Teamwork in classes and on the job - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

That plus the instructor emailed us saying our report and presentation were never uploaded to Blackboard. I take one look at what those two girls finally uploaded and I knew we weren't going to get a good grade, and we didn't.

What totally floored me was meeting up with them and the instructor after class in the instructor's office. One girl kept giving excuses such as she was overwhelmed, didn't do well with teamwork, etc. Well, I'm overwhelmed, too, but I'm dealing with a lot more. I told her that as an older student, I couldn't wait til the last minute anymore, all my assignments were turned in/uploaded the night before, and that I can't do all-nighters anymore. I may live 20 miles away from the campus, but I have access to the same resources they do.

Had those two asked, I'd have made that report and presentation look a whole lot better. Even the instructor was backing me up on just about everything I said and then some. This girl took a look at my part of the report like she'd never seen it before and she had to agree my part looked good.

In short, sometimes if necessary, do the project by yourself.

Teamwork in classes and on the job - Part 1

We know that teamwork is probably the most important thing on the job. The old cliche of "there is no I in team" is pretty much true. It's multiple people working together. In classes, it's even more important.

When doing a class project, it's how well the entire team does. If one person does badly, the entire team suffers. I had this one team project and I kept telling the other two teammates that I didn't want to wait til the last minute. I had given them my contact info and class schedule a few times, and even then only one of the two gave me her text number. The other girl I never heard from until 10 hours before due time.

Apparently these two waited til the absolute last minute while I had my part already in the report with instructor's specs and questions to answer for them. My "don't wait til the last minute" was a common theme for the next three weeks before the due date. I told them I could make the report a good one but not if it was at the last minute. Come the due date, we had our presentation, and I was thinking it looked OK, though could have used some improvements. But the actual report I never saw til later.

What got me was that they kept claiming that I didn't say anything. Really? Like my many times of saying "no last minute" wasn't saying anything? That plus "we were aggressively working on project in classroom." If that were true, we'd have finished this long ago. Hardly "aggressive." And I was right there in the classroom and in the Commuter Lounge if they needed me.

Next - Part 2

Graduation... Finally...

I haven't been posting much in the last year, and for good reason. I went back to school. The knees were repaired and I was ready to head back to classes. After much looking around of where to go, I found I had three more years of classes with GMU. I wanted a place that would allow me to graduate in less time than that, maybe two years. Gallaudet University had their Adult Degree Program. One of the requirements was that I have 120 credits, and I had 151 transferrable credits. My classes would be on campus and online. I declared my major of Info Tech and started my first semester with two classes while I went through the approval process.

The approval process was more of an up and down argument process among the dean and other people. I was accepted for various reasons and a technicality, that the Undergraduate Catalog wasn't clear on what kind of classes I would take, in terms of online, on campus, etc. Finally I was accepted about 3 weeks before the end of the semester. That next semester had me enrolled in five classes, two online 8 week classes and three normal classes on campus.

But what a crazy final year it's been...

"Put Away Your Guns and Knives"

Back when Virginia Tech was hit by the student shooting other students and teachers, it started with some colleges setting up an alert system of some sort, usually sending alerts to someone's pager via email or text. It also got me wondering how other students like me are able to keep from getting killed when this happens. It's too easy for deaf people to walk into the middle of a gunfight and be shot dead, never hearing the fatal shots. Same with those with walking issues, as they can't move fast enough out of the line of fire. So what is the best way to keep this from happening to them if the alert messages aren't received in time?

It's also not a time for anyone to make any sort of humor about this event. I had one or two teachers actually say "put away your guns and knives." Now just how heartless is that sort of quote when you have a tragic event like this happen and people died or nearly did? This is not the time for making fun of what happened. Teachers are, in a way, a first line of defense against something like this due to working with their students. Listen to your students. Maybe in the first few minutes of class, ask how your students are doing and how they're feeling.

But saying "put away your guns and knives?!" Report that teacher to the dean.

Deaf College Students Without Support Services

As a college student myself, it's hard enough going back to classes after some time. But when you find you have to rely on other students to help out in getting notes, you risk getting a student who does not take good notes. While it's good to have an interpreter, it's even better when you have one who reads the course text(s) and sometimes actually tries to do the course work at home.

But what about students at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, who have transcribing services? This is a difficult enough thing to do at times, especially when you have fast-talking instructors and those who sometimes turn their classroom into Comedy Central.

Check this article;

Dispute between transcribers and CWU leaves deaf, hard of hearing students without key support

Can a college's disabilities services office do without a transcription service? Can deaf students use the Powerpoint slides and the course book(s) including what the teacher writes on the board? There are times when you don't need to know every single word the instructor says, just the important things and make notes of that. with the exception of classes like math. There are carbonless notebooks that that are great for notes. When one writes on one sheet, the writing appears on the sheet underneath it.

What kind of support services do you look for in a college other than interpreters? One must remember that the Typewell program used at CWU is different than CART.

Growing up Deaf - Part 16

Attending College - Part 3

I was most likely one of the few deaf people at NTID who didn't have a TTY. My family didn't need it, as I could use voice on the phone and I had hearing aids on. I was able to keep using voice on the phone for a little time til shortly after graduation, then gave up trying as amplified phones were too expensive. I tried a couple things from Radio Shack, but they didn't always help. Speakerphones did nicely for me. Later, I quit trying to use the phone and had a hearing person help out til the relay came along. That meant dialing an 800 number. Cheers of joy were most likely heard when we could use the relay via instant messaging and the web.

Paintball was introduced to me, and I found it to be a rather fun game to play on some weekends. Sure, I had my share of hitting the other team, including being shot in a few spectacular or interesting ways. Another friend was on the other team, and I somehow came across him maybe 100 feet away in the thin trees and despite all our shooting at each other, we never hit each other though his ball bounced off me. My gun jammed halfway through our shooting match when a paintball broke inside. I ran down the hill to a path and I came across the judge who told me that it was the end of the game. Another game I hid behind a dirt 'wall' and kept shooting at this other person, but he managed to nail me first with the paintball bruising the side of my neck before breaking on my arm.

One particular game had us get close up to each other and I was on my stomach on the ground shooting the other team. I was hit, but even after putting my head down quickly after taking a second shot, they were still shooting at me and it took a judge to get them to stop.

Years later, I attended a community college in northern VA, going into their network security program. I was required to take an elective in english or theatre. You can guess what I chose. The class had 3-4 other course sections within, all of whom were studying various aspects of stage. We decided to do Macbeth. Another person and I did some of the lighting and other stage setups. We captioned two of the performances, something the instructor wanted to do. This will be the subject of another blog post, an update of my Poor Man's Captioning (or Subtitling) Device located on About.com.

I graduated in 2005 with honors. The ceremony was at George Mason University. Halfway through the ceremony, the noise started drowning out the master of ceremonies.

Next - Extracurricular/outside of school.

Growing up Deaf - Part 15

Attending College - Part 2

Since my family lived in southeastern Illinois at the time, I was able to take Amtrak home and back to college. It would take about 23-25 hours. The layover in Chicago would be around 8-10 hours. I managed to pass it by walking around the area including going up Sears Tower, putting my stuff in the station's lockers.

While on Amtrak from home back to Rochester, it wasn't unusual to have around a few other deaf going the same way. At one point, we took over two tables in the food car. When we got to Rochester, it wasn't unusual for us to pile into two or three taxis back to the campus. Either that or someone on the campus gave us rides. Once it was my roommate and I on the same train!

Another roomie I had was from southern Florida, and at one point, he turned up the heat so high, that even though the weather outside wasn't that cold, it turned the room into a sauna. No amount of begging or talking to him from anyone would get him to turn it down or off or open the window. At the time, I had an Atari 130XE with multiple floppy drives attached, and the heat caused some problems to occur, even causing one drive to fail.

It was also here that I started to get involved in theatre. I was in a couple performances, one of the characters being a dumb idiotic waiter, which I played pretty well. There were many good directors and instructors around the Theatre Department, some of whom are still there. I didn't just perform on stage, I was an usher, did prop and stage work, a little lighting, and then some. I still do a little performing today.

Next - College - final part.

Growing up Deaf - Part 14

Attending College

I was accepted by NTID and I went into SVP 1983 (Summer Vestibule Program). It marked the first time I was going to be on my own in the dorms on campus away from home. That plus I was finally with other deaf people, more time spent with them than other times combined. This is where I was finally able to make and keep friends for much longer than my previous school years. I have at times found some from way back then. I knew no one at NTID when I first started there. Thus, like in previous years after a move, I started all over again in finding and making friends.

I was in Peterson Hall on the third floor all during SVP. It was during this time someone tossed a military smoke bomb on the opposite side of the fire door of where I was. Everyone on that side thought it was a fire and didn't leave their rooms, though there were a couple who did. It wasn't til much later when we found out more about the smoke bomb, which burned a crater in the carpeting and the floor. I still have the picture somewhere. They didn't get the person til about a year or two later.

My first year, I tried going into Computer Science, but had so much trouble with it, that after the third quarter, I went to NTID's Data Processing major. I was in the first floor of Bell Hall, which is now a childcare center. My roommate joined a fraternity and moved out, leaving me as the lone occupant in the spring quarter. I found later that it wasn't just me who had problems with RIT's course pace. I did pretty well in the Data Processing program. I even had accounting again, made easier by my having taken it in high school and was a tutor to some at times.

I had the same room on 10th floor Ellingson Hall for three years straight. Few people were able to do this, though I heard about a couple people who had the same room for four years. That may have been a rumor.

It was this time when I started socializing with other deaf more than in previous years. My signing skills greatly improved within the first year, and improved even more the next. I also managed to run a BBS (bulletin board system) on my computer in the dorms on the weekdays. This allowed me to meet other friends in the Rochester area, a few of whom I still keep contact with. I was also able to get out into the city now and then using the local bus service to go to the mall, a local Wegmans, the downtown area, and a few other places.

Next - College part 2.

Growing up Deaf - Part 3

Adoption part 2 - Birth mom finds me.

My birth mom beat me to the punch by finding me first, shortly after 9/11. Shortly after that, my Geo Metro was totalled after returning from an event in the late evening. It had 166,500 miles on it. Someone went in front of me at an intersection and I hit their rear passenger door. I wasn't injured, thankfully, despite the 35mph hit and things from the back coming forward. I managed to stop at the intersection's corner, engine fluids leaking a path. As I got out of the car, someone asked me how I was. "I'm fine. The car ain't." Exiting the car, I found my fire extinguisher got stopped by a few things, resting between my headrest and side of car. It could have been painfully worse.

As it turns out, I wasn't at fault, since I had the green light. I had no chance to avoid them. For some strange reason, they were parallel to and just about on the white stop lines in my travel lanes. Going into the median or or down a hill on the intersection's corner probably would have been worse.

The accident was a major factor that got me deciding what I was going to be doing next. Was I going to attend two local training programs, the local community college, or Gallaudet? The local community college won out since my applications to the training programs were lost in the mail when the anthrax attacks hit DC. One could say it was an interesting time for me.

I received something in the mail forwarded to me from adoptive mom in KY, since I had moved to VA a year earlier. It was from an investigative agency in Texas that said my birth mom had been searching for me and had certain pieces of information about me at birth. Responding to it via email, the investigator put me in touch with her.

After a couple emails, I asked her a few questions that only she would know. She answered them accurately. When I told adoptive mom about it, she said she nearly threw away that piece of mail. Had she done so, birth mom and I most likely would never have found each other, or we would have given more time. When I mentioned my hearing loss, it didn't matter to her. All she wanted to do was find her long-lost son and she did.

(Note: Rather than weekly serial posts, I'll be posting twice a week. If I get enough requests, three a week.)

Next - Birthmom and I meet.

Growing Up Deaf - Part 1

One of the things about growing up deaf is that you learn to come up with little coping mechanisms to deal with various things as you grow up. You still use them even in adulthood up til your passing. In my case, I was born hearing, then it started going downhill when I was age 5. I learned to talk before then.

Over time, I never quite found out the cause of my hearing loss. Mom told me it was nerve deafness, also known as sensori-neural. Over time, I heard my generation in the early 60s had an epidemic of German measles/rubella.

Fast forward to around summer 2006 when I was preparing to attend classes at George Mason University. I had to get together my health records, but for some reason, seems some may have gotten lost and mom couldn't find them, though she sent me what she had. I talked with a couple people at the local health department who mentioned that I could get my blood titers checked for immunity to certain diseases, namely mumps and rubella.

As it turns out, I have immunity to the mumps, which is the reason why I lost my hearing. Interestingly enough, in my files, I have a letter from a doctor who thought the mumps caused my hearing loss. However, what of the rubella part? It seems I never had an MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) immunization when I was younger. I had to go to the health department for just that. I beat the deadline by a few days to get in all my immunization info GMU's Student Health Services office. GMU said it was mandatory that I go through Orientation, which gave me all the info I needed for post-admissions requirements and class registration.

What of the time of my birth? I had to ask my birthmom about that. Adoptive mom was always supportive of me finding my birthmom. More on that later.

Has anyone had their blood titers drawn and checked for any kind of immunity? Was the information for personal use or something else?

The 4th, NTID, Gally, and Adulthood

Gotta give the Deaf Sherlock a big hand at his style of making Shrimp BBQ Kabob. As it turns out Jamie and I were at the local Costco picking up a few things, and I had to make a fast run to the seafood kiosk to pick up something there. Seems the guy was towing away the first of several pieces of large ice coolers with various seafoods to the freezer in back. I nailed down a bag of tiger prawns when he came back. I didn't realize how much it was til later on after we looked at the receipt back home.

$38.

...and then I looked at the bag itself...

*FOUR* pounds!

Can two people eat that much for dinner? Maybe if you're two or three hungry teens... Have you seen how *BIG* tiger prawns are?! Fortunately, Sherlock was to the rescue.

We got the usual thing of hamburgers, veggieburgers, and hotdogs, but didn't use up everything. That kabob was a hit. Now if I can remember everything he used... Olive oil, soy sauce, big dash of something, red wine, garlic, chopped onions, and a few other spices. Stir, marinate, and two prawns per skewer with onions, green pepper, mushroom, and carrots. Then a few veggie-only skewers. All the kabobs were eaten. Yummers.

But of course, it was a good time having a round table with discussions going back and forth, including back and forth between our time out there and the present time. I'm wondering why NTID still has their AAS programs while Gallaudet offers that including Bachelors and more. But personally, I like the idea of going to NTID for two years, and finish the last two at RIT. Thus the "2 + 2" program. Some of us back then tried to go on to RIT, but never went far due to various problems with RIT's courses and other things.

Then some of us went in and out for marshmallow roasting, after what looked like a big poof of flame after Sherlock and Daniel started another fire with a little more than enough starter fluid. Reminds me of years ago, when I was trying to light a grill at a park, I used way too much starter fluid on the charcoal. I lit the stuff, and *POOF*, was right in the middle of a brief fireball. My grandmother and her two grandkids nearby were looking at me with wide eyes. I was fine, though slightly singed, now holding onto a burned-out match.

Despite NTID's age, it still troubles me to know that even though they offer an AAS, they at least have the capability to offer more advanced degrees. It may be harder to find a job with an AAS, but it should at least get your foot in the door to start the job you want, then take classes over time to get your Bachelors. I went to a local community college and graduated with honors, but after around 500 resumes sent out and 12 interviews in a year's time, all I got was a volunteer job as a computer refurbisher. This can at least get me somewhere when I graduate from GMU.

The major reason why I'm going to GMU is that I needed something technical, plus it wasn't too expensive. Another plus is that it was close to home. The downsides is that it doesn't have the underground tunnels that some of RIT's class buildings do, and the food court is not an "all you can eat" kind of thing like Grace Watson or the Shumway Dining Commons.

Next time I'm back at RIT, I'll be taking pics, more than I did at the last reunion and when I was there for classes. I will again be taking shots of all the wall paintings in the tunnels below the dorms. Some of the best paintings they had back then are now gone. They can paint the ceiling as well. We did this with the ceiling tiles back in art class in middle school long ago.

Daniel Berke, may your time at NTID/RIT go smoothly.