By Colleen Platt
Seventh grade is one happening place! Lots of energy. Lots of movement. Classwork. Group work. To the media center! To the auditorium! The gym! Science lab! Add in 24 enthusiastic students, six of whom use CART, 24 backpacks overflowing with the essentials of middle school life — not to mention two teachers, one mainstream and one teacher of the deaf; and me with my CART on a cart — and you've got lots to keep you on your toes.
I joined the CART staff of SHIP (Secondary Hearing Impaired Program) here in Northern New Jersey in September 2003. My first assignment was to provide realtime for six students in the seventh grade for science, math, English, social studies, and health as well as any assemblies, guest speakers, and special events. I have been fortunate to work with Geri Toniolo, a wonderful teacher of the deaf from our program as well as five mainstream content area teachers.
As reporting professionals, we've stretched ourselves into many new areas and situations and tackled the challenges one by one. During these past years, I have enjoyed reading and learning from the experiences of my fellow reporters in the great articles they have submitted. I'm happy to share with you a little bit about the work I'm currently doing, and I would invite all readers to share your good ideas as well.
I've always found it helpful to put myself in the shoes of my consumer. Geri and I certainly made good use of this approach to make our realtime technology even more accessible in the classroom environment. We tweaked colors, fonts, and the monitor's position. I created steno strokes to change my font color in a blink and created strokes to mimic the teachers' blackboard notes that needed to be copied. I'd like to share our setup and some of the reasoning behind it.
In addition to a hearing loss, our middle school consumers may have reading skills that vary significantly. I wanted to be sure each student was able to optimize the information passing across the screen. I wanted to be sure they were as comfortable as possible while viewing all that was happening in the classroom. I also wanted to be sure they would be able to interact with all the students in group work but also know that I was available to display additional instructions or comments that they could see even if they were at the far side of the room from the monitor.
In my first days, I took stock of the logistics of each classroom and made observations of how my students interacted with the CART screen. I needed a screen that was large enough for all to see but small enough not to block the blackboard or any student's view. A 17-inch flat screen monitor fit the bill.
My portable office — my CART on a cart — is set up on a 42-inch high, three-tier audio/visual cart. The bottom tier holds a neat pile of textbooks to one side. There is a nice spot for my Cybra attached to its folded tripod for when I'm on the move. I also keep a small NoteTable on an old tripod to hold an open textbook when I need to follow along. The middle tier can be called the nerve center of this operation — computer facing me, realtime cables, multiple-plug power surge device — leaving just enough room for the ever-emptying box of tissues. The top tier holds the 17-inch monitor which faces the students. The attached extension cord allows for lots of flexibility when necessary. This also allows the students some freedom to choose where they would like to sit.
In order to highlight text, speaker IDs, and make long passages easier to focus on, I've created steno strokes to change font color. I can quickly change from neon green to red, cyan blue, yellow, or magenta. Although several background/foreground colors generally work well, the consensus was the best combination that allows each color to read well from a distance is a black background with neon green foreground. A font that works well to show each letter distinctly is Tahoma, Regular, 14. I use a short line length of 27 characters and then zoom the text to fill the screen (approximately 340% on my software). I always write in upper- and lowercase. I paragraph frequently and insert a blank line often to separate new topics and new instructions.
Being able to switch colors smoothly is invaluable. I can highlight the vocabulary word being defined. When a long passage of last night's math homework answers is given, I can switch colors for each answer so they are easily distinguished.
Copying notes correctly from the blackboard is essential. Sometimes our students need a few more moments to finish writing. I mimic what is on the board, highlighted in yellow or red, and write realtime in green. I have strokes for bulleted text and common outline indicators such as arrows and the multiplication sign as well as common math symbols.
When the teacher gives detailed instructions for a task, I may follow up with a short recap and leave it on the screen for them to double-check while they do the work.
- Reread Chapter 4
- Identify as many proper nouns as possible
- Use your Post-it notes to mark the pages
- If necessary, finish for homework
Even though some days are fast-paced and steno-challenged, it is the happiest work I can imagine a reporter doing. It's wonderful working with talented and passionate teachers and education professionals. Most of all, nothing can beat the enjoyment of seeing the spontaneous smile on a child's face when they've reached a goal, accomplished a hard task, and done their very best.
Colleen Platt, RPR, resides and practices CART in Lincoln Park, N.J.