Interpreter Observation

I attended Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Seminole County to observe an interpreter in a secondary education environment. The interpreter observed was Megan Fogt who has her national certification, specifically RID Ed:k-12. Once I arrived to the school Megan brought me to the classroom the interpreters use as their space to wait for classes to begin. This room also doubles on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as a tutoring space for the DHH students to come to as their elective class. At this school all of the DHH students are mainstreamed into classes with hearing students and an interpreter all day long. Megan informed me that this year is the first year all of the DHH students are being completely mainstreamed. Prior to this year, there was a DHH

Before the class started Megan sat down with me and explained the new recent change in the students being mainstreamed, as well as the basics of what it is like to be an interpreter at this specific middle school. The students at this school have never been mainstreamed before, so much so that some of the students actually believed that their interpreter was their teacher. When I asked Megan what law/act caused this change and she informed me that she was not sure, however she knows that it was along the lines of “The inclusion model from the department of education.” When it comes to ethical decisions, this school’s situation is in a very grey area. I was told that all of the students at this school are very dependent

I personally did not really know how to get that concept across to a deaf child, so watching what Megan signed really helped me figure that out. She signed “fs-RACIST, SKIN CRITICIZE”. Later on, there was a knock at the door so Megan signed “KNOCK”. The teacher opened the door and a faculty member along with a student walked into the classroom. Megan informed me later that, the student has EBD (Emotional Behavior Disorder) and began acting up. The student was speaking loud enough to be heard by all of the students, but was not being too distracting. Megan chose not to interpret any of what that student said or what the faculty member trying to calm the student said. When I asked Megan about her chose not to interpret that, she told me she would have interpreted it, if it was very distracting. However, it was not very distracting and the deaf student was busy doing work so it was unnecessary to get the deaf student’s attention to interpret a non-distracting conversation that had nothing to do with the deaf student. At one point the deaf student was looking over at the student with EBD and at that point Megan signed “STUDENT FRUSTRATED TEACHER IX-she TRY SOLVE CALM-DOWN”. This way the deaf student was aware of exactly what was going on in the classroom without being unnecessarily distracted. Throughout the class while the students were doing their work, the