As an itinerant Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education Services teacher, Christina Rodriguez works with deaf and hard-of-hearing students on self-advocacy, assistive technology and curriculum access.
What service do you provide to students?
I meet with students for 30- or 40-minute sessions, one to three times a week, depending on the students’ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). I work with students 1:1 or in “push-in” sessions, where I join them in the classroom. I support three major areas: self-advocacy, like speaking up when they need something repeated; assistive technology, meaning they use their devices and keep them charged and connected; and academics.
Which academics do you support?
All of them! As an itinerant teacher, I work in every subject with students in K–12.
How do you meet that challenge?
It helps that we have a specialty. We’re laser-focused on access. We are like a guest for the classroom teacher — we’re there to collaborate and support. Our challenge is juggling different grades and behavior. I might go to a 1st-grader whose hearing aid was dead this morning, and I have to help them feel comfortable not just using it, but speaking up to ensure it’s charged. Thirty minutes later, I may have a 16-year-old with a huge exam they’re anxious about.
With sessions that are 30 or 40 minutes, we have to be really strategic about how we use that fleeting time. That’s why we always go in with targets based on the IEP. Our work is informed by what the entire IEP team has agreed upon.
What’s it like to be itinerant?
I travel to schools in the Hamilton Heights area of Manhattan, covering a distance of about 30 blocks. It can be hard on the body, going from school to school, and the logistics are tricky. I have about 20 students right now, but it varies. I teach 40 sessions per week. It’s lots of fun — we’re everywhere and we have everyone!
What specific challenges do deaf and hard-of-hearing students face?
I think it would surprise people how much language they are sometimes missing. Hearing children gain language skills through what we call incidental language — overhearing other children, Mom on the phone or the TV in the other room. My students miss out on that. I had a middle school student who was approaching high school, and we were talking about graduation with his parents. And I said, “Wait, does he know what graduation is?” We had to explain. We have to account for language exposure and close those gaps.
What particular strengths do your students have?
Strong visual skills. They can read people’s emotions a lot faster than average, as well as other visual cues.
What drew you to this specialty?
I struggled with spelling and writing as a child. My teachers always held me to high expectations and reassured me I was capable. That made me want to teach. In 5th grade, I learned a song in American Sign Language, and I felt it was such a beautiful, expressive language. That made me want to work with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
What do you love most about your job?
I love watching students make academic progress, but I also love helping my students become more self-assured and connect socially. I had a 1st-grader with this Spiderman cochlear implant who was so self-conscious, he cried when other children asked him about it. After I worked with him, his mom told me another child asked him about it in the park. He said, “It helps me hear.” So simple, but such a difference. It was amazing.
Inclusion is why I’m here. I want to tell my students: “You can be included. You can be in society, and you can have conversations. You belong.”
— As told to Hannah Brown