Growth = A Learning Success

Today was an awesome day.

I Skyped with Barbara’s ASL III class in Austin, Texas. First of all, I think it’s amazing that she took the time out of her valuable class time to help me learn and second of all, it’s awesome that her students wanted to help me too. The lesson was kind of in and out because my internet is terrible, but I managed to learn more than I have all semester.. which I think speaks something pretty profound.

The first thing the class taught me how to count! I didn’t even think about signing numbers in my own learning before we skyped.. I guess that is why we have curriculum right? Of course I knew 1-5 but learning the numbers 5-30 was extremely useful.

Next we talked about directional verbs, which I knew a little bit about from the ASL presentation I had a few weeks ago, but I wanted some clarification, and it was very helpful!

Then we talked about name signs, which is something really new to me. Most people on earth have an ‘identifier’ – pulled that word from Easy A – something they are recognized by ie) a scar. So, in ASL when you’re talking about a person, you can do the sign for that identifier with the first letter of the person’s name. It’s really hard to describe without actions, but neat nonetheless.

Then each student told me their favorite signs, one of them really likes the sign for toast, which makes sense because it’s a really fun sign to do, I thought it was a cool way to personalize the lesson.

At the end, Barbara and I were talking and she mentioned that she and her students would be interested in doing this again – hopefully I will have something to contribute by then!!

So to sum up how I learned throughout this project: I used Youtube, ASLpro, read blogs, went to an ASL presentation, and was taught via Skype by ASL students and their teacher in Austin, Texas.

As for progress, I agree with Cole when he said it is hard to learn a language in 25 hours. I know I spent more than that on this project, but it will take quite some time because I started out at absolutely nothing. I also agree with him in that I learned a lot about the language – history, etc. I know I did make progress – because once again, I started out at nothing.

I’m really excited to learn more. My heart’s definitely in this project now that I have started. I really think it will be a valuable skill to have in my classroom – as Barbara was saying, it’s useful, and less distracting than using your voice sometimes. I think I am going to take a class this summer, so that I am learning from real human beings, because that is how I learn best.

I’m really grateful and thankful for Barbara and her class and Dean’s connections. It made this learning project much more special to me.

The learning certainly won’t stop at the end of this post.

 

 

 

Learning Project – November 27th, 2011

Barbara and I tried to Skype today, but for some reason I couldn’t hear her end, so good thing Skype has typing too. We decided to Skype (with her class) on Tuesday right before my internet cut out and I lost connection (Residence wireless is really moody lately) (P.S. Sorry Barbara!!) Nonetheless, I’m really excited to learn from her students. But I am a little bit nervous, because I know that I do not know a lot of sign language, and usually need a cue card there beside me most of the time…

A teacher in high school told me that it takes at least one year to learn a language – that is if you are fully immersed in it like we were. I know that I probably won’t be immersed in ASL much this year, but I am planning on going into speech and language pathology, so I think it’ll be an excellent skill to have. So, I’m going to keep up this learning project even after ECMP is over, for sure.

I just spent the last few hours practicing some words and phrases in ASL, and it’s kind of addicting. I found a great blog that had some really good links such as this one:

I love sesame street.

After I Skype with Barbara’s class I will post my ‘After Assessment’ for my learning project.. and we shall see how much I learned. I hope to include a video in that one.. but we shall see!

Connections (Learning Project Update)

cc: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94805433@N00/45406386/

 

I was enamored when I looked at my phone after work on Friday and saw the multitude of emails from comments on my blog. My  first instinct was to think oh gosh, someone spammed me. But nope,  it was something more magical than being offered 2 slapchops for the price of one.

An ASL teacher and her class were commenting on my blog, telling me that they wanted to Skype with me and teach me different lessons pertaining to ASL. I’m so excited about this, because although this Skype lesson will happen after ECMP355 is over, I get to learn from real people again!

One of our writing prompts for the learning project is “What do I admire about those who have mastered this skill? Who are these people?” Well, I think it’s safe to say who I admire.

I admire Barbara, because of course, she has no obligation to help me learn, it’s just out of the goodness of her heart. I admire that. That is the kind of teacher I want to be. She is also allowing her students to be the teacher, which I admire as well, I think that is the best way to learn and master what it is that you are to teach.

I also admire these students, I really do not know much about this class, or the program, but I commend them for learning it. It’s awesome. I also admire them for wanting/being excited to teach someone they have never met in their life, complete stranger right here…. It proves that there are good people everyone on earth.

Which brings me to the title of this blog, connections. I understood the whole concept of being connected and PLN’s, but it never really meant a great deal to me until this happened. I mean, I knew it was a good thing, but it was just a sidebar in my brain.

Now as a future teacher, I really get it.

I get that there are so many people in the world who can teach my students things that I can’t. People who are skilled in (lots) of areas that I am not, are out there willing to share their knowledge.. just like I would be willing to do if I knew things…

And it’s so easy to share your knowledge, a simple Skype sesh away.

 

Where&When&Why

By Cthomasuscg

I could sit here and write about what I’ve been practicing, or that I’ve been trying to learn at least three words a day for the past week or so, (Today I learned morning, afternoon and night) but that could get pretty boring.. at least I think so.

But,

the day I had today made me think about this learning project…

In a whorl (or wacksack as Dean would say) of assignments, papers, projects, work, planning out your next semester, being sick, midterms, having a social life, sleeping, eating, exercising, and going to class on top of that…….. where do we find the time to fit more things into our brain, to cram more skills up in there?

Fact of the matter… we gotta do what we gotta do.

Because we’re learning things at such a rapid pace, and most of it is rote memorization,  it feels kind of liberating to learn a language at my own pace. I can’t say I’ve been working diligently on ASL every spare moment I have.. because I don’t have very many.

It’s liberating to learn HOW I want to learn. Maybe I don’t want to read a textbook on the history of ASL or its theories, maybe I don’t find that to be relevant to me at all. So I don’t have to. Maybe I don’t want to go to class 3 times a week for 50 minutes and stare at my prof as he reads through the slides that he already uploaded onto the internet, word for word. I can learn when I want, from whoever I want. I don’t have to recite the prof’s opinions on a midterm, either.

And the internet gives us that capability, to be in control of our learning. This learning project is actually one of the things that we have some freedom in, in university. We don’t get very much of that to be honest.. even in teacher education.

For me, when is the best time to learn ASL? When I am absolutely stressed to the max, have 5 big papers/projects/assignments/midterms due within four days. I’ve made it one of my stress-relievers (in addition to shopping). Where is the best place? Wherever I feel like it.. That has suitable wifi.

That is the beauty of my learning project.

Today made me think about why I was apprehensive about this project at the very first mention of it. I regret being apprehensive, because A) I’m learning something I have always wanted to and B) I’m being graded on an assignment that I do when I want to, however I want to, I just have to document my thinking…

Makes you think about your other classes.

I’ve seen a lot of tweets and blog posts about how stressed everyone is, not just in ECMP355, and I wanted to address it.

All I can say is just keep swimming’, it’s already worth it.

Life and Learning

Bright Ideas by purplemattfish

I had probably one of the top ten most brutal weekends of my life this week. I’m a baby when it comes to pain, and my wisdom teeth removal was uber painful. But, some good did come out of it, I guess. I did do a lot of my homework.. I guess I’m so high-strung that I felt it necessary to do all of my ECS and ELANG readings even though I was really sick..

But I also found my learning ASL pretty useful over the past few days. My mouth is super swollen, and it is really hard to talk. Instead of speaking and hurting myself I taught my parents and sister a few words in sign language so I didn’t have to use my mouth when I needed something. Super useful learning project!! I’d recommend learning ASL not only for your own benefit, but for others, as well.

Vlog… sort of

So, since I get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, I thought I’d share this video with you today.. before I get all puffy and bruised. I figured since my learning is something that involves a lot of movement, I should probably record myself doing something before this semester is over.

I hate, hate, hate being on film…like a lot…, so this will only happen once in all likelihood… even though I called it a vlog…. I guess we’ll see.

Here goes:

 

Quick Update

So, I have yet to figure out how to do my vlog, I’m not so good with figuring out the whole filming of this, and I can’t find the setting on my webcam that films! Hopefully I can get this figured out this week because I am getting my wisdom teeth out next Friday, and know that I will not be able to post anything on Sunday (the day that I generally do updates).

Today I want to talk about what I’m learning unintentionally. So, since I had planned on learning just the language, I’m finding a lot about the history and the social stigmas related to ASL.

Like this one:

Of course, we have all seen Napoleon Dynamite – although most of this movie is hilarious – it recreates this stigma that sign language is something strange or weird, as shown in the video. Did you know that ASL speakers and advocates had to fight to make ASL an official language? How many languages have to do that?! How can you deny the right to call the form of communication you HAVE to use, a language. I really did not understand their logic on that one. Nonetheless, I am learning a lot unintentionally, sometimes I find myself learning more about the history behind it than actually practicing… oops.

I hope to have this vlog figured out soon.

I suck at technology.

Have a good week

L3

"Put your hand up" by Hindrik S.

I want to share a story of my weekend before I start my blog post on what I have learned this week. A couple of my girlfriends and I went out for supper on Friday night. We were just at a family restaurant, talking about our busy lives and catching up when an elderly couple were seated right behind us. We didn’t notice anything different about the couple until the wife ordered for the both of them, then the waitress left, and the couple began communicating in sign language! It’s something I don’t see very often and I was thrilled that I am learning something of use. This sparked some conversation between my friends and I later that night, and I learned that the pair both know some sign language! So just at supper that night, I learned a few phrases!

It was awesome to have some actual human interaction in my learning.

I’m also enjoying the fact that this learning project is so intertwined with the classes I am taking right now. I have been learning about theories of acquiring a second language, and the theorists behind second language acquisition such as Stephen Krashen and Jim Cummins. These theorists emphasize a lot of different components to additional language learning, but the aspect that resonates the most with me is the time it takes to learn a new language.

I’ve been bilingual for quite some time, and haven’t had a new language introduced to me in a long long time. I’ve just been working on developing both my English and French vocabularies for probably the past 13 years, so I forgot just how long it takes to acquire the basics.

Repetition is definitely the most important thing. I’ve just been going over and over the basics of ASL and I find that seems to be helping. The interaction with my friends also helped out a lot!

What I’m liking about this project – The fact that I can think in English, and sign to it. Its much harder to think in a different language and then translate it to another ie) French.

What I’m disliking about this project – The time consumption! I really want to learn this, and become fluent – hence why the title is L3, because I already have an L1 – English, and an L2 – French. So I am spending a lot of time on the little things, I think!

After seeing the elderly couple in the restaurant signing to each other, I really value this learning project. You never know who you will meet or what language they speak! I’m also very thankful that I have my hearing, and will soon be able to communicate in 3 different modes.

Hopefully by next week I will have a vlog ready for you guys – because since I’m learning actions… I should probably show them! Now I finally feel like I know enough to show it off a little bit.  If you have any phrases you’d like me to demonstrate, that would definitely help out! Just leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Have a happy week of living and learning

I love free learning.

The letter "s"

In my last Learning Project update, I said that I hoped to have the entire ASL alphabet memorized… andddddd this just did not happen. It’s not to say that I didn’t try to memorize it, it’s just that after the letter g, everything starts to look the same, and I need some sort of prompt or picture.

I would suppose that this relates to the fact that all learning takes time, and usually more time than you expect it to take. When we give ourselves these deadlines to learn like “Oh! I have a psychology midterm tomorrow, It’s 2 a.m. now, which means that I have 9 hours to teach myself half the textbook”, we tend not to fare so well. (I’ve never done this, by the way)

In a sense, this also relates to what we do to students. We give them one year to learn an incredible amount of information and at the end of it, they’d better know it all because they’ve got to pass to the next grade. Maybe kids need longer than a year in an area, but we’ve made it so taboo for a child to be held back, that no one sees it as advantageous.

In my Ed Language class we focus a lot of our time on ESL (English as a Second Language) and EAL (English as an Additional Language) Learners. If a student comes from say, Africa, and enters a Saskatchewan school at the age of 17, that student would only be allowed to attend a Saskatchewan public school until the age of 21*, then they have to pay for things like ESL tutors. In reality, someone who starts learning ESL or EAL can take up to 7 years to become completely fluent in the language (according to my class) so by allowing ESL students to attend high school only until the age of 21, we are really stunting their education, we are giving them a deadline.*The government is looking at extending the time period that one can attend high school due to the high population of second language learners, apparently.

I like to rant.

Back to my own learning.

As I mentioned last update, it is really hard to be motivated when you’re learning by yourself. So I decided to search for a teacher. No, not a real live one.. I found ASLpro. It is a FREE (or by donation) learning tool for people who want to learn ASL. And it is FANTASTIC. Probably the best resource yet. The person in the video does the sign, and you copy it. Simple as can be, and you can repeat it as many times as you want.

I’m still truckin’ on this project, not too sure how much progress I’ve made, but at least I’m having fun.. and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?

 

Learning Project Update

http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab69/jgalliano_2009/americansignlanguage.jpg

While spending time at home is great, I’m finding that homework time is greatly exceeding pumpkin pie consumption time. Anyways, I’ve spent some time this weekend working on my learning project. Because I have decided to learn American Sign Language, and don’t really know anyone who is fluent in it, I’ve decided to use the internet as my teacher.

The first thing I did was think about where I want to start – and I figured, since I am starting with virtually no knowledge of the language – I’d better start with the basics. So, back to the alphabet I go. I checked out the enchanted learning website for ASL and found some really useful flashcards!

Thus far, as I think about the progress I’ve made, I realize how key of a role a teacher really has in learning. I’ve heard a lot of talk about technology advancing so far that we will have no use for teachers in the future and that everything will soon be online. Students can just sit at their computers and learn on their own. While this works when there is a teacher involved in our learning: ie) our elluminate sessions online, I’m finding it hard to believe that all children would have the motivation to learn on their own if they were handed a lesson to learn.

Although I have a different kind of motivation to learn ASL – both personal and for school – this project has made me realize that learning with another person, or more than one other person is much more effective. Not only for the fact that you can feed off each others knowledge, but for the fact that they’ll motivate you to. One of our most important roles will be to inspire others to learn – even if they do not necessarily enjoy the content. Doing this project alone has made me realize that there will always be a necessity for teachers.

By next week, I hope to have mastered the alphabet, and plan to move on to basic words! (Fingers Crossed ).