Wow! Been a long time! I joined here in 2006

shel90

shel90

Love Makes the World Go Round
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Hello,

I used to be a frequent member here from 2006 to 2012 or so. Cannot believe this site is still up and running. So much has changed since 2006. I wonder if there are still members from those days who still post here. Life is so busy. Yes, I am still teaching but I am teaching at a public school! LOL! Something I thought I would never do. 8 years there now. My son was a baby at the time and now he is in high school. He is taller than me now.

Hope everyone is well. :)
 
Hi Shel. Not many here anymore. :( Glad to hear from you. Wow, in high school now. Time flies.
I'm retired now and doing some small paid "volunteer" jobs. I have 2 small grandkids nearby that I get to spend time with :) The other two are in California (the one in my avatar is now 7 years old and her brother will be 10 in August).
 
LoveBlue said:
Hi Shel. Not many here anymore. :( Glad to hear from you. Wow, in high school now. Time flies.
I'm retired now and doing some small paid "volunteer" jobs. I have 2 small grandkids nearby that I get to spend time with :) The other two are in California (the one in my avatar is now 7 years old and her brother will be 10 in August).
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I remember you! I figure that there are not many from those days here anymore. My daughter is now married. I forgot what did you do before you retired? I am ready for retirement. I can't keep up with all the demands of teaching with all the paperwork. Congrats on your grandkids!
 
shel90 said:
I remember you! I figure that there are not many from those days here anymore. My daughter is now married. I forgot what did you do before you retired? I am ready for retirement. I can't keep up with all the demands of teaching with all the paperwork. Congrats on your grandkids!
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Congrats on becoming a mother-in-law. :)

I was an application developer. I was laid off just as the pandemic was starting, but not because of the pandemic (it was the yearly downsizing). It was a blessing as my job had become very stressful (difficult internal client). That's when I starting thinking about retiring as I was getting close to retirement age.
 
LoveBlue said:
Congrats on becoming a mother-in-law. :)

I was an application developer. I was laid off just as the pandemic was starting, but not because of the pandemic (it was the yearly downsizing). It was a blessing as my job had become very stressful (difficult internal client). That's when I starting thinking about retiring as I was getting close to retirement age.
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The Pandemic definitely changed so many things for so many! I spent a year and half teaching from home and it was so hard to teach through Zoom especially when it was not captioned at the time. Thankfully, my para-educator was fluent in ASL so she acted as my interpreter but her video kept freezing up so it was so hard on me. I taught ASL to hearing kids last year. This year, I am back in Deaf ed but half of my class were mostly oral with little ASL fluency and with them wearing masks, I had a hard time understanding them. Thankfully, my school finally hired a full time interpreter for me because of that. For 8 years, I fought with the school district to get an interpreter, but they would only hire one for meetings. Ironically, it took everyone wearing masks, cutting off lipreading for me to get a full time interpreter. LOL! Crazy times. I can't believe I made it so far, but it was so exhausting to try to do my job while communication was so restricted. I left my job at the deaf school 8 years ago because I got no salary step for like 8 years. It was very difficult as I had anxiety from my bad experience being mainstreamed. My first two years was so hard trying to adjust back to the hearing world, but my confidence grew as I felt stronger about my Deaf identity and of course, I spoke out to advocate for myself. Now, the city schools love me. LOL! In those days, when I was active on AD, if anyone had told me that I would work in a public school instead of the deaf school, I would have said NO WAY. Life is full of surprises! hahaha! Glad things worked out for you!
 
I believe masks have opened some people's eyes to how difficult it is not being able to see someone's lips when communicating. Plus masks dampen sound, so even those who don't lip read, consciously or unconsciously, have trouble hearing others.

Never say never (or No Way), because you NEVER know what the future will bring.

I'm glad the school district is finally helping you.

Do you have the summer off?
 
I pop in every once in awhile, site hasnt been as lively as it used to be. Not sure where a lot of members went ( Reba/Tincan and a few others ) was friends with a few on FB before my old account was hacked and cant find them anymore.... But if they PM me we can get back in touch again.
 
shel90 said:
The Pandemic definitely changed so many things for so many! I spent a year and half teaching from home and it was so hard to teach through Zoom especially when it was not captioned at the time. Thankfully, my para-educator was fluent in ASL so she acted as my interpreter but her video kept freezing up so it was so hard on me. I taught ASL to hearing kids last year. This year, I am back in Deaf ed but half of my class were mostly oral with little ASL fluency and with them wearing masks, I had a hard time understanding them. Thankfully, my school finally hired a full time interpreter for me because of that. For 8 years, I fought with the school district to get an interpreter, but they would only hire one for meetings. Ironically, it took everyone wearing masks, cutting off lipreading for me to get a full time interpreter. LOL! Crazy times. I can't believe I made it so far, but it was so exhausting to try to do my job while communication was so restricted. I left my job at the deaf school 8 years ago because I got no salary step for like 8 years. It was very difficult as I had anxiety from my bad experience being mainstreamed. My first two years was so hard trying to adjust back to the hearing world, but my confidence grew as I felt stronger about my Deaf identity and of course, I spoke out to advocate for myself. Now, the city schools love me. LOL! In those days, when I was active on AD, if anyone had told me that I would work in a public school instead of the deaf school, I would have said NO WAY. Life is full of surprises! hahaha! Glad things worked out for you!
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Reading your response of resilience and persevering during a difficult with grace made me smile. You're right, the pandemic wasn't/hasn't been easy on all of us but I'm glad the school stepped up to help you teach so many. Teachers and Nurses are the salt of the earth, in my opinion. Thank you for all you have done to help children throughout the years. hats off to you.
 
Welcome back Shel and KristinaB... good to see you around here. I haven't been posting much in the last 2 years since the pandemic started. I've been working a lot of overtime and been really busy. With the lockdown in some states, people started ordering essential and things online and it has been like peak for pretty much of 2020. Recently I got promoted to full time and keeping me busy but other than that, thing are going well. I plan to celebrate my birthday in Houston next month at my dad's house, I have not seen him in over 2 years because of Covid.

Glad to see some of you are doing well these days. :wave:
 
I try to check up everyday for something. A lot of zombie threads brought back by new members. And a lot of date site like activity. I miss the Dynamics this site use to have.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
I try to check up everyday for something. A lot of zombie threads brought back by new members. And a lot of date site like activity. I miss the Dynamics this site use to have.
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I've been on here for two years but I see a lot of similar comments to yours. What was the sites dynamics in the past that you miss now? I hope like a lot of things, it all comes back around :)
 
LoveBlue said:
I believe masks have opened some people's eyes to how difficult it is not being able to see someone's lips when communicating. Plus masks dampen sound, so even those who don't lip read, consciously or unconsciously, have trouble hearing others.

Never say never (or No Way), because you NEVER know what the future will bring.

I'm glad the school district is finally helping you.

Do you have the summer off?
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Hello!

Yes, last Wednesday was my last day for my summer break. I got offers to work summer school with good pay, but nope. I am exhausted. Teachers are really overworked and even more so in this new world. I wrote a to do list to accomplish this summer. Last summer, my mom and brothers came here to visit for 3 weeks, took my family to NYC for 3 days, and then I went to a week long trip to the beach. I was kind of in a brain fog and dealing with depression due to being isolated for a year from the Deaf community and my normal life. Yes, I chatted on Zoom with my friends, but it wasn't the same. This summer, I feel more like myself with more energy and less brain fog. However, I am more of a home body than the social butterfly I was before the Pandemic. It is weird. lol.

I hope the school district continues to help me. Never know with public schools anymore if budgets keep getting cut.

Any plans for the summer?
 
sonocativo said:
I pop in every once in awhile, site hasnt been as lively as it used to be. Not sure where a lot of members went ( Reba/Tincan and a few others ) was friends with a few on FB before my old account was hacked and cant find them anymore.... But if they PM me we can get back in touch again.
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I remember you! Now, my memory is coming back with the usernames here on AD as I had forgotten so many. Hope everything is well. Hackers are a pain in the butt, right? One stole money from my bank...I think about $300 or $500. gRRR. Hope you got everything worked out!
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
I try to check up everyday for something. A lot of zombie threads brought back by new members. And a lot of date site like activity. I miss the Dynamics this site use to have.
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Lol...all these crazy stuff then. Oh wow...it was a sign of the future. People fighting on social media and now it is so bad on FB and Twitter. Crazy.
 
EllietheEncourager said:
Reading your response of resilience and persevering during a difficult with grace made me smile. You're right, the pandemic wasn't/hasn't been easy on all of us but I'm glad the school stepped up to help you teach so many. Teachers and Nurses are the salt of the earth, in my opinion. Thank you for all you have done to help children throughout the years. hats off to you.
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Thanks! My deaf students at city schools are definitely isolated. It breaks my heart. I was not as isolated as they were when I was mainstreamed. They were shocked when they first met me because they had never met a deaf adult, let alone one who is a teacher. At first, they did not trust me because I am not from the city. It took two months to build that trust and then after that, I made learning as fun as I can for them. My 8th graders begged me to transfer to the high school to continue to be their teacher. That was soooo sweet. I will miss them. I appreciate the kind words!
 
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