First to start off the blog! Yippee! I'm going to post a question and Courtney you may ask a question to go with it or you can start your own post with your own question. I know someone brought this up during week 1 and I'm curious what others might have to say. What is your biggest fear of teaching the Deaf and Hard of Hearing? For me, my worry right now is just my confidence in my ASL. Just like everyone speaks differently, everyone signs differently and I'm worried I won't understand a parent signing because they learned a different sign for something.
So what are yours? And if you don't plan to teach or just taking the class to better understand the Deaf and Hard of Hearing what do you think would be worrisome in teaching?
Colleen Martin
Colleen Martin
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way in all of my ASL classes, and honestly, the feeling may never fully go away.
Little back story about myself, I babysit. I have for a few different families, but one family in particular had a child who was bilingual. He was three years old at the time, and prominently spoke Spanish, but understood both English and Spanish. It was terrifying, not knowing everything this child said, but to be honest, any child is difficult to fully understand.
I feel that it is easier to take it minute by minute as to how you react and respond to anything. Even with parents. Also, I find it best that if you do not fully understand what they are saying, then bridge that language gap and find something you both understand. When it comes to the Deaf Community, that typically means pen and paper, you can never go wrong with offering pen and paper.
By the time you graduate, and begin your teaching career, whether you stay in Ky or move to a different state, you will have gained enough ASL skills to be able to communicate effectively using ASL. I know it feels like a dead end at times, and trust me it is not an easy language to learn, but I promise it will be okay. ASL builds on itself. You learn one thing, and in the next class you learn the next, then the next, and so on until you eventually build conversation skills. But, to be 110% honest, the best way to learn conversational skills are at Deaf Events. It's scary at first, but SO worth it!
Also, give yourself time! Learn what your class is focused on, and don't worry about the things you don't know yet.
Be patient with yourself! If you don't know something, ask. It is better to ask, then to nod your head and spend the rest of the conversation clueless.
Signs are always changing, so, eventually there will come a time where you stumble across a sign that you have never seen before. Just ask! There is nothing wrong with asking! No matter how long you have been signing.
I hope this wasn't too long of a response. If anything, I hope I helped with your concerns.
-Abigayle
Coleen,
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you. I'm extremely nervous about my comprehension of ASL. I'm equally as nervous to learn ASL in a full immersion classroom this year, but I'm excited too. Another fear I have is one that was shared in class. I'm afraid it'll seem almost hypocritical to parents of children who are deaf for a hearing person to be teaching them. I only want to help them learn but how should I establish from the beginning that I don't understand what it's like to be deaf, but I do want to teach to the best of my ability. I need to be on a team with the parents, not against them. So, I guess I could say my fear with both of these things comes back to the potential of miscommunication/ misunderstanding. Anybody else feel this way?
I also feel that way. I think that it would be beneficial from the beginning to say, "Yes I am hearing and there is no way I can truly put myself in your shoes but I can always try to think of things through your eyes. I am hearing, but that does not diminish my ability to teach your students in any way. If there is anything I can do to better accommodate your child within the classroom, or anything I can do to make things easier for you please let me know. I am always learning as a teacher and I want to be the best possible teacher I can."
DeleteColeen,
ReplyDeleteThank you for starting this! I was also planning to start it something similar. I am taking this course because I have recently decided to minor in Special Education and I actually have not taken any ASL classes. However, I believe that this class will be very beneficial for me in my teaching career to help me accommodate to every student in my classroom.
Last semester I started to sub in elementary schools where I am from. In one specific classroom I was working in a child in the class used ASL to communicate. The office told me they would send someone down to stay with me all day but I felt horrible I didn’t know how to communicate with this student. From being in classrooms such as this one and seeing all the different types of learners that I will have in my future classroom one day made me want to minor in special education to accommodate to every child’s way of learning which is one of the reasons I am taking this course. Although I know we do not learn ASL in this class, I hope to learn different tips and strategies that will better my communication skills with parents and students as well as myself even if it isn’t the way I am used to communicating when I am an educator.
Courtney
Hey Coleen, Throughout my ASL minor I have shared similar feelings. Sometimes I am confident in my sign while other times I feel like I couldn't communicate to a rock. While this is worrisome, education is beautiful because it is so collaborative. No one does it on their own and no one has to do it on their own. Just ask for help! In my experience in communicating to someone deaf or hard of hearing, if you explain to them that you are learning ASL or you know very little to go slow and be patient, they always are understanding. It is intimidating but I have never experienced a situation that someone was hateful because I didn't know the sign for one word or had to have them repeat something.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest fear in educating the deaf and hard of hearing would be the difference of cultures. Deaf individuals are proud and confident in their culture. I am worried since I am hearing, I will be seen as ignorant or not wanted.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I'm terrified of signing something wrong, not remembering a sign, or accidentally offending someone and not even realizing it. Though I took a full year of ASL in high school, I haven't used it enough to keep my skills up and after looking at my 4-year plan for all of the classes I have to take to graduate, there aren't many ASL classes.
ReplyDeleteColeen, I am afraid of my comprehension as well as my confidence in my ASL but my biggest concern for teaching children who are deaf is being a hearing teacher. Because I am hearing I understand that I will never completely understand deaf culture unless I am deaf myself. I’m concerned that my students and their parents may consider me a hypocrite and choose to go against my teaching instead of seeing my true purpose. I want to teach my students without the fear of this and be able to be a role model for my students. With being a hearing teacher for the deaf I hope my students will be able to believe that they don’t have to be a certain way to follow their dreams. Knowing that most children who are deaf have hearing parents I know this won’t be a huge issue but I still worry for those who do have deaf parents.
ReplyDeleteHi Coleen,
ReplyDeleteI competely understand worrying about your ASL skills in a deaf classroom. I am also worried that I will forget what I have learned, or I will misunderstand what someone signs. This semester I am going to try and attend more events where I can use ASL. However, my greatest fear about teaching DHH students is the potential conflicts with parents. I know that some parents may not like a hearing person teaching their deaf child, and that is understandable, but I want parents to understand that I want to give their child the best possible educational experience as possible. I know that Ms. White discussed in class that the role of a teacher to a deaf child and th role of the parent are completely different and I hope that I am able to understand this in a way that allows me to positively communicate with the parents of my future students.
Hi Coleen,
ReplyDeleteI understand when you are nervous about signing. I was the same way and I still am. But I found that putting myself in situations where I can only sign, or when I am having a conversation with deaf or hard of hearing people it helps. After going for awhile it helps build my confidence knowing I am signing correctly. Something that I am scared of while teaching is one being scared the parents won't like me because I am hearing. But my biggest concern is failing the parents that are already doubting me because I am hearing. Knowing the parents already in a way don't trust me because I am hearing would put all this pressure on myself to please them. When it isn't about pleasing them. It is about knowing that I am an educator and I will do everything I know how to do to give their children the best education. I would hope to prove them wrong and to make them happy and their children happy.
I tend to worry about what if I am not given the permission to work with a child that I know I could help. It is to often that parents do not want to admit that their child needs help, beyond more than what an everyday classroom teacher can give. It breaks my heart seeing these students get frustrated and getting in trouble due to the fact that their parents are either oblivious or feel ashamed that their child is different. I don't know if I could as a professional be able to sit back and watch that happen.
ReplyDeleteColleen, I can totally relate about being nervous about signing skills because I do not feel confident at all. I do think that personally if I am signing something wrong or misusing a certain sign, and I am corrected on it I will not get down on myself, but I will learn from it. I will My biggest fear however is once I start my career whether I am in my own classroom or traveling that other teachers or admin who are better at signing or are even deaf themselves will think that I am less qualified or not as good of a teacher as they are.
ReplyDeleteColleen,
ReplyDeleteI completely relate on the nervousness you have about your ASL ability. I feel the same exact way! As of now I am minoring in ASL and feel as if many others around me in my class and lab have a much higher skill than I do. I want to be a Speech-Language Pathologist, and have not completely decided on what type of setting I want to work in. For this reason, there could be many different situations I could be faced with in the future. When it comes to educating the deaf, I am also intimidated by meeting all needs and expectations the parents have. I want to give each child I work with the best support and service I can possibly give, but worry because I am a hearing individual who does not fully understand the perspective of those I will work with.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to your concerns with ASL. Enrolling into ASL 102 has made me develop insecurities in my ability to fluently sign and comprehend what is being signed to me. Meanwhile, I feel like it is an asset to my future career as a speech-language pathologist. Despite that speech therapy is generally related to hearing patients, I want to excel in my career by being able to allow all children to have a voice. If I decide to work in a school setting, I will be a resource service and will have the opportunity to work with deaf children. I want to be able to fully understand deaf culture and provide for those who are deaf in the best way I can. However, I worry with being a hearing individual that the level of understanding I obtain will not be enough because I do not have a personal experience with anyone who is deaf.
My biggest fear is being judged for being hearing. I currently have bad hearing (I’m not hard of hearing yet but I’m getting there), however, I am not Deaf. I am very into sign language and teaching sign language to my boyfriend and getting into and trying to understand Deaf culture. I also agree with the idea of not being confident in my ASL, however, as I continue to take classes I feel more and more confident since I am able to build sentences and have simple conversations. Right after I finish this bachelor degree I am coming back and getting another to teach Deaf and Hard of hearing students because I have fallen in love with ASL and teaching and think it is an amazing career path for me.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest fear is my self esteem in ASL and now that we have First People Language it makes me more nervous but also concentrate harder on what I say at all times. As I grow in college I hope to build more confidence in my career.
ReplyDelete