided with a note-taker in all of my classes since it was impossible for me to take notes and watch the teachers at the same time (I’m still trying to figure out how to make one eye look down at the paper and the other eye look at the instructor…I still haven’t mastered this). This was already an accommodation of mine even with interpreting services.  Keep in mind that lip-reading is a hard skill to acquire and I’m really good at it. However, this is one reason why sign language has been so beneficial for me, especially in educational settings in which I had sign language interpretation. This enabled me to access spoken language that I would have otherwise missed due to my hearing loss.

Not only did I have a sign language interpreter, but I also used an FM equipment coupled with my personal hearing aids.  Looking back, it’s kind of neat to see the evolution in the assistive listening devices I’ve used. My first FM equipment was body worn.  I had a small box that hung from my neck and strapped around my waist.  Then I remember switching to an FM that looked like a hearing aid with a small antenna sticking out.  Then I switched to a new FM where you attach the receivers to your hearing aids.  After 6th grade, I decided not to use the FM anymore as I wasn’t finding it useful.

I believe the most different thing my elementary teachers had to do was wear the equipment.  They had to learn how to utilize and troubleshoot the equipment as I was learning how to do this myself.  I know some of my teachers enjoyed wearing the FM because they loved to mess with me when they left the classroom. One of my teachers shared with me that she loved going out of the classroom and talking to the microphone “Kayla… this is God!” I’ve had teachers accidentally leaving the classroom and going to the bathroom with it on. I remember one time, a student got into trouble in class.  The teacher took them out into the hallway to have a discussion with him.  My friends came up closer to me and put their ears onto my ears so they could hear the discussion the teacher was having.  So many funny stories!!

I had an amazing teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, who is one of my idols. She is the only teacher I had growing up who allowed me to use her first name.  It’s so weird hearing “Mrs. Ritchie.”  I always called her “Miss Connie.”

Random fact:  I provided her with her personal sign name.  This woman is in love with chocolate.  If you know the sign for chocolate, you sign “chocolate” using the initials C transitioning to R.  I believe she still uses this sign to this day.

Anyways, back on point.  Miss Connie worked with me since day one in kindergarten all the way until I graduated high school.  She taught me almost everything I know.  Without her support, I honestly don’t know who I would be, where I would be, or what I would be like today.  She is the reason why I have great language skills including reading, writing, vocabulary, and comprehension.  She was a big advocate of mine and taught me how to advocate for my needs as I got older.  She fought the school system to give me the best of the best.  She always gave me highly qualified interpreters, made sure that my teachers understood my IEP,  gave me copies of their notes or powerpoints ahead of time, and so much more.  She invested a lot of time helping me develop strong language skills.  I remember meeting with her every day before school focusing on idioms, reading, playing language games and so forth.  There were times I disliked going, but looking back now, I am very happy with all of the support she’s given me.

To this day, Miss Connie is still very much involved in my life.  I have three favorite memories with her.

One is learning idioms with her. Thanks to her, and my goofy day, I’m able to understand and use figurative language, wit and sarcasm.

Another wonderful memory is learning that I was her first student she had consecutively, from Kindergarten to 12th grade. As part of my admission requirements for college, I had to write an essay on someone whom I admire the most.  I wrote my paper about her and printed it out.  I put it in a big frame and around the essay were school pictures of me from Kindergarten to 12th grade.  I’ll never forget the day I gave it to her.

Lastly, I remember her gift to me when I graduated Radford University.  I currently have it hanging on my wall.  This is a frame that has a beautiful quote: “One day I would teach just a few people many and beautiful things that would help them, when they will one day teach a few people.”  This is the most perfect gift I could have  receive from her, as I was becoming a teacher just like her.

I bet you right now as she is reading this, she’s probably rolling her eyes and being so humble. She truly is my biggest idol.

I had speech therapy for as long as I can remember. Mrs. Piersol is another wonderful person in my life. She worked with me from the time I was three years old until I finished 5th grade. She planned and made time to work with me. I think there were some supervisors who wanted her to stop working with me, but she fought and continued her services. She focused on my articulation and pronunciation, as well as the vocabulary and concepts that Miss. Connie and I didn’t have time for. Ms. Piersol also worked with and consulted with all of my classroom teachers. Without her support, I wouldn’t have the clear speech that I have today.

Another idol of mine is my American Sign Language (ASL) teacher, Ms. Ptak [you pronounce this name as Puh-tack.  She has so many nicknames: Ptak-Attack, Ptakular!, P-town, and so on]. She always had my back and did everything imaginable to help me feel accepted and find my identity.  She pushed me and worked my fingers to the bone in developing strong ASL skills. When a problem arose that was discriminatory against my hearing loss, she fought for me and taught me how to stand up for myself.  Often time, she would tell me that some people are not worth my time and that I should focus on the ones who love me for who I am. Multiple times throughout high school, she took me to Gallaudet University to visit.  

Remember I mentioned that my one interpreter took another job position?  Well, Ms. Ptak took on some interpreting for me in some of my high school classes.  On a side note, Ms. Ptak became my homebound teacher for two months when I was diagnosed with mono during my senior year.  She has interpreted for me outside of school at  events such as weddings and funeral services.  I like to call her my life-long interpreter; she still plays an important, active role in my life today.  

All of my academic teachers played an important role in my life as well.  They worked closely with Miss. Connie and made sure I succeeded in all of my classes.  I honestly don’t recall any of my teachers treating me differently from the other students.  They always made sure to provide my accommodations as per IEP requirements to make sure I had the best access in the classroom.

I can only think of a few teachers in high school that were really challenging to work with.  One teacher never took the time to look over my IEP and always gave me quizzes on videos that were not captioned.  This is very unfair because I was not able to understand the videos without the closed captioned/subtitles,  and I failed all my quizzes.  She refused to look into other videos that had the captioning/subtitles feature,  and she said that I had to depend on my interpreter.  This teacher was also very particular about seating arrangements, and wanted all of  her students in alphabetical order.  This meant my seat was in the back row.  She refused to have me in the front row in order to better access my sign language interpreter and have auditory access to her lectures.  After constant reminders and explanations, she finally complied with my IEP accommodations (although at this point, it was already over halfway through the school year).  

Another teacher of mine was hard to work with because he had really high expectations for me.  This was a dual-credit course, and he was a really tough teacher.  I was okay with the high expectations, but some of it was not appropriate due to my hearing loss.  I remember one time he told me I had to take notes myself, instead of using a note taker.  Another thing that was mentioned was that I had to pay attention better instead of missing out on things.

There were also a few teachers who needed constant reminders to follow my IEP accommodations, that included facing me when talking and not teaching with their backs to me as they wrote on the board. It was little things like that.  In spite of these challenges in high school, I still passed and graduated from high school with a high GPA.  

One of my favorite stories is about an art teacher telling me I couldn’t be an artist because I’m deaf. Looking back, I laugh at this because I have a minor in art,  and I went to New York for design. After this situation, we realized that this teacher was not budging and we decided to switch me out of this class.

Some of my favorite high school teachers (including Miss.Connie and Ms Ptak) were furious when they heard about these situations.  They  all taught me about my IEP and helped me understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so that I actually understood my rights.  This was probably the first time I realized that what some of my teachers said and did made me find my “voice,”  become proactive, and stand up to those that were not complying with my IEP, or telling me I couldn’t do something because I was deaf.

All of these teachers made a huge impact on me.  I use their teaching styles and the comfort they provided  me with my  students today.  I cannot say how grateful I am to have been taught by them. I love that I'm FaceBook friends with most of them because I love being able to see what they're up to as well as share things with them.