{"id":13559,"date":"2018-06-28T15:02:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T19:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/?p=13559"},"modified":"2019-08-27T16:55:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T20:55:09","slug":"dana_dobbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/2018\/06\/28\/dana_dobbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening the Door for Deaf Culture in Our Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dana Dobbs<\/span><\/h2>
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I am an AACPS:<\/strong>\u00a0American Sign Language Teacher, Broadneck High School | 2018 Teacher of the Year Nominee<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Most times, when classrooms are observed, the observing person walks into a room that is buzzing with students being fully engaged in the lesson. \u00a0Students may be in front of the room presenting, working in small groups, performing some kind of skit, engaged in seminar. The person entering the room uses their visual and auditory senses to interpret what is happening. \u00a0But suppose, just suppose, the vocal and auditory components were removed. Suppose, for a moment, a student would simply walk through a conversation between two people. Something that might otherwise be considered rude or impolite. \u00a0Imagine walking into a classroom where banging on desks, stomping on floors and flickering of lights was used as a way to get people\u2019s attention. I would then say, welcome to the world of American Sign Language at Broadneck High School. \u00a0Students do not use their voices to communicate while in class. All levels of students are expected to sign. All classes are silent, but not quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being Deaf myself, I want to expose the students to both the language and the culture of Deaf people. \u00a0Many people are familiar with signed language. What they are not aware of are the differences between signed languages and American Sign Language. \u00a0American Sign Language and Deaf Culture didn\u2019t exist until 1817. Since that time, there have been many highs and lows that have helped Deaf Culture here, in the US, evolve. \u00a0This is what I try to bring to my students. I want them to learn the language and the culture. I want them to develop a healthy respect towards Deafness and Deaf individuals. \u00a0It\u2019s important to show them the things that Deaf people can do. It\u2019s important to show them how the lives of Deaf people are different yet similar. <\/span><\/p>\n

I have been fortunate to have administrations that have been very supportive of ASL and its relevance to Word and Classical Language. \u00a0ASL has been a wonderful alternative to students who may have tried another foreign language and struggled. It has given them the opportunity to complete their 2 years of a foreign language. \u00a0Some students have continued their studies in ASL at Gallaudet University, have become interpreters, teachers in Deaf schools and social workers that works specifically with Deaf families. <\/span><\/p>\n

AACPS opened the door and pursued ASL as a language to be taught in it\u2019s schools. \u00a0This willingness gives students the opportunity to broaden their language horizons and become productive\/contributing members of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAACPS opened the door and pursued ASL as a language to be taught in it\u2019s schools. This willingness gives students the opportunity to broaden their language horizons and become productive\/contributing members of society.\u201d–Dana Dobbs, Broadneck High School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001009,"featured_media":13561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,130,132,207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadneck_stories","category-aacps_story","category-employee_stories","category-toy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13560,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13559\/revisions\/13560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aacpsschools.org\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}