American Sign Language Pedagogy at Kent State |

Welcome to the web site for

Kent State University's

Bachelor of Arts Program

American Sign Language!

DID YOU KNOW THAT

STUDENTS WHO ARE STUDYING

TO TEACH A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

ARE ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE FOR

SMART GRANTS?

I didn't...not until I received this info recently from the Ohio Department of Education. For more information, see the new page at this website about Education Licensure in ASL.....

**************************************************************************

NEW POLICY FROM THE UNIVERSITY AS OF 6/6/09

From Dean Moore: In the past, students met with a
professional advisor in the undergraduate advising office and then received
final approval from a faculty advisor. In an effort to promote consistency
with other colleges and ease the runaround often experienced by students,
all declarations in Arts and Sciences will be entirely completed in the
undergraduate advising office. Students simply need to meet with a
professional advisor to complete this process. Also, the declaration is
necessary only when a student is making a change to their current program.
For those students admitted into a specific major who remain in that
program, no form or procedure needs to be completed.

(MANDATORY SEMESTER ADVISING REMAINS HOWEVER

- you need to come into MCLS once each semester and meet with your advisor)

For those of you who have already had ....fun...with the university keeping track of your forms and your issues, what can I say....?

DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT!

It's a good habit to get into anyway.

(Print and keep emails, etc. and if you want to store an extra copy of an email or a form in your file at MCLS, I'd be happy to let you....)

***************************************************************************

JUNE

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Congratulations to STEPHANIE BODENMILLER! She has been chosen to be the ASL tutor through the Academic Success Center for Fall 2009! Students are chosen for this position based on their ASL 29202 portfolio presentations and an interview. ASC tutors are a paid position who help lower division students with their skills and preparation, and we were fortunate to have a LOT of EXCELLENT candidates this year. GREAT JOB Stephanie!

ASC tutors can be arranged at http://www.kent.edu/asc/

Stephanie will be spending part of her summer doing her ASL 39201 community service project AHEAD OF TIME (with PRIOR INSTRUCTOR PERMISSION). She will be working at a Deaf camp.

Congratulations to CANDICE P. - an ASL 19202 student with Sheila Owolabi! She just graduated from Aurora High School and was awarded NINE SCHOLARSHIPS!!!! WOW!!!! We're PROUD of you, and happy to hear you'll be returning in the fall!

AND

Good luck and best wishes to TIFFANY HAMILTON, a graduate of ASL at KSU, who just took the National Interpreter Certification Test!

Congratulations also to ELIZABETH YOUNKER who has passed Praxis and will now apply for student teaching! We now have FIFTEEN ASL majors who are also minoring in L2 education, so that they can be licensed to teach ASL in K-12 settings! FANTASTIC! Altogether at this point, we have FORTY-FOUR ASL majors, with several more waiting on transcripts, and FIFTEEN ASL minors! ASL at KSU is certainly GROWING!!! GREAT!

Congratulations to TOYIN FASAKIN, an MA student in Rehab (and a familiar face in the ASL program), from Nigeria, who just got a summer job working with the D/HH clients at Pressley Ridge, in Pennsylvania!!

CONGRATULATIONS ALSO TO PATRICK GLEBA! Patrick graduated from ASL at KSU in December 2008 and has been teaching ASL at the Lawrence School since then. He's now accepted a position with Cleveland Heights/University Heights and will be joining David Stewart, teaching in their ASL program!

We're PROUD OF ALL OF YOU...AND OF ALL OUR ASL STUDENTS AND GRADS!

We also hear we're bidding a sad goodbye to DR. EVELYN GOLDSMITH! In addition to being a VERY busy Dean, Dr. Goldsmith has been an ASL student for two years, but will now be leaving Kent State to move to Indiana! Our BEST WISHES go with her!

(Phyllis and Evelyn at the Fall Festival Picnic)

Notes from travelers....

Laurie Pesarchick went to Kentucky, visiting friends for May; Christina Haslage has just come back from visiting family in Kentucky and then turned around and headed back out to Texas! Louis Ferraro will be on a cruise for 20 days in July, and Theresa C, who just returned from wintering out west, will be vacationing for 7 days in June! David Stewart is going off to Texas to visit his mom and sister and then he's off to Vermont, Larry Nehring is busy directing, and John Bradley has just left FOR THE WHOLE SUMMER as he explores the U.S. west of Ohio! ASL at KSU is DEFINITELY "hitting the road!"

Sheila Owolabi is currently in Lagos, Nigeria, visiting family and setting up IP contacts with Emmanuel Illabor's school and the Deaf community there:

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 11:20 AM

Hello,

I am in Nigeria. When l got to airport in Cleveland my plans were messed up. l was not able to have wireless internet at airports and my flight was delay for two hours due to the storm in the Cleveland. I was very frustrated because l was not able to do my work on the computer and other things My flight arrived to Atlanta late and my other flight had departed to Lagos then l missed my flight. I was booked to the hotel with free two lunches, dinner and breakfast. Again l wanted to work on my computer but no wireless or plug internet in the hotel. All my travel on airport and flight were fructrated. The airport workers were unprepared to delay with Deaf people.

l am with my family in Lagos. I will visit the deaf school in Lagos this week when my junior brother gives me a car. l will visit the deaf schools in other place too.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 1:04 PM

Robbie,

I have very good vacation with all my family, nieces, nephews and my brothers' wives. l plan to visit deaf schools around this area then go to Ibadan where Mr. Ilabor worked with deaf children. I emailed him yesterday but l have not heard from him yet. l believe he may have experience with electric on and off all the time that make it very difficult to respond to email message regular. I am using my junior brother's wireless internet laptop computer that helped me keeping me on my work..

l will update you with thing l am doing here in the deaf schools. Also l am hoping to collect the native sign language stories and poetry from the deaf students and deaf adults next week if l am luck to get few deaf to do this.

One dollar is equal to 179 Naira.

l am looking forward to hear from you.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:05 PM

l have a good time with my neices and nephews. we went to shops. we walked around and around. In the market, there were too many peoples but we have a good time. l will visit deaf school tomorrow and next week l will go to see mr llabor, teachers and students of the school.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 6:26 AM

I can not wait to get back to work. l went to my old deaf school. All new teachers and students were glad to see me. They did not know me but they were surprising to see me that l was the former student of the school. They want me to visit them again and encourage them for their future. l told them l will come back on Monday to get everything in the camera and speak to all the students and the teachers. They have five deaf teachers and one deaf cooker. I was happy to see the school has changed very much from oralism to their sign language and teachers used English sign language. One deaf teacher told me that he was hearing before and became deaf. He learned EES and became a deaf educator after graduating from teaching college. He mentioned that he used the EES but the students did not understand him then he began to watch how the students communicated their sign language to each other. He found out that it was very different so he learned the students's language and used it to teach the subject areas to the students. The students understand his teaching better. l am thrilling to go back to the school on Monday and observe their teaching and interact with the students and teachers include the staff.

On Sunday, we will go to All Deaf church.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 2:42 PM

I am in the deaf school and trying to set up the webcam but the electric has be the problem in Nigeria. The school used generator to get their electric only during night and after three hours they closed it. I am set it up now at night. I do not know if it will work or not but l will try.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 5:44 PM

I just enjoyed all my nieces, my family and l worked with my emailed. l am in CMD taught teachers how to teach deaf children in different ways. They are still following old method of teaching.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 5:35 PM

Yes that is good idea (to buy a solar cell for the school in Nigeria). I had a small solar cell light for just a room. I planned to bring them here but l had too many things so my flight wanted more money to pay for over weight luggage.

l already set up the webcam but l need IP number of our ASL lab so l can contact someone tomorrow Friday. We are here on Thursday night at 10:30pm. Tomorrow will be Friday. The only way l can use computer is at 7 pm Friday. You will be at 1or 2 pm.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 2:55 AM

Robbie,

There are two problems with the CMD. One electricity has been on and off. They used generator only at 7:00 to 10:00 pm and their internet did not work sometimes. I tried to work on the computer on Friday and Saturday, it worked for a little while then disconnected again and again. I told Mr. Ilabor that l need to purchase wireless item to put on my laptop computer so l can work on it but we did not have time for it.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 12:42 PM

All my families do fine. My mother has been asking about me when l went to Ibadan Mission school for the Deaf. My nieces also asked me to come home because they missed me. The primary, middle, high school students wanted me to stay in their schools. There are a lot of things to do in the deaf schools with teachers and the students. The problem was that l was not able to connect internet for webcam because of their server problem. The teachers wanted to start the webcam to have communicate with us at KSU and their deaf friends but the server has been the problem. Many times when l tried to connect the webcam, it did not work and l tries it again and again. Mr. Ilabor told me that that has been slow down his works to reach many people that emailed him. I will go back to the school on weekend.

Dan (Sheila's oldest son) and Erika (his wife) will come on Thursday then we will visit the deaf school and the family.

I am fine. I picked the malaria pills that did not have a side effect so l am fine.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 4:21 PM

Okay, l am using the limit time l have with the wireless right now. it will be shut down at night. My junior brother has been taking the laptop computer with him everyday and bring it back at night so we have limited time to reply to our email. If my brother leaves the laptop computer tomorrow or wednesday all day then l can explain with the lagos and ibadan are like.

I took many pictures of Lagos, ibadan and the family members. I will show most of it to the students.

Many teachers in the deaf schools want me to come back to have a workshop with them on how to use Nigeria language to teach the deaf students in any subject area. I noticed deaf and hearing teachers of the deaf put down the language of deaf people that they used outside of the classrooms. They think it is bad language and they want it to be in English sign langeage. BUT students, deaf teachers, deaf staff and deaf visits used their sign language to each other. The sign language didnt follow the English word order. They are like what Dr. Stokoe found in the Gallaudent University about ASL. Also Nigheria has not developed their sign language. They told me that few deaf teachers had tried to develope the vocabulary sign language of Nigeria but they have not completed it.

I was encouraged to develop the Nigeria Sign lanuguage vocabulary with sentences and do the workshop in how to use the sign language that the deaf used outside of the classroom to teach any subject area. There are many things which l can explain on the emai. I told the teachers and staff that l will see what l can do when l return to USA.

I also asked if it is possible for the teachers to come to USA for summer workshop, they told me that they did not have money but the only way to make thing easy is to have me come to Nigeria to do the workshop in different place and they will set up the workshop for me. I told them that l will see what l can do with the money for traveling etc.

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:41 PM

For Nigerian teachers l believe it should be good for me to go there to give a workshop because many teachers will learn things from the workshop. If we have few teachers for training then they will go home to keep things for themselves. There is common in Nigeria. I was told that few Nigerian employees of Gallaudent had conducted a workshop in Job that relate to a Leadship. For me, l want workshop on Nigeria sign language and how to teach the deaf students, in any subject area by using their language rather than use English sign language or hearing teacher made up the sigh language for the deaf students,

l think my vacation is finish this week and ready to come home and sleep on my bed. Nigeria has problem with electricity on and off that made water well did not work or government water did not run well.

I have a difficult time to get transportation to go around.

Mr. Ilabor has helped me with transportation for a while, Rent a car and driver is very expensive. My family told me that it is not worth to pay for rent a car and driver. They encouraged me to save the dollars and exchange ti to Naira to purchase a car in Nigeria. I am thinking about it but it will take few years to have the car in Nigeria. If l have a car, l could drive around places l want to go. I have not be in Abuja the capital of Nigeria and other villages and special places.. I will tell you more things,

Sheila Owolabi

From: OWOLABI, SHEILA
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:51 PM

YES I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO SLEEP ON MY BED. I will arrive this Friday night and start teach on Monday. I missed you all and we will have a long chat on school stuff,

Sheila Owolabi

Best wishes and bon voyage to students and instructors traveling abroad this summer!

Bethany Stahler will be going to South Africa!

Jessica Basile will be going to the Dominican Republic for her Community Service Project for ASL IV!)!

(and Steve Vickery will be going to Hawaii to set up contacts with Deaf students from Japan!)

COOL!!!!!

Don't forget to send pictures!!!!!

and stay tuned for pix from SUMMER SESSION!!!

SUMMERTIME!

FUN THINGS TO CHECK OUT OVER SUMMER...:

1. Get involved in your local Deaf community! OAD is holding the biennial conference this August at Kings Island, International Deaf Catholic is coming to Cleveland in July, local clubs all over are holding picnics and get-togethers. Check out the events page and GET OUT THERE AND GET ACTIVE!

2. KISS FIST has put out another edition. See the page titled Items of Interest for the link.

3. David Stewart recommends Dack Virnig's videos - Dack is from California and studying at RIT. David recommends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X1t4C20jI0&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfI5i_i4Dwo&feature=channel

and you can catch more of Dack's work at DeafVideo TV: http://www.deafvideo.tv/user/DackVirnig

4. You can also see Dack...and many more...at http://deafjoke.tv/wp/blog/tag/dack-virnig/

5. Of course, every summer since 2007, we've enjoyed recommending you laugh over http://deaflix.com/video/63/Fastest-Hands-in-the-West ! (and we can't forget to watch Deaf Ninja and others while you're at DeaFlix Videos either!: http://deaflix.com/videos/basic/tr )