ASL Project Over, But Not Done

I am going to start off my explaining my title, “ASL Project Over, But Not Done”. Though my course is over and I have no obligation to continue learning ASL, I will for the benefit of me and my future classroom. I still have a long way to with ASL though my course that I decided to learn this for has officially ended.

I wanted to learn ASL for several reasons, those reasons being, 1) To gain a better understanding of the deaf community, 2) To benefit my future classroom and students, 3) I have just always wanted to learn ASL and figured it could be a benefit for me in my future.

I am glad I began my joinery on learning ASL, I find it very enlightening, and practical to learn. I have been learning slowly but I have been improving. I have even got the chance to speak to a family friend that is mostly deaf. I have known him since I was younger, and him and his family stopped by for a visit, and I got a chance to have a conversation in ASL, however it wasn’t a lengthy conversation. I didn’t record the conversation as I felt it would be rude to do considering they were there for a visit. Either way, he was pretty excited and told me that I pretty good for a beginner, but I think he was just being nice. Our conversation basically consisted of him and I talking about me learning ASL and where I stand with it, as well as making fun of my dad. He loves to bug my dad.

So lets recap of what I have done:

1. What to Learn, What to Learn…
   1. I decided what to learn and let you all know
2. My Journey Continues – ASL Learning Project
   1. Here I learned introductions as well and numbers up to 10.
3. Learning Project ASL #3 – What Day is it Anyways?
   1. Here I learned the month, days and a few others.
4. Live and Learn
   1. With this day I learned words that revolves around family, as well as learned some conversation questions.
5. Back From the Break, and the Learning Doesn’t Stop
   1. Here I continued with words that resided with family that I forgot to do the week before.
6. Welcome to the Farm… In ASL!
   1. This was one of my favourites, I learned words that I could possibly use more, were signs that resided with the farm, such as cow, horse, duck, tractor, etc…
7. What’s your Favourite Colour?
   1. This one was rather short but here I learned the more common colours such as the primary colours and secondary colours.
8. What Should I Wear?
   1. Here I learned practice signs about clothing.
9. All the World is Made of Faith and Trust and Pixie Dust!
   1. This was my favourite blog to make about ASL, I learned a song in sign “Lost Boy” by Ruth B.
10. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!
    1. This was my last video blog on ASL and I learned a Dr. Seuss book with signs that I was already familiar with.

I have had such a great time learning ASL, and I am sure I will continue to enjoy it. To learn ASL, I used the internet and used many different sites and phone apps. Some of the online resources I used were Sign Savvy, ASL University, ASL Resource, and Youtube. Some Apps I used were ASL, Sign School, The ASL App, and Learn ASL Lite (sorry I can’t link all of the apps).

I have received lots of feedback on my blogs/vlogs on my ALS journey and as time went on, the comment got more and more helpful. Some blogs got more comments than others but I made sure to do my best to answer everyone.

I asked for help several times throughout my blogs, and I finally received some help by the end, thank goodness and it was a great idea and thats how my last video came to be.

I had a wonderful time in this course and I am glad the opportunity to learn ASL, this course gave me the budge that I needed to get started, and now that I have started I can continue with my learning. Though this #LearningProject, I didn’t just learn ASL, I also learned how great online resources are and how helpful they can be. I also discovered that to have online resources you don’t just have to use the internet, you can also use apps. This can go to show how important technology can be for a classroom. There are apps that you can use with your students and they are still learning something. Though books can still be good resources, there is just so much more that you can find online and on the internet in todays day in age. I am glad I took this course and would recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about technology in the classroom.

Catch ya’ll later!

 Via Giphy

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

Last week, I asked for some help, and I received it (thank goodness, and thank you to all that gave me ideas!). There were a few tossed around, and I liked them all, but I decided to do the storytelling about words I (somewhat) already knew.

The story I decided to do in ASL, is a favourite story of mine, from my childhood by Dr. Seuss! Though he has many good children books, I decided to go with one in my top five, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. I found the story on Google, on an online PDF. There were a few signs that I didn’t know so I had to look them up and I used my favourite website to learn ASL on, Sign Savvy.

Any way enough about me rambling on, please enjoy my video below: (p.s. sorry about the random, obvious later in the day clip, put into the video, I accidentally deleted the video with that part in it)

Thank you for watching, I hope that you will join me next week on my journey with my ASL Learning Project!

 

All the World is Made of Faith and Trust and Pixie Dust!

Good evening! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Last week I told you guys that I wanted to learn a song, because I saw some other people doing it and I thought it was a great idea so I “stole” it. I didn’t tell you what song I decided to learn last week, and I thought about it for a while. I got a song stuck in my head and I thought “what a perfect song to learn, if its stuck in my head anyways might as well”, also I really like the song. The song I learned in ASL was “Lost Boy” by Ruth B.

Via Giphy

This song was a bit tricky for me to learn and it took a lot of practice. I only new a sign or two going into it, so I had a lot to learn. One thing I enjoyed about learning a song is that I learned a bunch of new words that I would have otherwise probably have not gotten too for a while. To learn this song I went to Youtube and looked up people who have done the song. The first one I went to was “ASL How to for Lost Boy” then I went to “Lost Boy by Ruth B in Sign Language” to see if how they did it, and I noticed they did it somewhat differently so I kind of mixed them together once I did my video. Before I made my video I also checked out “Lost Boy by Ruth B in ASL” to see if this girl did it a different way, but hers was the same as the second. Oh but there was this one “Lost Boy – ASL Cover” that I looked at, and it confused the heck out of me, I am too much of a newb for it, lol!

Unfortunalty my attempt is no where as good as the ones I have listed but I did try! Check it out below!

I now there is a bit of a glitch in my video, and that is because I had to edit it and put in the last bit of the song. I had too many interruptions and after restarting the video 9 times I decided just to edit it. My cat kept scratching at the door, my Fiancé kept yelling at the cat, people were coming in and out of the house, and my dogs decided to bark. So, yeah I got annoyed, so I just finished the ending and edited in.

 Via Giphy

As for next week I have no idea what to do! I need ideas, and if you have any, please comment and let me know. Maybe its something you want to see done.

 Via Giphy

What Should I Wear?

Today’s video is on clothing, and once again this video is a bit shorter. Since clothes are part of our everyday lives I thought I would be a good idea to learn them in sign. I did look up certain words, such as jeans, however I only found these words in finger spelling, so I left them out of the video.

For this video, I learned my ASL for clothes from my favourite website to learn from, Sign Savvy. There were a few others that I checked out, such as Life Print, but I mainly used Sign Savvy.

My video is below, check it out!

Thank you for watching this week, and as I said in the video, I am going to try and learn a song. I  have heard of others doing it, and thought that it was a cool idea, and decided to steal it and try it out myself.

Hope everyone had a great first day of spring!

 Via Giphy

What’s your Favourite Colour?

Hello! Today is a beautiful day out, so my family and I went ice fishing. It’s not really my things so I just visited, but it was still a good time. While on the ice, I started to show my parents what I had been learning for ASL, and the signs for the colours.

Via Giphy

This video is a little shorter than my others, and I apologies, but I didn’t want to complicate the colours I was learning by learning other colours that go into different hues, and shades. Any who, I hope you enjoy my video, check it out below.

I have found this sources, Sign Savvy, very helpful! If you are learning ASL, I highly recommend this website, it is amazing! Just go to their site:

1. Search a word, letter, or phrase:

2. Scroll through the list of words and phrases to find what you are looking for:

3. Once you choose your word, a gif pops up and shows you how to make and do the sign.

It is a great website to learn from, but like any other site there are some faults. One fault that bothers me, is that it doesn’t have all words you look for. For example, last week I wanted to find the word barn, but I couldn’t find it, I did however find, horse barn. This was a good thing, however, the sign was just horse then finger spelling barn. Other than that, I love this site and have learned so much.

Welcome to the Farm… In ASL!

Welcome to the Farm… in ASL!

So this week I decided to learn some farm animals in ASL, as well as some things you can find in a farm yard, and if its anything like my yard, theres not a whole lot. While searching for the words I wanted to learn in sign, I kept coming across baby signing, and I wasn’t sure if there was a huge difference. However, through my sourcing I did find most of the words I wanted to learn, and some I couldn’t find. There were some that were just finger spelling like barn, and horse stables, so I decided to leave those out.

The video is below, check it out:

A huge reason as to why I wanted learn these words is because I live, not exactly on a farm, but in the country with many of the words I learned, and my cousin has many of these animals too… all of them to be exact, and I am going to visit her this weekend.

And to go by my video, I said I have one cat, two dogs, and two horses, so I figure why not put them in the post. Aren’t they just the cutest!

As by now you can tell I’ve mainly been doing vocabulary words, and this is because I figure it will be easier once I decide to start putting prober ASL sentences together. There is a huge difference between sentences in spoken English and in sign language, and I didn’t want to get things confused.

Thanks for joining me!

Via Giphy

Back From the Break, and the Learning Doesn’t Stop

Hello, and welcome to my fifth Learning Project Vlog/Blog. I have been away for the last week in Mexico for a wedding. And not to brag but I was really happy to miss the coldest days of winter 2018 yet. But now I am back and happy to be. While I was away I didn’t have much internet access, and was busy most of the time, so I didn’t get a chance to learn a lot of new signs. However, I did get to practice the signs I already did know and I even taught some of the signs I know to my friends I was down in Mexico with.

For this week I went off a bit of my last video, sign to do with family, as well as some action words. This week used two different websites that I have found very helpful lifeprint and handspeak. In this video I decided to try something new, and instead of writing the words on screen, I overlapped my voice on the clips in the video.

Check out the video below:

As I have stated in the video, I have been struggling to categorize signs into topics, however, I have thought of my next weeks #LearningProject video. I plan on learning signs of things in my yard back home and my cousin yard. These signs will include, dog, cat, bird, horse, cow, bull, chicken, pig, goat, duck, tractor, trailer, wagon, bales, house, shop, and shed. I might even try to learn sentences that include these signs, but I’m not entirely sure quite yet.

Thank you for joining me this week, see you next time.

Live and Learn

So this blog about my #learningproject will be my 3rd Vlog, and as you can probably tell, I am not that good, but I am still learning, and yes I will make mistakes here and there. So if you are learning ASL or know it already, please comment or let me know by some other means, as I want to correct my mistakes as I go, so I may get better, and eventually apply this into my life when needed.

Anyways, so this week I did a little vocabulary words; family, parents, grandparents, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, child, sister, brother, boy, and girl. I also learned some conversational questions, such as, ‘do you have a sister/brother?’, ‘where do you work?’, ‘are you married/single?’, and a few others. Take a look at my video below to check it out:

As I continue to learn, I have begun to notice that you don’t sign the way you speak in English. For example, “where do you work?” is actually signed “where work you?”. However, its not always like this, so I am finding it hard to know when this applies and when it does not.

Next week I will not be posting for I won’t have access to a computer, as I have a wedding to attend to in Mexico. However I still plan on practicing my ASL for my #learningproject for #edtc300. As of this point I am unsure as to what to learn about, but I know I will do some more vocabulary words, maybe words that have to do with actions, such as stand, walk, play, watch, drive, stay, etc., and some words that continue from this vlog, such as, aunt, uncle, daughter, son, baby, friend, and love. These are just what are flowing through my head, but I have noticed I am struggling with topics to follow under or words to categorize as time goes by.

I have also began to watch “Switched at Birth”, and it is a good show. There is a lot more signing in it then I though there would be. I have been slowly picking up words here and there, ones I already know and ones I don’t, but I have learned from the show. I have also learned a little bit on deaf culture, you don’t get to give yourself a sign for your name. you have to finger spell it until someone who is deaf gives you a specific sign for your name. I never knew that before, and this show continues to teach me a lot about deaf culture.

Thank you for tuning in this week, I will see you again soon. Remember, if you found a mistake I have made, whether it be in this blog or previous learning project blogs, please let me know so I can better my ASL.

Learning Project ASL #3 – What Day is it Anyways?

Welcome back to my third learning project blog if you have made it this far. Its nice of you to be joining me on my ASL learning journey.

This week I used two resources, Signing Savvy as well as an app off the iPhone App Store, called ASL. I have been trying to use several different resources, but it is a bit hard considering different resources give different signs for the same words. However, it is still helpful and I have been enjoying the process thus far.

Last week I decided to learn months, days, as well as please, thank you, and you’re welcome. Check it out and see my vlog below:

Thought out this week while learning these signs, I discovered that signing months, were is no specific sign, instead you sign the months like you would write them in short. For example: January – you would finger sign J-A-N, however for something short like March or shorter, you would sign the full word, for March you would finger spell M-A-R-C-H.

Near the end of the video, I discuss how there is no real way to sign you’re welcome, I learned this from several rescuers on youtube, and they all gave the three ways I show in my video. This is where I realized that youtube is wonderful to learn ASL, so if you are learning it too, search through youtube.

Next week I plan to learn signs to do with people and family, such as, family, parents, mom, dad, sister, brother, child, grandma, grandpa, boy, and girl. I also want to learn come conversation questions, such as ‘do you have any sisters/brothers?’, ‘are you single/married?’, ‘do you have children’, ‘where do you work?’, and ‘where do you live?’. These are good conversation starters, and considering I want to learn how to hold a conversation by the end of the semester, I figured these would be a great place to start.

Join me next week to see my next Vlog on ASL. #learningproject

Via Giphy

My Journey Continues – ASL Learning Project

Last week I decided on what I was going to do for a #learnigproject, and that was ASL. I have found several apps in the App Store, ASL and SignSchool, to help me with beginner steps that I wanted to learn, such as, the alphabet, counting up to 9, a simple greeting, and learning to spell my name by learning the alphabet.

For some reason I thought learning ASL would be really easy, however, I find its just like any other language, its very different and it will take time to learn. In the video, at times, you can see me struggling to remember the signs for some letters and numbers, and this, to me, is like another language. It takes lots of practice, and you won’t learn it all in one week. I have placed what I am saying in the video but incase you miss it, I say, “Hello, how are you?”, “I’m fine.”, “My name is Sydney”. The video then transitions into me doing the alphabet, and slowly moves into numbers after that, and I know its rough, but please bare with me.

So far I have enjoyed learning ASL, and I look forward to continuing to learn. I want to reach my goal I set out for myself, holding a conversation in ASL. However, for now I want to learn the basics. So, in saying that, by next week I plan on being able to say your welcome, please, and thank you, as well as each week day name (ex. Friday, Saturday, etc.), and each month name (May, February, July, etc.). And like I did today, I plan on Vloging my process and abilities I learn in ASL, and yes I know this week looks rough, but I will keep on practicing and in time I will get better (hopefully), and I hope I can hold a conversation with someone else one day when I do get better.

If anyone has advice or great recourses on learning ASL, please I am all ears, don’t be afraid to comment or contact me.