An adventure in Spelling

Nathanael was contacted by the ministry of education. They asked if he would help a girl in Orange Walk study for the Spelling Bee. Every year Belize has a spelling bee for the Deaf and hard of hearing.  Two years ago Nathanael helped make the video and was present at the event.

Morene had a crowd chearing her on! 

This year he was asked to help train a local girl. She goes to the same school that Nancy used to teach at.  Morene has a sister who is one year younger. They attend the same class together. Nancy also spent time working individually with her over the years. In 2013, Chelsea came and worked with Morene and Sulmi. 

Morene had a disadvantage in that the other students received the study video 2 months prior.

Misael and Kristel also came as a school field trip

Nathanael did his best, and Morene studied hard!

We were all proud of how well she did.

Nathanael says next year we will make sure to have the video ahead of time.  He thinks she'll win or at least place if she's given enough time to study!

Thanks for sharing this journey with us

Spring

National Spelling Bee for the Deaf

This past Thursday was the culmination of a 4 month project Nathanael worked on. It was the National Spelling Bee for the Deaf of Belize. It was one of the first projects he was given the opportunity to help with for the Ministry of Education in Belize

Nathanael was given two lists of words with about 300 words each. He then had to choose a sign or signs for each word. He had the opportunity to work closely with Andre Craig Macool, Deaf Belizean man. Mr. Macool helped to make sure that the signs chosen fit the Belizean regional ASL signs.

After the 600 words were confirmed, and signs were agreed upon; Nathanael aided in making a video of all of the signs with their spellings.  This was sent around the country.  The Deaf and hard of hearing students studied their words by watching Nathanael ;).

You can imagine Nathanael's confusion when we visited the Cayo Deaf school a month ago.  The students pointed at him.  They signed "movie".  Finally Nathanael realized that they recognized him from the study video!  What a fun thing for people all over the country to recognize who you are.

Nathanael really appreciated being able to work on the spelling bee for several reasons.The Spelling Bee is a valuable tool. It introduces the Deaf students to vocabulary.  The exposure happens in ASL as well as English. The students also improve their spelling skills  immensely . Some of the students walked away with prizes; but all of them have walked away with knowledge. This means that they are all winners.

Nathanael had a lot of fun and hopes to participate again he following year.