Yeah I said Unfair not Fair, pun fully intended.
But of course, our dean, who coordinated this contest for our school, scrambled and had kids do their science projects the day prior, to have everything ready as they will be leaving for the unfair tomorrow.
The dean asked me to open the computer lab in the evening for "small" time (meaning long time). So I opened the computer lab at 7p-8p, but actually it was 7p-10p. And I ended up typing project reports for like 6 teams because they were taking forever typing with one-finger, and it was already 9:45 but most of them went as far as their cover pages. So I rapid-typed the rest of their reports (most are only 3 or 4 pages long each fortunately).
Looking at the 20+ students working on the computers to research on their topics and writing (no printing) down what they needed. It was great seeing the computer lab true purpose being put into use.
Looking at the 20+ students working on the computers to research on their topics and writing (no printing) down what they needed. It was great seeing the computer lab true purpose being put into use.
I asked the Dean how come I do not see any deaf students participating in the Science Unfair? The Dean seem a little perplexed not really able to see any deaf students.
These students told me "God blessed me, for my help". Aw what a way to wrap it up that evening!
On the following day, the day of the Unfair, I decided to grab my dSLR and was about to leave the school to walk down the road to the nearby boys High School where the Unfair is held. But I noticed 4 students still working in a classroom. I popped in and realized three of four students were deaf. They said the Dean grabbed them at 5:30am this morning and made them think up of a science project and work on it. Of course the Dean took all other students and walked toward the Unfair, leaving them behind, totally unprepared and unmotivated.
But fortunately they decided on a mathematic solution explaining why a Cylinder water tank holds more volume than a Square water tank, thus it is more efficient, and so forth. I helped type their reports and they managed to pull together some posters and wrote their project o it.
We three walked to the Unfair together, and fortunately (for me) we did not have to wait long for our turn, they managed to get called to present. Of course there is no interpreters, so a student from our school volunteered to interpret.
Watching their presentation was bittersweet experience, knowing the unfair circumstances they were placed in, they explained their project the best they could, but I noticed that out of like every 200 signed words they used, the student interpreter voiced like 5 words. I have no clue how their presentation sounded on the judge ears. At the end, the judges asked questions, but the interpreter could not facilitate it well enough to make an impression.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in. Counting one, two, three.
I am proud of these boys, they are winners in my eyes.
Addendum: I just learned later in the evening that these boys won 4th place out of 13 schools competing in the mathematics category, and that our school won 4th place out of 13 schools in total scores in all categories as well. I am stratching my head on how that is possible. Maybe I have such a high expectations and standards from America, and everything I saw that I thought were "wrong" are actually "normal". Umm.
Addendum: I just learned later in the evening that these boys won 4th place out of 13 schools competing in the mathematics category, and that our school won 4th place out of 13 schools in total scores in all categories as well. I am stratching my head on how that is possible. Maybe I have such a high expectations and standards from America, and everything I saw that I thought were "wrong" are actually "normal". Umm.
