ASL Classroom Management

     I have always been fascinated by American Sign Language. It is something I have always wanted to learn, and something that has always clicked with me. In the fall of 2009, at the age of 37, my mom lost her hearing, and was completely deaf in both ears. I watched her struggle through having hearing aids, and through an eventual surgery, that has allowed her to get her hearing back. She always had a hard time, with reading peoples lips, because no one ever made eye contact or talked loud enough for her to get a general idea of what the person was saying to her. While my mother never learned ASL she was able to depend on lip reading and context clues, in order to communicate effectively with others, until she was able to hear again.
       My cousin Emily who is 2 years old, was born with hearing loss, for the first year of her life, Emily couldn't hear and the doctors believed she would never be able to hear again. Emily went into an intensive speech therapy program, because she wasn't making noises or developing her speech because she couldn't hear. The program that Emily was in actually was paid for a ASL teacher to come to their house once a week to teach sign language, as they believed it would be the only way to communicate with Emily. My aunt and uncle invited most of the family, and every week for about 3 months, they spent 2 hours a week learning ASL. While I was not able to attend because I was at school, my mom attended every class. She learned so much, and I remember seeing her on brakes and she would sign things for me and show me what she learned. She was so excited.
     Within the last 6 months, Emily had a turnaround. They put tubes in her ears, and she was able to hear again, but she still has some significant hearing loss. Her cleft palate will also make speech difficult for her, so she still sees a speech pathologist weekly.
   For my family learning ASL was important to us because it directly affected us. Over spring break I was thinking about ASL and being deaf and how it affected my family, and how one day it might affect me personally as well. As my mother's hearing loss was genetic, I have a good chance of developing it at a young age too. I thought about how I could incorporate this in my classroom. Was there a way that I could incorporate sign language into my every day lesson plan? Could I have a little power point with important vocab words of the day, and how to sign them? I decided to do a simple google search, to see what popped up. Within seconds, I was bombarded with links on how to use ASL as a effective classroom management technique.
    The articles talked about using, sign language, to sign things like bathroom, water fountain, or even things like I have a question, or I have a comment, in order to minimize disruptions in the classroom. It would be so easy to have my students just raise their hand with the sign for restroom, and I could easily, direct them, by signing yes or no, without stopping the class or disrupting an activity or lectures. Most of the teachers who wrote about ASL classroom management were elementary or middle school teachers. This is could also be an effective tool in high school, but I am apprehensive because it might not work as well for older students, who might find it petty. Is it too childish? Is it appropriate to use?
     ASL classroom management is an idea I would like to explore further, it seems like if used correctly it could be extremely effective. Not only does it help minimize distractions in my classroom, but it is also teaching my students a new language, that one day they could find useful or helpful in their life.

    Check out this link:
 Sign Language Classroom Management Posters

My beautiful cousin Emily

    
            

Science Saturdays

    It was the Saturday morning of Spring Break. I finally had the opportunity to sleep in and get a well needed break from the stresses of college. My deep sleep was rudely interrupted at 9 am sharp by a bright blue-eyed blonde haired girl who decided it was time to wake up! My 5 year old sister, Alyssa jumped on me yelling, "MEGANNE ITS TIME TO WAKE UP ! TODAY IS SCIENCE SATURDAY!"
         Ah, Science Saturday the most wonderful Saturday of the year. I had the luck of coming home every weekend that it was Science Saturday at our local library. A little before 9:50 AM I piled my sister, Alyssa and my 7 year old brother Jacob to the car. They were brimming with excitement. As we drove to our destination I began to grill them about school. Alyssa was now in Kindergarten and Jacob was in first grade. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that they were growing up so fast. 
     "So Jacob and Alyssa, how is school?"
            "Good."
    "What's your favorite subject Alyssa?"
          "Ummm I don't know"
     "Jacob?"
           "I'm really good at math, but are we there yet?"

That was the end of our conversation. As much as I wanted to learn more about their school day, the last thing they wanted to do was talk about school on a Saturday morning. Once we got to the library, we walked into a big room where they held all the Science Saturdays. A woman dressed in a lab coat warmly greeted us.
   "Hello I'm Barbara! Grab a carpet square and sit on the floor please."
Jacob excitedly grabbed a carpet square and sat down as fast as he could and Alyssa was a little more timid, but she eventually sat down.
    Barbara chimed, "And Parents can sit on the chair on the side."
I wondered if this was just a general statement, or did she really think I was the mother of a five and seven year old? Brushing it off I quickly sat down. More kids and their parents filed in even at 10:20, although it officially started at 10:00.
   They topic of the day was Space: The Great Frontier. They learned about the planets and stars and she taught them about Supernovas. A Supernova is what happens when a star dies and explodes. All the children were so curious and so engaged. One little girl raised her hand nice and high. Barbara exclaimed, "Do you have a question?"
     The little girl responded, "No, but I need to tell you something. DID YOU know that Jupiter has a huge storm that has lasted over ONE THOUSAND YEARS!"
   She was so excited to relay her knowledge and Scientist Barbara just brushed her off, and continued her monologue about supernovas and the rules for the activity.
At this point I was getting a little annoyed with Barbara but I let it slide. The children ran to the table to start their first activity. Each child had a cup filled with water and dish soap and a straw. The instructions were to take the straw and stir the cup and then put the straw against the table and blow until you created a huge bubble that exploded, hence when it explodes, it resembles a Supernova.
   Unfortunatley, Jacob didn't quite understand the directions, and honestly I didn't understand the directions all that well either. Barbara used her words to explain the activity, but she did not use a physical example to show the kids how to do it. Next thing I know Barbara is yelling,
   "Who's child is this??" Pointing at Jacob. "He's going to get bubbles in his mouth, he needs help."
I quickly ran over, and instead of blowing bubbles on the table, Jacob blew his straw into the cup, until he had an overflowing mountain of bubbles. I showed Jacob what I thought was the correct way to do it.
   " Here, you take the straw, and stir and then you put the straw on the table and blow slowly."
 I did it once to show him, and his face lit up!
    "WOAH! That was SO cool!!" he exclaimed.
 I chucked and helped him for a few supernovas until he got a good handle on it. I then heard Barbara exclaim, "Oh look, he's doing it the right way now."
    I was kind of offended by Barbara's attitude. Her instructions weren't clear and she was acting as if Jacob was a very incompetent toddler. Yes, he is the small and the same size as Alyssa, but he is a first grader and very smart. And no, I'm not just saying that because I am his sister, he is very intelligent for a seven year old, especially in math. There were other kids sitting at the table that didn't quite understand Barbara's instructions either and who needed help, and I couldn't help but wonder if she could have handled the whole entire situation differently. Yes she was a scientist, but I wondered if she had used smaller words or talked slower, or even showed a demonstration, then maybe Jacob wouldn't have gotten bubbles in his nose.
    I wondered what would happen if there was an ELL student at Science Saturday, would he get bubbles in his nose too?

Jacob and Alyssa at their first Science Saturday circa 2017

SBHS ELL Departement

      As I have been working with S, I have realized the importance of a good and cohesive ELL department to support students in transitioning into the United States school system.
      On a logistical and realistic level, SBHS is following federal education standards, in their ELL program. The federal government has given the school a special formula title 3 grant in order to create an up to standard ELL program. While the school's ELL population is only 2%, the resources they do have are impeccable.
   On the South Burlington High School webpage there is a page specifically for the English Language Learners Department. On the page, their personal mission statement reads as follows:   
    “The South Burlington School District is a diverse community with students and families from many countries and around the world. It is our belief that through knowledge and a commitment to understanding and getting to know each other, our lives are enriched as well as community. To acknowledge, utilize and promote these value inherent in this diversity, and to best serve all students, we have developed this resource guide. We encourage students, staff, families and community members to learn more about our South Burlington School Community and the many ways we can support each other’s learning.”
     The page also includes contact information for the two ELL teachers who work at SBHS as well as a link to “Can Do Booklet” and “Resources for English Language Learners.”
     The WIDA Can Do booklet has in depth information on the different WIDA levels standards to work towards, performance definitions, and Can Do Descriptors for grades 9-12. For Example, An ELL students who shows a level 3 (developing) ability in Listening will be able to:



       -          Evaluate information in social and academic conversation



       -          Distinguish main ideas from supporting points in Oral Conversation.



       -          Content related discourse



      -          Use  learning strategies to describe orally



      -          Categorize content based examples, described orally.

Here are the links:

Can-Do Booklet: https://www.sbschools.net/cms/lib/VT01819219/Centricity/Domain/81/CanDoBooklet9-12.pdf



Resources for English Language Learners: https://vt01819219.schoolwires.net/cms/lib/VT01819219/Centricity/domain/81/ell_resources/ELL_Resources.html

  By working with S on every Tuesday and Friday morning I am also able to interact with the ELL teachers, mostly Mrs. W. Mrs. W’s strategies and calm coaxing with the students. When I tutor S, Mrs. W has a class in the same classroom at the same time. She is always calm and composed. She always has a clear and concise agenda of the activities for the day. She is also very hands on with her students. When she hands back assignments she goes over everything with them individually. She points out the things they did well on, and where the students need to improve. 

      She also, uses her body to act out difficult concepts that are hard to understand just by explaining verbally. I remember she was describing how when our bodies are in motion, it makes energy for the cells and she was running around the room.   

     As an ELL teacher it is Mrs. W’s job to make sure that her students continue to improve their WIDA scores and their overall understanding of the English Language.  I specifically remember Mrs. W, talking to S about his Lab Report. While his sentence structure is improving, he always forgets the letter S. For example S, would write “He wait for the bus.” When it fact it should be, “He waits for the bus.” In this instance Mrs. W had to give S some tough love. While she knows S is very smart and she knows he understands the topics, his writing and grammar skills need to improve in order for his work to truly show how capable S is as a student.

Thoughts on a Single Story

 

 Danger of a Single Story by Ngozi Chimamanda :

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
     

                In Chimamanda Ngozi’s Ted Talk, she talks about her struggle as a writer and an African author, and the different perceptions that people have based on the story they s see. I think as a college student, one thing that I can take from Ngozi’s speech is that we tend to have only one perception of someone or something, and to look beyond that perception and realize that there are more stories than just the one we see. Often when we watch the news we only get one story.  Ngozi described how her first American college roommate’s perception of her was based on the things she had seen about Africa, Africa as a poor, third world country. Which was not how Ngozi grew up at all. By knowing the whole story, and ALL the stories we are able to have a better understanding of not only ourselves but others.
           As a teacher, I think this means to look at our students as individuals, and understand that the way they might act in the classroom is not the only definition of who they are. As a teacher it is our responsibility to not only teach but open up our eyes to the struggles that our students are facing not only inside of the classroom but outside of the classroom too. There’s always something more to it than just what we see, and being aware and open to everyone's stories is a way of helping our students, but also benefitting ourselves. Not to look down on them and pity if they are struggling, but instead we should say, “How can I help you?”and accept some of the humility. Chimamanda reflected on the fact that she only saw the young boy who worked for her family as poor and she could not see his abilities. Let me be a teacher who sees ability in my students and not the things that are holding them back.