As a new teacher, I really enjoyed working in French immersion programs, but always knew that I had come to the teaching field with the goal of becoming a Teacher of the Deaf. In 1999-2000, I took the year off to attend the DHH Teacher Education program at York, commuting home on weekends. At that time, we were given the opportunity to participate in three practicum placements and classes were held in a beautiful designated classroom in the Ross building. There were 14 graduates in my class and I am still connected to several of those friends/colleagues.
After graduation, I spent the first few years of my career as an itinerant Teacher of the Deaf back in Northern Ontario. This was about the same time that more and more school-aged children were beginning to receive cochlear implants. The start-up of the Ontario Infant Hearing Program also happened during those first years of my career.
When I moved south, I joined the Ministry of Education’s home-visiting team and enjoyed over a dozen years working in several communities with families and children of newly diagnosed deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers. It was because of my work with families that I returned to York University in 2009 to complete a thesis study examining the spoken language development of a pre-lingually deaf child using Total Communication prior to cochlear implantation, as part of my Master’s in Education.
The highlight of my career was definitely the years spent in home-visiting, facilitating language development through play and modeling strategies to parents and caregivers. I had the joy of working with some of those children again when I joined an itinerant team in my community.
Currently, I am back at York, completing my PhD and working as a course director and practicum facilitator in the DHH Teacher Education program. It is an exciting time to be working in Deaf Education and I am so privileged to have been invited to continue my learning while working alongside our future teachers of the deaf!