Bourdon,+Nicole,+Hearing+Impairment

This is me and my golden Zex. Such a big baby.

__ Something that you want us to know about you or something about you that is interesting __ Something that is interesting about me would be that I have several swords and daggers displayed in my room and I very much enjoy playing video games.

__Explain your education & career goals__ I first went to beauty school for nine months. I am currently a licensed nail technician. From there, I moved to Nebraska for nine months and went to school for education. I moved back to Oregon and have since graduated from RCC with an AS degree and returned to SOU to finish out my schooling and one day become a teacher. My goals for my career are constantly changing now that I've been exposed to so many practicum locations.

__What brings you joy?__ Seeing my cat, Pickey who I rescued in Jan of 2012, and my golden retriever Zex, whose been my baby boy for 9 years now.

My greatest fear about being a teacher is not being able to appropriately handle a situation. I've been working with kids on and off for years but that doesn't mean there wont be that one incident that blindsides me. Having the tools to handle almost anything will be a great help and I always enjoy listening to others stories for tips!

__Did you ever experience a time when something was extremely difficult to learn?__ I struggled with math a lot as a child and English was no picnic either. I had to have a tutor but once he helped me, really took the time to care, I got English and I have loved the subject since. There have been no other teachers that have really taken the time and I will never forget Mr. Casey for helping me back then.

__Explain that time and **//how it made you feel//**.__ See above. It made me feel like I couldn't do anything. I've always struggled with math and science has fallen into that somewhat as well but not as much. When I had to do math, I got very anxious and sometimes really felt sick to my stomach. I found myself looking for an excuse not to go to class or not to do homework until the very last moment possible.

__How might this piece of your history help you connect to students with learning differences?__ This would very much help me connect with students that are struggling with math and English. I would have an inside knowledge about the fear those students would feel and personally, after having my resource room last term, I feel much more confident in helping those students get past their fears in a way that suites them.

__What do you want to gain from this course?__ This is an inclusion class. I would like to walk away with the tools needed to be able to include anyone and everyone in my classroom for whatever activity that happens to be going on. There may also be a time I could use those same strategies to include a parent or guardian in the activity as well or a younger sibling that happens to be present.

My Research Topic is Hearing Impairment I selected this topic because my grandfather was hearing impaired from working around very loud machinery for years. He had hearing aides but they never seemed to be just right for what he needed. He made due and could hear, just they would whistle often and sometimes he just wouldn't be able to hear much. When he had them out, an elephant wouldn't have woken him up if it was right in his face.

** My Top Resource: **

http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/sight/hearing_impairment.html I picked this site as my top resource because it has a section for kids, teens and parents.Some teens don't know they can hurt their hearing my listening to music too loud or having the car radio up so high. The site covers a wide range of health concerns and prevention which can be needed when a parent or teen doesn't know what to say about a topic or in the teens case, they may not want to ask about something and this would give them a chance to just look it up themselves. ( 5 out of 5)

Resources:
 * http://www.questia.com/library/teaching-hearing-impaired.jsp (4 out of 5) { This site includes several journals which are useful to teachers and perhaps parents as well who help out in the classroom.}
 * http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/index.html (4 out of 5) {This site is a good resource because it covers many areas of deafness and how to avoid it.}
 * http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hearingdisordersanddeafness.html (5 out of 5) {This is a national site and has several links to other information related to hearing impairment.}
 * http://www.hear-it.org/ (4 out of 5) {This site has some testimonials and other links to helpful information and an online haring test. }
 * http://www.hearingloss.org/ (4 out of 5) {This site has a community part to it that could be very helpful to parents or teens to do with their hearing impairment.}
 * http://www.medicinenet.com/detecting_hearing_loss_in_children/article.htm (4 out of 5) {This site is generally helpful in determining hearing loss which is always a useful tool.}
 * http://www.asha.org/aud/articles/hearlosschild.htm (4 out of 5) {This is a journal and therefore an opinion of the author but some points are valid and useful.}
 * http://www.icommunicatetherapy.com/home/suggested-reading/hearing-impairment (4 out of 5) {This site is helpful to find those books on hearing loss and deafness and is a valuable resource.)
 * http://www.icdri.org/Books/books_on_deafness_and_hearing_im.htm (4 out of 5) {This is for finding books for the hearing impaired but also has some titles that will draw the viewer to what they are looking for.}

Top Five Things I've Learned: Anyone can suffer from a hearing impairment for a variety of reasons. There are many good resources out there for students and adults to make good use of. Teachers have many resources they can bring into the classroom to help include students and the families of those who are hearing impaired. A disease can even be the result of hearing loss in someone. Just because a student or person has some hearing loss, full or partial, that doesn't mean they learn any less than someone with perfect hearing. That just means they have to work harder or in a different way to learn the same material.