Monday, April 25, 2016

Guest Speaker Anita

Sorry I have been taking care of my father in the hospital. I am assuming that is my turn to post something this week! I have heard a lot of interesting facts about our guest speaker Anita last week. One thing that really interests me is she did not like the labels of D or d in the word deaf as a label. So, if you want, comment on what did you learn from here or what did you think was interesting about her. I hope everybody enjoy the rest of the week and getting ready for FINALS! I wish you all luck on FINALS WEEK!

13 comments:

  1. I missed class last week, but heard a lot of good things about Anita. Classmates mentioned that Anita had two deaf children and one attends public school and the other attends a deaf school. I think it is awesome that she is giving both of her children the opportunity to choose their learning environment and form their own identity. That is how it should be!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I stepped in late to Anita's talk, but I did hear the majority of it and she was a great speaker. I loved how she related her hatred of extremes. I think she is almost an extreme middle because she absolutely doesn't want to choose one way or the other. She has some great experiences that support both sides of the Deaf/deaf controversy, but more so they support the middle in which parents make the decision and each child is an individual that can't be categorized. I think we all learned a lot from her!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I always thought that Dead week meant that everyone's dying from all the exams and projects that are due! I loved when she talked about staying away from Bias and how that's a major issue that we face. I also liked how she explained the big D and little d for Deaf. I always worry about why "d/D" to use when referring to Deaf individuals or the Deaf community. I know I am new to Deaf community and culture so the last thing I would like to do is be bias or stereotype someone as something that they are not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anita was really great. She offered a new perspective on deafness, She gave a lot of valuable information about how to treat deaf people, parents of deaf children, and people in general. I really enjoyed her talk. I loved how she is against labels because I am that way too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anita was really great. She offered a new perspective on deafness, She gave a lot of valuable information about how to treat deaf people, parents of deaf children, and people in general. I really enjoyed her talk. I loved how she is against labels because I am that way too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I thought Anita offered some great perspectives. Not only did she talk about being deaf was like for her in a different way than what we have heard before, but she also talked a little bit about what it was like to be a parent of a deaf child, specifically IEP meetings. This was a new perspective that I found very useful and interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really enjoyed Anita's talk. I liked how she said it was her journey and no one else's, and she couldn't speak about anyone else's journey. That really is something you don't see a lot at EKU.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I learned a lot from Anita, and I really loved how she talked about her children and her experiences. She really opened my eyes to the opportunities in communication modes. When Anita was talking about growing up being the only deaf person she knew then getting complete culture shock when going to Gallaudet and then being forced to learn sign language, I was just enamored by how difficult that must have been. Then to hear her discuss how her daughters are both fluent in American Sign Language and English, it gave me great hope. We always discuss giving every child a tool box of options for language, and I truly can see that presented thorough Anita and her daughters.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What I learned from Anita was putting my biases asides. Also being oral and si-comm is not horrible. Her idea is use the toolbox method, have some ASL, English and other. Every situation is different so you have to be prepared with whatever tool fits.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I especially like that Anita pretty much baptized Natalie with the chocolate milkshake ;) It's interesting to see a Deaf person who isn't in the same viewpoint as everyone else. new and exciting

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I appreciate Natalie and Anita's sharing regarding this. I had tried and THOUGHT I'd communicated this same concept the entire semester with my milkshake analogy as well as encouraging students to consider individuals as individuals. However, I was not saying explicitly what Anita said regarding BIAS. She can get by with saying it much more effectively and appropriately than I can because she lives the experience and I do NOT. Anita and I have discussed this and it has helped me tremendously in considering what I communicate, how I communicate it and who else I ask to assist in communicating to students.

      Delete
  11. I missed Anita's guest speaking, but from reading everyone's comments about what she discussed, the most interesting fact to me is she has two children yet they do not attend the same school or type of school for that matter. One attends deaf school and one attends public school. It's just interesting to see how two children can be raised in the same home the same way, yet their needs can be so different and people need to be aware of that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is so very important! Very few of us are exactly like our siblings and we are raised in the same families. It's so important to consider how individuals make up and fit into Communities rather than how Communities recreate a single model of a community member.

      Delete