SWCED 2022

JULY 19 – 21, 2022

This Year's Theme

Dedicated Heroes Making Waves

In the past two years, the definition of heroes has been reframed in many incredible ways. We have expanded our concept of heroes to include not only doctors and scientists, but also grocery store clerks, teachers, family members, and children. This brings us to the conference’s theme, Dedicated Heroes Making Waves. This is our unified effort to pause, recognize, and acknowledge every individual in our community of deaf education: Families; students who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind; teachers; and other deaf education professionals across the state.

Together, we have faced new obstacles including a tsunami of health risks, masked expressions, and virtual learning curves. Together, we have not only risen above, but we are now surfing on the waves of our challenges. Here’s to our continued success!

The Agenda

We have an amazing line up of speakers at this years conference, including keynote speakers Betsy Moog, Thomas Horejas, and Michael Bonner.

The full agenda is under development and will be published soon.

This Year's Speakers

Betsy Moog Brooks, EdD

EdD, CED, LSLS Cert. AVEd

Betsy Moog Brooks is the Executive Director of the Moog Center for Deaf Education. She received her Master’s degree in Speech and Hearing from Washington University and her Doctor of Education in Instructional Leadership with an emphasis in Andragogy, the study of adult learners, from Lindenwood University. She is certified in Deaf Education, Behavior Disorders, Learning Disabilities, and Early Childhood Education, and is a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist.

Dr. Thomas Horejes

Gallaudet University’s Associate Provost for Student Success & Academic Quality

Dr. Thomas P. Horejes is Gallaudet University’s Associate Provost for Student Success & Academic Quality. He is former Executive Director for Deaf Empowerment Awareness Foundation (DEAF, Inc.), a deaf-centric non-profit advocacy and interpreting services. He holds a Ph.D. (2009) in Justice Studies at Arizona State University with a focus on current social justice issues, such as human rights against a backdrop of legal systems, law and culture to create meaningful, real-world impact through public policy and systems change.

Michael Bonner

English Teacher, Ron Clark Academy; Author

Seen on The Ellen Show and NBC Nightly News, educator, speaker, and author Michael Bonner has taken to more than 100 education conference, school district meeting and leadership development stages across the U.S. & Canada to share his “lessons learned” from teaching in a Title I school with children that experience high levels of trauma and adverse situations. His candid, enthusiastic seminars challenge listeners to create diverse, inclusive education plans “where students can see themselves within the lessons and assessments” as a means to increase student success rates.

Learn more about each speaker and what topics they will cover.

History

The first regional conference was held in a local hotel conference center in the fall of 1976. As the years rolled on more and more personnel from other regions began attending the conference and a decision was made to change the regional conference to one big conference for all personnel working with students who were deaf/hard of hearing in Texas.

Awards

The Texas Association of Parents and Educators of the Deaf (T.A.P.E.D.) continually strives to recognize all of the great people and organizations in Texas who give so much to the education of students who are deaf and hard of hearing. These awards were first given in 1990 and are given to individuals/organizations for their contributions to the field of deaf education.

Scholarships

T.A.P.E.D. has a long history of providing scholarships to deserving high school seniors and individuals interested in pursuing degrees in the field of deaf education and interpreting. Since 1985 T.A.P.E.D. has awarded more than $70,000 in scholarships supported by membership dues and fund raising efforts.