Teacher's Excellence Resoundingly Affirmed

Deaf Pr. George's Educator Wins One of Her Profession's Top Certifications

Inside the classroom, nearly an hour of silence was broken only by an occasional whisper, foot stomp or hand clap.

Communicating with facial expressions, eye contact, finger pointing and intricate hand signs, 27 students seated in a semicircle played a vocabulary-building version of bingo. Through an open door drifted the low hum of a busy public high school. Maya Yamada finally raised her voice.

"All right, you guys," she said. "Good job. Let's put everything back before the bell rings."

Most of the students heard every word. Yamada heard the bell faintly, in her left ear. She is profoundly deaf.

Yamada teaches Beginning American Sign Language, a popular elective for hearing students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt and an essential course for a few who are deaf or hard of hearing. As the students rearranged desks on a recent day and headed to their next class, 12th-grader Rose Akca said: "There's no sleeping in that class. She creates a lot of interesting games. She's very involved in the way she gets you to practice. It just goes fast. She's a really good teacher."

Akca said Yamada's disability is a catalyst for the class. "You get to interact. You stomp your foot or wave your hand."

What these students know firsthand about Yamada has just been confirmed by an Arlington-based organization that has become the arbiter of excellence for teachers during the past decade: the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Last month, the board certified Yamada and about 200 other Washington area teachers, a recognition that comes with thousands of dollars in bonuses and the prestige of joining their profession's elite. Only 47,500 teachers, out of about 3.5 million nationwide, are board-certified. Few have a life story like Yamada's.

In a news release praising the 20 Prince George's County teachers who received the honor, officials singled out the 37-year-old teacher, who runs one of two programs for the deaf and hard of hearing in the county's mainstream high schools.

"The school system is extremely proud of Ms. Yamada, who is profoundly deaf and achieved National Board Certification despite her disability," the announcement said.

Yamada is bemused by such sentiments. "You must think my life is one obstacle after another," she wrote in an e-mail interview punctuated with a laugh-out-loud exclamation. "It didn't occur to me until I started answering your questions. LOL!"

Yamada, who was born in Toronto, lost most of the hearing in her left ear and all hearing in her right when she was 6, for reasons that remain medically unclear. A device in her left ear amplifies sound, but she cannot distinguish speech. Her own speech remains intact, with little apparent effect from the hearing loss.