Trendy plateware Blair-Shannon renovates dining for social media
MSU musicians MSU students perform at Front of House Lounge
Coaching change
Former Louisville coach hired at Missouri State
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M I S S O U R I S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
VOLUME 113, ISSUE 14 | THE-STANDARD.ORG The Standard/The Standard Sports
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2020
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MSU preschool implements deaf, hard of hearing program LAUREN JOHNS Staff Reporter @lje2017
Since 1964, the Child Development Center on Cherry Street has fulfilled the needs of countless children, according to its website. This private preschool offers enrollment to 88 children at a time and various services are brought into play, including a deaf and hard of hearing program. Housed in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department, this program is geared toward children ages 3-5. “We provide a service to the community and give real-life experience to our students working towards their masters to become certified teachers in the program,” Tara Oetting, director and head teacher of the department, said. According to Oetting, it is imperative to educate and graduate as many teachers as possible to send out to areas in need of someone trained to serve deaf or hard of hearing children. “Not every teacher knows how to successfully teach a child with a hearing loss, just as not every teacher is capable of teaching math or science to middle and high school students,” Oetting said. Within the deaf and hard of hearing school, mainstream classrooms are rare as more individualized learning is prominent. “I call it ‘self contained,’ where teachers give one-onone instruction or small groups are formed,” said Sonia Arora, visiting assistant professor and family counselor. “Sometimes ‘reverse mainstream’ is utilized, where hearing siblings attend these classes.” The preschool is in session Monday through Thursday
from 9 a.m. to noon and an observation room is made available for students and parents to observe the children and the services allocated to them. During counseling, Arora said families are typically open-minded when it comes to different recommended resources, strategies and facilitation in language development, as well as social and emotional support. “Most families I work with, it’s their first interaction with a deaf child,” Arora said. “I try to make them feel more confident in their decision making.” Aside from counseling aspects, the classrooms are catered towards the needs of individual children to help them grow to be more confident in their abilities. “We work on language development, speech development, auditory development, early literacy, socialization and motor skills,” Oetting said. “We use visual, tactile and kinesthetic strategies combined with a variety of communication modalities, modern assistive listening devices and other technology to provide these special learners with the environment they need to learn to the best of their ability.” Oetting says the schedule is relatively similar to a non-specialized preschool day. It consists of circle time, story time, snacks, lessons and free play. “The difference really is in the strategies and techniques that we use and how they are facilitated,” Oetting said. “For example, during a typical calendar lesson, you might see the teacher communicate one sentence in three different ways, including spoken English and then repeating the sentence in different forms of sign language.”
“The difference really is in the strategies.” - Tara Oetting, head teacher
JAYLEN EARLY/THE STANDARD
Records are becoming more popular than CDs.
Vinyl records making a comeback after 30 years of trailing CD sales Records are finally back in the spotlight. To learn about the challenges vinyl had to face since 1986, turn to page 5.
History Museum on the Square voted USA Today’s ‘Best New Attraction’ CONNOR WILSON Staff Reporter @Connor4Wilson Just five months after its opening, the History Museum on the Square has been named the country’s “Best New Attraction for 2019” by USA Today. Executive Director John Sellars said he didn’t know the museum was up for nomination until the 20 nominees from across the country were announced. Once the 20 nominees were decided, the public voted for 30 days in December. “The last week of the voting it went dark,” Sellars said. “Up to that time we knew we were in the lead. The number two below us was the AKC Museum of Dogs. Now, if you’re going to get beat, you’re going to get beat by puppies.” This time, the dogs did not have their day. When the final results were announced, the History Museum on the Square remained in first place. The museum did not come together quickly. Work began in 1975, and the building has changed multiple times since the project’s inception. “It has been a character builder,” Sellars said.
The museum building has required drastic renovations, thanks to a great amount of asbestos. The buildings originally on the corner of the Square had burned down in 1913 and were rebuilt with extra focus on ensuring they would not burn again. By the time the building was asbestos-free, all they had left was a brick box. No walls. No doors. Only bricks. While this was an expensive reconstruction, Sellars said it’s allowed the museum to be the most cutting-edge and modern it can possibly be. “You can’t do better, I don’t think, than we have done to tell people and have people experience the stories of this place,” Sellars said. “It’s a proud, proud thing for me and all of us here — what we have to give to the community.” Since opening in August, the museum has been tracking where its visitors are from. Currently the museum has been visited by residents from 44 of the 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. It’s also hosted people from 25 countries, Sellars said everywhere from Aruba to Wales have come to experience what
u See PRE-K, page 8
OPTV up and running again DESIREE NIXON Staff Reporter @DesireeNixon17 File photo by JAYLEN EARLY/THE STANDARD
The History Museum on the Square houses various Southwest Missouri historical exhibits. The museum opened on Aug. 8, 2019. the museum has to offer. “It’s wonderful,” Sellars said. “It’s interesting to interact with them and find out why they came, what brought them here.” Sellars joined the project as a volunteer in 1976 but left for a significant amount of time. After retiring, he returned to work on the museum and in 2005 assumed the role of director. He found working on the museum to be too enjoyable to stop. “For a man of my age, to
come to work everyday knowing I’m going to learn something, I’m going to find out something interesting that day, is extraordinary,” Sellars said. Students who want to experience the USA Today’s Best New Attraction themselves can visit the museum Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Currently the museum offers a $3 discount to students who present their student ID.
Ozark’s Public Television, produced out of Missouri State University’s Strong Hall, is back up and running with maximum coverage after the April 2018 deadly television tower collapse. In 2018, OPT was renovating the KOZK tower in Fordland to meet the latest Federal Communications Commission’s channel change requirements, according to Tammy Wiley, general manager of OPT. This was not the only station forced to change to meet these requirements, nearly 1,000 other stations had to as well. During the renovation, there were bolts removed which
File photo by KAITLYN STRATMAN/THE STANDARD
Wreckage from the OPTV tower collapse covered the surrounding area with mangled metal.
lead to a collapse that killed one man. u Read more at the-standard.org.