Welcome to our very first PESDHH Newsletter!

Our Leadership team met recently to take a fresh look at the year ahead and we are very excited about the possibilities! As many of you are aware, this organization was alive and thriving in it's hay day (before my time!) and, as changes are a natural part of life, had become dormant for a stretch of time. In the past 6 years or so one of the original creators of the organization, Barb Chubb, worked tirelessly to breathe life back into this much-needed networking organization...only to be slammed with a world-wide pandemic which left many of us completely drained. As Barb passed the reigns on to new leadership, it has taken a little bit of time for us to gain our footing and move forward in an effective way. THANK YOU to all have patiently awaited this time for our Leadership team to regain focus and forge ahead. It's time to get set because we are ready to ROLL!

In the coming months, your PESDHH leadership team has promised to do three things:

1. Meet regularly to start making sense of procedures and make updates to the website and bylaws,

2. Plan several mid-year "pilot" events, in addition to our annual Summer Workshop event, and

3. Determine what "membership" to PESDHH will look like.

THANK YOU to all have patiently awaited this time for our Leadership team to regain focus and forge ahead. It's time to get set because we are ready to ROLL!

Happy 2024-2025 School Year!

Your PESDHH Leadership Team,

Lindsey Binkle - President

Jeannine Watson - Vice President

Courtney Fillman & Malinda Delpriore - Media

Michael Prezioso Treasurer

In early August we invited several presenters to join us for our annual PESDHH Summer Workshop. Our day kicked off with a snapshot of a new ASL-based gameshow called Sign-tastic! This is the first American game show to feature a Deaf host. Dan Cook helped pump us up for the day, as well as offered to join alongside our DHH classes in an effort to teach students more about his own journey as a successful Deaf adult. For more information, contact heathergrayinpa@gmail.com

Next up, we heard from Lori Milcic from the Office of Developmental Programs. Lori offered a snapshot of how her services can support our Deaf Plus students alongside OVR as they transition into post secondary supports. A fantastic resource for our high school teachers who are looking to help families bridge the gap between high school and life after graduation! To reach out to Lori for more information, you can contact her at C-LMILCIC@pa.gov.

After this, we heard from Christine Moon, who is part of a special initiative at the Bureau of Special Education to Attain, Prepare and Retain new teachers in various fields of special education. Christine shared some tough statistics regarding the current decline of teachers in our field and offered some insights on how the State is working on creative solutions to increase interest. As part of the "Retain" portion of this initiative, we here at PESDHH feel that perhaps we can find ways to support our TODs in Pennsylvania by providing resources and networking opportunities to help prevent burn-out. Learn more about APR and their Year 2 focus on Deaf Education by clicking the APR button below.

At the end of the day, we had a great presentation from Michelle Andros with Supporting Success for Children with Hearing Loss (SSCHL). Michelle gave us an overview of their website, including DHH-relevant workshops and trainings, as well as the Teacher Tools Takeout option where DHH teachers can sell materials that they develop (much like Teachers Pay Teachers...but for TODs!).

In addition to all these great presenters, we took some time to network with each other, discuss some hot topics in the Field of Deaf Education and support each other by spotlighting some great work that is being done around the state!

If you missed the 2024 Summer Workshop, please stay tuned for upcoming announcements for what's to come for 2025!

At the end of the 2024 Summer Workshop, we took some time to read the feedback from those who attended...there was an overwhelming interest in having opportunities to talk more about the new Communication Plan which was introduced in recent years. We realize that formal trainings have been scarce, so we decided that for our first mid-year workshop, we would like to hold an "ed camp" style opportunity for teachers to meet and discuss the Communication Plan. This will not be considered a "training", but instead, we will come together, ask each other all the questions and work together to formulate some "best practice" approaches. Save the Date! We are aiming for a virtual event on the evening of November 13th!

Looking for more resources for supports in the field of Deaf Education? Check these out!

PESDHH22@gmail.com