Ms. Noel McDowell
"Be the Change you wish to see in this world."
- Gandhi
My current classroom has 3 middle school students and 3 high school students. I work with one other Deaf Education teacher. I teach English to both Middle School and High School and also Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2. We complete manny volunteer projects and acitivites to improve attitude and sense of duty to the community. This is an urban district and we do no receive much funding. Our books and materials are outdated, other than what we provide ourselves. I am currently requesting a SmartBoard to use with my students because Deaf Education is much more successful with more visual aids and activities.
Flint Southwestern: Deaf Education 7th - 12th grade
Linden High School GenNet: American Sign Language 10th-12th grade
My previous position was as an American Sign Language instructor for High School students looking to receive their foreign language credit. I worked from Linden High School as a Genesee Intermediate School District employee. I had students both in the classroom and also in other classrooms around the county. The GenNet system is live and interactive and allowed myself and students to get to know people from other districts. My first year I had around 60 students and after three years had approximately 120. The position utilized a great amount of technology and was a very uniqe experience.
Students in American Sign Language 2 were able to choose a project to complete at the end of the year. Students were able to choose between a poem, song, story etc. This student chose to be creative and create a stop-motion film in conjunction with a film class that he was taking.
At the end of American Sign Language 1 students must complete a song. This song is not completely translated properly but is a great sample of what one can know after only one year.
American Sign Language 3 students created an infommerical as their final project. The requirements included closed captioning and voice-over or second party reader.
I frequently utilized videos and youtube in the classroom for review of vocabulary and handing in long-term projects. I would discuss voccaulary in class and then post the video for students to practice at home. Students were expected to wath the videos if they were absent. A video was also created as a promotional piece to encourage students to join an American Sign Language class at the following website. https://gennet.eduvision.tv/default.aspx
To view essays that my students had printed in the Flint Journal please click the link below. These essays discuss volunteerism and the importance of committing random acts of kindness.
This picture was taken in Kalamazoo. I drove the students for an evening field trip to see CJ Jones; a Deaf comedian and drummer who formerly starred on Sesame Street. It was an amazing time and my students were able to meet and chat with him after the performance. One student formed a close bond and has since spoken with him via email. He is also a drummer and was ecstatic to meet another male, African-American Deaf drummer. Life experiences and allowing these kids to see that they are capable of success is my greatest goal.
