Spill the Tea: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Teacher Interview

By Jessica Costello and Laura Jansen

Laura Jansen works in an ISP classroom in the Toronto District School Board. Her ISP classroom of primary students all vary in hearing losses and needs. Jansen offers advice to new DHH teachers with her own strategies, resources, and wishes.

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An Ideal Classroom?

An ideal classroom within the ISP Program would be to have two Teachers of the Deaf. Co-teaching would enrich lessons, strategies, and decrease burn out.

Self Care?

I try to not overwork myself. I tell myself if I come in earlier in the mornings, I will leave early in the afternoons. I use self talk to navigate stress. I always try to set my best foot forward when coming into the classroom every day. This can be done with a simple self talk practice such as saying "I can do this! I am here for a reason! I am here to make a difference and a positive impact!" As for activities I love spending time with my family. I'm a foodie so cooking is a great outlet for me. I love to scroll on Pinterest to find fun activities for the students and recipes!

Go to resource and strategies?

Resources: I like using the Apple Tree Program (a language development workbook geared towards DHH students). The Promethean Board is amazing in the classroom, I use the programs that are available to us: Boardmaker Studio, ActivInspire, abcya.com, I make sure to use lots of visual aids!

Strategies: Be patient, get to know the students strengths and needs. Make sure to consistently check their assistive equipment, along with teaching them self-advocacy skills. Exposing my students to real-world knowledge is important such as providing them vocabulary that is relevant to them (names of stores, their city, province, etc). A huge part of the job is also advocating for them within the school, and having a positive relationship with their parents.

Teaching and Relationships?

Having an open-mind has led me to having great relationships with my colleagues. Collaboration is key, working together with the EA and co-workers helps me mentally, physically, and emotionally. If I ever feel uneasy or stressed with work, I will talk to a colleague about my feelings and work through my feelings with them. By providing a welcoming, safe and inclusive learning environment and having a positive attitude with my students every day I get to become very close with them. Knowing their likes/dislikes can be done through fun activities, observations, and allowing free time.

Mistakes?

My first year was the most challenging year. I felt under-prepared and I had very high expectations for my students. Overcoming it took a lot of self-reflecting and conversations with a mentor teacher. Looking back I learned to become more organized, and more comfortable with how the school system works. It gets better, every year I take the time to reflect on my practice and I set goals for myself. For example, this year I'm going to work on becoming even more organized, and complete more professional development workshops.

Any Advice?

My advice would be things may not be easy, you may feel underprepared, confused, stressed, frustrated, but tell yourself this: you were led to this profession for a reason. Make it the best you can, keep a positive attitude, overcome the obstacles and learn from them, share your thoughts with colleagues and mentor teachers and work through them. Become the teacher you want to be.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy*