I have been using both apps since last week and have learned lots from them. What makes this such a successful tool is that it is constantly in my pocket, when I have some time to spare, I can pull out my phone and do a quick review. I find myself practicing between classes and always getting some studying in before I go to sleep.
One of the things I have learned from this app is the children’s nursery rhyme, “row row row your boat.” This would be a unique lesson to teach in a classroom as it would give the students a hidden talent, that could one day help them connect with someone through signs. It may even be what sparks a learning journey of sign language for one of the students. After all my grade one teacher taught us the alphabet in sign language, and here I am learning it now.
The other thing I have been continuing to work on this week is the basics chapters in the book, “Signing: How to Speak with Your Hands,” by Elaine Costello.
I have tried several apps at this point, many of them cost money or did not have clear tutorials. Finally this week I discovered another app, that pairs amazingly with the one I found last week, “ASL inquiry.” This second app is called “ASL,” and it includes a free and paid version. I have been using the free version of this app and have found many helpful tools.This app includes an information page about sign language, where you can learn about the history and other fun facts about sign language.
This app also includes several free tutorials on ASL words and phrases, that are grouped into simple categories. The next part of the app is my favorite, the memory games. This app includes seven different memory-matching games to help learners review signs. The last feature is also super cool, as it teaches you short songs and poems in sign language. This would be perfect for teaching a classroom, it would be fun to teach the kids how to sign happy birthday for when we sing to students in the class.
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I have made a screen cast to show my favorite features of the two apps I have found, and how well they complement one another.Â
ASL and Pocket Sign
Here are the 3 most interesting facts I learned from the ASL app!
Fun facts from ASLcanva review
During this week I have also been working to finish the basics chapter in “Signing: How to Speak with Your Hands,” by Elaine Costello. It mainly focuses on being able to ask simple questions, introduce yourself and express your likes and dislikes. It is a long chapter so I will be working on it next week as well, to master the content.Â
Social media has been around for as long as I can remember and I’ve had a lot of opinions on it throughout the years. I first used social media in elementary school through my mom’s phone. I would use her Instagram to look up my favorite Disney actors and singers. At that time, it seemed harmless, I didn’t recognize any of the effects negative or positive. However, subconsciously all of these people had an influence on me. People who before social media would have had no influence on me. Children having access to all these influences is bound to have an effect on society’s youth.Â
Once I got to middle and high school the negatives of social media became obvious. Cyberbullying and the influence social media can have on society can be crippling. Social media is a platform for cowardly bullies who find comfort in hiding behind a screen. This screen gives them a sense of protection to say horrible things they wouldn’t have the guts to say in person. It wasn’t all bad though, social media can be a great source of inspiration and a way to connect with one another. It has kept me in touch with many friends who have moved away, as well as my family while I am away at college right now.
We were constantly warned to be careful about what we post on social media. They warned us that future employers would do background checks, and whatever you post on the internet is permanent. This made me scared as a child, thinking that if an employer was able to find me online, that I would be hired. However, an online presence does not have to be bad. I adore the idea of taking control of your online existence, the idea of getting ahead of the game and creating a good name for yourself online.
I am super interested and eager to learn about strategies and tools to create a strong online profile myself.
There are many differences between Districts 5 and 6 despite how close the locations are. One of the differences that were discussed was the full-time TTOC position that is being introduced to District 6. When beginning my process to become a teacher I imagined that I would hate being a TTOC and that if I had to do it that I would just have to get through it. However, recently on a PE in-situ, I had the opportunity to talk to a teacher who has spent his whole career as a substitute teacher. My first thought was why the hell would you want to do that? Then he bragged about the zero marking he does and the zero lesson plans and report cards he makes. That quickly piqued my interest. I never thought of it like that. This teacher enjoys going in, meeting new students every day, and getting to know and connect with them for a brief time. The teacher-student connection would be the downfall ofbeing a full-time TTOC. Obviously having your own classroom that you spend time with every day would foster stronger more meaningful relationships. To improve these relationships, between students and TTOC’s, Sd6 is introducing full-time TTOC positions in a specific district. This way students will be more familiar with their TTOC, and they can build stronger relationships. I am still not sure if I would want to be a full-time TTOC,but it is a super cool and unique position that Sd6 offers.
As you may have seen in my weekly reflection this week, I made a wordle of all the random vocabulary words I have used that don’t fit into a specific category. I find myself wondering what random words are in sign language throughout the day. It’s awesome that I am learning new words, but I find it difficult to review them at the end of the day. However, this week I kept a list of those words and put them into a wordle that I can use for review. Â
I also discovered a super cool app this week. It is called ASL Inquiry. You have to pay to be able to access the full app, but there are many free features that I enjoy. My favorite thing about this app is the dictionary feature. You can type in any word, and it will give you a short video of a woman showing you the sign. You can watch the video as many times as you need, and it comes in super handy. Sometimes it can be difficult to learn signs from a photo as they are often moving actions, that’s why I especially love this video dictionary. Most of their lessons you have to buy, but they give you a free daily lesson, with new vocab each day.
This week I also learned my colors of the rainbow plus pink, brown, white, and black. Â
Although I did focus on some groups of words this week, there were many random words that don’t fit into the categories. Sometimes I will be doing something, and I’ll wonder what a certain word is in sign language. Which has caused me to stop and google many words. This is great, but I find myself struggling to review these words, as I don’t always remember to practice them all when I’m reviewing. So, when I saw we were making graphics this week I decided to make a wordle of all the random vocabulary I had learned, so I would have something to review.
I really enjoyed using the wordle site. It was super simple and quick to use and arranged my words very nicely. All I had to do was type in my words and click create. I would definitely use these in my future classroom
I ended up having to fly home for some family things and ran into an old teacher of mine. She worked as the youth worker in my high school, so I stopped to say hello. Out of nowhere while I was talking, she stopped me and said “hey I have a book for you.” From her filing cabinet she pulls a book on how to learn sign language. The book was called Signing how to speak with your hands by Elaine Costello. What are the odds! She had no clue I was doing this project, nor had I ever expressed any interest in learning ASL. I had started my ASL journey just three weeks earlier and here she was giving me this book.
The book: Signing how to speak with your hands by Elaine Costello
This week I decided to learn from my book, which I will insert photos of. The common phrases section overlaps with the common phrases I learned in week 2 and continued to practice in week 3, which made the process a little easier. There are several pages of common phrases, there for this week I am aiming to focus on the first three pages.
World day of the deaf
While looking into the deaf community, I learned that there is an international day for the deaf, where sign language is celebrated and appreciated. This holiday passed not too long ago, during the week of the deaf, the same week I started this learning process. The national day of the deaf is on the last Monday of September, which this year fell on September 26. The purpose of the national day of the deaf is to bring awareness to the challenges and difficulties of the deaf community and also to highlight the importance of sign language to all people. This day was started in 1958 by the world federation of the deaf. They want to raise awareness of deaf rights and struggles so that everyone can be a little more accommodating. Another thing it raises awareness for is hearing loss. Many people will face preventable hearing loss in their lifetime, that they potentially could have saved had they known more about the topic
At the beginning of the book, I read about compound words. Much like in English, two words can be compounded to make a new word. An example of this in sign language is the sign “lunch.” The word “lunch” is made up of the signs for “eat” and “noon.” The first section of my book is labeled common phrases, where it teaches me how to say basic words and phrases, such as hello and how are you. This got me thinking, how do you ask a question in sign language? Often times in English we convey a question by simply raising our voices at the end, however that is not an option in sign language. I looked in the front of my book and was able to find the answer. There are two ways to ask a question in ASL you can either put a question mark at the beginning of your sentence, which looks like drawing a question mark in the air or you can simply hold your sign a little longer at the end. Â
The word of the week this week is my favorite color : Purple – Sign the letter P and turn your wrist
Explore Makerspaces through a Google search and/or through your social media platform #makerspace . What resources and information can you find? Discuss the makerspace we visited and how you envision utilizing such a space in your future teaching career.
I started this week by learning what a makerspace is. A makerspace is a collaborative experience for students to create, develop skills and solve problems. Makerspaces can be in person or online. In a classroom it might look for example if you wanted to teach your class how to make stop motion animation. The teacher would have all the lego and Ipads ready for the students, with a stop motion app or software already on the Ipads. Outside of the classroom you could have an online space for the students to post on. I think it would be a really fun idea to have the students post freely, rather than assigned postings. Watching other students share their discoveries and inquiries could be inspiring to another student. There are many benefits to makerspace, one of them being that it gives the students a chance to experiment. On an online learning platform it is always much easier to delete and restart, or save and restart, compared to on paper. However, experimentalism is a fundamental part of all makerspace, which means the teacher must ensure there are enough supplies and combinations for students to truly experiment. Many makerspaces allow children to freely explore and follow their curiosities. Â
I think that fresh grade could be used as an online makerspace. I used it in middleschool, but only to post assignments. It is set up similarly to a social media account, which can be exciting for children. You set up your profile with a photo and a biography. Then you are able to post photos or videos and caption them. Another benefit to fresh grade is that parents are allowed to access fresh grade as well, so parents can stay caught up with their children’s work. Â
As for an offline makerspace, I think it would be a great experience to have a free for all craft day. That means the teacher would supply as many different crafts supplies as possible, and let the students make whatever they would like. This would give the students a chance to be as creative as possible and make whatever they want. Students are able to build freely, backpedal and make changes.
Another makerspace I thoroughly enjoyed in elementary school was the penny boat challenge. The class was divided into groups and given a specific set of supplies. Given the supplies given each group has to build the best boat they can. This is tested by how many pennies the boat can hold at the end. This was one of my favorite activities as a child, it taught creativity, problem-solving, perseverance, and teamwork.Â
Last week I worked on learning the basics of sign language, however, I am not done with them. Just like any language we need to practice it in order to become efficient and fluent in that language. Not only are we practicing the words and definitions, but we are practicing the unusual and new sounds of the language. Many languages use completely different phonetics than English and we have to get used to pronouncing. In my opinion, sign language is even more of a jump as we are not even using oral language, I need to adjust to using my hands to communicate in sign language. For these reasons I try my best to review one of my basics each night, either the alphabet, the numbers 1-10, or greetings. Currently, I am feeling most confident in the alphabet and want to show you a video of me doing it. Â
As of last week, I am feeling most confident with the alphabet, so I wanted to show you guys a video of my progress. However, I have not been feeling nearly as confident with my numbers or simple words. Therefore, instead of adding new content this week I want to continue to focus on those two before I move on.
History
In order to dive deeper into my learning, I have decided to look into the history of sign language. There is no specific day that sign language was invented, it has evolved over time to be the language that it is now. Even though it is impossible to be sure, research talks about a monk who created a version of sign language to live out his vow of silence. His name was Pedro de Leon, and he began communicating with his hands in the 1500s. Later on, in 1620, a man named Juan Pablo Bonet developed this language by creating a dictionary of signs and an alphabet. simultaneously in a small commune in Martha’s Vineyard was developing their own version of sign language. This version lasted many years due to the dominant and recessive genes common in the people from this commune.Â
The first formal version of sign language was created by a French priest named Charles Michael de L’epee. He changed the French language into sign and created the first free public school for the deaf in Paris. American sign language was developed shortly after in the 1800s by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Thomas was not deaf himself but was inspired by his neighbours deaf daughter. He traveled to Europe to meet with an deaf instructor of sign, Laurent Clerc. Together they founded the first American school for the deaf.Â
Everyone has a history of communicating with their hands, an informal version of sign language. As babies we reach our hands out for more and know to turn our heads away when we don’t like something or arent interested. This is sign language on the most basic level as babies use their hands to communicate until they are taught a formal language.
This week I made a screencast, highlighting the many attributes of the epic book website. Me and my partner, Emily, were able to make our screencast, but we struggled to edit our video. We tried to use iMovie to do our editing but ran into some technical difficulties. Once downloaded we were unable to get the video in the editor due to format issues.
Here’s our video…
The struggles we face are solvable with some dedication and time. It could be very helpful in a future classroom of mine with some extra practice. Screencasts are a great way to teach your students how to use resources online, this could be used at an older grade to teach students how to find scholarly articles and peer-reviewed sources. Screencasts would also be a very helpful tool for students to be to access at home. If I pre-record the lessons, students would be able to review the lessons online at home. This way students who need to see the lesson done again can see it without the whole class reviewing it. Those resources could come in handy again when reviewing topics from the earlier grade, to prep for future lessons.
