All About Matthew By Matthew Hofmeister

My name is Matthew I am 10 years old. I am happy to be in your fifth grade class

I love dogs! I volunteer at Happy Tails Pet Rescue every week-end with Ms. Barbara. I help animals that are rescued find good homes.

I have 2 dogs at home Immie is a black lab that we adopted from a seeing eye dog school. Nutmeg is a golden retriever that we adopted from an animal shelter.

I like legos I like to build with legos. I have a collection at home.

I wear glasses to help me see I wear glasses to see things that are far away like the TV and the white board I do not need glasses all the time. I do not wear my glasses when I read or do my work

I am deaf and wear a cochlear implant I have had a cochlear implant since I was 2 years old. I got it in Atlanta. I can hear pretty well when I am wearing my implant. I can’t hear anything when I take it off.

Here are some things that help me in school I need to sit in the front of the class so I can see you. Sometimes I need to move around in the class so I can get closer to the TV or the board.

Closed Captioning Sometimes the volume on the TV is not loud enough for me to hear so the words would help me

Practicing new words Sometimes new words are hard for me to understand the first time I hear them. It helps me if my mom can read over the words with me at home before we talk about them in class.

I love to read! I enjoy listening to you read in class. It helps me to understand the story if I can have my own book to look at while you read. I can check a copy of the book out at the school library or the public library.

Groups It is hard for me to follow a classroom discussion It helps me if you say the name of who is talking and repeat what the person said For small group work, it is helpful if my group can work in the hall so it is not so noisy

My FM system The FM system helps me to hear you better Don’t worry I can operate it by myself. I will give you the part that you wear

Mrs. Maxwell Mrs. Maxwell can help me if my FM breaks down She also can help if my cochlear implant breaks She helps me solve problems with my cochlear

I am looking forward to having a great year!!

THE END