Real Travel Adventures International Magazine

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Tennessee Flag

Teachers Who Make A Difference

By Bonnie Neely

At the Knoxville Tennessee Arts and Crafts Guild Show I found a group of high school students demonstrating how they make the most beautiful canoes I have ever seen. When I stopped to ask if I could take their picture, I was surprised to see them signing to each other and indicating to me that they were deaf.

Their teacher, Richard Davis of the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville, introduced himself and interpreted in sign language for my interview with the talented young men who were about to graduate from TSD with competency in traditional educational skills as well as lip-reading, signing, whole language skills, and this amazing and uique craft of hand-made boat building

The boats are wood, covered with clear fiberglass so that they gleam like a mirror and can withstand water and weather and retain their original beauty. Amazing works of art, the owners have a treasure of fine craftsmanship as well as funtionality. The classes help these young people learn an unusual skill in order to be self-sufficient in the world.

Mr. Davis and Dick Hancock started the canoe building class about four years ago. Hancock, who has canoed the Mississippi from its head waters in Minnisota to the Gulf of Mexico, is the driving force with the canoe building at TSD. Dick teaches other wood craft classes and also adult classes in canoe building on the campus of TSD.

The two teachers, who bagan their careers at the Tennessee School for the Deaf as physical education coaches, have continued as the girls' basketball coaches at TSD for the past 17 years.

The program of boat building is not the only innovation of Richard Davis and Dick Hancock. Dick continues to lead the boat building program. Anyone interested in knowing more about these strip wood canoes can contact him here:

Richard Davis Bridges Specialist at Tennessee School for the Deaf

Mr. Davis is now the BRIDGES Specialist at TSD and is responsible for applying a wonderful program to help at-risk deaf students who have had problems learning or remaining in the classroom but who did not test positive for dyslexia, or traditionally identified learning disabilities.

Alan Mealka, superintendent at TSD, discovered BRIDGES, which identifies 27 learning differences which frustrate many students to the point of class disruption and dropping out of school. However, the BRIDGES program, developed in Eugene Oregon, was set up for students without hearing impairment.

Davis began testing the BRIDGES Program on his own sons who are not deaf . He quickly realized the value and potential benefits. He found he could make adaptations for his deaf students and began applying the program in the Tennessee School for the Deaf. He has seen (and proved by testing, statistics, and records) dramatic results in performance of the students and their cooperation in the classroom after just a few of the BRIDGES sessions of learning new skills

Davis says, "After a couple of years with the canoes and my PE classes, I was offered the position of Bridges Specialist. This offer was intriguing to me because this very exceptional program had never been used for the deaf with all of its components. I quickly accepted it and with the help of Kiki Lee, we began to make some of the necessary changes for the deaf."

The school, the students, and the teachers were very excited about the results in positive changes, elevated test scores, and classroom performance in all twelve grades for the 50 children in the program, after only 30 sessions of the techniques.

According to Richard, "Now there are five schools for the deaf using BRIDGES programs, Illinois, Florida, Phoenix Day School, Virginia, and Tennessee. The program for the deaf is still in its pilot stage as all of the deaf schools are working to standardize its protocols."

I have been personally interested in Learning Differences as related to behavior problems, low test scores, general dissatisfaction with school, and low self esteem which I have observed in many students. I was excited to learn that there is a program that can identify these differences and help every student to find his or her own best way to learn, promoting classroom cooperation, personal success and relief. I hope many readers will click over to BRIDGES to learn more about how you can get this program for your child or your school. If it can make such a dramatic difference for the deaf student, it can also help the hearing student who has difficulties in the classroom.

According the Mr. Davis, "Once the learning difference is identified, the student can quickly discover how to help him/herself learn with more ease and success than ever imagined or hoped for!"

The staff at TSD is very excited in having the opportunity to help create a program that has the potential to benefit the deaf population all across the nation. Davis speaks of The Silent Bridge when he says," A special thanks for all of you for caring enough about our deaf youth to try and make a difference in their lives."

Dick Hancock is going to be offering a Canoe Building Class this June 15-21 2003. We will build 2 canoes during that week. We have room and board on campus. Anyone interested can call Dick

Hancock at 865-594-6022, ext. 575. To e-mail him Click here

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