A Little Less Conversation

Ok, well not a little less conversation, just a little less speaking. I'm going to start using ASL in my classroom and I'm soo excited! I've always wanted to learn sign language, ever since I was in high school. However, neither my high school nor my college offered a course in it.

My resource teacher (and one of my closest friends) used ASL every once in a while with some of our students with more severe special needs. Without thinking, she would try to talk to me (so that the kids couldn't understand) but I had no idea what she was saying! I wanted so badly to use it in my classroom.

We finally found a class that was being offered and are now in our 4th week of classes. I'm picking up on it wayy faster than I thought I would! We've learned the basics - alphabet, verbs, family members, and greetings.

I've decided that this week, I'm going to introduce some of the greetings to my kids during morning meeting. Every day, we do a morning greeting in our circle. This week we are going to greet each other in sign language - I can't wait to see how my kiddos do with it! I'm also hoping to use more signs throughout the day in an effort to create a friendlier classroom environment.

Here is a website that shows basic ASL signs if anyone wants to check it out!