Super Simple Social Studies

I have 8 years of teaching experience as the Kindergarten RDSPD (Regional Day School Program for the Deaf) teacher for my district here in the great state of Texas! My passion is working with Deaf students to provide them with full access to education using sign language, highly visual materials, and instruction presented with explicitly taught vocabulary and simplified language to accommodate the unique delays in language development that my students so often experience. I have found Social Studies to be the one subject for which I cannot seem to find appropiate teaching materials for my students. So, I started creating the materials that I needed myself. I started sharing my materials with my regular ed colleagues who work with ESL students. They were thrilled! Their students were really mastering tne concepts! It turns out that using simplified vocabulary together with strong visuals is just as effective at making abstract social studies concepts accessible to ESL students as it is for special needs students. Now I am working to make these resources available through TpT to many more teachers whose students require unique language supports in order to fully access the Social Studies curriculum.

I am a Kindergarten Deaf Education teacher. My teaching style is direct, visual, and hands on. That's it. The three keys to implementing effective instruction for Deaf students: 1) Use Direct Instruction - Straightforward, to the point, no frills/confusing details. Explicit preteaching of key vocabulary.Model, model, model!!! 2) Use a TON of visuals - Link pictures to meaning. Provide ample visual aids to instruction. Sign, sign, sign! 3) Make it hands on - Every lesson has visual, tactile, and kinesthetic components. Students with language delays need to be able to show what they know through demonstration. See it! Sign it! Do it!

2015 Extra Miler award for going the extra mile for students 2016 Special Ed teacher of the quarter (won 2nd quarter) 2017 Special Ed teacher of the quarter (won 3rd quarter)

K-12 Homeschooled in Ohio, Graduated 2005. Earned Bachelor of Science in Deaf Education from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio Graduated 2010

I love my job, and I love my family! I am a Kindergarten Deaf ed teacher. I am married to a wonderful man who is also a teacher. We have an impossibly adorable son who is in preschool. It's funny, because we all go to school everyday!