From the Editor - Edl · 2015-12-29 · From the Editor Welcome, I hope you enjoy the stories...

From the EditorWelcome, I hope you enjoy the stories portrayed in this Issue. We are always looking for interesting articles for our magazine, If you have a TSD story, community event or person that could be interviewed, let us know. Thank you.

Want to find past issues or more information? Please visit us online:

www.tsd.state.tx.us/lonestar

t: (512) 462-5327 | e: [email protected] South Congress Avenue Austin, Texas 78704

Table of ContentsFeatures

3 ...............................Letter from the Superintendent

4-5 .................. Southwest Regional Academic Bowl

6-9 ............................................. International Studies

10-11 .............. Sertoma Annual Pancake Breakfast

12 .......................................Meet the Business Office

13 .................................................Battle of the Books

14-16 .................................................Halloween Flood

17 ........................................ Middle School Mathletes

18 ................................................... Other Happenings

19 ............................................................Ranger News

Front CoverTSD Team for the Southwest Regional Academic Bowl.

www.tsd.state.tx.us/lonestar

V O L U M E 1 3 5 , N o . 1W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 4

( I S S N 0 8 9 3 - 2 9 6 4 )

Lone StarEditor: Diana Poeppelmeyer

Art Director: Fernando MuñozContributors:

Claire Bugen, Diana Poeppelmeyer, Keena Miller, Donna Altuna, Dee Logan-Hodnett, Liz Chacon, Christy

Bearden, Jennifer Campero, Connie Potersnak, John Serrano and Kent Turner.

Special thanks to: Claire Bugen, Diana Poeppelmeyer and Cynthia Foss

Photography:Fernando Muñoz, Richard Norton, TSD staff and students.

Subscription InfoA one year subscription to Lone Star, the quarterly journal of the Texas School for the Deaf, costs $10. Send check and mailing address information to:

Lone Star EditorTexas School for the Deaf1102 South Congress Ave

Austin, TX 78704

AdministrationClaire Bugen

Superintendent

John A. SerranoDirector of Academic Affairs

Gary BegoDirector of Business and Operations

Russell O. WestDirector of Student Affairs

Governing BoardWalt Camenisch, President

Eric Hogue, Vice President

Angie Wolf, Secretary

Jean Andrews Beatrice Burke

Sha CowanTyran Lee

Susan RidleyConnie Sefcik-Kennedy

Whole Child Learning: Why It Matters?

I have written often about the national “Child First” Initiative and its commitment to the belief that “one size does not fit all” in deaf education and the deaf child’s right to quality access to language and communication, but I have not brought enough attention to Child First’s commitment to developing the “whole child”—something we believe very strongly in here at TSD.

It takes a village to provide our students with a sense of belonging, increased well being, and greater engagement in human social interactions. A strong foundation in reading, math and other core subjects is still as important as ever, yet by itself is insufficient for lifelong success. For that reason we try to make tangible those “intangibles” that special schools like ours bring to active learning and development of the total child. A walk across the campus this week, and almost any other week, for that matter, provides a great reminder of the human social interactions that connect our kids to the school, their peers and the broader community.

This week International Studies students are returning from India filled with the wonders of discovery from their amazing personal journeys----5th grade student council representatives are making their case for a “salad bar” for the elementary lunch period---the cast of Cinderella is polishing its production for a weekend of campus and community performances, and an inspirational assembly in the auditorium has recently honored Deaflympians from TSD for the past several decades. The campus and athletic fields are brimming with after-school activities---including track, tennis and golf, and the internationally acclaimed cast of STOMP is arriving on campus to do a workshop for the students.

It makes one pause and wonder how these experiences in dedication to whole child development resonate with the ever present demands for improved performance on high stakes tests and soon to come, teacher evaluation being tied to student performance, not to mention that ongoing saga that the least restrictive environment for a deaf child is the local school program. I sometimes wish our legislators in DC could get a glimpse of what a real LRE looks like. No matter what the pressures of academic accountability we must remember that the core of the “whole child” concept is the understanding that children grow physically, emotionally and intellectually; and therefore TSD should take pride in attending to these areas of social and emotional growth.

Sincerely,Printed by TSD Students at Ranger Press

www.rangerpress.org

Remembering Leillee Chabokrow Kaviani.

Claire Bugen

J O U R N A L O f T h E T E x A S S c h O O L f O R T h E D E A f

2 Lone Star • Winter 2013-2014 Journal of the Texas School for the Deaf 3

By John Serrano

“What is the name of…” - **BUZZER lights up**

“Who was the…” - **BUZZER lights up**

This is a glimpse of what it was like for the au-dience trying to read the questions on a screen before the questions were quickly removed each time a competing member clicked on a buzzer to answer the questions.

No, this article is not about speed-readers. TSD recently hosted the Southwest Regional Aca-demic Bowl competition in partnership with Gallaudet University and Gallaudet University Regional Center at Austin Community College. Academic Bowl is a competition for high school students from deaf schools and programs across the country. Each match competition consists of two teams having to correctly answer ques-tions focusing on different topics such as Lan-guage and Literature, Social Studies, Science and Technology, Mathematics, Current Events, Deaf Studies, Popular Culture, Sports and Leisure.

There are five regional competitions across the country and the top four teams in each regional competition have the opportunity to compete for the National Championship at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Including our TSD team, we had 12 teams from neighboring states as well as several programs for the deaf in Texas!*

The Southwest Regional Competition was a three-day affair. The teams arrived on Thurs-day afternoon and participated in icebreaker ac-tivities led by TSD students that then led into a Kick-Off Ceremony. Afterwards, the teams played against each other in practice matches for a dry run. Then, for pure entertainment, the players watched their coaches compete against each other during the “Coach Bowl.” On Friday and Saturday, it was non-stop game action for all the 12 teams. In the end, the match results of the entire competition determined the final four teams that would be a part of the playoffs (Third Place and Championship Matches). Our TSD team played well throughout the competition

but when it came to the final match that would have allowed them to enter the playoffs, the team unfortunately came up short by 1 point. However, our team took the wild card test and they performed well! That resulted in TSD be-ing selected to be one of several wild card teams participating in the National Academic Bowl competition in Washington DC. TSD is going to the Nationals! And congratulations to the teams ranking highest in the competition. New Mexico School for the Deaf placed first, second place went to Louisiana School for the Deaf, third place to Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, and 4th place to Jean Massieu School of the Deaf.

Special recognition goes to our TSD Academic Bowl team and also to all the volunteers who worked hard to prepare for the successful event.

And last, but not least, a special THANK YOU to ALL of the teams for their hard work prepar-ing for the competition, their commitment to academic excellence, and their sense of sports-manship and fair play that made the event fun for all!

For more about the Southwest Academic Bowl, visit:

www.tsd.state.tx.us/regional_ academic_bowl

History of the Academic BowlThe National Academic Bowl for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing was established in 1996 under the guidance of Astrid Goodstein, who was then the Executive Director of Enrollment Services at Gallaudet. That year, only six schools par-ticipated in what was considered a competition for local schools only. The participating schools were Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, MD), Lincoln High School (Philadelphia, PA), Maryland School for the Deaf (Frederick, MD), Model Secondary School for the Deaf (Wash-ington, DC), Rockville High School (Rockville, MD), and W.T. Woodson High School (Fairfax, VA). The winning team was the team from the Model Secondary School for the Deaf.

The competition was then expanded to five re-gions in 1997 under the direction of Edgar Palmer and his committee. A total of 12 teams participated in the 5 regions. The championship teams from each region were then invited to Gallaudet for the national competition.

Gallaudet Southwest Regional Academic Bowl

2014 Southwest Regional Academic Bowl Teams

New Mexico School for the Deaf - New Mexico

Phoenix Day School for the Deaf - Arizona

Texas School for the Deaf - Texas

Oklahoma School for the Deaf - Oklahoma

San Marcos High School - TexasPlano Senior High School - Texas

Colorado School for the Deaf - Colorado

Louisiana School for the Deaf - Louisiana

Mississippi School for the Deaf - Mississippi

Jean Massieu School of the Deaf - Utah

Rocky Mountain Deaf School - Colorado

McNeil High School/Capital Area RDSPD - Texas


By Jennifer Campero

Since 2006, TSD’s International Studies Pro-gram has been globetrotting around the world with students and chaperones. Prior to every trip, the students work hard raising funds to offset costs and spend time learning about the countries and cultures of their destinations. They often make a special point to meet with Deaf people in the lands they are visiting. So far they have visited:

• London/Paris (2006) with staff, Russell West, Michelle Deleonardis and Marie Dickinson.

• Italy (2007) – with staff, Michelle Deleonar-dis and Marie Dickinson.

• China (2008) – with staff, Mark Gobble, Claire Champagne and Jennifer Campero.

• Guatemala (2011) with staff, Wilmonda McDevitt and Jennifer Campero.

• Panama (2013) with staff, Wilmonda McDevitt, Russell West, and Jennifer Campero.

Enjoy reading about last year’s trip to Panama below and stay tuned for the next issue of the Lone Star when the 2014 trip to India will be highlighted.

International Studies Students’ Trip to PanamaOur seven International Studies students trav-eled to Panama last March which resulted in mind-blowing experience for them. We visited the following places:

Panama Viejo/Casco Viejo: The real life Pirate of the Caribbean, Captain Henry Morgan, infa-mously looted and destroyed Panama Viejo. Its residents relocated to safer ground, Casca Viejo. Visiting old historical buildings in these cities was a perfect way to learn more about the stories of this World Heritage Site.

Panama Canal: The students were awed and impressed by how it was operated and amazed by how the canal was built, especially how many people died building the canal.

Panama Hats in Las Pinatas: During one of our

A Look Back and Forward at TSD’s International Studies Program

drives, we stopped by a small store where a man made the well-known Panamanian hats. He demonstrated how they were made and the students were floored by the amount of time it took to make just one hat…one month!

Islands: It was the first time for most of our students to see beautiful islands with blue water. The students were fasci-nated by the hermit crabs found on the beach as well as by learning how to drink and eat coconut from the tree. After being fascinated on land, they took some time to snorkel and discover the colorful life in the ocean.

Iguana: At one point of our trip, we saw an iguana in the middle of the road and we had to stop to take pictures be-cause it roamed freely in the wild. While we were taking pictures, a man in a car stopped and grabbed the iguana right in front of us and then left. It was a culture shock for our students when they found out that people in Panama like to eat exotic animals like iguanas.

Marketplace in El Valle: The students experienced shopping and negotiating with Panamanians in the market and learned that it requires skills. For us, hammocks were the most popu-lar items.

Raspados: When we first saw a Raspado cart, we suddenly became those children who are thrilled at the sound of an ice cream truck. Raspado is a sno-cone topped with evaporated

milk and fruit-flavored syrup. The students fell in love with this dessert.

Canopy Zipline: We spent a day ziplining through the cano-py part of rainforest. It provided us the most stunning views of the jungle. Nothing could beat this environmental experi-ence.

Monkey Island Tour: We took a boat tour through the Pana-ma Canal into secret waterways to find several hidden islands where the monkeys can be seen leaping in the trees. The monkeys became curious and came down to our boat, not

Snorkeling at two different islands, Bolanos and Gamez.


just to take a closer look, but also to steal our peanuts. It was a great opportunity for us to view the animals in their natural habitat…and to see the huge ships passing by.

Deaf Panamanians: Our deaf guide arranged a visit at the mall where we met with some deaf Panamanians. They were incredibly eager to meet us and it was a great experience for the students to try and communicate with them. Some deaf Panamanians told their poignant stories. For example, one deaf woman rejected her mother because she would not learn how to sign to communicate with her. We also shared our culture and how we live in America. They were shocked to learn about our culture.

Sugar Cane: The best hands-on experience was going to a sugar cane farm owned by 3 deaf siblings. We were taught the whole process of making sugar from cutting down the sugar cane, to grinding, then cooking and finally molding. Dur-

ing the long b o i l i n g p r o c e s s , the siblings took us to milk the cows and taste cashews and cacao beans. The sib-lings were so kind that it made it difficult for us to leave at the end of the day.

Chiriqui Association of the Deaf: The guide, once again, ar-ranged the visit to a deaf club. This was the best way for us to witness the similarities in deaf culture between two different countries, Panama and United States. They valued deaf his-tory, had a sport league and tournament, and maintained the operation of the deaf club.

Panamanian Institute Special: We went to Panamanian In-

stitute Special (a deaf school) where we were given a tour and worked on vowels and color codes with the preschool stu-dents. One of most interesting facts we learned about this school was that it was the only place in the country to make the Panamanian flags.

University Special of the Americas: One week before Gallaudet University and the University of Panama signed a Memorandum of Agreement, Ms. Berta Torrijos, the univer-sity President, took some time to meet with us to learn about us and our trip to Panama. She seemed surprised to learn that we relied heavily on sign language rather than speech.

Kuna: Kuna is one of many tribes living on the islands of Kuna Yala. Noemi, a deaf Kuna girl raised by one of the vil-lages, guided us through the island and introduced us to her family. This gave us the chance to see how they live on the island. A few members of the Kunas performed their ritual

dance for us. Our students were invited to participate in their dance wearing their outfits. Our dancers’ moves were not per-fect, but they brought laughter to the nonchalant Kunas. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them.

After traveling to Panama, experiencing hands-on activities, and interacting with deaf people, our students truly gained a much better understanding of the culture and become global citizens. Like one of the students said, “Our eyes opened more every day!”

To see more about what we did during the trip, please take some time to look at our blogs and vlogs (link below). The students did a wonderful job in making them.

For more information visit:http://blog.travelpod.com/members/intlstudies


By Dee Logan-Hodnett President, Austin Sertoma

The Austin Sertoma Club’s 9th Annual Pancake Breakfast hosted 630 hungry and happy attendees Saturday morn-

ing, February 1st, 2014. The cafeteria at Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) was again overflow-ing as families - including many TSD staff and parents - and friends of Sertoma clubs all around central Texas, enjoyed all-you-can-eat plates of fluffy pancakes, tasty bacon, delicious scrambled eggs, orange juice, milk and coffee.

Austin Sertoma is proud to support TSD with proceeds from the breakfast. All profits go to TSD students with: scholarships for graduating seniors, support for the TSD golf program, and sponsorship to provide airfare for TSD middle school “Mathletes” to travel to the national math competition held every year in Rochester New York at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

Austin Sertoma owes thanks to all of the many volunteers who helped with this community ser-vice project, including student groups from Aus-tin Community College, the Texas State Univer-sity Collegiate Sertoma chapter, the University of Texas and area high schools. A very special thanks to the TSD kitchen staff and other TSD staff members, as well as fellow members who volunteered from the Round Rock Sertoma Club.

Also, our loyal sponsors whose gracious con-tributions to the success of this event can not be celebrated enough – we thank: Kerbey Lane Cafe, Guero’s Taco Bar, Sysco, H-E-B, The Bet-ter Hearing Center of Austin, Dominican Joe, Mike’s Print Shop and TSD’s Ranger Press. We are honored that these businesses are great sup-porters of Austin Sertoma and our mission.

Finally, toe-tapping music - provided by the Gary Knippa and Friends – wakes us all up and makes for a most unique and special event. Where else

can you get live music and pancakes to start your morning?

So, mark your calendars for February 7, 2015 – and plan to join us next year!

Now, it is time for the TSD math team to get ready for a great trip to Rochester and bring the trophies back to Austin! Good wishes from Austin Sertoma go with them.

Sertoma 9th Annual Pancake Breakfast


By Christy Bearden

Did you know that Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) is not only an amazing public school but is also a state agency?

Along with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, we are unique in that we have some of the same goals and concerns of an inde-pendent school district, but we are bound by the laws that govern all state agencies. Consequently, we employ staff whose job it is to ascertain com-pliance with the myriad of laws, rules and poli-cies administered by various oversight agencies. Gary Bego, Director of Financial and Support Operations, uses his 39 years of state experience to oversee Accounting, Budget, Food Services, Maintenance/Housekeeping, Purchasing, Risk Management and Transportation operations. Gary is at the helm of our Business Office which is made up of 10 professionals tasked with Ac-

counting, Budget and Risk Management func-tions. Together we bring over 200 years of state service to the proverbial table, 95 of which have been at TSD.

If you ask any member of the Business Office why they love working for TSD, you may hear things like “the staff is friendly”, or “it feels like home”, or “everyday brings new challenges”, but all will agree that having the opportunity to in-teract with the diverse deaf community and play-ing a small part in helping these kids grow makes TSD a great place to spend a significant portion of our daily lives.

Liane Saunders employs 18 years of state ex-perience when managing TSD’s budget, pre-paring numerous state-mandated publications throughout each biennium. She works closely with Christy Bearden, the Accounting Manager,

Meet Your Business Office

in implementation of the budget, and then monitoring activity to make sure it is recorded appropriately. Christy’s 28 years of state service help her in manag-ing the Accounting Department while maintaining an accurate record of our financial position. This would not be possible without the efforts of five other staff members, each supporting key func-tions of the office. Three accountants, Mary Helen Cahill, Cheryl Brown, and Daniel Rodriguez, each manage our gen-eral ledger, revenues, and expenditures, respectively. Together, they have 38 ½ years of state service, and they administer processes such as accounts payable, travel reimbursements, bank reconciliations, state and federal grants, and various rev-enue collections. They also prepare peri-odic financial reports to meet state and federal requirements. Liz Chacon, a 24-year veteran of the state, is one of our most visible representatives to the cam-pus. As our cashier, she works daily with students, staff and parents, collecting de-posits, maintaining accurate balances in student activity and trust accounts, and keeping an open line of communication with parents. We are also fortunate to have Jean Ann Gold-Adamson in our de-partment. Like her teammates, she wears

many hats, assisting with accounts payable and banking operations, and handling mail distribu-tion on behalf of the entire campus.

Additionally, the Business Office is home to our Risk Manager, Carol Wills, whose goal it is to keep the entire campus safe at all times. She fa-cilitates a safe environment for students, staff, parents and visitors, which includes campus safety, campus inspections, fire and emergency drills, and emergency response. Last, but cer-tainly not least, is Melanie Weaver. As our Ad-ministrative Assistant she keeps us all moving in the right direction at the right time, makes sure all equipment is in working order, knows what we need before we ask for it and knows where to find the answers to the many customer questions she receives every day.

The Business Office staff is a diverse group from many backgrounds, and they enjoy numerous hobbies such as hunting, reading, genealogy, cooking, golfing, gardening, dancing, fishing, singing, tennis, and even jewelry making. They bring a wealth of experience to the proverbial table, and together they are committed to serv-ing TSD in a professional, efficient and effective manner.

By Kent Turner

Last year, TSD brought home the national championship for

the 2012-13 Battle of the Books (BOTB) tournament. This year, our middle school squad hopes to make it back-to-back championships for our school! To fill you in a little about BOTB, it is a nation-wide competition in the same vein as the Deaf Academic Bowl (DAB).

There are two major differences between BOTB and DAB. BOTB focuses on students from middle school programs across the nation.

The second difference lies in the type of questions in the competition. Additionally, the BOTB matches are done through video conferences with teams from other schools.

In BOTB, the questions are based on content from books assigned by the competition committee. TSD qualified past the preliminary and playoff rounds by mastering content from three different literary works: Esperanza Rising, Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet, and Wonder.

On May 3rd, our BOTB team will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the national competition to match wits with 7 other schools in their book division. Please congratulate and send our best wishes to our national competition players: Jillian Culp (8th grade), Tyler Glennon (7th grade), and Nevan Graves (7th grade).

Battle Of The Books


Liz has been employed at TSD for 24 years, and currently works full time in the Business Office, as a cashier. We thank her for her openness in sharing her story with us. As you will see her in reflections from that day – and the many days that have followed – emotions are still vivid and raw.

By Liz Chacon as told to Donna Altuna

It had rained all night long and I woke up in morning with my usual plans to make coffee before starting my day. As I made my way to the kitchen, I thought I’d go outside to

the front porch and see how the long night rains had affected us. I was not prepared for what I saw. The first thing I noticed was a “river” running in front of our house, and no street. I then looked over to the right, and saw people moving down the street in the direction of our house. These people caught in rising waters while trying to flee their flooding homes, were treading through water that was already waist-deep.

Immediately, I ran back into the house and hurriedly told my family members inside that we were going to flood. I grabbed my cell phone, dialed 911 and let them know what was hap-pening. At that point, it seemed they didn’t yet know what was occurring in our Onion Creek neighborhood. They ad-vised us to move to higher ground, but at that point with wa-

ter gushing from the side street and surrounding the house, the only “higher ground” available to us was our rooftop. At that point, I warned my family to get dressed, take what-ever they could quickly grab and head for the roof. They all looked at me incredulously, as if I was joking. A minute or two later, my son called me into the living room and together we watched unbelievably, as water began to seep in, under and around the back door and through the walls.

A family member quickly obtained a ladder from the garage so we could safely climb up to the roof from the back yard. To get to the back yard, we had to open the back door. As we did so, water surged in. As we made our way out to the backyard, we found ourselves in knee-deep in dark and polluted flood water. It was about this time I noticed my adult Deaf son, Danny, was not with the family. After a few terrify-ing moments, I learned he had gone back to rescue our two dogs. After our family of six safely made it onto the roof, Danny realized that nobody had brought the cat up, so back down he went, admittedly against my wish-es. Eventually and unbelievably, we were all there safe and sound on the roof – including the cat. All six (nine if you are counting the dogs and cat) of us perched on the top of our roof – waiting. During this time, I called 911 again and spoke with a firefighter, who calmly asked me how many people there were in our group. This question hit me hard, as I real-ized they were trying to get a number of just how many folks they were dealing with here. Throughout the ordeal, my biggest concern was, and continued to be the safety of my 2 year-old granddaughter, Jacqueline, who at

the moment was clinging to her mother. At home, Jacqueline is often found pulling on her mom’s left ear (yes it’s always the left ear) when - she feels anxious. Although we all think this is terribly cute, it also shows that this little 2 year-old child was feeling the un-usual stress of the day’s events, as well.

From my rooftop, I was relieved to see all of my neighbors, who were hosting visitors that evening, eventually make it out of their home and climb to safety on their rooftop; all 13 of them. We could hear children screaming and crying, and people calling out and asking for help. It was surreal. We saw vehicles and boats float by right in front of us. Directly in front of our house is a greenbelt with large open spaces and large trees. By the end of the storm, there were 25 – 30 cars (luckily all empty) stuck in and around the trees there, like toys thrown about.

Around 9:30 that morning, a firefighter res-cue boat arrived in our area. They informed us they would rescue the people stranded in

trees first, and then would return to the rooftops for children and their mothers. As we waited, I looked around and all I could see were my neighbors stranded on their roofs, as we were. When the fire department returned, thankfully they took my granddaughter and daughter-in-law to safety, and the rest of us had to wait for the waters to recede before we could get down. Amazingly, this only took about 45 min-utes.

We lost virtually everything in the house, including our ve-hicles that day. Strangely enough, however, we didn’t “feel” these losses deeply, because we were all together. We survived

Halloween Flood

Jacqueline is often found pulling on her mom’s left ear (yes it’s always the left ear) when - she feels anxious. Although we all think this is terribly cute, it also shows that this little 2 year-old child was feeling the unusual stress of the day’s events, as well.


and we had each other. It’s really difficult but eye opening in moments like these because although this is your home you’re talking about, events such as this one remind us of what’s truly important.

On top of the blessing of our spared lives, we were extremely thankful to our TSD family in so very many ways. They provided us with a short-term place to stay, blessed us with restaurant gift cards, and a multitude of helping hands. Christy Bearden sent out a campus wide SOS email stating our need and rallied the troops as our so many came from virtually ev-ery department to help rescue us, literally and figuratively. Staff and their families from Ac-counting, Maintenance, HR, Technology, the Business Office, includ-ing my old supervisor and friend Mary Beck, SND, ECE/Elemen-tary, Athletics, House-keeping, Cafeteria – (with a BIG thank you and hug going out to Wendy Smith for send-ing a beautiful hand-made warm blanket that kept me warm and provided such comfort), ERCOD, Administra-tion, including Claire Bugen and Jim John-ston who helped us pro-cure a place to stay for the short term, Secu-rity (with another BIG thank you going out to Carol Wills for tak-ing care of my most valuable possessions), Residential, and probably some I’m sure I’m forgetting, rallied together. They brought supplies, meals, scooped mud, mopped and swept, washed and washed and washed . . . and packed dishes, re-moved and packed wall hangings, washed our clothes, threw away mounds of clothing and other items that had been re-duced to debris, peeled apart and dried precious family pho-tos, sorted and organized, along with a myriad of other tasks too countless to mention. David Rowe along with his wife Dee, who I had not met till that day, were definitely two of our “unsung heroes” as David gave us back the gift of elec-tricity! Without this, we all would have had to work in the dark and without those much-needed fans, which made the work in the heat bearable. Without these people helping to share our burden by giving their time, effort and support over many days and in many ways, this event would have been much more difficult for our family. We know we are truly blessed.

We also know our story is not unique, as this scenario was played out in virtually every home in our area that was affect-ed by the flood. Aside from our family’s safety, the love and support of so many, another blessing that occurred was that the city bought our house back in September, because it was in this known flood zone. Because of this, we were already in the process of having a new house built, when the flood hit. Remarkably, we got a call on the day before Thanksgiving saying that our new 5 bedroom, 3 bath, two story home was finished, and ready for us to move in! For many reasons, this

was truly a Thanksgiv-ing to remember – as we had much to be thankful for.

Although we’ve moved into our new home (center) and are start-ing to feel a little more settled and make new memories there, many of our shared memo-ries are still entrenched in our old home. There have been a few times when I’ve driven by or parked in front of our old house, just thinking about those memories and remem-bering how fortunate so many of us were to escape the dangers of the Halloween Flood last October. It was several weeks after the flood when my sons and I were talking, when I found I wasn’t alone in my visits back to the old house, as I

learned that they too had gone back to reflect and remember. Although my granddaughter’s words ring true from her re-cent visit to the old house, “Water all gone!” the memory of that day, and many blessings and hard days that followed will stay with us for a long, long time to come.

Post Script: We are proud to say that TSD was able to provide financial support to our three our TSD families whose lives and homes were devastated by the Halloween Flood of 2013. Thank you to each of you who gave or contributed in your own way to make this possible. You are each unsung heroes.

Doing mathematics for fun? Yes! Texas School for the Deaf

Middle School students have been involved in math compe-titions for the past 8 years, and plan to continue accepting this academic challenge!

On January 23, thirty TSD stu-dents competed in the school level MATHCOUNTS com-petition. MATHCOUNTS is a national competition pro-gram that was started in 1984 and is prevalent in middle schools throughout the coun-try. The results from the TSD school level contest were: 1st place: Jaelene Etkie, 2nd place: Kate Lorenzo, and 3rd place: Nevan Graves.

Based on high scores from the school level competition, 7 students were invited to com-pete in the MATHCOUNTS Travis chapter competition on Saturday, February 8 at the J.J. Pickle Center in Austin. Chapter competitions involve Austin area public, charter, and home schools. This competi-tion gave TSD mathletes good experience for the future. The students who participated were Tristan Anderson, Lexi Bull-ock, Jaelene Etkie, Emma Gi-untoli, Kate Lorenzo, Nevan Graves, and Ethan Nuñez.

Next up, on April 4-6, is the math competition hosted by the National Technical Insti-tute for the Deaf at the Roch-

ester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, New York. Four students have been chosen to represent TSD at this compe-tition: Lexi Bullock, Jaelene Etkie, Emma Giuntoli, and Nevan Graves. Coaches Dawn Kidd and Dana Stoddard, both middle school math teachers, will accompany the team. Not only is there hard work dur-ing this weekend, there are fun social activities to meet and make friends with other deaf and hard-of-hearing students from around the country. We are able to travel and compete because of the generous spon-sorship of the Austin Sertoma Club. Good luck Ranger Mathletes!

Middle School Mathletes Are Ready for Competition

“We didn’t “feel” these losses deeply, because we were

all together. We survived and we had each other.”


H O M E O F T H E

Visit us at:www.tsdrangers.com

Signing SantaThe Long Line Forms Early When Signing Santa Claus Comes to Town!

Thanks to Barton Creek Square Mall, every year

Signing Santa Claus pays a visit to children who are deaf or hard of hearing from the Austin area and Texas School for the Deaf (TSD).

Thanks to photographer, Mi-chael Barker, interpreters from TSD, and the help of volun-teers from TSD and the North Austin Optimists Club, 180 children received photos on Santa’s lap and relayed their holiday wishes directly to the bearded man himself, while TSD’s Sign Choir led the crowd in holiday carols.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from Santa and the Texas School for the Deaf!

By Donna Altuna

TSD kindergarten and 1st grade students celebrated the 100th day of school on February 10, 2014! The “100 year old” teachers and teachers’ aides led the fun.

They celebrated by . . . building with 100 cups.

And by . . . dancing by 10s (raise the roof, robot, the wave, bootie shake, stomp the bug, stir the pot, monkey, the dip, chicken neck and . . . row the boat!) Whew!

And by . . . exercising for 100 sec-onds (pictured below).

And by . . . painting 100 “Polka Dots”.

And by . . . making 10 rows of munchies with (you guessed it!) 10 treats per row = 100 treats in-side!

And what would a celebration be without wrapping up with partak-ing in yummy treats (MORE than 100 in all) brought by our FABU-LOUS parents?

Yep - it’s a fact! We are . . . 100 Days smarter!

Hover Fun at SNDBy Connie Potersnak

The Seniors, in Connie Potersnak’s Physics class, experimented with fric-tion by running a hovercraft over dif-ferent surfaces. The hovercraft was built out of wood, with a shower cur-tain bottom and used a leaf blower for power. Since the hovercraft floats on a pocket of air, the students were curi-ous to find out if different kinds sur-faces made any difference in its move-ment. They tested the hovercraft on the gym floor, a tile hallway, carpet, a rocky sidewalk, and on grass. The Seniors found that friction did indeed play a role in how far the hovercraft moved. The gym floor was the best with its slick surface. We had so much fun, even Jan Reed-Anderson, our principal, got into the act!

that The Lone Star’s roots go back 136 years?In 1876 the XIII Legislature established the state’s FIRST printing office at TSD (then the Texas Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb.) The original intention of the Legislature was to teach students to be print-ers and do part of the State’s printing. However, by 1878, the hiring of hearing printers had relegated the students to subordinate roles, and they were given few jobs and little instruction. Because the students could not be kept busy or learning under those conditions, W.D. Moore, the print instructor and another teacher, decided to start pub-lishing a monthly institution paper, the Texas Mute Ranger. Although the name has changed a few times through the years, the The Lone Star (the title since 1893) has been a constant at TSD since 1878!*

*(From Sesquicentennial Issue Special – “Tidbits & Tiding from Texas School for the Deaf ’s Past”)

Did you know…

100 Days Celebrations

Our wrestling team traveled to Riverside, Cal-ifornia for the Willigan tournament at CSDR with a mission - to defeat 5 other deaf schools from all over the country. It didn’t happen though, but our team fared pretty well; win-ning 2 and losing 3 (very close matches). As a result the Texas School for the Deaf wrestling team won 4th place in duals. Most of this team will return next year. That’s a good sign for us!

Wrestling Team Partricipated at the Willigan

Girls Basketball Unbeatable!AIPL Basketball Champions! 5/6 Girls Blue team breezed to a victory with 30-17 over St. Louis (the host)! On top of that, they went undefeated (perfect season) with 17-0 record!

7/8 Girls Blue team won in a battle in front of a “sellout” crowd (loud and crazed fans!), 31-29 in OT over St. Louis! They went 22-2 this year, one of best records in Texas School for the Deaf history!


Renowned for providing a world-class education to Texas’ students who are deaf and hard of hearing for more than 155 years, the Texas School for the Deaf maintains a tradition of excellence.

A home and a community, TSD is a CHILD FIRST school committed to giving students the tools to be college, career, and work ready adults; and a place for future generations of deaf and hard of hearing students to LEARN, GROW & BELONG.

With your support, and the Texas School for the Deaf Foundation, TSD’s traditions remain strong.

KICK UP YOUR HEELS TO HELP US:

Upgrade to 21st Century Career Technology Access in our ClassroomsIncrease Early Intervention Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Newborns/Infants

Provide Specialized Support for Students with Complex Additional DisabilitiesExpand Statewide Outreach Support Programs to Reach all Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students & Families in Texas

Please join us for an exclusive evening of wine-paired, fine dining and entertainment

KICK UP YOUR HEELS!The 8th Annual Diamond Chefs Gala

Thursday, May 8, 2014Hilton Austin 500 East Fourth Street

5:00 VIP ReceptionPre-Event by Invitation Only for Sponsors and Special Guests

5:30 p.m. Cocktails Entertainment Silent AuctionHors d’Oeuvres & Cash Bar

7:00 p.m. Dinner Courses with Wine PairingsPrepared by TSD Culinary Arts Students &Hilton Diamond Chef, Mark Dayanandan

Live Auction Fund-a-Need Entertainment Raffle

$125/Person $200/Couple Sponsorships AvailableAttire: Texas Cocktail Chic - Adults Only

RSVP: www.tsdfoundation.org/diamond [email protected] 512-633-7898

Sponsors

BAIRD FARRELLY CRIMINAL DEFENSE

MARK SEEGER &

JEFFREY HARPER

THE DIMARE FAMILY

Ada Terenshinski Americus DiamondS A N A N T O N I O

Cedar Park Jewelry

From the Editor - Edl · 2015-12-29 · From the Editor Welcome, I hope you enjoy the stories...

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Transcript of From the Editor - Edl · 2015-12-29 · From the Editor Welcome, I hope you enjoy the stories...