Welcome

• ASL Connect: ASL Connect is intended to be a central resource for learning ASL and about Deaf Studies online, with all content created by Deaf ASL-fluent scholars. We offer ways to learn some basic ASL online to get you started, and then we offer highly engaging and interactive ASL and Deaf Studies courses online.

• ASL eBooks & Resources: a Google Docs list of various ASL eBooks and Resources that are currently free. Managed by Deaf Hearing Community Center in Philadelphia.

• ASLCORE:  A free website which provides signs and definitions for vocabulary and concepts in various content areas encountered in academic settings. The translation groups for each branch are comprised of all Deaf members, including content experts and ASL master signer/translators. Many entries also contain signed expansions/explanations which are voiced and captioned. The ASLCORE project is created and supported by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology.

• Sign It: American Sign Language Made it Easy- It is an online beginning American Sign Language course. The complete curriculum will have a total of 10 units that teach beginning conversational ASL (vocabulary, sentences, grammar, and syntax) and Deaf culture. 

• SignOn:  A "Virtual Immersion Program" connecting the hearing and Deaf communities through authentic learning interactions. Through our program, families have the unique opportunity to communicate one-on-one live with a Deaf ASL Ambassador. Families can practice anything from basic vocabulary to daily conversation skills, ask questions about Deaf Culture and Community, and be immersed in ASL.

• Signschool:  a free resource for learning American Sign Language online. Built with an emphasis on interactivity and video-based learning, SignSchool has a variety of context-based lessons as well as grammar lessons and signing comprehension practice. Additional tools include a large, searchable dictionary, a daily Sign of the Day service, and flashcard-style sign review.

• Atomic Hands:  It is committed to increasing public accessibility to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through American Sign Language and fostering collaboration and networking opportunities among current and future Deaf STEMists.

• CHOICES for Parents- Literacy:  CHOICES for Parents is a statewide coalition of parents and professionals ensuring that children who are Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing and their families connect with the necessary resources, advocacy, information, services, and support.

• Deaf-Hearing Community Center:  Deaf-Hearing Community Center's ASL resources, eBooks, Story telling and ASL education. A mega-resource of ASL storytelling, eBooks, and educational links for Early CHildhood Education to post secondary students and families.

• OSD's ASL Department: Children books in ASL, ASL Story telling from OSD students, and ASL information for families and professionals.

• Lesson Plans Library by Statewide Outreach Center in Texas: The website offers lesson plans for the academic subjects. Click on each of the academic subjects you wish to explore to view the various books and learning content within its subject in ASL, access worksheets and activities for your classroom. 

• Rocky Mountain Deaf School Toddlers/Preschool ASL stories: ASL Stories, ASL vocabulary and rhytms and rhymes for Early Childhood Education students.

• Storyline Online:  Reading aloud to children has been shown to improve reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking and concentration, and general academic aptitude, as well as inspire a lifelong love of reading.  Storyline Online is available 24 hours a day for children, parents, caregivers and educators worldwide. Each book includes supplemental curriculum developed by a credentialed elementary educator, aiming to strengthen comprehension and verbal and written skills for English-language learners.

• Reading Rockets: Reading strategies on reading to deaf/hard of hearing children to improve their literacy skills.

• Bedrock Literacy: This manual is designed for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) student. This is not a curriculum in the traditional sense, but instead supports teachers in their search for developing literacy skills in meaningful ways - by building a solid foundation that minimizes gaps. The contents are focused on supporting the teacher as they create a literacy plan using visually based approaches that excite, motivate and most importantly are meaningful to their students. The Bedrock program outlines a developmental plan rather than a grade level approach for cultivating students essential literacy skills. Bedrock covers foundational components -how to read, how to write, and how to develop a strong beginning vocabulary. It also includes some basic beginning grammar skills.  The Bedrock program focuses on engaging the DHH students meta skills (i.e. meta-cognitive, meta-linguistic) to develop the independent processes for constructing and understanding meaning-the hallmarks of a literate individual. The approach and activities are distinctly designed using a hierarchy that will make sense to the DHH child who has not had intensive exposure to English. These critical literacy building blocks are what all literate students require for lifelong literacy development. 

• 9 Tips for Creating a Successful Online Course for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Video presentation with links to resources. 

• CSD Learns: The CSD Learns team came together from all walks of life to provide quality, engaging education and resources in ASL for deaf and hard of hearing learners. Through our own learning experience, we’ve come to cherish how educational resources, classroom approaches, and eLearning are developed – through a honed, collaborative process working with different, skilled members of the community. Learn a bit about us!

• Creating Digital Learning Classrooms: The New EdTech Classroom brings you weekly education technology tutorials from Sam Kary, a veteran middle school teacher and instructional coach. Learn how to use the most important features of the most innovative and impactful education technology software. In addition to nuts and bolts, Sam also shares lesson plan ideas as well as implementation tips to help you start using technology in your classroom right away!

• Google For Education Teacher Center- The Teacher Center has a lot of resources available to you while you learn and adjust to this whole distance learning thing. There are trainings you can take, and you can also work to become a Google Certified teacher.

• National Deaf Center's Tips on teaching DHH students online: Without thoughtful planning, deaf students may be left behind and lose critical access to their education. Such inclusion becomes even more vital when considering that these students already face many barriers to access.

• NDC Online learning resources:  Today’s student is presented with a wide array of online technology for accessing educational material and a diverse selection of settings in which to utilize them. Technological tools, which are constantly evolving, include both synchronous and asynchronous communication options, such as online web portals, blogs, web chat, email, video lectures, and more. In particular, blended/hybrid classrooms and distance learning are growing increasingly common.In distance learning, students receive the entirety of their instruction online. In blended/hybrid courses, students access educational content in both a traditional brick and mortar classroom and online. In addition, many traditional classrooms supplement instruction with online learning components.

• Resource Materials Technology Center for DHH: Providing all students with virtual instruction takes an immense amount of planning along with the technology and knowledge of how to use it effectively. Planning for online or distance learning includes making sure the instruction is accessible as well as appropriate. It is imperative that districts consider the highly-specialized needs of students who are deaf and hard of hearing when making the decision to teach outside of the classroom walls. 

• See Hear Communication Matters by Dr. Tina Childress:  Links and posts about issues related to hearing loss ~ written and compiled by a Deaf audiologist with bilateral cochlear implants who is ASL-fluent and loves assistive technology. This link also provides, not limited, resources on Apps for deaf children/adults, blog on accommodations, ADA information, accessibility, sign language and cochlear implants. 

• YouTube as a Teaching Tool: video and PDF Example Lesson. Link to Lesson.

• NewsELA: Newsla provides high interest current reading passages, teacher progress monitoring and activities for all learners. Additional Links:  Video Resource Info in PDF

• Reading Rockets: Reading strategies on reading to deaf/hard of hearing children to improve their literacy skills.

• Deaf Broadway:  Filmed in real time via webcam with diverse Deaf Talent from around the world, this groundbreaking series provides full and complete American Sign Language (ASL) access to beloved selections from the Broadway catalog. They release a show about every two weeks. In the past, they have done Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Company, Into the Woods and Legally Blonde. Check their website for future Broadway shows to catch! Video Spotlight

• Deaf Tec: DeafTEC’s goal is to increase the number of deaf and hard-of-hearing (deaf/hh) individuals in highly skilled technician jobs where they are currently underrepresented and underutilized. DeafTEC serves as a national resource for high schools and community colleges that educate deaf/hh students in STEM-related programs and for employers hiring deaf/hh individuals. 

• Expanded Core Curriculum for DHH: The purpose of the Expanded Core Curriculum for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (ECC-DHH) is to be a resource for IFSP and IEP team members when developing educational plans for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing. This tool is designed for teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing and educational audiologists to address these identified areas that are either not taught or require specific and direct teaching.  The eight (8) content areas are: Audiology, Career Education, Communication, Family Education, Functional Skills for Educational Success, Self-Determination and Advocacy, Social-Emotional Skills, and Technology.

• Health at Home | Parent & Educator Resources: Just like you, we are trying to keep our kids healthy and active in the midst of Coronavirus-related school closures. To help all our families, we’ve set up a Google Classroom to provide you with free and easy access to several of CATCH's evidence-based health, nutrition, P.E., and home education materials. These distance learning materials include fun lessons and physical activities for kids at home and require limited space and supervision. The free health education materials are organized into three sections: Physical Activities, Activity Breaks, and Family Health and Nutrition.

• IXL Math | Learn math online: Gain fluency and confidence in math! IXL helps students master essential skills at their own pace through fun and interactive questions, built in support and motivating awards. 

• Lesson Plans Library by Statewide Outreach Center in Texas: The website offers lesson plans for the academic subjects. Click on each of the academic subjects you wish to explore to view the various books and learning content within its subject in ASL, access worksheets and activities for your classroom. 

• Math | Khan Academy:  Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including K-14 and test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content. We focus on skill mastery to help learners establish strong foundations, so there's no limit to what they can learn next!

• National Geographic Explorer Classroom: Online Science and Social Studies Resource. 

• Puberty: Disability and Sexuality: All people are sexual beings, no matter what their bodies can or cannot do physically or what type of support they may need from time to time or all of the time. It’s important for young people living with disabilities to learn about sexuality. They have the same hormones and sexual needs and desires as other people, and they can have different sexual orientations (heterosexual, bisexual, gay, asexual, etc.) and gender identities (transgender, cisgender, gender nonconforming, etc.). Young people with disabilities want the same thing everyone else wants in a relationship—respect, consent, communication and fun, which is why people regardless of their abilities need to learn about expressing romantic interest in a partner, healthy relationships, dealing with rejection and sexual health. If you are a young person with a disability, sex education can help you learn about communicating interest in a partner and healthy relationships as well as any specific concerns about what you can or cannot do in sexual situations. Talk to a parent, guardian, health care provider or other trusted adult about how you can get the sex education you need.

• Summer Camps 2020 provided by OSD:  Resource for Virtual Summer Camps 2020 at Ohio School for the Deaf

• Tween Tribune: Tween Tribune is provided by the Smithsonian, and gives access to articles on a variety of topics including technology, science, and history. Articles can be filtered by grade level, reading level, or topic. Grades K-12.

• XtraMath- This site is dedicated to math achievement for all. Our goal is to develop effective, efficient, adaptive, and intrinsically rewarding supplemental math activities. ASL is not only language offered on this site- Spanish, French, English, Russian, etc. can be used. 

• Taking Action on Racial Equity and Justice: Classrooms around the world are subsets of the broader communities that they serve. One of the best ways to make an immediate impact on those communities is to expand the perspective of their students. And listening to different perspectives helps us pause and reflect on our own views. To begin the journey of making lasting change, we’ve created this guide that helps you explore ways to have courageous conversations around issues of racial injustice and to design solutions that lead to lasting social change. As you take on this first challenge, Create Opportunities for Meaningful Conversations About Race, be prepared to be uncomfortable, and lean into your vulnerability.

• Transformative Deaf Education:  The mission of the Transformative Deaf Education (TDE) is to promote the transformative pedagogy in Deaf Education and deaf programs from birth to high school.

Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center: The Cochlear Implant Education Center  is an educational resource for families and professionals that focuses on cochlear implant technology and its role in the education and lives of children who are deaf from birth through high school-aged. The CIEC has a unique focus in exploring and sharing considerations and practices related to the development and use of both spoken language and signed language for children using cochlear implant technology.

Alexander Graham Bell Association: Listening and Spoken Language Resource  is a site that provides resource for families and professionals; as well as online professional development for: educators of the deaf, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and other professionals in the field will find valuable resources, information about LSL specialist certification, opportunities for continuing education, and a community of members with whom you can connect, share information, and celebrate listening and spoken language.

Sunshine Cottage School for the Deaf: Online Trainings and Product Catalog. Sunshine Cottage provides extensive online trainings (both free and paid) and resources such as the Cottage Acquisition Scales for Listening, Language & Speech (CASLLS and eCASLLS) that develop and support progress monitoring from preverbal to complex language structures (covering: listening, language and speech objectives). 

Phonak: The Listening Room is a rich resource for deaf and hard of hearing people using listening and spoken language. The resources targets toddlers to adults and provides free, fun activities and resources to support the development of speech, language, and listening skills in people of all ages with a hearing loss.

• Audible for Kids: Audible kids is a site where students can easily access audio books using their computer, tablet or ios devices.  Simply press the start listening button, choose a category, click on a book and begin listening.  The player controls are also accessible. Grades K-12.
  
  

• Bookshare: Bookshare is an accessible way to read books. Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading. Grades K-12.
  
  

• EPIC Library and Digital Resource: EPIC online library for teachers and parents. This is a huge resource of online books and remote learning tools for teachers. Currently free throughout the crisis.
  
  

• Sora: Sora is a reading app that is downloadable from Apple and Android. It provides free access to books sponsored by OverDrive. Teachers can assign books, and students can keep track of achievements. Accessibility features include audio, font, and light. Grades K-12.

• 9 Tips for Creating a Successful Online Course for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Video presentation with links to resources. 

• Deaf Learners: Designing Practice to Support Their Learner Variability Using a Whole Child Framework:  This webinar discuss the extreme amount of variability among deaf learners- not only in their communication preferences, but also in their language development and learning needs. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for deaf students, so it is supremely important to pay attention to the specific needs of each deaf student. We will provide resources and strategies for families and educators to utilize, to best meet the needs of the students they serve. The link  will take you to the Webinar on youtube and here is the link for the PPT. 

• Educational Planning for students with cochlear implants:  Geared towards professionals who work with students who use cochlear implants, this webcast discusses the knowledge and tools needed to meet the unique needs of those students. Dr. Susan Schatz and Dr. Mary Ann Kinsella-Meier, from the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, focus on factors shown in the evidence as critical to the language, academic, and social-emotional development of students using cochlear implants.

• Pineapple PD are a 3-5 minute glimpse of best practices happening in our classrooms. Each video starts with the learning target and is followed by clips of the teacher and students in action.   This provides the visual of the strategy, teaching method, and the instruction. View in ASL

• Resource Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing: There are PD opportunities for professionals to increase their knowledge of working with DHH students. Currently they are offering online PD on Language reading connection, Guide for Listening Functional Evaluation, Audiology Eligibility, How to screen for Usher Syndrome, and DeafEd Express. The site looks like it s offered solely for Florida teachers but out of the state educators can take it.  View in ASL

• Apple's Accessibility site: Technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone. Learn all about all the accessibility features of an Apple product.

• Lesson Plans Library by Statewide Outreach Center in Texas: The website offers lesson plans for the academic subjects. Click on each of the academic subjects you wish to explore to view the various books and learning content within its subject in ASL, access worksheets and activities for your classroom. 

• Employment First:  a policy to ensure every individual of working age has an opportunity to seek employment. Agencies are directed to provide a person-centered planning process for every individual of working age to identify their desired employment goal and their place on the path to community employment.

• National Deaf Center-  As deaf people leave high school and prepare for college or careers, the National Deaf Center wants them to succeed. Our research shows that deaf people are not completing college degrees, getting jobs, or earning as much as hearing people. We’re here to change that.

• NDC's Proactive Planning:  Being proactive means to initiate changes yourself rather than reacting to things that happen. This approach is especially effective for postsecondary institutions when developing plans for creating campuswide access for deaf students. In the past, institutions may have taken a "wait-and-see" approach to the planning of accommodations for students with disabilities. However, many institutions are taking a proactive stance on planning how students with disabilities will access the full spectrum of programs and events available on campus.