Week 6

Thank you for your understanding and kindness with my recent absence!

This week both classes watched a video about a young Deaf boy who is a wonderful basketball player and who had recently just joined a team where he was the only Deaf kid. The video showed how his hearing coach and teammates figured out ways to communicate.

Then we did a quick unit on Sports signs.
Sports signs handout

K-1 watched part of Florida School for the Deaf's filmed version of The Wizard of Oz. Students worked on pointing out signs they recognized.

2-5 headed to the gym to play my new fingerspelling/sign vocabulary baseball game to review our topics that we have covered so far. The kids were great at being guinea pigs. We hope to play again next week and figure out ways to improve the game.

Week 5

The k-1 class watched a video about the Indiana school for the Deaf. We talked about why residential state schools for Deaf people exist (years ago many cities didn't have interpreters or even teachers qualified to teach Deaf children) and reasons why fewer Deaf people go to residential schools but there is still a need for them. We compared them to Hogwarts and the feeling of community Deaf students feel there when they attend a Deaf school.

2-5 students watched a video about a Deaf artist named Jennifer Tandoc. Her work is very intricate, and many of her pieces have signing hands in them. She also hides a 9/F handshape in all her work, as a "Where's Waldo?" type of search game.

Both classes reviewed School vocabulary from the previous week.