Today, I went to Apollo, to observe the deaf&hard of hearing class. The teacher I followed named Brianna, she is such a nice and sweet teacher, I like her so much. She is the only deaf teacher here, they have 5 deaf and hard of hearing students in Apollo, Brianna teach them one on one.

The first class is for a Somalia deaf girl. She is still learn English and ASL, so what she learn is very basic English words and  sentences, when she trying to do the paper, she have to practice some ASL at the same time. I think the lesson is so useful for her, and she really learn it very well. That class is easier for me to follow, and we really had a great time together.

The second class is for a deaf and brain paralysis boy. He’s always so happy though he even can’t walk very well. He have a a interpreter, she help me to translate, so I can understand everything and that’s so awesome. He’s lesson is read a very easy book, see the picture and sign the color. It’s a very interesting class.

It’s so nice to observe the class at Apollo, but the most important problem for me is still the language. After so many time did’t practice my ASL, it’s much hard for me to follow the teacher. Because high school is not like elementary school, what they learn is much harder. Next class we are reading an article about loan, and when she’s teaching I basically can’t understand everything. That’s made me feel sad, but it let me know I still need to learn more ASL, and I need to work harder. Hope I can make a progress!

  At Nov. 07th, 3rd grade students and teachers went to San John’s for field trip ,we spent a very good time together.  All of the students were so excited to go into the forest though it’s so cold outside.

  The theme of the field trip is seeds. A teacher introduced  a lot of seeds we can find in this area, then she gave every students a box, let them put seeds they found into the box. Every students are so excited to find all kinds of seeds as much as they can, and they are all full harvest. They show me what they found and I said I am so proud of them.

After that, we saw the beautiful lake, frozen in the law temperature. The view in the winter is so special, and I really like it. Finally, tired but happy, we head back to school.

I think it’s so good for students to have a field trip, and they really can learn something , something we can’t teach at classroom. I hope I can have another chance to go to field trip with students.

These days, I followed Ms.Kinzer’s step, try to know more about American’s special education.

Ms.kinzer told me, special education usually happened at public school and special school, Some of the student with special needs at private school will go to public school to do the small groups for couple of hours, when they’re done with small group, they’ll go back to private school. Sometimes, not every student with special needs can be successful at public school. When they decide some student really can’t be successful with small groups, they’ll suggest their parents to change their kid to special school.At special school, they’ll have more teachers, less students, it’ll be much easier for students to learn. When students make a progress at special school, they can come back to public school.

I think American’s special education is a really good system, and it really works, it help so many special students success. I think China’s special education still have so many things to learn, there is still a long way to go.