Again, from Stephen Colbert's I Am America (and So Can You!) 2009 desk calendar, this entry for March 19 kind of piggy-backs on my last entry about twin sisters:
"Is your mom the one who 'got the looks' or the one who 'got the brains'? Either way, she resents her sister for getting the other one!"
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Twin Sister MEANS Twin Sister
Last week I was telling two of the kids about traveling in a plane and what that's like and about a month ago I was helping the little sixth grade girl with a homework paper about knights and suits of armor, so I told the two sixth graders that I would bring in some pictures of when I went to Europe. Sis and I flew over to Amsterdam and then spent some time in Germany, Paris, and London with our older brother, went to tons of museums, etc. Today, I took those pictures and some other stuff that I picked up in Europe to school to share with the kids. The two of them FREAKED OUT over those pictures. I had no idea how utterly fascinated they would be by some old ticket stubs, a map of the Paris Metro, and some random pictures.
I started off by showing them my airline ticket stubs from the flights Sis and I took. We looked up the cities on the map and I told them a little bit about the whole ticket/boarding process. Then I showed them some ticket stubs from the subway and explained how I had to put money into a machine and the ticket spit out of the machine and then I had to put it into the turnstile and walk through to get to the platform for the train. We looked at the subway map a little bit and they were impressed that we managed to find our way around Paris considering everything was written in French.
And then the freak out started. They saw a picture of Sis at the British Museum, standing next to some Egyptian artifacts; I told them that I took the picture, that it was my sister in the picture, not me. The little girl didn't believe me at first, until she saw a picture of Sis and me standing next to each other and then she half-screamed, half-shrieked, startling the whole class.
This is a perfect example of how unbelievably visual these students are. I have told these students that I have a twin sister on numerous occasions. I have said that we look remarkably similar. My name sign IS the sign for twin, only instead of the 'T' handshape, I use the first initial of my name. The little boy in this class has a twin brother himself, and knows that being twins means that someone else in this world looks like you. But the fact that I am a twin did not register for these two until they saw the picture of me and a girl who looks almost exactly like me standing next to each other. They did not really understand that when I sign TWIN SISTER, SAME AGE, FACE SAME (the ASL signs I use), that I mean twin sister.
Their reactions were hilarious. They started going through my pictures trying to guess if it was me or Sis, trying to tell us apart if we were together in the picture, comparing the pictures of us if we weren't together. A couple of times I thought they were going to rip my pictures apart in their frenzy to compare which of them thought it was me or Sis.
Later I was telling a couple of the other interpreters about this and they were equally as surprised by the kids' reactions. It's a little scary to think that I can sign something simple like, "I have a twin sister," and the students don't really comprehend what that means until I show them a visual. What does that mean for the rest of what I'm signing...like in language arts or math class? Yikes, are you getting anything of what I just signed (interpreted)? We came to the conclusion that the little boy who has the twin brother probably did not realize that twin is a generic term, not specific to boys and not specific to his brother and him. There are more twins in this world than just this boy and his brother. I promised them I would bring in a couple more pictures tomorrow; the little girl would especially like to see some wedding pictures. I'm not sure how much more their minds can take...especially when I blow their minds again by showing them a picture of Mom and her twin sister.
I started off by showing them my airline ticket stubs from the flights Sis and I took. We looked up the cities on the map and I told them a little bit about the whole ticket/boarding process. Then I showed them some ticket stubs from the subway and explained how I had to put money into a machine and the ticket spit out of the machine and then I had to put it into the turnstile and walk through to get to the platform for the train. We looked at the subway map a little bit and they were impressed that we managed to find our way around Paris considering everything was written in French.
And then the freak out started. They saw a picture of Sis at the British Museum, standing next to some Egyptian artifacts; I told them that I took the picture, that it was my sister in the picture, not me. The little girl didn't believe me at first, until she saw a picture of Sis and me standing next to each other and then she half-screamed, half-shrieked, startling the whole class.
This is a perfect example of how unbelievably visual these students are. I have told these students that I have a twin sister on numerous occasions. I have said that we look remarkably similar. My name sign IS the sign for twin, only instead of the 'T' handshape, I use the first initial of my name. The little boy in this class has a twin brother himself, and knows that being twins means that someone else in this world looks like you. But the fact that I am a twin did not register for these two until they saw the picture of me and a girl who looks almost exactly like me standing next to each other. They did not really understand that when I sign TWIN SISTER, SAME AGE, FACE SAME (the ASL signs I use), that I mean twin sister.
Their reactions were hilarious. They started going through my pictures trying to guess if it was me or Sis, trying to tell us apart if we were together in the picture, comparing the pictures of us if we weren't together. A couple of times I thought they were going to rip my pictures apart in their frenzy to compare which of them thought it was me or Sis.
Later I was telling a couple of the other interpreters about this and they were equally as surprised by the kids' reactions. It's a little scary to think that I can sign something simple like, "I have a twin sister," and the students don't really comprehend what that means until I show them a visual. What does that mean for the rest of what I'm signing...like in language arts or math class? Yikes, are you getting anything of what I just signed (interpreted)? We came to the conclusion that the little boy who has the twin brother probably did not realize that twin is a generic term, not specific to boys and not specific to his brother and him. There are more twins in this world than just this boy and his brother. I promised them I would bring in a couple more pictures tomorrow; the little girl would especially like to see some wedding pictures. I'm not sure how much more their minds can take...especially when I blow their minds again by showing them a picture of Mom and her twin sister.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Flying Through the Clouds
Today at school I had a totally cool but wistfully sad (for me) conversation with two of the little sixth graders about flying. We were sitting in study hall and I don't quite remember how we started talking about airplanes, but somehow we got on that topic. I was telling the two of them about what it's like to be up in an airplane, how it feels to take off and land, and what looking out the window feels like. I told them all about looking down at the ground and seeing mountains and buildings and roads and rivers far below. They were amazed when I said that airplanes can fly through the clouds and even go above the cloud cover. I explained that sometimes it can be dark and cloudy, even raining, and the plane can fly above the clouds where it is bright and sunny. I've flown above clouds so thick it looks like nothing but white cotton with no hint of the ground below and I've flown over the ocean with nothing to see below but endless water. (The little girl wisely said that with nothing to see but water, one could fall asleep at that point of the trip, until there was actually something exciting to see).
They were so fascinated, it was almost heartbreaking. They've never been on a plane before and I don't know when or if they will ever have the opportunity to fly somewhere. Their families certainly cannot afford to travel in such a manner. I know that not everyone on Earth gets the opportunity to fly in an airplane (heck, I'd never flown before the age of 21), but what struck me was not that their families may not be able to afford airline tickets, it was more that these two miss out on so many experiences because they cannot fluently (or even effectively, sometimes) communicate with their families. How many times have they seen something interesting and tried to tell their families about it? How many times have they seen something confusing and not been able to get an answer as to what they saw? How many times have they gone somewhere with their families and not fully realized what was going on? How many times have they sat at the dinner table and not known what was being discussed? They get a lot of their information from watching television, but how many times do they wonder what the people on the screen are saying? Even with closed captions, these two children's reading ability doesn't allow full access to the information.
They were so fascinated, it was almost heartbreaking. They've never been on a plane before and I don't know when or if they will ever have the opportunity to fly somewhere. Their families certainly cannot afford to travel in such a manner. I know that not everyone on Earth gets the opportunity to fly in an airplane (heck, I'd never flown before the age of 21), but what struck me was not that their families may not be able to afford airline tickets, it was more that these two miss out on so many experiences because they cannot fluently (or even effectively, sometimes) communicate with their families. How many times have they seen something interesting and tried to tell their families about it? How many times have they seen something confusing and not been able to get an answer as to what they saw? How many times have they gone somewhere with their families and not fully realized what was going on? How many times have they sat at the dinner table and not known what was being discussed? They get a lot of their information from watching television, but how many times do they wonder what the people on the screen are saying? Even with closed captions, these two children's reading ability doesn't allow full access to the information.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Fred Thompson is NOT Digging It!
Hmm, since I've signed up for Facebook, I seem to have neglected this blog. My sincere apologies. Actually, I'm addicted to the game Geo Challenge and it's hard enough for me to stop playing in order to go to bed and get to school, let alone publish some blog posts.
Another reason I haven't posted lately is because all of my good stories are either stories about the frustrations of dealing with the deaf ed. teacher at my school or stories that require a listener to actually see me because they involve some kind of signing. A lot of the good stories I have involving the kids require me to actually show what we're talking about and since there is no written form of ASL, I can't type about it.
Most of the people who read this blog know that "Fred Thompson" is the name I use to refer to my downstairs neighbor. He is thusly named because of the little Fred Thompson campaign sticker that was so jauntily displayed on his Impala's bumper for so long. Plus, my neighbor is an older gentleman, so the name fits. Anyway, Fred Thompson just rang my apartment's door bell to ask if the car that was so rudely parked in front of his garage could perhaps belong to any guests that may be visiting. I answered the door even though I was wearing my Care Bears pajama pants because I heard his horn honking repeatedly in the parking area outside our garages and knew that if someone was parked in front of my garage, preventing me from pulling in, I would want people to respond to my ringing of the doorbell. Of course, the Care Bears pajama pants would indicate that I did not, in fact, have guests over, so the car parked outside his garage was not connected to any business concerning my apartment. I did, however, commiserate with him over how ticked I would be if someone had parked in front of my garage.
Another reason I haven't posted lately is because all of my good stories are either stories about the frustrations of dealing with the deaf ed. teacher at my school or stories that require a listener to actually see me because they involve some kind of signing. A lot of the good stories I have involving the kids require me to actually show what we're talking about and since there is no written form of ASL, I can't type about it.
Most of the people who read this blog know that "Fred Thompson" is the name I use to refer to my downstairs neighbor. He is thusly named because of the little Fred Thompson campaign sticker that was so jauntily displayed on his Impala's bumper for so long. Plus, my neighbor is an older gentleman, so the name fits. Anyway, Fred Thompson just rang my apartment's door bell to ask if the car that was so rudely parked in front of his garage could perhaps belong to any guests that may be visiting. I answered the door even though I was wearing my Care Bears pajama pants because I heard his horn honking repeatedly in the parking area outside our garages and knew that if someone was parked in front of my garage, preventing me from pulling in, I would want people to respond to my ringing of the doorbell. Of course, the Care Bears pajama pants would indicate that I did not, in fact, have guests over, so the car parked outside his garage was not connected to any business concerning my apartment. I did, however, commiserate with him over how ticked I would be if someone had parked in front of my garage.
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