Florida School for the Deaf and Blind Transcript

Linda Huntoon VO/OC
And then the higher the frequency…

All VO
The higher the pitch.

Linda Huntoon OC
…the higher the pitch.

Mark Largent OC
You’ll make that two X minus eight Y.

Sherry Gaynor OC
We are going to slice and layer that cake into three layers.

Mary Lou Hoffman-Sitten VO/OC
At the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind all of our students are actually enrolled in a public high school, elementary, middle school and every one of our students has an individual educational…

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Mary Lou Hoffman-Sitten
Principal, Blind School

…plan. So based on their particular handicap and condition or even the severity or lack of severity of that is accommodated in their individual plan so that they’re allowed to access the general curriculum.

Mark Largent VO/OC
There’s your quiz. We’re going to go through them. You’re going to tell me how you got the answers that you got, okay?

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Algebra II

And I’ll push you along to the right answer. If it’s circled that doesn’t mean that the whole thing is wrong. It means there’s something there that’s wrong. Functionally is every day the same thing is trying to get concepts across that we all learned by seeing someone else do it. My biggest challenges are trying to figure out what exactly the concept…

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Mark Largent
Math Teacher

…a blind kid has in his head of what I’ve just tried to explain to him. Just like every other test this is your opportunity to correct it, but instead of correcting it on your own, okay, you tell me what you did, I’ll stop you at the certain point where you made your mistake. It’s a challenge every day to try to get that information and to look at that whole picture. Hit it, Emma. Which one?

Emma McGeath VO
Okay, number four.

Mark Largent VO
Okay.

Emma McGeath VO
Solve the system.

Mark Largent VO
Eight Y plus 24 and three X plus five Y…

Emma McGeath VO
Yeah.

Mark Largent VO
…equals two. Okay, so right off the bat, what do you notice?

Emma McGeath VO
Yeah, we need to put them in the same format.

Mark Largent VO/OC
Okay. So all we have to do is change the equal to a minus, right? And the plus to an equal.

Emma McGeath VO/OC
Me, personally…

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Emma McGeath
Student

…I have always had problems with math. So, like, when I came here and they had the monitors it made it a lot easier because when you, when you can’t see the equations it’s a lot harder. Find the common factor.

Mark Largent VO
Five.

Emma McGeath OC/VO
Five. The fact that I can actually get math here whereas in the other schools I couldn’t makes it a lot better for me. And I’m now, like, excelling straight A student whereas before I was not doing so well.

Mark Largent OC
Okay, your paper says negative 12.

Male With Blue T-Shirt OC
I’m going to show you how I got negative 12 because I over thought it.

Female Voice #1 VO
Yeah, I have negative 12.

Mark Largent OC
Okay, show me how you got negative 12.

Female Voice #2 VO
Actually, I got negative 12 also.

Male With Blue T-Shirt OC
I cross multiplied and I put that two in front of the five X plus 16.

Mark Largent VO/OC
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why? It would be easy when I sit and correct students work and say, “This is the right answer”, it would be much more time efficient as well. I’d be able to cover more material, but I don’t know that the kids would remember it. Oh, Emma.

Emma McGeath VO/OC
They go, like, to the right of the T and to the right of U and to the right.

Mark Largent VO
Through the exponents, right?

Emma McGeath OC
Yeah.

Danny Hutto VO/OC
We provide a boarding…

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Danny Hutto
President, Florida School
For The Deaf And The Blind

…program. We take care of their medical needs. We take care of their dietary needs. Any support services that they need, we have it here at our school.

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Dance Troupe

Lia Ferrante VO/OC
This class, I feel, is very important for them overall. It helps build their self-esteem. They get to do something that they think that they could have never done. A lot of people think that because they’re deaf…

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Lia Ferrante
Dance Teacher

…that they can’t dance. However, I’ve found that they’re just like any other person, any other hearing person. You go here and be Riley and yours. The deafest person can have a natural talent for dancing. They can. I think it’s a natural ingrained part of life. Some people are born with that rhythm of life and it’s in them. Deaf, hearing, it doesn’t matter. Whatever that song meaning you interpret for the audience. So maybe they experience connects. Maybe their story connects. If I’m up here dry face, non emotional, I’m showing off for mom and dad, am I appropriately telling the story?

Male Voice #1 VO
No.

Lia Ferrante VO/OC
Teaching deaf students is not really that different when you break it down as teaching hearing kids. To me, it’s more of a reward for me because I get to encourage and see them grow a lot more. It’s a good way, a positive way, to get out if bad day. Visually, they can pick up things a lot quicker. If I’m explaining something to them, they don’t always know where their body is or how it’s moving. Cha, cha, hit. Cha, cha, hit. They think that they’re doing it, but to visually see themselves or see another person do it is there. They understand.

Heath Humphrey OC/VO
I get…

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Heath Humphrey
Student

…an outlet, pretty much. I mean, with all the stress that builds up every day here and going here to this class and I can dance and I can just sign and this really is a great way to express myself.

Keith Banks OC/VO
The reason…

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Keith Banks
Student

…why I take Dance Troupe is because I like to express myself in dance and show the audience to connect the story and be able to have potential in myself in my confidence.

Lia Ferrante VO/OC
On stage he shines. He’s amazing on stage. He’s able to, you know, just give the people the emotion and the experience and you just want to join right in with him.

Heath Humphrey OC
He’s definitely the better dancer.

Keith Banks OC
No. That’s not true. I think we’re equal. You know?

Heath Humphrey OC
We’re equal.

Keith Banks OC
The audience likes us the same. But I have high expectations next year.

Heath Humphrey OC
Oh, yes, of course.

Danny Hutto OC
It’s not uncommon for someone to say there’s, there’s something about this place. There’s something special about this place. I don’t quite know what it is, but I just have this feeling when, when I come on, when I came on this campus.

Betsy Sotillo-Gaura OC/VO
I pledge…

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ESOL Class

…allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. ESOL means English for speakers of other languages. Our goal is English.

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Betsy Sotillo-Gaura
Director, ESOL

We’re not a trilingual or a bilingual, but we utilize the native language as a bridge. Analogies, what does that mean? Analogies.

Abigail OC
It’s like almost the same or opposite. It’s having being related to that word.

Betsy Sotillo-Gaura VO/OC
Right. Whenever we say English we’re teaching English and we’re also teaching the American Sign Language, both, for the deaf. If it’s a blind student then we’re teaching them English and also brail. Sometimes the students that are hard of hearing don’t fit in to the hearing world and they don’t fit in to the deaf world. So those kids you really have to talk a lot, encourage a lot and support. Sometimes if a student talks about it, they’re able to write more. Why did you pick Miss Sarah?

Abigail OC/VO
She know our ability and know how, she know our language. She know everything. She work together and, you know, we help each other so that’s what, that’s what I like about Sarah.

Betsy Sotillo-Gaura VO/OC
Abigail has a tendency to not to communicate much and she was passionate about that. So I think she was able to just share and express everything that she was feeling. She spoke as almost like she forget she was hard of hearing. And that is what we want from every single child. Okay, you read it four times?

Mario OC
Yeah.

Betsy Sotillo-Gaura OC
Okay. And you got signatures I see. Perfect, Mario. Keep reading.

Mary Lou Hoffman-Sitten OC
That’s kind of the prize that you’re looking for every day when you have a classroom is for that a-ha moment. And the way we support our teachers in finding those a-ha moments is we, we absolutely are the cheerleaders for their successes.

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Integrated Science

Linda Huntoon OC/VO
Seven, wave and sound. Part one, tuning forks. My biggest challenge in teaching science to blind kids is I need to make abstract concepts concrete to them. In a lot of classes…

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Linda Huntoon
Science Teacher

…we, we eat things and like edible estuaries or, or I have to give, get them models or other ways to make, make the things real for them, because it’s so abstract many concepts in science. We’re going to hit the tuning fork against the block and then you’re going to bring it up to your ear.

Male With White Lab Coat OC
Okay, hold it like this then you hit it on the edge and you put it up to your ear.

Female With Hoop Earrings OC
That hurts.

Linda Huntoon VO/OC
What I was trying to demonstrate to my students is how sound is made of vibrations. Sound travels through the air in the form of vibrations. It’s hard to describe vibrations, but they were able to feel them.

Female With Hoop Earrings VO
Oh, my God.

Male With White Lab Coat OC
We got low frequencies.

Female With Hoop Earrings VO
Thelmo’s is different.

Female With Long Brown Hair OC
Whoa, this is taking forever.

Female With Hoop Earrings VO
Whoa, man.

Linda Huntoon VO/OC
Depending on the note or the tune, the lower the frequency the what the pitch? The, the lower the frequency, the lower the pitch. And then the higher the frequency…

All VO
The higher the pitch.

Linda Huntoon OC/VO
…the higher the pitch. Good. I can tell when they’ve got the concept because their faces will light up and they get excited. They get excited about learning and things that I’ve been telling them fall into place and it’s just a great moment when that happens. They’ll say something like, “I see.” And then from a blind student you know you’re doing something good.

Sherry Gaynor OC/VO
What we’re going to do today…

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Cooking Class

…is fill and ice the cakes from yesterday. We saved the layers. We kept those overnight cooled, covered well, that’s important. Why? Why is it important to cover cakes do you think? “If germs touch a food and they change color, you know, it can become with mold and things like that.” Yes. When you are teaching, you can show, stop, explain, show, stop explain in a way that’s smooth…

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Sherry Gaynor
Director, Culinary Arts

…and that doesn’t carry on too long because, you know, there, there’s work to be done and I want for the students to have opportunities themselves, but that is part of the demonstration process. So we just want to take, it’s a very short sawing motion and it’s straight. Don’t look around. You focus on that and keep straight. What I’ve noticed is how much more skillful the deaf are because they are so visual. My hand stays on top the whole time. Don’t come over here. Oftentimes just one, after you show them one time then they themselves are successful at doing it. Brush and turn. Brush and turn. Good. That’s right. I keep in contact with my students after they leave and see what kind of work they’re doing and I think I counted up last time I checked about 30 students that have gone into the industry and are successful cooks. This time we’re going to, we’re going to let some go on the sides and then clean it up the sides.

Mary Lou Hoffman-Sitten VO/OC
Regardless of budgetary issues, we attract a staff of people who really care about the children. And if they don’t it’s too hard a job and they just don’t last.

James Crozier VO
One, two, three.

All VO
.

James Crozier VO/OC
Goalball is a sport developed for blind athletes. It was developed…

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Goalball Practice

…at the end of World War II as a result of a lot of veterans being blinded during wartime accidents. It’s kind of…

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James Crozier
Coach

…it’s own thing. It’s really hard to describe. It’s a combination of a bunch of sports. Some people think that it’s like soccer. I refer to it kind of as pong. It’s like three bodies moving left to right or staying in place to kind of defend and keep a ball from going into the goal. It’s a really good equalizer in terms of visual, the varying degrees of visual impairment with the auditory of the ball and the game and the tactile lines so that they can feel and orient themselves on the court. I teach students how to overcome obstacles, to deal with their challenges and find other ways to accomplish our daily life tasks. Whether it be traveling to the cafeteria for lunch to, you know, complex things like flying across country on an airplane. Ashley, I want you to be at left wing or right wing. Kaitlin left wing. Emma at center. Okay? Always defense first, okay? Block every ball that comes. Nothing gets by us, okay? And the way we do that is by putting ourselves in a good position to block the ball. For every challenge or obstacle or something we feel that the visual impairment causes, I just flip it philosophically in terms of an opportunity. So you turn, you know, challenges and obstacles into stepping stones to help reach your potentials. That’s a great set.

Danny Hutto OC
How are you? My goodness gracious.

Male With Brown Hoodie OC
How are you?

Danny Hutto OC/VO
Good. How beautiful. All of these kids have been here all during the week and every Friday we bus them home. And the whole logic is to have them home with their families on the weekends. I just take a lot of pride in being here with the kids, being here with the staff, supporting the staff who are trying to get all these children on the buses and just to see them off. Where else can you work and have this kind of an experience? Okay, you all ready? All right, go. Go home. Let’s go.

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