Austin, Texas – Deaf high school students from the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) addressed an audience of math educators at the DeafTEC Math Conference held earlier this month at the Texas Region 13 Education Service Center.

During the panel discussion, TSD students shared how they’ve overcome challenges learning math.

One student shared his love/hate relationship with math and provided some advice to educators, “If you give more effort and more time to your students, they are more likely to do the same in return.”

Another student shared how he is grateful for the challenges offered to him by his math teachers at TSD. When asked if he could change one thing, he responded, “I would have come to TSD earlier.”

Sharing similar sentiments, another student said, “I moved to TSD in fourth grade, and before that, I didn’t really understand math. After I moved to TSD, I started to understand how numbers work.”

The school superintendent Claire Bugen was delighted by performance of the TSD high school students.

“Having five TSD high school students address an audience of professionals not only shows students excelling socially and academically, but is testimony to the quality of our educators.

“TSD is absolutely proud of these students who represented our community so well. They emphasized the impact their TSD teachers have had on their learning, and it’s easy to see that dedicated and passionate teachers are key to the learning process.”

We are proud of your accomplishments!

ABOUT THE TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF: The Texas School for the Deaf (TSD) is the oldest continuous operating public school in Texas. Educating deaf and hard of hearing students of Texas since 1856, the campus also provides outreach and educational resources for students, their families and professionals in the field throughout the state of Texas. With educational excellence and a strong belief in a culture and community at TSD, students form a unique identity based on their individual strengths and talents. TSD is an environment where students learn, grow, and belong. For more information about the Texas School for the Deaf, visit www.tsd.state.tx.us.

 ABOUT DEAFTEC: DeafTEC is a National Science Foundation-funded Center of Excellence, one of approximately 40 Centers across the United States. DeafTEC is unique in the fact that its focus is on a particular audience, deaf and hard-of-hearing students, rather than on a technical discipline. DeafTEC is administered by faculty at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), one of the nine colleges of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and overseen by a National Visiting Committee made up of professionals in academia and industry. Emphasizing career education, RIT is a privately endowed, coeducational university with one of the most accessible communities available for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Over 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students attend RIT and study, live, and socialize with more than 16,000 hearing students in what is widely regarded as the largest “mainstreamed” program in the world. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students at RIT can pursue associate degree programs in the college of NTID with courses taught using direct instruction or they can pursue bachelor degree programs in the other seven colleges of RIT using a wide range of educational access services.