Welcome OLES Students & Families!

If you are new to Ocean Lakes Elementary, I want to welcome you to our learning community.  My name is Julie Sill.  I am an early childhood specialist & a teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing.  I am a passionate educator who truly enjoys working with young children and their families.  In fact, I have spent my entire career working with students who are in their early childhood years, ages birth to age 8.  My goal is to provide an inclusive learning community for all children so that each child feels safe, welcome and respected.  If they feel this way, they will be able to learn something new each day.  To make this possible, our staff at OLES focuses on getting to know your child better, so that we can help him/her reach his/her full potential for learning.

Our classroom is an Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) preschool classroom that has been specially designed for deaf and hard of hearing students who are learning to talk.  In our multi-age classroom, we have deaf & hard of hearing children ages 2-5 years old who utilize assistive technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants to help them access sound.  We call our room, the oral preschool because the students in our class and their families have chosen to pursue a goal of spoken language.  We also have children in our class who are developing language typically.  Our goal is to provide a quiet, language rich environment that focuses on listening, learning through play and purposeful talking & communicating.

My two, fabulous teaching assistants, Ms. Wendy & Ms. Mattee, will join me in welcoming your child to OLES each day.  Together, the three of us will provide a unique learning experience that will focus on the individual needs of each child, so that we can help them to be more successful thinkers, speakers and communicators.  Please use this classroom blog as a window into our classroom.  Our goal is that you can observe what we are doing in class & continue this learning at home with your child.  Don't forget that you were your child's first teacher & will continue to be the most important influence on his or her life.  Please join us on this journey and help us to make listening and talking, a way of life.

Here's to another year of learning, listening and talking!

Sincerely,
Julie Sill