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…
Author: Adam Stone
Adam is a first-grade ASL/English bilingual teacher at P.S. 347 The ASL and English Lower School in Manhattan. Originally from San Diego, he was the former manager of DeafDC.com (the precursor to DeafEcho) and has been blogging on various platforms, about anything under the sun, for more than a decade.
ASL Literature, Reborn on the iPad
In addition to being a first-grade teacher, I’m also the geekminister for 15 brand-new iPad 2s at P.S. 347 The ASL and English Lower School in Manhattan. This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series on how my students and I are using the iPad to learn, read, create, and watch. Last…
It Gets Better – on National TV
It all started with Teresa’s article last fall, “It Gets Better. It Really Does.” She called for deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people to make similar videos IN ASL for deaf youth everywhere. I took her idea and ran with it, making my own video. 25 more videos soon followed. And then my video somehow made its way…
Way to Represent!
Countless deaf people tuned in last night to watch the finale of Celebrity Apprentice for one reason: to find out if Marlee Matlin won. Ah, Marlee. If she and the deaf community declared on Facebook that they were in a relationship, the status update would read, “and it’s complicated.” On one hand, she is our…
Stuff Deaf People Like #6: VP Numbers
Deaf people often possess a painstakingly curated collection of videophone numbers. This is more a reflection of the highly fragmented video relay service (VRS) industry and its practices than any predilection towards numerical hoarding on the Deaf person’s part. The FCC requires that any person who uses a videophone must register for a telephone number…
25 ASL “It Gets Better” Videos
While the zeitgeist has long ago shifted to TSA pat-downs and now the interesting juxtaposition of renewed conflict on the Korean peninsula and the Wikileaks release of top-secret diplomatic cables, DeafEcho has managed to keep collecting It Gets Better videos in ASL. Now we have 25 videos–the latest by the Ontario Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. When…
It Gets Better – In ASL
Teresa wrote a fantastic article discussing Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project on YouTube. There’s more than 100 videos by people who have experienced or seen others experienced bullying, harassment, or general bad experiences because of their sexual orientation. She also expressed the need for the Deaf and signing community to make similar videos for Deaf LGBT youth,…
Black Sand
Caution: some plot spoilers ahead. Don’t read if you plan on watching Black Sand! Each item in Mark Wood’s ever-expanding repertoire of ASL films is better than the last. However, he continues to stick with his tried-and-true formula for making crowd-pleasing suspenseful thrillers. As in “Wrong Game” and “Legend of the Mountain Man,” Wood’s films…
Tao of the Echo
Having always lived near the ocean, I know that things flow and ebb and flow. And so it goes with writing and the Deaf community. It’s interesting, this relationship that Deaf people have with writing, with journalism. Protracted love affairs with the written word are, for us, more like fits of fancy. Newsletters, magazines, the…
YouTube Video: Deafhood the Journey
Check out this gem of stop-motion animation by Paul Ososki: I’ve never seen anything like this before: a video where ASL, as used by the story narrator, becomes a deuteragonist in a two-and-a-half-dimensional animated setting. The video’s message is clear. ASL is what enables the character to scale the various obstacles in his path. Taking…