After just a few short weeks, I’ve managed to achieve my goal. I chose to learn American Sign Language - at least enough to introduce myself and ask basic questions. That wasn’t even the challenge though. The real challenge was accomplishing this task by educating myself online, through YouTube videos, social media, and other resources. Check out my final results here: Learning in this way, completely online, had its advantages and disadvantages. I did appreciate the opportunity to learn when and how I wanted, as I enjoy discovering information on my own. I also liked the versatility of learning through a variety of resources, like videos, articles, infographics, and more. Learning this way was also completely free, which was beneficial to me as well. At the same time, I struggled to find resources that were engaging. I was responsible for my own learning and I had to be extremely focused, or my brain tended to wander and wander, more often than not, towards my cell phone. According to Jamie Berke (2019), “...learning any language after a certain age is far more challenging than doing so when you are young. Moreover, with sign language, you generally don't have the ability to immerse yourself in the language outside of the classroom.” I didn’t even have a classroom. It was also hard to learn a language online with no opportunity for correction by an instructor, especially with a language that is entirely visual - not written down or spoken aloud. I could watch a video hundreds of times and still question whether I was doing the sign correctly. Even with my final video, I find myself fearful to publish it because I don’t know if it’s right. At this point, I am just a learner and don’t feel that I have a deep understanding of the language. If I want to keep pursuing learning American Sign Language, I feel like I should sign up for a class in person, because a professional can tell me if I am correct, which is something I found that I need to be successful. I know some of my colleagues in my Professional Learning Network (PLN) have taken these classes. I may reach out to them for more information. If I were to challenge myself to learn something online again, I might pick something with a clear product as an end result. That way, I can clearly evaluate if I have done it properly or not. This connects to my role as a teacher because without giving my students time to self-assess, they are unclear if they are doing it correctly as well. According to Bransford, Brown, and Cocking’s (2000) How People Learn, formative assessments “should provide students with opportunities to revise and improve their thinking [and] help students see their own progress over the course of weeks or months…” Without this crucial step, it is hard for all students, including myself, to truly develop a deeper understanding of the skills being learned. ReferencesBransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.
Berke, Jamie (2019). Challenges of learning sign language. Verywell Health. Retrieved from https://www.verywellhealth.com/challenges-of-learning-sign-language-1049296.
0 Comments
This week, I challenged myself to participate in a Twitter Chat. A Twitter Chat is when a Twitter user tweets questions using a connected hashtag, and other users answer. These answers allow people to share ideas. Through Instagram, I found a Twitter Chat that is run by one of the teachers I follow - #2ndaryELA:
As I logged on, I was worried that I would not be able to keep up, so I had Twitter running on both my computer and my iPad. As the first question was tweeted out, I rushed to respond using the proper hashtag. It was just a tweet introducing who you are and what you teach. I tweeted it. I waited. No notifications. Three other people tweeted their introductions. That’s all the participants. The next question gets posted. As teachers share ideas of rubrics, self-grading, and mini-lessons, everyone likes each other’s tweets, but no one is really commenting or interacting with one another. You can see my tweets below:
As the questions and answers keep flowing, I decided to tweet back at a few, just to see if I could spark some communication among the few participants. I responded to multiple participants and finally, as you can see below, I got one user to share more information with me. Within twenty minutes, the Twitter Chat was over.
I was shocked at how simplistic it had been. With very few participants, it was hard to get discussion going about anything. I got a couple of good ideas like using edPuzzle to review revision mini-lessons, but asking more about other ideas didn’t get me very far. I would totally do a Twitter Chat again, but I would look for one with more participation.
References
@Literarymaven. (October 6, 2019). “Meet me on Twitter tonight at 8 pm EST to talk about editing and revising student writing. New to Twitter chats? Search #2ndaryELA to see the live feed. Look for the questions posted every 5 minutes. Add #2ndaryELA to the end of your responses so they … https://ift.tt/339dDSA” [Twitter post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/literarymaven/status/1180995734436532225
Screenshots by author.
Starting my journey to learn American Sign Language (ASL), I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had already learned the alphabet in sign language as a kid, or so I thought (see my before and after GIFs below). I knew I wanted to learn basic words, be able to introduce myself, and communicate with my students who may be hard of hearing. Learning it all online by myself, though? That seemed like a daunting task.
I started off finding several YouTube channels that had multiple levels of sign language videos, some of which included quizzes! These were helpful until I realized that certain words that I needed to introduce myself were not in the introductory videos. I could say “Hello, my name is Jennifer. Nice to meet you,” but not “I’m a middle school English teacher.” Due to this, I ended up finding a virtual sign dictionary that allows you to search for words, shows you the sign, and lets you play it back at different speeds. It’s my favorite resource so far.
I’ve also gotten frustrated as I watch various sign language videos, because there are variations from teacher to teacher of a sign. For example, one teacher signs hello with a simple palm to temple and out motion, while another teacher specifies that your hand should be in the “B” letter shape with that motion. These differences, while slight, made learning somewhat frustrating. I’ve found it is easiest to stick to one teacher, like the insanely popular Bill Vicars. He is extremely expressive and teaches in an order that makes sense, so I’ve continued watching some of his videos. Check out how I’m doing so far:
References
"After" GIPHY created by author.
American Sign Language Dictionary (2019). Retrieved from https://www.handspeak.com/word/ "Before" GIPHY created by author. [Bill Vicars]. (2019). YouTube Channel. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/user/billvicars “What skills will our children need to succeed? Now, you may think you know the answer to the question, but consider this: it has been estimated that two-thirds of children today will work in jobs that don’t currently exist. Now, what skills do you want them to have?” (Jana, 2019). In a Ted Talk, Dr. Laura A. Jana (2019) examines the components of a 21st century learner and how these skills can be categorized to create a more comprehensive learning experience. Check out her entire presentation here: To me, successful 21st century learning means students, while learning content, are improving upon these skills, like adaptability and creativity, to further their growth both educationally and as a lifelong learner. They may even be using technology to improve their skills and understanding of content. When viewing these skills from my specific classroom, I see collaboration, critical thinking, and productivity as skills my students need to improve. With that knowledge, I decided to revisit one of my annual units, where students write a research paper and then build a presentation to present their findings to the class. While already technology-based, I wanted my students to feel proud of their productivity and also be more collaborative. This project has always been made on Google Slides, but I felt it should be more of a student choice. I did some research using Top Tools 4 Learning (2019) and found that Canva and Adobe Spark could also be potential presentation software options. By allowing my students choice in their presentation, I would be allowing them to show productivity by planning and prioritizing their work. Presenting research findings or a project idea to a group of people is something that many of my students may come across in their future education and careers, so it is helping them be technology literate as well. To make the project even more collaborative, I planned to group students together by topic (which I have only done once before), so they are forced to collaborate virtually. They have to plan out their slides, decide on the order of presentations, practice together, and support each other. At the same time, I wanted them to be individually responsible for their role in the collaborative project. They all still have to create their portion of the presentation independently, which allows me to check for understanding from each student. The lesson plan can be viewed here. Now, while researching and creating, there were still many issues. The first being that article after article made it seem like these 21st century skills were inherently more important than the content that the standards tell me (and other teachers) to teach. According to Andrew J. Rotherham (2008), “Unfortunately some 21st-century skills proponents believe...that because so much new knowledge is being created, students should focus on how to know instead of knowing. This view threatens to reopen a debate in American education that is not new either: content pitted against critical thinking rather than the two complementing each other” (Rotherham, 2008). I agree with Rotherham in the fact that many of the articles I read seemed to completely forego content. That was something I had to balance out in my head as the two are complementary. Also, while creating the lesson plan, I knew that the lesson was generated using technology, but it is hard to plan with technology that has so many limitations. My school offers Mac desktop computers in a lab (groups couldn’t sit together to collaborate), Chromebooks (familiar to students, but really only allow Google Slide capabilities), and dysfunctional iPads that crash periodically. I settled on Chromebooks for the flexibility and familiarity of them, but am worried about their capabilities in my classroom specifically. Overall, while challenging, I am excited to see my students in action with this task. With the new organization, I think it will help them develop skills they need to be 21st century successes. ReferencesRotherham, Andrew J. (2000). 21st-Century skills are not a new education trend but could be a fad. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/12/15/21st-century-skills-are-not-a-new-education-trend-but-could-be-a-fad
[Tedx Talks]. (2018, March 28). Skills every child need to succeed in 21st century [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYfCEnTmr5o Top Tools for Learning: Results of the 13th Annual Learning Tools Survey (2019). Retrieved from https://www.toptools4learning.com/ |
Jennifer StirlingThis is my #MAET journey! Thanks for reading! Archives
August 2020
CategoriesThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |