They are the budding filmmakers who could be standing on the Oscar podium in years to come.

And these future Spielbergs and mini Coppolas are now getting their big shot at Camp Mark Seven’s first summer of Deaf Film Camp.

For the deaf children of American, their hopes and dreams could come true at the program, where three deaf filmmakers are on hand to guide the campers.

1yr ago 

Those children in the audience were the most precious looking children, all signing for attention from their teachers and being SO excited when the play started. It was a high school production and was a very good adaptation for the ASL aspect and I was very impressed. 

However awesome this experience was, I had to chuckle at this guy who was following my friend around. He has deaf parents so lacks some social skills and he is in our sign language class. This kid would not stop following my friend to the point where he almost sat next to her. IT WAS HILARIOUS. She obviously didn’t like him, but she didn’t want to be rude. Have you ever had someone follow you around and you didn’t have the heart to tell them to go away? 

Leave me comments and tell me your stories if you’ve had a “stalker” but it was just someone who clearly liked you? Let me know!

My toddlers are reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar this week. While this activity is too advanced for them, perhaps you can use this with your kiddos!

What book are you reading in class? Could you use that book for this language activity?

If this post was helpful, we would love for you to share it with fellow teachers, your students’ parents, anyone who might like this activity!

For more information about Georgia Pathway to Language & Literacy, please visit our website at www.georgialiteracy.org or email us at gapathway@gmail.com.

Someone asked me this week if I was concerned about going to heavily populated areas because of the risk of being bombed.  I responded that I cannot live my life in fear.  That being said, when I was with a customer this week who was lugging a black backpack I locked it in the car trunk once he didn’t need it in the store – no point in scaring the natives.

Anyway, we had a good turnout at the Meetup and I reflected on how relaxed I am there.  I am still learning and sometimes I don’t “get” the sign, but just as I do for others, people finger-spell the word for me.  It is so relaxing to be somewhere I can understand what is being said.

12 people there tonight (myself) This panoramic function is sort of fun.

It’s also interesting because no one tries to talk over someone else.  We only have two eyes so we have to take turns talking.  Doesn’t mean there can’t be more than one conversation going on because we have enough folks to have various conversations going on, but no one jumps in and interrupts unless it is to say, “excuse me” (moving between two people to go somewhere) or flapping a hand at someone to get their attention for some reason.  In some ways sign can seem rude (like the old sign for “fat”), yet on the other hand, people don’t talk all over each other like hearing people do.

One gal and I wondered if the reason we have such a hard time with names is that we don’t recognize voices the same way hearing people do.  Then a hearing signer said she has trouble with names as well.  There goes that theory.  :)

We continue to be a fun mix of the deaf, the hard of hearing, the hearing, and people who want to learn to be ASL Interpreters. Who knows, maybe someday you — dear readers — will end up signing at a Meetup somewhere and thinking, “Wow, this is just totally cool and neat.”

It has been some time since my last post. I apologize but  life simply happened and I have been so busy. My students are preparing for their first ASL showcase, we are signing stories at the local library and I have been attending common core training. Too many things too little time…smile.                                                             

This week’s post is about travel resources for the deaf community where hearing people are welcomed too.

Last week, my class learned vacation themed signs and that Deaf people enjoy going on vacation  and types of accommodations they should have rather in a hotel or airport. One of the main concerns deaf individuals may have at times is accessibility and receiving information given to travelers on cruises, flights, tours and other travel. I gave them an  homework assignment  to look for deaf friendly travel agencies  that include resources and accommodations for the deaf, other important services, destinations and contact information.

One of my students researched The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) this act sets requirements for disability access at airports and airlines. Great idea! I will give some information on the ACT.

1. Prohibits U.S. and foreign airlines from discriminating on passengers based on disability

2. requires Airlines, facilities and services accessible to passengers with disabilities

3. Require airlines to take steps to accommodate passengers with a disability.

Key information:

1. Passengers must let airline personnel know they are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf blind and the services they will need.

2. The airline must make information available through text or the best resource for the passenger.

3. Service Animals are permitted

4.Safety Assistants are permitted to travel with people who are deaf-blind

5.All televisions must have caption in the airport

Hotels, Motels and other like businesses ADA requirements: This law applies to all lodging (except for  buildings in which the owner lives and that have five or fewer rooms for rent)

1. Must provide auxiliary services when necessary to ensure communication, unless it would result in an undue burden or fundamental alteration. Auxiliary services can be an interpreter , computer-aided transcription services, written materials, amplified headset, open and closed captioning telephones compatible with hearing aids, video texts displays or other effective methods. No charge can be given for this.

2.Hotels and other lodging must be installed audio and visual  flashing fire/smoke alarms, doorbell lights, electrical outlet for TTY use near telephones, can provide assistive listening devices.

If you need to file a complaint you can contact: http://www.ada.gov/t3compfm.htm

Summer will be here soon are you looking for a Deaf friendly travel agency???? Here are some resources they found below:

www.greatdeafvacations.com

www.handsontvl.com

www.ncl.com

www.kerstinsdeaftravel.com

www.passagesdeaftravel.com

www.disabledholidaydirectory.co.uk

Happy Travel!

Related articles

• Air Travel with Your Hearing Loss (ahearingloss.com)

Also, compass-map navigation in the highlands: Know it, pre-plan, more than one compass.

I arrived to my next WWOOF host, The Old Smiddy cottage between Stanley and Perth, which is also a seasonal B&B. Vida, my host, has been great and every day is full of different projects and I’ve been able to put a handful of new skills I’ve picked in the past few months to use for gardening, farming, and reconstructing. For a couple of days there was a girl named, Lim, from South Korea so I got to practice my Korean with her while she practiced her English. I’ve still been mesmerized by the weather here. Similar mood swings as what I experienced in Ireland, but this wind blows my mind off this planet every day and night with its power and might. Two trees here at the cottage have even blown down and they weren’t wee trees. I had a wonderful time socializing with Vida’s friends. Among them were Mike and Betty, who were also Vida’s neighbors gave me the delight of experiencing their neat home and gardens and tasted several home-made wines Mike made.

This past week has been a week for a languages too. There was a great amount of Korean and English with Lim and then one night, four were practiced. Willy, Scottish joiner and carpenter who has been great to talk with while we work, mentioned to his wife (who is deaf and signs British Sign Language) that I sign American Sign Language. Then a dinner was set and I was about to learn by contact that ASL has almost no similarities to BSL. I spent an hour after working, squeezing as much BSL greeting and conversation I could manage, just before they arrived to Vida’s. Elizabeth (Willy’s wife) knew little ASL, AND SHE WAS A BSL TEACHER, so we could communicate there and she responded well to my last minute greetings and while I signed still in ASL and watched as focused as I could to her BSL signing, most of my ASL implications were understood with her. It didn’t end there; Elizabeth and Willy also brought a friend, an Irish friend named Cormac, where I opened another can of worms by practicing my introductory Gaelic. He was enthusiastically delighted and I got to practice what I knew and came out with some more Gaelic learned. THEN, Willy asked if I’ve picked up any Scottish Gàidhlig since I arrived and I practiced the little I knew. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to ask Willy about some rules in the Scottish gaelic that have been making my absorption for the language frustrating. By the end of this night, my brain was fried like an egg from outer space and I couldn’t even speak full English sentences and it only made sense for me to go to sleep. Cosmic experience points earned, though.

Vida also has an occasional gardener, Dougie, who I became acquainted with. Over coffee, he revealed he played in a pipe band and my alias, Michael Naro, freaked out. Dougie responded to this by inviting me to his pipe band’s practice several nights later, with a beginner drum lesson! That night arrived and Dougie picked me up to head to the neighboring town called Coupar Angus where the practice was being held at a school. I sat at tables with young and hyper ninjas and Dougie went over mom-my dad-dy’s, triplets, and paradiddles for an hour or so. Then pipe band members gathered together with the pipers and bass/tenor/snare drummers and practiced their competition piece, “The Piper’s Cave.” That was amazing to see and hear a multitude of ages produce SO MUCH POWER. Oh, and the PIPES.. THE PIPES. I was very thankful to Dougie for the experience and grateful to exchange contact information.

Another transition underway.. Leaving tomorrow to backpack my remaining week and a half Scotland in the highlands. Been spending my last night here at the Old Smiddy getting the final preparations in order and triple-checking my compass-map coordinates and routes. Challenge, adventure, and fallen stars await to be embraced just over that there horizon..

Fallen Stars:

So Jesus rose from the dead? That’s a wonderful happening. Jesus walked on the water? That’s a wonderful happening too. You just got a job? Wonderful happening. Your wife had a baby? Wonderful happening! Your cat had kittens? Well that’s wonderful too, but I’m not sure that’s actually a happening. You got a cochlear implant? Hmmm… well, that’s your choice.

Okay, I guess sometimes the concept is problematic even in ASL.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/icpinsaneclownposse/miracles.html

–by Sam Campbell, aka Noelle’s Hobbit

Sarah Honigfeld is just like any other college senior, finishing up her undergraduate program, spicing up her resume, getting ready for the “real” world. Only she is doing it all as a member of the deaf community.

Honigfeld was diagnosed as completely deaf between 10 and 12 months old and has not let it slow her down since. She is currently a student at Northeastern University (NU) who is studying to receive her undergraduate degree in human services with a minor in sociology and her graduate degree in early intervention. She wears two hearing aids and lip reads in her daily life and is fluent in sign language. Honigfeld grew up being mainstreamed in public schools and said she is very comfortable with it.

“I’m very comfortable with hearing people, I’m comfortable with mainstreaming,” Honigfeld said. “What was most important to me was education and the opportunities available. ‘Deaf’ was not a priority.”

All deaf high school students heading towards their college years have to decide where they want to continue their education. Some choose traditional “deaf” schools while others decide on predominantly hearing schools. In that case there are a number of resources available to enhance their learning experience.

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) housed inside of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, is one popular “deaf” choice. NTID had over 1,300 deaf and hard of hearing students and over 14,000 hearing students in their undergraduate class in 2012. The school is known for integrating deaf and hearing together.

Jim Lipsky, a NTID alum and current professor at Northeastern who is deaf himself and communicates in ASL, liked the mix of deaf and hearing students together. In fact, he named the integration as one of the main reasons why he chose to attend NTID. He said that he preferred the mix of students that NTID had to offer over the all-deaf population of Gallaudet.

Lipsky greatly enjoyed his experience at NTID. He said that there was “great support for deaf.” He graduated with a degree in computer science and a minor in business. After six years of working in a job where he was the only deaf employee Lipsky was frustrated with the communication limits and decided to try teaching ASL at a friend’s suggestion. He enjoyed the challenge and chose to switch from the business world to the teaching one. He said that he learns from his students while they learn from him; in the classroom they are equals. Lipsky is celebrating his 20^th anniversary for teaching and still loves it.

Gallaudet University in Washington is another “deaf” school; in fact it is the only deaf liberal arts college in the United States. Its mission statement describes the school as a “multicultural institution of higher education that ensures the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals through American Sign Language (ASL) and English.” The school had a total enrollment in the fall of 2011 of 1,873 students, the overwhelming majority of them deaf.

There are multiple discussions on the forum alldeaf.com that have deaf people discussing whether college is right for them or not. This is a choice that has to be made on in individual basis, but the resources are definitely available to those who make the decision to go. For students who are more interested in a mainstream option there are schools like Northeastern who have services available for deaf students in their predominantly hearing population.

The National Association of the Deaf mentions the responsibility that higher education institutions have for “providing communication services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing” in their position statement.

Lauren Barr, who works in NU’s Disability Resource Center as the specialist with deaf and hard of hearing, listed the services the school has available. There are four main services provided: interpreting, Communication Access Realtime Translation (better known as CART), note takers, and preferential seating. These services make it easy for deaf students to keep up with their studies.

Angela Herbert is a nationally certified interpreter on staff at Northeastern where she is also an instructor in the ASL interpreting program. She said that as an interpreter she works for deaf staff members, students, and the general audience including prospective students who visit campus and anyone who attends NU events. She said that there is “nowhere on campus I haven’t been” interpreting. “There is the potential to be anywhere on campus.”

So far Honigfeld’s college experience has included participation in on-campus clubs, such as the NU Deaf Club and the Interpreting Club at NU (ICNU), and various community service activities including Americorp’s Jumpstart and Relay for Life. She has completed three separate co-op experiences, one at Bright Horizons in their infant/toddler department, and the other two at the South Boston Boys and Girls Club as an inclusion specialist. She has also been able to study abroad in the south of France and go on the birthright trip with Northeastern’s Hillel club.

Honigfeld, who has always been very independent said the hardest part of college was making the transition from high school life at home to college life, which is something, she pointed out, that all students have to deal with, deaf or not.

Both Lipsky and Honigfeld chose which college to attend based on their own needs. Honigfeld’s advice to young deaf students exploring college options to go with what they are comfortable with. She said, “if being with deaf people is important to you then go to a school with a large deaf population. If you are comfortable with mainstreaming then go with that. College is not the time to push yourself; it is difficult enough.”

Click on the below for a comparison of deaf and hearing classrooms:

Apps

Baby Sign and Learn: I didn’t really like this one. The animations are cute and if Paulo had liked playing with it, it might have been more useful. However it wasn’t interesting enough to hold his attention. The chubby baby hands on the animation weren’t really clear enough for me – I could get an idea of the sign and some are certainly simple enough to pick up, but I much prefer seeing actual hands.

Baby Sign (ASL): I refer to this one all the time. Constantly. If I need a new word (such as being on a farm and suddenly needing to know the sign for “sheep”), this is the app I turn to. The dictionary contains most vocabulary words that a toddler would use. I picked up the previously linked app first, didn’t like, downloaded this one and haven’t needed another since. Highly recommended.

Books

Teach Your Baby to Sign: This is the only book I’ve read and I ditched it quickly as I prefer to see videos of signs rather than still illustrations. I thought it would be helpful, but I ended up looking up videos of signs that the book was describing and realized that no, not helpful for me at all. Didn’t bother with another book. If we were in an age where I couldn’t download apps to my phone, maybe I would find it more valuable but here in the FUTURE! not so much. (The introduction where Monica Beyer discusses the value of baby sign is indeed useful, but I wouldn’t recommend buying the book for the sign illustrations themselves.) ASL is a dynamic language – I’ve found books to be as useful as trying to learn any foreign language simply by reading a dictionary without ever experiencing the words being spoken.

Video

Baby Signing Time: I can’t say enough good things about this program. If you are only going to use one resource, use this one. And even if you use sign everyday, if you’re ok with your toddler watching a half hour of TV, get this. We bought this for Paulo when he was at a point where he was getting so frustrated with his inability to communicate that he was throwing serious tantrums. I’d been using sign with him since he was six months old, but he wasn’t picking up new signs very quickly. I didn’t know if he’d like this or not, so I just started with volume one…

… And now he’s hooked. He asks for it specifically. Within a few weeks, he was coming up to me and signing “Signing Time.” His signing vocabulary has skyrocketed. He signs at least five times as many words independently as he did before watching the videos and will sign even more words when prompted. It seems like each day he picks up a new sign. His communication has improved drastically and with it, his tantrums have decreased both in frequency and severity. Just tonight, he specifically asked for a bath by signing “bath please!” There’s something about seeing other children signing that helps him pick it up where just seeing me do it wasn’t enough. Nuno was skeptical, but has found that if he uses signs from the videos that Paulo understands him and can sign back what he wants better than trying to follow spoken directions alone.

(And yes, his spoken vocabulary is improving as well by leaps and bounds. The signs help build vocabulary and increase his confidence and communication abilities while his spoken language skills develop.)

The only, ONLY drawback to this is that the songs – to adults – are awful. The worst kind of earworms. I go around with one or another of the songs stuck in my head at all times. It’s bad. Really, really bad. But Paulo loves it, so it’s worth the (literal) headache for me.

No one is paying me to say this, I really and truly can’t recommend this enough. Bad songs and all.

Yet  I ended up in DCF with the most amazing people who’ve adopted me as their sister and friend. I’ve gone to the University of Minnesota at two in the morning to get pizza for my end of the semester celebration in December. I’ve gone ice skating with deaf people and ASL interpreters (signing on ice skates when you don’t know how to skate, wouldn’t recommend it). I’ve donned a hideous hot pink dress on a dare and went swing dancing at a Minneapolis dance studio. I’ve pulled all-nighters, watching movies and talking with friends.

I’ve grown in my ability to have relationships with people, and I’ve grown in my relationship with God. No longer am I a Christian who just goes to church on Sunday morning, zones out during the message and sings quietly in the back row. I read my Bible and meditate on what I’ve read; when I get stressed, I don’t just cry alone in my closet and then bury the emotions. I give it to God, telling Him everything that’s going on and asking Him to take care of it for me, because I’m not strong enough to do it by myself.

I’ve started to learn a new language and was able to have three conversations mostly in ASL just today alone, one with my brother and two with friends. I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone on so many things: letting people in, doing things I’ve never tried, and doing things I always found silly, just for the fun of it.

All year people have been pointing out changes in me, and I’m finally starting to see them in myself. God’s done a lot in me; I am a walking, talking testimony to God’s power and love. God has the power to take a depressed, suicidal cutter who didn’t talk to people because she didn’t think she was worth anyone’s time to a more confident, blunt person who will try new things even if they scare her and will demand a hug from someone she loves. She’s not afraid to tell her brother or her friends, both guys and girls, that she loves them and that she cares about them. She works hard to find out how her friends feel loved and shows them accordingly. She sings and dances to express joy.

All of that has happened in less than a year. And God’s not done yet. I still have three more years at this school, but my growing and changing and healing is not limited to this school. God has the rest of my life to change me into the person He wants me to be and to use me to change others into the people He wants them to be. I am thankful for where God has brought me and hopeful for where He will bring me.

God bless.

Here are 10 suggested signs that are easy to learn and can really help to know what babies want. Signing Savvy posted a write-up of a way to incorporate these signs into play to help children learn the signs. The signs may not be perfect when a baby starts using them, much like a child’s speech is much harder to understand than an adult’s, but they can get the point across.

Here is an example of a mother signing with her child:

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Jesus is my Shepherd – I have no lack of any thing. He is my all in all and provides for every need, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, etc.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He brings rainy, cold, snowy late April days to keep my busy feet at home – to rest, to be still, to focus and be renewed. I am thankful.

He leads me beside still waters that nourish. If I feel the waters in my life are tempestuous, is it possible I am not being led by the Shepherd, but have turned aside? Am I surrounded by rapids and rushing waters because, as a wandering sheep, I have left his side? He alone provides the water that truly quenches the ravenous thirst of the human soul.

Even when my soul is damaged by the world, my own sin and the devil, my good Shepherd restores. When my soul is weary, troubled, or discouraged, He longs to restore it to perfect peace in Him.

I do not know where the right paths are, but He does. He leads me not for my own sake, but for the sake of His glorious name. I need not fear the direction of my life or worry about what days ahead may bring since I can trust that He will lead me to walk in righteousness, for His name’s sake. This infuses every day with such magnificent purpose!

I may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and some of my worst fears may be realized. Hard days are real, painful difficulties in life are real, and my own inadequacies are real too. And yet – I have no need to fear, because the Shepherd walks with me – through sadness, loneliness, depression, deep sorrow, etc.

Evil is no threat! God is ever-present in my life.

His reproof and correction, His gentle and poignant reminders or truth, His sometimes painful chastisements – these encourage me. For then I know He is mine, and I am his.

You celebrate with me, triumphing over my enemies! I don’t know of any specific people who are my enemies – but I know there are forces in the heavenly realms that would destroy me and sometimes I feel their presence. But Satan and his will for my life will be disappointed as you – despite myself! – help me to experience victory in You.

My cup overflows. I have everything I need. All the life, love, joy and strength – you fill me up.

I believe that my days will be filled with Your tender and rich mercy. I will dwell in the house of the LORD, worshipping Him! Now and forever.

<3 jc

P.S. Kaya and I are working on learning Psalm 23 in ASL. It’s really fun! Here’s the video tutorial.

Hedy Udkovich-Stern imagines that a lot of people driving down Cerrillos Road past the New Mexico School for the Deaf wonder what goes on behind its walls.

That’s one reason the school and its AmeriCorps members — who teach American Sign Language to hearing parents and siblings of deaf students — hosted an American Sign Language/Deaf Culture event Saturday on the campus. Udkovich-Stern, the school’s family support specialist, gave hourly tours of the school’s museum, which is generally open to the public only by appointment.

This is an American Sign Language Interpretation of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know’.

I hope some day more videos are posted by this youtuber!!!