14: Guest Adam Chitta on Music
We chat with Adam Chitta, a hard of hearing music teacher, all about music!
Adam wants to also share that if you are interested in learning more about connecting with other musicians, join his Facebook group, 'Music is for ALL in our Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.' Here you can meet others who may have similar questions as educators teaching DHH musicians and learn additional strategies that can be applicable to you and your classroom.
Resources Mentioned:
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episode 14: Guest Adam chitta on music
Transcript
Intro: Welcome to the TOD Podcast, or as we like to say, the “TOD POD.” We chat about all things Deaf Education while you drive around. I’m Kimmy from The Hard of Hearing Teacher and I’m Deanna from Listening Fun, and let’s get started!
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K: We are so excited to have a guest on the TOD POD today. Here to talk about how to support deaf and hard of hearing kids in a pursuit of music is Adam Chitta who can share from his firsthand experience of being one of these students to now being a deaf teacher of music in a public school. Adam, that was a very brief introduction so please tell us a little bit more about yourself before we get started.
A: I am very excited to be here. Thank you very much for the invitation and as you said it being deaf it has it has its own little stigma to it and what we can and can't do and I've been told throughout my life what I could and couldn't do in regard to music and I'm happy to share my stories and some strategies with y'all today that we can pass on to not just other teachers of the deaf but also other music educators who may not know how to reach these students in our classrooms and I once again I cannot thank you all enough for the invitation.
D: Of course, thank you so much for being here. We're so excited to hear more about your story. Could you get started and tell us kind of where you are today as a deaf music teacher for those who might not know you.
A: Yes, ah, well first of all I just finished my 12th year of teaching middle school band and orchestra and San Antonio, Texas. I want to make sure I clarify right off the bat, I am not a Teacher of the Deaf, I just happen to be a music educator who is deaf. Again, I'm just sharing my personal stories and strategies I've learned along the way to help others. I have my love for music uh pretty much my whole life I've been surrounded by musicians and when we had the opportunity to try out for band in fifth grade uh my twin brother and I both landed on the same instrument and so that was a really fun process right away when our parents are like oh geez two of them are the same instrument. But it did pay off along the way because he was one of my biggest helpers in the classroom and as we know any student, any deaf student that can have helpers along the way it really does benefit them and the teacher.
K: So your brother was your helper, so are you saying that he is not deaf then?
A: No, he is not. The couple things that we think caused my hearing loss we were born two months premature that could be one, but also we I had tubes put in my ear several times when I was young and so that could be something that led to the hearing and loss. But no he is hearing, yeah what we call a hearing person.
D: Could you tell me what instrument you picked?
A: Yes, the euphonium
D: Euphonium- what is that?
A: Also known as a baritone or the baby tuba. Yeah.
D: Oh a baby tuba, oh that's so fun! How did you pick that? Just like randomly?
A: When they demonstrated, "these are all the instruments" and then they gave us a little index card and said, "write your top three" and they had these table stations set up to where I went to this director and he tried me on these mouthpieces and then he went to this other... so there are about five teachers in the room that split all of the sixth graders who were going to do it. And just based on what sounded good at that time on the mouthpiece on what you liked you selected. Then some instruments are better than others based on either your mouth structure or just any other kind of physical needs or what whatnot that we're going to help set you on a path for success to learn how to play a musical instrument.
D: That's so cool, I played the clarinet for 1 year in fourth grade. There was no consideration as to what instrument it should be I think I just randomly picked it because I thought it was cool so [laugh] It's nice to know that there was a little more consideration there but the baby tuba that's very that's like a fun instrument.
A: It is and and you're going to hear me talk about this later how the fact that I picked up picked a lower pitch instrument did benefit me in the long run because I could not hear any of the higher pitches based on my hearing loss and so that really did help me be a little bit more successful in that band instrument setting. And so the way it works here in Texas is that we select the instrument in sixth grade or leading up to sixth grade. We spend all of our first year what we call beginning band where you learn the basics and fundamentals of the instrument. You maybe have 1 to 2 concerts the entire year. And then once you move on to the seventh grade eighth grade year which is more the more advanced group you put in the ensomble starting with all the other instruments and then you have more concerts and then you transition up to high school which is more performing opportunities. The high school marching band experience with the football games and so that is a huge thing for us here in my state and then just transitioning up to college where I continued playing my instrument along with learning the courses I needed to learn from music education and general education courses and then from there up into the job force. I want to make sure I don't forget to leave this out that most of my college paying for it could not have been done without the help of the Texas Health and Human Services.
A: They have a deaf tuition waiver and I don't know if y'all have heard about that. But I want to make sure I share that because if we have people in Texas listening to this whether they're about to go into college or they have children about to go into college that that is something I cannot stress enough, see if you qualify for it based on your hearing loss. And I have my entire undergraduate tuition paid for, my graduate degree all paid for, and I just had to pay for a couple of books here and there
D: Wow, wow!
A: and so and you know being deaf and hard of hearing the cost of hearing age is not going down. And so I mean again, twins having two of us in college at the same time my parents were like a lot less stressed out now that they only had to pay toward one but I didn't have everything but I had like the tutition covered and that was just great.
D: Yeah, that's a amazing resource. Thank you for sharing.
A: Of course and and the last thing I'm going to say on this on what led me to become a band director is you know we all had these moments where maybe there was a one person who said, no, you couldn't do this and that stuck with you forever like this was my this is my story on that is when I was in tenth grade, we have something that called region band. And ah, another state then maybe have a county band or regional band all state band. Well the way we do the region band here is you audition to earn a spot in the group and then a couple months later you have a clinic and concert which is they invite a clinician to come out who's also the conductor. And you basically work 12 hours on this music and you play 4 or 5 pieces and then like it was really amazing. It's a very amazing experience and I'm really pleased with how our state has it set up because it's so wonderful to play alongside others who have worked just as hard as you.
A: And so my twin brother then and I were both in the same band of that year sophomore year and we did the concert and all that and so we're in the band hall gathering our things getting ready to go my mother meets the conductor in the hallway, "hi I want to thank you so much for what you did here the concert was amazing. Both of my twin boys are in your band and one of them want to pursue a degree in music education. However, he does have a hearing in loss and wears hearing aids. Is there any sort of advice you have for him?" And right off the bat he said, "He should not go into music education because of his hearing loss."
D: Oh my god.
A: And yeah and I like I cried on the whole ride home, and then my head later down the road of my country supposed to be like advocating for all and you know like your university that you work with and so like just that moment, it's just the thing that always sticks in the back of my head. Whenever someone told me no or someone told another deaf student know like no, you can do it and I'm gonna help you with it. And so that's that's one of the biggest stories that has stuck with me for a very long time and really help me force myself to be a better teacher.
K: Yeah, I'm very much the same way like when it comes to advocating for myself for other people if you tell me no, that means yes, that means I'm going to work 10 times harder to make it a yes. So I love that you shared that story and thank you for sharing your whole story and how you got here. It's really inspirational I think it's awesome and I'm so excited to hear more about your story and your strategies. Before we continue moving on our next question is did you work with a teacher of deaf as a child and if so do you have any thoughts on what they did that you found helpful or not helpful and that can be related to music first if you wanted to talk about that.
A: Um, I actually did not have a work with the teacher of the deaf as a child I was mainstreamed Um, all through my childhood schooling I just got pull out for speech therapy that was really it. I did not work with a teacher of the deaf. And looking back on I even ask my mom like mom was this an option or like did my school district not have the many people with it again, I don't know. Again, it's just just pull out for speed. That's really all I had.
K: Gotcha. Did you do you know if you had any accommodations like did you have a microphone or anything?
A: No I did not have FM systems or any of that stuff. My my biggest thing was just advocating that I needed to sit near the teacher. So It was either the front of the room or in the center of the room so that if they had their overhead projector that they had to wheel out and I sat and I was sitting neck to it and so I got to hear the teacher right next to me and to the projected screen so that was really I didn't have any electronic need at that time.
K: Gotcha, well it sounds like you're a good advocate for yourself at least.
A: Yes, yes I really had to do that because other than other than band my twin brother and I were really not and a lot of our classes together. So I had to do it myself.
D: What about professionally as a music teacher, have you worked with any TODs um, like you've had students in your class who have had TODs?
A: Ah, no, not in my music classes yet. Over my past twelve years there's been maybe less than a handful of students on my campus in general by usually that teacher of the deaf will come out and to me and I hey I want to make sure you meet so and so. Even though they're not in your classes I want them to know that you could be a reference or resource or a guide for them should they need anything. Maybe they need a vent and there's no one else to go to maybe their hearing aid batteries run dead and I'm like oh yeah I keep them on my desk all the time.
All: [laugh]
A: And so I wanted to make sure that even if they weren't in my program that I was still a resource for them. Now I do have a couple of band directors that teach and the regional day school program for the deaf cluster in my district and one of them reached out to me uh last fall, "Hey Adam I have a beginner trombone player with the cochlear implant I'd love for you to come out and tell me what I can do to help to help her along the way." And that was great, that was a very fun experience. And then at another school, "Adam ah, one of my students just came from the Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children and can you come out and tell me if there's anything I'm missing or maybe something that you can share with them to help them along the way." And so I do make ah make an effort to be in touch with them every once in a while and especially with the parents like hey how's it going? Um is there anything I can share with you anything that I can share with your child to help them. And so even though they're not on my campus I ah really try to go out to them as much as possible because I want them to really advocate for themselves if the child advocate for themselves. But also the teacher to learn these other ways. Not just to help. That child but also to help others around them. K: Gotcha So you have been involved in these conversations it seems like. So in those conversations what access considerations have you talked about like what can music teachers do for dhh students so that they can fully participate in their music classes? And does this look different if they're in elementary school, middle school, high school? What do some of those considerations look like?
A: Yes, I would say they you are going to differ based on the grade level elementary music is either singing or you're dancing or you're playing on smaller musical instruments. I would say also including wherever there's a speaker if there's a speaker from the from the teacher ran a microphone like a teacher wearing a lightspeed Microphone. We have one in our band hall and I could move it to wherever I want which is great because the other general ed classes have them planted right in the ceiling in the middle of the classroom. Mine I can put wherever I want it. And and I and I love that device and I use it not just so my students can hear me, but also there it helps me speak in a calm voice throughout the class and I don't have to strain my voice speaking all day across the room. I would say also if you're playing on ah electronic instruments as just a keyboard or piano where there's a speaker for there if the student can be nearer where they can feel the vibrations of it that would be very helpful. Whenever you're doing any type of instrument whether there's a recorder or drums allowing the student to feel the instrument as much as possible making sure their hands are in the correct places so they can really maximize the kinesthetic experiences of it that would be very helpful in regards to accommodating those students.
A: If you're going to play movies or videos have closed cap or rhythm lessons have closed captioning or subtitles on are very helpful. When we did music theory lessons in my classes at the middle school I liked to have whenever there was a metronome for a tempo, there was always a foot visual that was tapping and I I loved it because not only did that help me I helped the student not only see what it is but it also it's a visual physical visual that they're going to enforce themselves while they're playing the instrument. And so it's a win-win for all. When they're learning how to play musical instruments at the middle school level, theres going to be some challenges in regards to learning how to articulate on the instrument meaning how they separate the note from each other because it involves what's going on inside the mouth which we can't really see unless you're hooked up on an MRI machine [laugh] and so um I can share some more strategies on this later in my other question by reaching out to the speech therapist on the campus. And I'm very blessed that the speech therapist that comes on my campus half the week, she was in band and she's married to a band director and so she totally gets it when she has to pull out a couple of my kids and I ask them, "Hey how's so and so doing on this syllable, or then what are they struggling with that we can hit too in the band room?" That's a win-win for both of us. And those are the kind of things that I would think about, like I said the visual of the foot tap, the a visual of with the tongue placement, anything visual. There's a device also for vibrating metronome, and I'm a teacher affiliate for them. And it's a watch kind of thing that you can wear and you can feel the pulse of the metronome on it. And again tools like that that can accommodate that kid on a 1 on 1 basis is extremely helpful.
K: Yeah, that sounds really cool I like all those like visual and that like visual kinesthetic like you were talking about. It's like movement with the foot and a visual that goes with it. So it's like all encompassing all in one, I like that, that sounds really cool.
D: That is really cool. So one question I feel like teachers ask me all the time like music teachers especially is like does the volume ever get too loud like if I'm wearing a microphone or they're wearing hearing aids like is it going to hurt them if the music is too loud like I think that's probably the number one question I get from music teachers. So do you have any advice for them on that?
A: Well, it can get loud a certain moments, especially when they're when the students learn how to play in the louder dynamic ranges. And if a student is placed right near them, like if I have a clarinet player placed right in front of the trumpet section and the trumpet bells are just aimed right at their head. That can be damaging if it's not something we're looking out for and considering. Like oh we want to play louder as a band but you need to think about those things. And maybe that deaf student needs to turn them off for a lesson because you're working on dynamics or um, wear ear plugs because they're sitting near the back near the percussion section or a percussionist in general. Maybe they need to take out the if they're having hearing aids and put ear plugs in. Just in case and I do that with my drumline students if it's gonna be loud or you're gonna protect you hearing and here's some airplugs foam airplugs that you're gonna wear. Um I would just say as a teacher just be beyond the lookout for like the student reactions is the student flinching or act of the turning around or they're covering their ear and if that's something that can be... And again I haven't worn an fm systems or seen the advances in the technology of it. But if there's a way to adjust the volume on that and um, that can help the student as well or the boot that the student's wearing can take off the boot on one ear one hearing aid and they leave their other one on on the other.
A: Again, that's just something that they have to experiment with but as a teacher you just want to make sure that you're monitoring that and and especially if you're in a small room that doesn't have a sufficient soundproofing in it. And that's something that I would recommend that all band directors or even orchestra directors check in their rooms before they go back to school this next year. And that's something that if if you need these materials, express the importance of it to the principal so the principal can push it in the direction that it needs so that the students health and the human safety is not damaged. That's what that's what we don't want. And decibel meters, um they have these on iPhones, have them on smart watches. I would recommend that they use any kind of decibel meter readers that can they can tell over time. Heck I mean my Apple watch goes off and I'm in a small room and my corgi starts barking. It tells me I've reached ninety [laugh] ninety decibels and so if it works for that it can work for a classroom. And those are the those are the kind of tools I'd recommend looking at for. It can get loud, that's just the nature of the beast. But if it's if the students are using the right hearing protection and the directors and the teachers are monitoring it effectively then I think it's a win win for all as long as it doesn't damage it.
K: So you're saying though that even though the students are hard of hearing we're still looking out for their hearing safety and their hearing health and monitoring how they're being affected by if they're in those louder parts of the band.
A: Yes, and when I presented in Colorado I had a college student come up to me who was a junior and she said um that she just got told she yesterday to wear hearing aids and she has to go to an audiologist like what do I do I'm like well you need to take some samples of what your environment is like to your audiologist. Oh you sit in a band of 50 people, this is where you sit, this is how loud the instruments are around you based on the recent decibel meter reading, this is what my readings are showing. Can you please adjust the technology on my hearing aids to wear when I'm around that kind of sound, that it softens, but not completely to where I can still hear the teacher, that kind of thing. And you can't fault a student for deaf student for playing too loud when they don't know it's too loud. And like again, what sounds loud to us is even louder to a hearing person.
K: Right [laugh]
D: Do you know like um, you know how like audiologists can put like ah background noise programs in hearing aids to help with that if that something that you you use like you have a program for like loud situations like music or do you just prefer to use your regular program?
A: I use ah because I use a Widex Moment hearing aids and the app is phenomenal I turn it down for when I'm reading but I don't want to hear the background noise and all that and I turn to the music app and I just mess with them I experiment with the knobs on there based on where I am but I really do like it.
K: I am I also currently have Widex I'm in the process of getting new hearing aids. But I also have Widex and I make new settings for mine and so when you were talking about that I was thinking the same thing like I like the music setting a lot. But um, there was one time I went to a live music event. It was at The Museum of Art in Philadelphia and it was actually really really loud like loud for me but loud in the sense of like just a lot of noise like I couldn't really hear the music clearly and I also couldn't hear my husband next to me speaking but I was able to like play with it between the setting and then the also the volume setting to kind of get it where I could hear him and I could hear the music nicely and it all came together. So I do like the Widex app too that helps but I know Phonak has a similar app and so does Oticon.
D: I think that's a good reminder for TODs that if you have high school students who have access to these settings on their personal hearing aids to like remind them like hey if you're in band. Maybe we can adjust this a little bit like you don't it doesn't have to be that loud. So that's a good, it's a good thought.
K: Yeah, and for our TODs I have actually worked that into my students' IEPs. Like putting um in their accommodations in their SDIs and modifications that the students allowed to use their cell phone to access their apps for their hearing devices.
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K: So Adam I you think you kind of touched on this as part of your story but are there certain instruments that you suggest that deaf and hard of hearing students try or use?
A: From the get go if a student really really really wants to try a certain instrument, we shouldn't turn them away regardless. Now the one instrument that come to mind for several of my music educated colleagues is flute. It's a very challenging instrument. And the fact that you have to have certain vowel shapes in all cavities inside of the mouth to produce the sound itself and also that's the one instrument that you can't really feel the note vibrate itself. As opposed to all the other instruments you can feel that you can feel it resonate when you're playing it. Either through your fingers or through the mouth piece that goes in the mouth or the mouthpiece that goes on your lips. Okay, so that's probably the one that they may struggle with but and my friend Eddie mentioned this in our presentation in Colorado like to let them try it and if they fail. It's okay. Because as long as we as educators on on the outlook for the best interests of the child and we help guide them to another instrument to whether they're not going to be a oh band not for me because the flute didn't work for me. It's okay and it doesn't work for everyone and try a different try a different instrument. Um, and any and the the other instruments just but even the lower pitch instruments in my experience of talking with deaf and hard of and students. They like the one that are lower pitch because they can feel it more based on. Maybe they can't hear the hard pitches on the hand loss and and go from there now a a colleague of mine who teaches in DFW area, he told his students that if you're gonna play the piccolo which is of course the higher pitch version of the flute you were required to be in tune all the time like you have the tuner hooked up to it and that was just an expectation. He made on his students. I've been asked a lot is percussion OK for my child to learn because they're playing a very loud instrument. Sure and we talked about the adjustment to have to be made on the hearing aid itself and if you have to make adjustment make adjustment if they need to wear ear plugs instead of wearing the hearing aid that's fine. Just let them experience it the same way as everybody else. Where they might run into some some struggles or maybe on some higher pitched keyboard instruments like if they're going to play the Glockenspiel they may just hear ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding they may not hear all of the actual pitches. But they're playing if there's just written on the page. I would recommend that students who are interested in percussion look for Evelyn Glennie she is ah one of the premier solo percussion performers in the world and lives in the UK and she has been deaf her whole life. And I I met her in San Antonio this last music convention we had and it was just amazing and she had a whole piece dedicated to her that I was a 5 or 6 movements where she was playing individual percussion instruments and because she could feel them in a hand or against her body. Or playing the deeper keyboard and she could feel the vibrations on her feet if you've heard of the Mandy Harvey story on I believe it was American Idol or one of those um competition shows. The speakers are aimed at the floor and she wasn't wearing shoes. She thought she could feel the vibration of her guitar while as she played or the piano or the drums as she played. And so success success stories are out there to just enjoy them. And we should make sure that no matter what it is they want to learn that we as music educators help guide them through it and there going to be some challenges along the way. Maybe. Myself I could not articulate I had a very hard time articulating on my brass instrument because of my speech the way I was saying my K's was very thick in the back of my mouth and I couldn't do it was a bit of a struggle for me. My twin brother who was hearing he just picks it up like a piece of cake. For me, no I had to work a little bit harder, harder along the way. So again I wouldn't say there's an instrument that doesn't work for the kid. It's whatever you're willing to help teach them and the same thing for the orchestra world. Now the thing I love about orchestra cause I also teach orchestra is that it's the very visual thing. Where the fingers are going. It has to be placed in a certain spot whether or not I hear the note correctly, it's oh your finger's not in the right spot I see it and and they may not be successful and violin as they might be on viola, cello, base because it's the lower pitch instrument and they can feel it against the body more. However, be on the lookout for it. Make sure their instruments are in tune and teach them the same way that you will teach everybody else.
K: I was thinking while you were talking I was thinking that I feel like a lot of times our students with hearing loss who aren't in the like severe to profound areas of hearing loss, ya know are more like moderate mild to moderate kids, we don't often think about what they're feeling. But I'm picturing a kid sitting in a group of people playing and there's all this noise around them and do you feel like being able to feel their own instrument helps them decipher what they're playing versus everything they're hearing around them. Because it's different to be able to hear your instrument when you're playing alone right? I feel like our kids with mild hearing loss might be able to hear their their which one did you say was the lower was it the viola like they might be able to hear their viola when they're playing by themselves just fine. But then you put them in a group of violas or whatever and that's going to be harder for them. So do you feel like being able to feel it helps them to make sure that they're on the right track?
A: Yes, and after a great example is that after our Colorado presentation a band director who actually teaches in his regional cluster for the deaf. He said I have a tenor sax player who's having trouble keeping on the beat with tempo. And we said okay show us where he's sitting in the setup and he would like around the second row, we said move him to the back. He's like why? Well you put him right in front of the percussion. He can feel the percussion beat from behind him and that can help him stay on tempo more. So my advice is whenever a director is asking me about that is like you're going to have to get away from your like from from the traditional setup you're going to have to make some adjustments and it's going to sound, it may sound a little different but you're going to have to do it best for that kid and it's going to take some experimentation. And we had saw this myself we had band directors do a lot of experimentation. I'm going to do my setup this way today, I'm gonna do my setup this way today and it does um, affect my hearing aids too. Then a funny story with that is that and some moments where I want to work on louder dynamics I'm playing louder my hearing aids all of the sudden turned them down soft and I’m like no, that's not what I wanted it to do but it's funny that it's doing that because's doing this right thing but didn't want it to do it. [laugh] But um, but yeah, we shouldn't stick to a traditional way. That's always worked for 20 30 years you're gonna learn something new along the way with student placement and their so so that they can be successful with it. Um, um.
K: Love it.
D: So interesting. Yeah, um, do you have any advice for TODs how we can use music to help DHH kids like as a music teacher like do you have any suggestions on how we can use music to help?
A: If you're going if you're doing a pull out with them for your TOD lesson. Um, and if you're going to have background music make sure it has a little bit more of a base to it um may have to find something in the lower frequencies, something that works best for that kid. Especially if you're want if whether it's just for background comfort or you're wanting them to follow along with a lesson of some sort. I've seen some great examples of rhythms where they use shapes in regards to how many times like they tap a paper and it helps them stay on the beat and it's often helping them use both sides of the brain. So if they see a triangle, they're tapping at 3 times per beat and if they see a square they're tapping at 4 times per beat and so just examples like that to where you're using shapes and you're using something like a metronome that the kid can hear. And and just working out both sides of the brain as a workout that kind of thing. See if music can be streamed to their devices when I was working with the trombone player with the cochlear implant I showed her how on my phone I was using a toner energy tuning app. And it played the note but it didn't play it through the phone it played it through my hearing aids. And so I could pick up a trombone and go to a certain spot on the trombone position and I can match the note that I'm hearing inside my device and so if the child's able to use those cellular devices and they they know that there's app they can use to help connect them to the instrument use it. And my kids kind of figured it out that I was using that and when I was trying to tune the tympany in the percussion section and I set it to a certain pitch and they're like Mr. Chitta how do you know what note that it is? And I will show them I would point to my hearing aid and they'll be, "Ah you're sneaky!" and here we are telling them to take the airpods out all the time and theyre not listening, they're probably not protecting their hearing with their air pod if they're blasting music elsewhere. But um, again using the technological devices outside of their normal settings. See see how you can use it in their own lesson to help them. They can feel comfortable with it.
D: So interesting I feel like if I tried to do one of those I have like no musical talent like at all. So if I feel like if I tried to do one of those like tapping activities with like using two sides of your brain I feel like I would I don't think I could do [laugh] that would be fun though.
A: No I understand and I will say this so one of our fun experiences that we had this last school year was the Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children they invited us out to and and I had met them months before and met the principal, so she sent me an email about a month away it's like hey can you have your drum line played for our shoebox float parade and I'm like sure and I and I tell my kids about it and they like oh they're so sweet and that and of course the question they're gonna ask is like how would they hear the music? Now again, you can't fault kids for thinking that or no one's ever exposed to them that deaf students can hear drums and so I told them it well they're gonna feel the vibration of the drums and we're gonna I said we are going to let them play on our drums we're gonna give them our sticks and they're gonna play on them as much as they want. We're gonna give them our symbols and they're gonna play on it and that's what we did. But the very end of it and these kids had a blast and the parents that were there watching the parade and they saw their kid playing on those instruments and it was they were so happy for it because they hadn't been exposed to that yet now whether it was correct or not that didn't matter to me but the fact that I was exposing a different kind of music to them than what they had in their own classrooms and just to see them all with their cochlear implants and my kids actually I said talk to my kid after like hey how was and they were like I'm never gonna like take advantage of my hearing if I see that these kids can't can they can't, they have roadblocks and they can't hear the same way I can I'm gonna make sure that I value my hearing I'm gonna make sure that I get a chance to be grateful for what I have and so I'm really glad it wasn't just a musical beneficial experience just a life lesson for my kids that they got to see deaf student experience music.
K: That's awesome. That's awesome. I've had quite a few of my my kids love playing with music too like they love just picking up instruments. Especially um, my younger students who have additional disabilities in addition to like their hearing loss. Instruments are like their favorite thing to play with like if I want to get them to do any type of activity I have to put an instrument in their hand and then they're ready to go.
D: And lastly can you tell everyone where to find you, connect with you, or if anyone has any follow up questions how they can reach out to you?
A: Of course so I am on social media, Facebook, Instagram Linkedin they can find me by searching my first name Adam, A-D-A-M, last name Chitta, C-H-I-T-T-A. My colleague from Florida, him and I are ah teaming up to present at conferences. We have a presentation coming up in Chicago this December at the the Midwest Clinic Band Orchestra Music International Conference and we're gonna be talking about strategies of that you can incorporate into your band and orchestra classroom for your deaf and hard of hearing students. So if you're gonna be at one of the conferences we invite you to come out and check out our clinic because not only are what we not only are we passionate it about teaching and reaching our deaf and hard of hearing student but this might fill some fill some gaps in your teaching toolbox and how you can reach all of your students because you know and y'a can relate to this to deaf and hard of hearing students. Don't like to be singled out. They don't want to be seen that they've been treated that much differently and so then their peers especially at the middle level. Um but, strategies that I have learned to help teach all it can help benefit out every student and I can also be reached out via email adamchitta@gmail.com
And I hope that my strategies go a long way and this is something that we're gonna keep adding to it. You know and the technology getting that much better with our hand devices that it can be incredible. What we're gonna be able to do by 10 years and so it's gonna change in 5-10 years what we can do to help our students and and again all those social media outlets I'm opening for questions I'm open for anything that I can do to help.
D: Absolutely thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise. We really appreciate it and this is such an interesting topic. So if you want to reach Adam you could reach out to him. Kimmy's @TheHardOfHearingTeacher I'm @ListeningFun. As always a full transcript and show notes will be at listentoTODPOD.com and we'll see you next week!
All: Bye!