Hi there! I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been dreaming up this online space for a while now and the fact that you’re even reading this is a sign of my dreams coming true.

I’m Natalie but at work, I’m Mrs. Higgins. I’m a deaf/hard-of-hearing teacher (DHH) and recently I started my 6th year of teaching via distance learning. Communication is my life’s work and communicating about communicating is my love language (just ask my husband). And while being an educator is a large part of my identity, I’ve been dreaming about a space to be fully myself and also incorporate the things I love most about my job: writing, creating and communicating, in a way that can be meaningful for a greater community, not just me.

Parents, educators and students can all find a million reasons to be stressed or to feel guilty or judged, but my promise is this will not be one of them. My dream is to cultivate an online space for educators, parents and students to connect and interact free of stress, guilt or judgment.

I don’t have all the answers. What I do have is a willingness to learn, to connect, to share my experiences and what I’ve learned along the way. I think ultimately, we all want to become the best we can be: parents, educators and students alike. We all crave connection, and while our differences make us unique, what we have in common brings us together.

So how did I get here?

I often get asked how and why I chose this profession. When I started college, my plan was to teach high school English. I had some incredible teachers in high school that left a lasting impression on me and pushed me to dive deeper into my love for reading and language: I wanted to do the same for others. I took my first college English class and said, “Nope, not for me.”I floundered for a while, told people I was a psych major for a few months even though I never officially declared it, then eventually landed on communication disorders where I got my degree.

Without making this a longer story than it needs to be, college was by no means the best years of my life as “they” say it should be. In hindsight, I was not as mentally or physically healthy as I would have liked and I had some experiences that I’d choose to remove if I could, even now. I share this only because I was afraid at the time that I was wasting something I couldn’t get back. I can see now that those years were more formative than I could have realized, and they brought me to a level of awareness and gratitude that I like to think I bring into my practice today.

Anyway, a degree towards speech pathology seemed like a good fit for me, it was challenging, interesting and presented a wide variety of career options. But when my senior year rolled around, I was feeling insecure because it seemed like everyone else had found their “thing,” the area they loved most and wanted to pursue into their graduate work. I loved all of my classes, but nothing stood out to me as a true direction until my senior spring.

I took a class called “Aural Rehabilitation” where I first learned about cochlear implants, first learned what an auditory-verbal therapist was, first shadowed an audiologist doing hearing aid fittings. I’ve always loved school, but I’m also an extreme introvert who sits in the back, quietly takes notes and needs the entire time to work up the nerve to ask a question, but this class was different. Suddenly I was reading when I didn’t have to, losing track of time studying and sitting in the front row contributing to discussions and asking questions. I was definitely onto something and that spark never left.

The director of the graduate program I eventually attended came to that class one morning to tell us more about what DHH teachers and Auditory-Verbal professionals do and the programs offered to get there. I remember she said that DHH teaching was a blend of audiology, speech, counseling, and lots of language and literacy. It was everything that had ever appealed to me about a career, all rolled into one. I work best when I’m doing a million different things at once, and that’s what I get to do now, every day. With all the courage an introvert could muster, I walked right up to her after her presentation, without hesitation shook her hand and said, “this is exactly what I want to do.”

After grad school, I got hired at the school in East LA where I completed my student teaching and taught there for three years, then spent one year as an itinerant teacher with a caseload spanning preschool-high school at 24 different schools in the downtown LA area. After that, I went back to the classroom in another district in LA County where I now teach 1st-2nd grade, and I just started my second year in that position for a total of six years teaching. The classroom is definitely my sweet spot, and teaching reading and writing is what I love most.

One of the best things about this profession is the community of incredible women who gravitate towards it. I learned a lot in school, but I’ve learned even more just from observing, asking, listening and doing. I’ve been lucky to work alongside some of the most outstanding teachers and mentors, and if you’ve spent any time in this field, you know exactly what I mean. Anything you see me do here is honestly just me trying to be like them. In large thanks to those mentors carrying me through, I finished my LSLS certification: a 3-5 year mentorship process culminated through a portfolio acceptance and passing a challenging exam, in July, 2020—one of my proudest accomplishments to date.

During the process of certification, I dreamed up this site and the community of families and professionals that would help give it life.

If you’re here as a parent of a D/deaf child or a child with hearing loss, my hope is to encourage you in your journey and provide information and insight that can support you as you continue forward. I’m a firm believer that there is no one “right” way to do this.

If you’re here as a professional or aspiring professional, my hope is to share ideas, trade wisdom and have challenging, meaningful conversations around the work we do with students and families. If you’ve ever considered your LSLS certification, I would be honored to be a resource along the way!

If you’re here because you’re curious about education for children who are deaf/hard-of-hearing, I hope to provide accessible, approachable information about hearing technology, educational strategies and family support.

If you’re here as a D/deaf person or a person with hearing loss, my hope is to learn from you, to amplify your voice in any conversations around D/deafness and hearing loss and to help show the world that your possibilities are limitless.

Very soon I will be sharing a new post: a series of interviews with early intervention educators and if you don’t want to miss out, make sure you join my email list below. I can’t wait to keep this conversation going, thank you for making my dreams come to life just by reading these words!

-Natalie