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Green Valley News & Sun - News > News > Your Incredible Neighbors: HANDS OF HOPE FOR STUDENTS
Sahuarita's Shellie Shipley is on a mission, a quest that is garnering results for deaf students in Southern Arizona.
Shipley is a teacher for hearing-impaired students at the School for the Deaf, located on the campus of Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
The accredited school provides education to children from kindergarten through high school. Its goals are to provide comprehensive learning, and promote student academic achievement. ASD prepares students to meet their social, cultural and language needs, and teaches both English and American Sign Language.
Into this environment stepped teacher Shipley, who radiates a glowing enthusiasm when discussing her work with the children. Her students are teenagers, the subject is history.
“I love the language (sign language), I love the culture!” Shipley said. “Some of these children come from disadvantaged homes. By their very disability, they struggle to learn to read and write English.
On average. Shipley said, deaf children graduate from high school reading at the fourth-grade level.
“We deaf educators want to change that,” she said. “This is the impetus for the research-based Reading Lab we established this year.” Shipley said the students are enrolled in an additional reading class every day, and they are able to earn incentives if they push themselves to achieve their reading goals.
Shipley and her four colleagues, Julie Aguirre, Rose Andreacola, Melissa Brown and Ava Crowell, started the pilot program this year. This program was designed to specifically challenge their deaf students, as Shipley comments, “We supply them with little “carrots” to get them to read more.”
Funding for this program is out-of-pocket money; additional funding comes from grants.
The way these teachers implemented their new program was to select their struggling readers, then narrowing the field down to 18 students who would most benefit from the program.
One of the incentives offered was a fun on. Each time a student receives 100 percent on a test, he/she is given a “reward,” a ball. At the end of the semester, with the principal Brandon Decker, sitting over a tank of water, they throw the ball to see if they can dunk him. Also, he said he would appear in a tutu and wear a tiara.
Recently, six students met their goal of reading the required books. Their reward? A trip to Phoenix to meet the Phoenix Suns! A van took the excited kids to Phoenix, where announcer Gary Bender met them and arranged for the students to attend the Suns basketball practice. The kids were overawed to meet Shaquille O'Neill (who, unbelievably wears a size 23 shoe!!). They also met former MBA MVP player Steve Nash, and received autographed basketballs.
Many of the children come from Arizona's Indian Reservation. The local students keep regular school hours, going home each evening: but those living a distance from the school stay in the dormitories on campus.
“Some of the children, when going home, dread going because their parents don't understand them. The communication barrier is there,” Shipley said. “Ten percent of the students have deaf parents, and only a handful of the parents sign.
“It's heartbreaking that many parents feel it’s not necessary to learn to sign.”
She gave an example: “After one meeting, a father of one of the students asked me to tell his son that he loved him; the father could not even express that one sentiment to his child!” Shipley continued, “These kids go through their entire lives never holding a conversation with their families!”
Shipley is a Kansas native. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and received her bachelor's degree from Furman College. At that time, she was a member of the “Up With People” troupe in which there were two deaf boys.
Meeting and traveling with them piqued her interest in learning to sign. Subsequently, she went back to college and received her MS degree in Deaf Education from McDaniel College. She then taught sign language in Washington, D.C. While in Washington, she received an invitation to attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner. There among other important personages, she met celebrity Marlee Matlin, spokeswoman for the largest provider of TV Closed Caption.
Shipley lives in Sahuarita with her husband, Ken and young son, Caiden, 21 months old. Her parents are Donald and Nancy Moses of Green Valley.
The Reading Lab team is always looking for financial assistance which would greatly enhance their program. Interested persons may call the school office at 770-3644.
Sahuarita's Shellie Shipley is on a mission, a quest that is garnering results for deaf students in Southern Arizona.
Shipley is a teacher for hearing-impaired students at the School for the Deaf, located on the campus of Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind on Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
The accredited school provides education to children from kindergarten through high school. Its goals are to provide comprehensive learning, and promote student academic achievement. ASD prepares students to meet their social, cultural and language needs, and teaches both English and American Sign Language.
Into this environment stepped teacher Shipley, who radiates a glowing enthusiasm when discussing her work with the children. Her students are teenagers, the subject is history.
“I love the language (sign language), I love the culture!” Shipley said. “Some of these children come from disadvantaged homes. By their very disability, they struggle to learn to read and write English.
On average. Shipley said, deaf children graduate from high school reading at the fourth-grade level.
“We deaf educators want to change that,” she said. “This is the impetus for the research-based Reading Lab we established this year.” Shipley said the students are enrolled in an additional reading class every day, and they are able to earn incentives if they push themselves to achieve their reading goals.
Shipley and her four colleagues, Julie Aguirre, Rose Andreacola, Melissa Brown and Ava Crowell, started the pilot program this year. This program was designed to specifically challenge their deaf students, as Shipley comments, “We supply them with little “carrots” to get them to read more.”
Funding for this program is out-of-pocket money; additional funding comes from grants.
The way these teachers implemented their new program was to select their struggling readers, then narrowing the field down to 18 students who would most benefit from the program.
One of the incentives offered was a fun on. Each time a student receives 100 percent on a test, he/she is given a “reward,” a ball. At the end of the semester, with the principal Brandon Decker, sitting over a tank of water, they throw the ball to see if they can dunk him. Also, he said he would appear in a tutu and wear a tiara.
Recently, six students met their goal of reading the required books. Their reward? A trip to Phoenix to meet the Phoenix Suns! A van took the excited kids to Phoenix, where announcer Gary Bender met them and arranged for the students to attend the Suns basketball practice. The kids were overawed to meet Shaquille O'Neill (who, unbelievably wears a size 23 shoe!!). They also met former MBA MVP player Steve Nash, and received autographed basketballs.
Many of the children come from Arizona's Indian Reservation. The local students keep regular school hours, going home each evening: but those living a distance from the school stay in the dormitories on campus.
“Some of the children, when going home, dread going because their parents don't understand them. The communication barrier is there,” Shipley said. “Ten percent of the students have deaf parents, and only a handful of the parents sign.
“It's heartbreaking that many parents feel it’s not necessary to learn to sign.”
She gave an example: “After one meeting, a father of one of the students asked me to tell his son that he loved him; the father could not even express that one sentiment to his child!” Shipley continued, “These kids go through their entire lives never holding a conversation with their families!”
Shipley is a Kansas native. She grew up in Washington, D.C. and received her bachelor's degree from Furman College. At that time, she was a member of the “Up With People” troupe in which there were two deaf boys.
Meeting and traveling with them piqued her interest in learning to sign. Subsequently, she went back to college and received her MS degree in Deaf Education from McDaniel College. She then taught sign language in Washington, D.C. While in Washington, she received an invitation to attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner. There among other important personages, she met celebrity Marlee Matlin, spokeswoman for the largest provider of TV Closed Caption.
Shipley lives in Sahuarita with her husband, Ken and young son, Caiden, 21 months old. Her parents are Donald and Nancy Moses of Green Valley.
The Reading Lab team is always looking for financial assistance which would greatly enhance their program. Interested persons may call the school office at 770-3644.