Miss-Delectable
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 17,160
- Reaction score
- 7
All signs point to success | The News Journal | delawareonline.com
The Delaware School for the Deaf has a new, $43 million home in Newark that's sunny, spacious and full of new educational programs.
The school complex opened this fall. Outfitted with the latest educational technology, green-energy features and space to help educate families, the building is prized by the school community. It has features for students that have allowed them to expand their learning opportunities, such as dormitories and an auditorium.
For student Unique Ross, 17, the school was better than she ever imagined.
"We all expected something nice, but this is phenomenal," Ross said.
The new school has been in the works for several years. The groundbreaking was in 2009, and it came after the state did a study to determine the needs of Delaware's children and families. It was discovered the old building did not suit the needs of students because many needed new technology to learn.
"As a leadership team, as a statewide program, our mission basically is to support and enhance the communicative, cognitive and social emotional skills of all children who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind in Delaware; that is our statewide goal," said Della Thomas, director of school and statewide services.
There are four educational priorities this year: improve transition skills for students in middle and high schools, improve data collection, continue to utilize the techniques of language allocation, and support children and families from statewide through the FACES (Family Advocacy Child Educational Services) program.
"We are there to help that adjustment," Thomas said.
The new FACES program provides home visits, early childhood education classes, family education and other resources. It's meant to help provide critical interventions and services that make a child better prepared to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
"It's more about access at that age to language and communication and how children learn through language. There is incidental learning that deaf students don't have access to like their hearing peers," said Debbie Trapani, who leads the FACES program. "Students with a hearing loss don't have access to that information that's happening around them by adult peers and their peers. They are missing a lot of information. "
Each classroom at the facility, officially called Delaware School for the Deaf and Statewide Programs for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind, has technology that helps students. Boxes on the ceiling hold wireless technology that helps beam the teachers voice into the hearing aid or cochlear implant of students. This helps the school with its approach to bilingual education that includes American Sign Language. Also, each room has a Smart Board, an interactive, high-tech approach to the typical overhead projector.
The school serves students from birth to age 21. The school falls under the umbrella of the Christina School District but provides services to all of Delaware.
Other ideas for the dormitories include using them to house families who come to visit the school, or for staff traveling in for training. Classroom technology allows for distance learning and a large, high-tech auditorium. There's also a full cafeteria and a gym, two things students never had before.
There's a hope that the school will continue to offer more services and programs made possible by the new space. That includes more after-school activities.
"This environment is much friendlier for the students," said Richard Pelletier, dean of students.
The Delaware School for the Deaf has a new, $43 million home in Newark that's sunny, spacious and full of new educational programs.
The school complex opened this fall. Outfitted with the latest educational technology, green-energy features and space to help educate families, the building is prized by the school community. It has features for students that have allowed them to expand their learning opportunities, such as dormitories and an auditorium.
For student Unique Ross, 17, the school was better than she ever imagined.
"We all expected something nice, but this is phenomenal," Ross said.
The new school has been in the works for several years. The groundbreaking was in 2009, and it came after the state did a study to determine the needs of Delaware's children and families. It was discovered the old building did not suit the needs of students because many needed new technology to learn.
"As a leadership team, as a statewide program, our mission basically is to support and enhance the communicative, cognitive and social emotional skills of all children who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind in Delaware; that is our statewide goal," said Della Thomas, director of school and statewide services.
There are four educational priorities this year: improve transition skills for students in middle and high schools, improve data collection, continue to utilize the techniques of language allocation, and support children and families from statewide through the FACES (Family Advocacy Child Educational Services) program.
"We are there to help that adjustment," Thomas said.
The new FACES program provides home visits, early childhood education classes, family education and other resources. It's meant to help provide critical interventions and services that make a child better prepared to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
"It's more about access at that age to language and communication and how children learn through language. There is incidental learning that deaf students don't have access to like their hearing peers," said Debbie Trapani, who leads the FACES program. "Students with a hearing loss don't have access to that information that's happening around them by adult peers and their peers. They are missing a lot of information. "
Each classroom at the facility, officially called Delaware School for the Deaf and Statewide Programs for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind, has technology that helps students. Boxes on the ceiling hold wireless technology that helps beam the teachers voice into the hearing aid or cochlear implant of students. This helps the school with its approach to bilingual education that includes American Sign Language. Also, each room has a Smart Board, an interactive, high-tech approach to the typical overhead projector.
The school serves students from birth to age 21. The school falls under the umbrella of the Christina School District but provides services to all of Delaware.
Other ideas for the dormitories include using them to house families who come to visit the school, or for staff traveling in for training. Classroom technology allows for distance learning and a large, high-tech auditorium. There's also a full cafeteria and a gym, two things students never had before.
There's a hope that the school will continue to offer more services and programs made possible by the new space. That includes more after-school activities.
"This environment is much friendlier for the students," said Richard Pelletier, dean of students.