What a fantastic semester of learning. I would have never guessed that I would be coming out of my Bachelor's Degree with basic to intermediate knowledge of American Sign Language! What a wonderful opportunity and experience!
Reflecting on my Learning Process
- I decided to learn ASL because I believed that it would be a wonderful asset as a new teacher.
- I decided to start by using a channel on YouTube called Sign Language 101 Online.
- I also decided to make a Pinterest Board as well as downloaded a few different apps on my personal device.
Videos Watched: Learn your ABC's and Lesson 1: Gestures and Body Languag
- I began to learn my ABC's in sign. This was overwhelming and I ended up signing the wrong letters when spelling my name!
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: "Hello, my name is" and " Numbers 1-10"
Videos Watched: None
- That week, I really focused on getting my ABC's down. I used one of the apps on my device I had downloaded and repetitively copied the images of the hand gestures until it flowed nicely
- That was the moment that I realized how helpful it is to say what you are signing aloud.
- I also wanted to learn about dates and time, so I learned the days of the week as well as the months of the year, which, as a beginner of the language, was very challenging for me. I recall having to take a minute to figure out how to organize all of my thoughts and having to really focus.
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: ABC’s of ASL, Months of the Year in ASL, and Days of the Week in ASL
Videos Watched: Lesson 2 of Sign Language 101 Online - I continued in watching the videos. That week, the video provided me with basic introduction phrases as well as colours.
- In the video, the man discussed a bit about deaf culture: how to approach someone who is deaf, what are appropriate things to say to a deaf person, and how deaf people listen to music. I remember being quite taken seeing him talk about deaf culture. It was eye-opening for me - things that I wouldn't normally consider or think of when ever talking with a person with a hearing impairment.
- That was the week where I really saw some progress with all the practicing I had been doing: My hands were becoming familiar with the signs and the patterns, and my movements were becoming more fluent bit by bit.
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: Hello, my name is...My favourite colour is... and Are you Deaf? ASL
Week 5: Welcome to TikTok
Videos Watched: None
- This was a fun one!
- I remember being super overwhelmed when seeing how fast I needed to be to keep up with the song. It took a lot of practice and time making up my phrases to fit in the small time frame! I basically wrote my script on a piece of paper, then read it off and translated it when I recorded. Sign Language is tricky in the sense that there is not really a written format of it.
- Learning how to use TikTok was a whole other scenario! I didn't realize that I could have taken the video all together at once (I took it in snip-its of each phrase). I had the idea that In order to have the little captions on at certain times, I had to record separate snip-its!
- All in all, the video turned out well, and received over 1000 views over the first day it was posted! I was so excited!
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: My First TikTok - Choices ASL
Week 6: Happy Birthday! (not really)
Videos Watched: Lesson 3 of Sign Language 101 Online and Happy Birthday in ASL
- That week had a focus numbers 1-30 - which led me to thinking about months, dates and birthdays!
- That week I had started my learning routine: I would watch the Sign Language 101 Online video and follow along his gestures, then, I would go back, watch the vocabulary again, and make notes of what were some key words he was teaching that week. I would then get excited about a phrase and run off with an idea - music was usually included, as I found that I was better at remembering phrases when in song!
- I Googled "Happy birthday in ASL" and low and behold, this video came up. This is where I learned happy birthday from.
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: My Birthday in ASL and Happy birthday song
Week 7: My Hobbies
Videos Watched: Lessons 4 and 5 of Sign Language 101 Online
- After noticing that we were over halfway through the semester and I had only gotten to lesson 3, I decided to pick up the pace and go through two videos that week. (I remember the day I learned that lesson was the last day that I was in the university. Little did I know that classes would be suspended the following week.)
- The two lessons focused on hobbies, family members, and household objects. Since there was so much content and the vocabulary was quite overwhelming, I decided to focus on Hobbies!
- I noted that I rewatched lesson 4, which helped improve my vocabulary and memory!
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: My hobbies in ASL
Videos Watched: None
- I was essentially in my element during this assignment. I LOVED this! I basically got to create my own little lesson!
- I decided to use GoogleSlides and GoogleForm because I know how universal those tools are to others who would try my lesson, as well as I had had experience with other tools during my internship.
- My idea for this was for it to be self-navigating so that each person could learn at their own pace. I decided to add a quiz at the end, because when you are asked to present knowledge it requires your brain to think critically about what you have learned - resulting in (sometimes) better memory in vocabulary. I decided to go with the basic phrase of "Hello, my name is..." because it is something that everyone could learn and use if ever needed to introduce themselves to a person of impaired hearing.
Learning Tools Presented: GoogleSlides Presentation and GoogleForms Quiz
Videos Watched: Lesson 6 of Sign Language 101 Online and Head and Shoulders in ASL
- In my final week of watching Sign Language 101 Online, I learned about body parts, which then of course, had me run off with the idea of signing the Head and Shoulders song. After discovering another video online of someone doing it, I quickly caught on and away I went.
Highlighted phrase(s) learned: Head & Shoulders
Online Learning Experience
This learning project is just one example of how wonderful and full of educational information technology sure has. I feel so fortunate to be in this day and age with this type of technology that allows me to learn right from my own home. The world seems to be at the tips of our fingers these days.
I believe learning online took away the pressure of pleasing anyone by myself. There was no peer pressure from "other students". This was purely an independent learning project and I really liked it that way. One challenge was that if I ever did have a question, it was difficult to search the internet for the answer I was looking for. However, on the other side of that statement, I could have easily reached out to a TikTok person that did ASL or contacted school peers.
I believe that online learning is what you make of it. You can get as little or as much out of it as you like.
Where I am Now with ASL
For the past few days, I focused on learning a song to interpret. Why? Because, like mentioned before, I believe that my memory improves when music is put with it. Also because I have seen some videos of some very cool music interpreters and they look awesome doing it! I believe that this was a fun, challenging and sentimental way to end not only my learning project, but this course and my Bachelor's Degree.
I believe that this course will not be the last time I use sign language. Going into a teaching career, I never know where life may lead me, and with which children I will work with throughout my career. I have often fantasized about teaching all of my future students the songs that I have learned here, like Happy Birthday, Head and Shoulders, and A Million Dreams!
I followed this video and watched it many, many, MANY times - along with a few hours of practice! I am very proud of myself and after rewatching my old videos of my very first signs, I can't help but smile and see all of the progress from this semester. I believe the video turned out well. Enjoy!