What is your occupation or profession? I have worked 23 years as an American Sign Language to English Interpreter. For 20 of those years I worked in the K-12 environment, facilitating communication between Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students and staff and hearing students and staff. I had the opportunity to interpret in every grade level with the exception of 2nd grade. I also am just finishing my first year as an ASL professor at CSU-Pueblo. This experience has been a huge learning curve for me since my experience and knowledge of teaching is limited. What experience do you have with online learning/teaching? I have very little experience with teaching and no training, but through the years of working with phenomenal teachers. I learned by watching
Although a handful of individuals were born knowing what they want to do in life, the vast majority spends a considerable segment of their life searching for that one perfect career they’re passionate about. Luckily, I am part of the latter group, and thus dedicated most of my adolescence and adulthood experimenting, engaging, and attempting different avenues toward discovering my labor of love. Indeed, every course I participated in provided me with a distinct skill-set or talent, while my journey helped shape me into a more consummate and multi-dimensional individual. However, the first avenue I explored was American Sign Language Interpreting, an expressive visual language that forced me to think innovatively and shape a multicultural perspective. Although the language as a whole fascinates...
At Clarke I currently teach in a self contained classroom of four year old children that are deaf and hard of hearing who are learning to listen and speak. I assist under the direction of the classroom teacher in planning, preparing and executing lessons in a listening and spoken language approach. I have the opportunity to record, transcribe and analyze language samples on a daily basis. In addition, I facilitate the child's communication in the classroom and ensure carryover of activities between the classroom and individual speech therapy sessions. Every week I contribute and participate in meetings with the educational team to discuss each child's progress using Cottage Acquisition Scales of Speech, Language and Listening (CASSLLS).
Back in my teenage days, I was once told by my teacher saying that “I believe no one can teach you how to act, but schools do give you an environment to make mistakes, to learn techniques and to learn professionalism”. Looking back at those words really gave me the inspiration to become a professional teacher in the kindergarten to teach, to learn new things, gaining new experiences and knowledge as well as being a professional. Although, there are few challenges that I have been struggled but those words make me works harder every day to make a big achievement and to show that I am able to achieve it. Becoming a professional early childhood educator may not be an easy job to me, but I am willing to try my best by not letting them down and
Acquiring a Language: American Sign Language vs. English In the Unites States and Canada, an estimated range of 500,00 to 2 million people speak/use American Sign Language. According to the Census Bureau, ASL is the leading minority language after Spanish, Italian German and French. ASL is the focal point of Deaf Culture and nothing is dearer to the Deaf people’s hearts because it is a store of cultural knowledge and also a symbol of social identity, and social interactions. It is a fully complete, autonomous and natural language with complex grammar not derived and independent of English.
I realize that it is ironic that I, of all people, am taking classes in American Sign Language and am a CSD major. Devoting my future to working with people who have communication and hearing disorders is more than likely going to present a unique challenge to myself due to my low vision, but I have
Need. Need. Need. Thus begins the poem “Need” by Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner, a Deaf and hearing poet, respectively. In a social commentary about our dependence on oil, Cook repeats the sign for “need” (an X hand that flicks forward, away from the chest) before slowly becoming a moving image that looks similar to a drill pumping oil from the ground. This use of a specific handshape to represent an idea is the basis of American Sign Language. Additionally, the use of that same handshape to create a sort of story without forming actual signs is an example of imagery in ASL literature.
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things” (American). For centuries, people from all walks of life have been using their hands to communicate with one another, and for centuries people from all walks of life have been learning. Today I am following in their footsteps with a passion from God for the deaf language, culture, and souls. For almost a decade, an intense ardor for American Sign Language and a desire to reach its native users for Christ seeded itself in my soul, wove its roots deeper and deeper, and blossomed into one of the greatest loves of my life. American Sign Language is a unique language with a rich history that not only provides a service to people in the deaf culture, but also to hearing people who seek to attain fluency.
Bahan, Ben. Hoffmeister, Robert. Lane, Harlan. A Journey into the Deaf World. USA: Dawn Sign Press.
Teacher knowledge has always been the basis to an effective learning experience. Without a knowledgeable teacher, students are not able to receive a quality educational experience. This pillar encompasses the influence teachers have on student learning and achievement, possession of research based knowledge, and effective teaching practices. I thrive to be educated and knowledgeable on the information presented to my students. By having a variety of teaching techniques that work and I use often in my classroom, I am able to mold my instruction around student needs and provide efficient and
What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? For most it would be waking to the sound of their alarm clock, but what happens if you cannot hear? What if you are deaf? The purpose of this paper is to explain and define American Sign Language (ASL), how it is used and who uses it. I will inform you about the origins of ASL, how it started the first deaf school. I will discuss people who influence ASL, and how ASL has changed over time, and I will also include interesting facts and weird signs.
...ry information in the library or online. These are all skills a teacher uses on a daily basis and will be fundamental to my teaching in the future.
This usually involves student teaching in a classroom under the close supervision of an experienced teacher. This I have learned can be even tougher than being a real teacher. I read a short article about a woman who was a student teacher for one semester in a middle school. She was and still is a CNN reporter. Heather Sinclair Wood, a journalist decided to give teaching a try. After two years of classes she finally got her first taste of teaching. I found what she had to say to be fascinating. She said that while student teaching she learned some very valuable
To accommodate the needs of my hearing impaired students, I took two sign language classes. I learned ASL (American Sign Language) and how to teach hearing impaired students by using a philosophy called Total Communication. I have chosen to do a case stud...
As I reflect on my experiences observing in three different classrooms over the last three months, I cannot express how much I have learned by being in the classroom. I began the Master of Science in Education last fall and previous to the practicum experience I had taken 8 classes. I read books, listened to the experiences of my classmates and instructors, reflected on my own education, and tried to imagine how this information was going to prepare me to face a classroom of elementary school students. While I learned theories and skills that should be known by any educator, these classes could not teach me what I most desired to know: what tangible steps could I take to correctly implement all of the correct ways of teaching.
Teaching is a daunting task that I do not intend to take lightly. Becoming a teacher has been a dream of mine for several years. I always knew that teaching would be the career for me, especially when I began working in the school system as a substitute secretary. I loved working in the school environment; coming in contact with children everyday made me realize how much I would enjoy teaching a classroom full of students.