If EDCO didn’t exist or were to somehow disappear, there would a major problem.
EDCO provides an assisted education, offering classes taught in ASL, interpreters in mainstream classes, time to meet with a speech language pathologist, etc. In addition to these resources and accomodations, EDCO creates a community of Deaf and hard of hearing students who can relate to each other. There is a wide range of communication methods among the students, but being able to communicate and socialize with people who have a similar high school experience as you is important. Additionally, many EDCO students don’t live in Newton, and are at NNHS because the high schools in their district can’t accommodate their needs. So if EDCO didn’t exist, and there were no other programs like it, many of the students would be mainstreamed without interpreters or go to a Deaf school. The first option would isolate the student, and there would be a communication barrier, which would affect how they learn in class. The second option might not work as well for the students who don’t know much ASL or were raised speaking and relying on their limited hearing. Though deciding how to educate Deaf and hard of hearing children has been highly disputed, it seems as though EDCO is a middle ground where students with varying levels of signing and hearing abilities can be accommodated well throughout high school.
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There is no endpoint to learning for interpreters at EDCO. I witness them constantly thinking of clearer ways to interpret certain phrases, and there never seems to be one perfect answer in the end. There are always more signs to learn and more room for improvement, so it keeps interpreters on their toes.
More importantly, each year new students join the EDCO program, and it is all about the STUDENTS! Each has their own past experience with hearing loss, ASL and education, so the interpreters need to work to meet each of these student’s learning styles and needs. I am the kind of person who needs variety. I can’t go to work and sit at a desk doing the same thing everyday. I think interpreting will be a good fit, because it involves a wide variety of consumers and scenes which require a variety of adaptations to the signing and interpreting. One of the interpreters was recently interpreting a drag show one night, a physics class the next day and a show that included Korean Sign Language the following weekend. The combinations and possibilities are endless, and I can’t wait to see what kind of interpreting I will be doing in the future beyond education. There is a fine line between work and play when it comes to EDCO. With only a short lunch break to eat and talk with their coworkers before racing off to their next class, it would seem that the interpreters are working constantly.
However, they are interpreting for high school students who they have come to know well over the years. This means that, like high school teachers, the interpreters are able to be professional while also engaging with their students. Sometimes before class, the EDCO students chat with the interpreters and joke around. This isn’t fully "playing," rather a more relaxed part of working. The closest they get to playing is probably during EDCO events. There are some field trips throughout the year for all EDCO students and faculty. This year there was also a game night and a Spring dance, which are open to all of EDCO and similar programs from a couple other schools. Despite being on staff at their workplace well after hours on a Friday night, it seems like the interpreters are able to enjoy themselves at these events! According to their website, EDCO’s goal is to “offer specially designed instruction using a variety of communication modalities, including American Sign Language (ASL), audition and spoken English” and provide “meaningful learning opportunities that foster academic and social excellence.” Therefore, it seems the goal of interpreting in education is to provide a clearer path of communication between Deaf students and the hearing teachers and students in general education classes, so that they can excel academically and socially.
In addition to having interpreters, EDCO offers “sponsored activities to promote academic excellence, community involvement and leadership skills, particularly within the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.” This allows Deaf students to, along with all the activities offered at NNHS, engage in activities with many other Deaf students beyond their school who may share their primary language, culture and experiences. For example, EDCO students are currently participating in the Academic Bowl and will soon be heading to Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. for the finals. I believe these experiences with Deaf peers in a majority Deaf environment, like Gallaudet, are crucial. The worst thing you can do to a student is isolate them. There are far too many accounts of Deaf children, born to hearing parents, put through a mainstream education system with no accommodations for, or acknowledgement, of their Deafness, forced into the auditory-oral method of communication. EDCO's goal is to provide a variety of services to meet each Deaf student’s preferred means of communication, which fosters a better learning environment and therefore, a greater development of academic and social success. Though it is less than 30 minutes long, lunchtime in the interpreting office is usually the highlight of my day. There are only four EDCO interpreters for mainstreamed students, so they each have a desk in a small office room. Lunch blocks are broken down into three periods, and I eat in the interpreting office with whomever has the same scheduled lunch period. Unless there is a conflict, on Mondays and Tuesdays I eat with Jody and Cheryl during 2nd lunch, and on Wednesdays and Fridays during 3rd lunch, Krystal is also there.
Though it’s nice to talk to them one on one, my favorite moments are from times when they are all present, because it is such a collaborative environment. Whether the question is “How would you interpret this line in the song ‘Proud Mary’? I have a show this weekend,” or “how would you show a 3D cone rotating clockwise?” or “how would you sign Act One, Scene One for Hamlet?” the hands go up. Each of them instantly goes to a land of their own, staring blankly into space as they work through the signs they might use. They are thinking out loud in ASL. Finally the three reconnect and discuss which way would be best and why, each sharing different ideas, suggestions and perspectives. They learned ASL from different people in different places, have interpreted in a variety of fields and are always better when they work together. In my ASL 2 class this morning, we walked in the room to find a GIF on the board along with, “What’s happening here? Work with a classmate.” After bouncing ideas around, moving our hands in all sorts of different ways, trying to classify a panda on top of a snowman, personifying the snowman and then using facial expression to role shift to the panda as it falls off, we share our best ideas with the class. We do this every single day. Like lunchtime with the interpreters, ASL 2 is founded on collaboration. It is comforting to know that my basic ASL class is already preparing me for interpreting, which is much further down the road. These recent experiences have led me to believe that the field as a whole is collaborative, and the love for learning ASL never stops. Like my ASL classmates, on a greater scale, the EDCO interpreters seem to be genuinely fascinated by ASL as a language and want to do it justice (in addition to meeting each students needs), which requires extra practice, discussion and collaboration during lunchtime. I wish I had ASL class three times a day. I do best when I work with others. I think I’ve found my home. More than doing some job for the 2nd semester of senior year, my CAPS Internship is an investigation of the industry I will be taking part in. Before my internship starts in a couple of days, I would like to record my preconceived idea of EDCO’s interpreting industry at Newton North, so that I can look back at the end and see all that I have discovered since week 1.
As a student at North, I have been in a few classes with EDCO students and ASL interpreters before. Though it was fascinating to watch the interpreters, I had to continuously remind myself that listening to what my teachers were saying was very important to understanding the material. Regardless, I became used to seeing EDCO students and interpreters as a pair in the classroom. Later, when I had a gym class with an EDCO student without an interpreter, I was shocked. I soon realized that an interpreter wasn’t needed, because the class was highly visual and consisted mostly of us attempting to follow the teacher as they demonstrated ridiculously challenging yoga poses. In this class, the student, let’s call him Tim, was very quiet and kept to himself. He was able to keep up with the class, but he did not often interact with other students. When I ended up in an English class with Tim and an interpreter the following year, it was a different story. With complete access to language, he chatted with another EDCO student and I before class, contributed often to group discussions and dropped jokes seamlessly when our class was off on a silly tangent. This experience has led me to believe that the EDCO interpreting industry at North is a crucial service for deaf students by providing access into class conversations, ensuring they understand everything the teacher says and carrying their voice to others. (I say that last part purposefully, because I believe interpreters do not give a voice to deaf people. They already have a voice when they sign, it just isn’t usually audible. The interpreters simply translate a deaf person's voice to be audible for hearing people, hence my decision to say interpreters forward or carry a message or voice, but I’m getting ahead of myself). I believe the EDCO interpreters at North help deaf students be the best learners, classmates and self advocates they can be, because that is what school is all about! I’m sure every teacher would hope for all of their students to develop these skills, and access to language should not be the ultimate barrier. Let’s see what I think in 3 months! |
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