Group items tagged

Click here to download the registration form for this event (DOC) Untangling the Dots  September 23-24, 2010 MSDB campus - Great Falls Topics this year include: Direct observations of braille students reading and writing braille at MSDB Pre-braille for the young learner Pre-braille for the adventitiously blind or MIVI student Formatting using Literary braille and the Perkins braille writer Transcribing and the use of Technology Functional Braille Creating Efficient braille readers Complex braille issues Review of the Braille Bill Concept Development The Use of Braille Curricula Please return form by September 13, 2010 to: Kerri Norick 145 N. Pheasant Dr. Bozeman, MT 59718 or knorick@msdb.mt.gov

When: Saturday, September 18, 2010 11:00 am to 4:00 pm Where: MSDB Mustang Center 3911 Central Avenue Great Falls, MT 59405 What: Activities and Games Storytelling of MAD/MSDB History

For 40 years, Gail Bechard has had butterflies in her stomach every Sunday night during the school year.

A preschool teacher at Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind, Bechard said she's always been excited about the week ahead.

Click here download the full informational brochure (PDF) Click here to download the registration form (PDF) What: MSDB 11th Annual Family Learning Weekend for the Blind and Visually Impaired Where: MSDB Campus in Great Falls When: June 3‐5, 2011 Who: Families of Blind and Visually Impaired Children living in Montana! Why: The Learning Weekend is a creative program that provides opportunities for families of sensory impaired children to learn about blindness and visual impairment, share their experiences with other families, and learn how to communicate more fully with one another in a warm, caring atmosphere. The focus of the weekend is to enhance each individual's personal knowledge of blindness and how it relates to the education and development of their child. Information in the form of informal workshops, group discussions (parent groups, kids groups, siblings groups, etc.) and hands‐on activities will be offered. Child care and recreation for the children (siblings included) will also be available at no charge. Families will be reimbursed for mileage at the current state rate.

What would you do if the doctors came out and told you your child had what mainstream society considers a disability, like having a hearing impairment? In that instance, you are thrown into a new world into a culture you know little about that uses a foreign language. According to one family that went through this, you learn a lot very quickly.

A conversation between a hearing person and a deaf person, despite even being from the same place, can be like being dropped in a foreign land because the language the other is using is foreign. That's why the role of an interpreter is so important.

In a world without sound, the deaf needed a way to communicate. Some can and do speak verbally and some can read lips, but the vast majority uses a visual communication system called Sign Language.

Great Falls is home to one of the most unique schools with a very select student body. We are talking about the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind. This week we are focusing on some of the many fascinating things accomplished at that school.

The annual administration of the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) will be conducted in Montana on Saturday, October 16, on the MSDB Campus in Great Falls.  To register for the assessment please go to: http://www.usu.edu/taese/task12/EIPARegistration.cfm. The OPI will pay the registration fee for interpreters working in Montana schools every other year until the interpreter attains a score of 3.5 or higher.  Interpreters wishing to have the OPI pay the registration fee should contact Frank Podobnik at fpodobnik@mt.gov for more information. Beginning July 1, 2011, all educational interpreters employed in Montana schools must have an EIPA score of 3.5 or higher.  Those interpreters scoring between 2.5 and 3.4 can remain employed, but must have an educational plan in place to achieve the 3.5 standard within three years.