ASL class

 

The kids are taking the ASL class at co-op.  Over the holiday break, we found out that the teacher had to suddenly leave.  It was a wonderful experience to have her as a teacher and I am so thankful the kids had the experience to sit in her class for a semester.  And while there are some great things about co-op, communication and initiative are not their strong suits.  So, I had an honest conversation with Alison.  We had 2 choices for the class; we could either just not go to first period since the class was no longer, or we could offer to take over the class.  Alison immediately said that she wanted to teach the class.  I reached out to the leadership and they were excited about the idea of a student teaching and agreed to let Alison take over the class.  I'm there to help, but Alison knows more sign than I do, so she runs the class.  She's come up with all the plans and then I just help manage the class and assist where needed.

 

This girl right here; she did it all on her own.  She decided she wanted to learn sign language and she did.  She found a curriculum, got it "approved" and took off.  She spent hours and hours on lessons without being told.  She turned in quiz scores without me asking for them.  She kept going through levels even when I told her that maybe she should slow down and space them out.  And because she did, she was prepared for an unique opportunity.  It's also given her the ability to sign with a deaf customer at work and with a family at "Buddy Break".  My homeschool soapbox is this: teach a kid to learn, help them love to learn and then give them space to do just that.  This picture right here, sums up why I believe that will take kids far greater places than any rigid schedule education will.  What if they can go further than that the rigid box?

 

 

Here's a little clip of a game the class is playing.  Alison taught them some vocabulary words and then would sign a word and they would have to find it on their bingo sheet.  It was a fun way to learn new words!