With this lesson, I wanted to use iPads as a recording tool instead of being the main focus. My class is exploring the different parameters of ASL: handshape, location, and movement. There are two others (palm orientation and non-manual markers) but I’m saving those for a later unit. I have a funny relationship with the ASL parameters. Sometimes I feel this topic acts like a crutch for ASL-as-L1 teaching. You [...]

During a discussion I had with several co-workers today while we attended a statewide curriculum meeting, the facilitator came to our table to look at what we wrote on the poster and gave us a thumbs-up sign. I then told my co-workers that I had been scarred when I was in middle school by the very same gesture a teacher gave to me in the classroom, only to find out [...]

  It seems that, talking to people over the years, the vast majority agree that our junior high school years are remembered as the most dreadful, the most difficult.  Bullying is often referred to as the source and reason that brought about memories that some even remember as traumatic. In my own junior high years, which started in September 1963 through June 1966, I found myself dealing with my own [...]

(Above: Wisconsin protesters crowd the Wisconsin State Capitol in response to Governor Walker’s recent union/budget-related legislation.) For those of us who have put this issue on the back burner lately and wanted an update, the Wisconsin budget bill has passed, the budget repair bill has passed, and people are still trying to make sense of the implications it will have on their jobs.  Here is how it hit home for us in [...]

The New York State Budget is being forced through by our Democrat In Name Only Leader, Governor Cuomo. Yesterday and today some Deaf groups began cheering, mostly because of a statement by Dr. Mowl, President of the 4201 Schools Association, claiming that full funding has been restored to schools. But from what I’m reading we have barely ten per cent of our funding restored by the State under the current [...]

When I started investigating the 4201 school changes and potential school closings, I was like most people – guided by rhetoric showing eleven schools would be closed. Not a lot of detail was given, but there was enough concern that I even wrote a letter about the issue. Since then I’ve actually read the text of the proposed changes in question – and my new understanding of the bill makes [...]

If you arrive inside the capitol grounds of Madison, Wisconsin, you will see tens of thousands of public service workers standing together – peacefully, but in solidarity – against oppression.  Thousands of parents are marching with their children, engaging them in a lesson of Civics in action.  Thousands of teachers and public service workers such as my wife and myself are marching with our children.  We are fighting for freedom.  [...]

Recently there has been a very cool stream of articles that I feel show a trend of looking for answers in the Deaf community… most recently from “Who’s the Authority on Deaf Culture” to “Dreaming Future Schools” (among a few others that popped up).  I keep reading about  a range of people, from those who say they have answers (“I’m an expert”), to those who are suggesting possible answers (“I’m proposing something [...]

Jon Henner posted a great article here and at Deaf Politics about deaf education and various relevant statistics. There are profound implications for the deficiency in reading level in our deaf and hard of hearing peers.  Citizenship depends on reading level: the simplest newspaper, USA Today, is written at a fifth grade reading level, which is just barely within reach for the average deaf high school graduate.  Forget about more cosmopolitan [...]

Jonathan Henner claims to be writing an article entirely about numbers (which means no opinions, right?), but with a title like “Numbering Our Flaws,” it’s hard to believe him: he’s putting the responsibility on the Deaf community. Our kids have educational problems, he seems to be saying, and it’s our fault: our focus should be on these problems, but we’re not working on it. Bad us. Except it’s a confusing [...]