The Mainstream Center CLARKE - Call for Presentations
The Mainstream Center at CLARKE-School for the Deaf/Center for Oral Education provides information and expertise about hearing loss to schools. It is clear that challenges face any student with impaired hearing in a classroom with hearing students. Few regular education professionals have had direct contact with such a student, and their need for information and training is understandable. To meet the professionals' need for more information and guidance, we began our annual Fall Conference in 1979. Today this conference is designed for school professionals and parents who have an interest in mainstreaming oral deaf students. Offered each October, over two-hundred and fifty people attend each year including regular classroom teachers and aides, resource room teachers, SPED staff, teachers of the deaf, speech and language pathologists and audiologists, counselors and psychologists, oral transliterators and interpreters, parents, advocates and case managers, and school administrators.
We are accepting proposals that address this theme and in particular the topics listed below. Each proposal submitted is reviewed for relevancy in terms of content, suggested audience, age of student(s) being addressed and how it fits into our overall program. We are particularly seeking proposals that offer practical information applicable to school settings for oral deaf preschool through high school age students.
Proposals fall into the category of “mini-workshop.” These sessions are either 90 minutes in length and offered in the morning (10:30 am – 12:00 noon) and repeated in the afternoon (1:15 pm – 2:45 pm) OR 180 minutes in length, beginning at the 10:30 am session and continuing at the 1:15 pm session. Presenters receive a stipend, travel and accommodations the night prior to their presentation at the conference hotel site.
Topics of interest are:
1. Understanding and addressing the challenges of written language for students with hearing loss (even for those with strong oral skills).
2. Recognizing the educational significance of minimal or unilateral hearing loss
3. Tackling technology in your school (such as FM systems, implants and aids, or captioned media)
4. Working with an itinerant teacher of the deaf – “help me help you”
5. Mainstreaming the Middle School child: more than meets the eye
6. Strengthening the child from within: learning self-advocacy, developing self-confidence, making friends
7. Developing listening and learning skills in Early Childhood Programs
8. Examining the facts and myths of successful mainstreaming
9. Making it in the Mainstream: Determining how much time is needed with an Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf
We will consider other topics that reflect our theme. The first day of the conference is typically focused on topics related to hearing loss in general and the presentations on the second day tend to be more focused on the theme “A Look Below the Surface”.
- Complete the Presentation Proposal Form
- Provide two (2) copies of your proposal. Be sure to identify (a) target audience (b) level (c) a ear outline of your educational objectives
- Provide a one paragraph biographical sketch of the presenter(s).
