My ASL Learning Journey: Final Post
I cannot believe this is my last ASL blog post! I have learned so many signs, and feel like I was just hitting my stride and learning what worked well for me. For the last few weeks I had been learning to sign Vienna by Billy Joel, and unfortunately, I did not accomplish this goal. I did not realize our last learning project would be this week, and we missed a week with COVID-19 shutdown. I did not want to end my project on a failing note, so I have again adjusted my goal. I know what you are thinking; “Can’t she make up her mind” and the answer is no. My family always jokes that we can’t make up our Gracie minds, after my Grammy Grace, who also couldn’t make up her mind. So this week to end off the project I am going to sign a little bit of a few songs!
I found that music and learning songs really helped me to retain the words better. I wish I would have tried this earlier in the semester. For my last learning project, I decided to take to TikTok to learn small bits of songs. I choose 4 in addition to recording Vienna on TikTok. I searched ASL Songs on TikTok and there were so many results to choose from. I found it really helpful to duet a video I liked, and record it in 2x or 3x as it would slow down the original video so I could follow along. This feature also helped me to be able to record part of Vienna with the original sound. I recorded all of the videos below from TikTok. These are the videos I followed:
A Breakdown of My Learning
Week One: Striving for a Second Language
My first post is all about my interest in ASL, what I know, and what my plans were. I included a video of signing my name, which turned out to be slightly wrong.
Week Two: Learning the Alphabet Again
During my first week of learning, I strived to learn the alphabet. I still feel that learning the alphabet is so crucial in ASL. As a beginner, if I am signing and don’t know a particular word, fingerspelling can help me communicate. I also learned I wasn’t signing my name correctly. I used an app on my phone called The ASL App to learn the alphabet. I began making my weekly videos on iMovie.
Week Three: A History and Math Lesson for Me!
This week I decided to dive into the history of ASL. I wanted to better understand how this language came to be. I also focused on learning to represent numbers in ASL. I counted my way from 1-20. I continued to create my weekly videos and use the ASL App to learn my signs.
Week Four: The Question Queen
For week four I decided to tackle the 5 W’s. I used the ASL App for this as well. Which is still harder than it seems! They are so easy to switch, and I am still working on keeping them straight. I almost always confuse the sign for where with when. I enjoyed learning how to ask questions this week because it allowed me to start to formulate sentences. I was able to move beyond letters and numbers. I continued to record and edit my weekly videos!
Week Five: Getting Emotional Over Here
This week I branched out while learning to sign emotions. I used Screencastify to document my learning and used Quizlet study sets to learn how to sign emotions. This was also my first time using Screencastify!
Week Six: All About Family
This week I decided to learn the signs for family members. I realized I would like to learn how to sign a song, and I knew in Vienna I would have to learn the sign for child. So this week I learned family signs while figuring out the logistics of learning to sign a song. I found videos and pictures to help me this week.
Week Seven: Vienna Waits for Me!
This week I started to learn how to sign Vienna by Billy Joel. I created a google document and would hyperlink how to sign the words onto the document. This was far more challenging than I thought it would be, and I ultimately would not achieve my goal. I used SigningSavvy and LifePrint to search for the words I needed to sign.
Week Eight: Vienna Still Waits for Me!
I continued to struggle this week while learning to sign Vienna. I thought the song would be slow enough to sign along to but it was not. Using a song did help me to retain the signs I learned better though! I should have thought of this earlier because I have always been able to memorize music and lyrics easily, so something about music must help my memory. I found a new website to use this week called Handspeak. I also created a TikTok tutorial on how to sign the alphabet!
What I Have Learned
- Take advantage of resources and advice from others! As shown to the right, Brittney tweeted about a daughter who interpreted a concert for her father. This video and others like it became an inspiration for me to learn to sign a song, which is where I saw the most progress!
- There are far more resources out there than I thought there were! There are so many resources out there to help guide your learning, and in places, you would not expect them to be. TikTok helped teach me far more than I ever thought it would.
- Don’t be afraid to branch out. I was content using my ASL App in the first few weeks, but since I have gone beyond that app I have found so many more quality resources.
- Don’t be afraid of the learning project! When I first heard of the learning project I was overwhelmed at first about how difficult it would be. I learned to take it week by week, and shaw how it didn’t need to be daunting.
- Set realistic goals for yourself! I learned the hard way that I may not always be able to accomplish the goal I set. Instead of giving up, just reevaluate and reset. It is always important to remind yourself of how far you have come!
- iMovie has far more features than I thought it did. The more you use it the better you will get. My mom was amazed at how fast I put a video together for her last week. I owe that speed to my ASL Learning Project!
- Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! I felt weird at first about promoting my blog on Twitter, but it is such a great way to be seen. So many of my followers are not in EDTC300 and wouldn’t be seeing my blog regularly. When putting that much work into it each week, it is great to share it with others! Be proud of your work!
- You can learn a new skill online! At first, it may seem overwhelming because of all the different resources to choose from. All it takes is finding a few you like to get on the right track. Once you dive in it becomes much easier.
Thank You!
Thank you to all my fellow classmates who read, commented, and encouraged me along this journey! Your comments often made my day! Thank you to Katia for having this project be part of your course, it gave me the extra push to learn something I have always wanted to do! I can’t wait to see where I go from here. Thank you for the support on my learning blogs! I wish everyone the best! Below are some sweet comments I received that I wanted to share! A special thank you to Brittney, Rashelle, Regan, and Lauren for continually encouraging me!
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Brooke, I had followed along with your learning project quite close. I had learnt ASL in high school to communicate with a fellow student and now friend of mine. I absolutely love that you chose this as a project and you had truly excelled in this! I hope it will be an asset to you in the future!
Your final learning project is so well done. You can visually see all of the time an effort it took you to create this post. I especially enjoyed your videos! I have been in and out of your blog posts all semester and you have made some serious progress since I last checked in. Awesome job!!
Brooke, I am so impressed with your ASL learning project! I especially liked the points about what you learned. Not only did you learn so much about ASL, but also about ed tech. Take care!
Grace