SignWriting Report March 11, 2003

Wed Mar 12 15:12:29 UTC 2003

SignWriting List
March 12, 2003

On March 11, 2003, Dan Szwalkiewicz wrote:
> Valerie (& list): Are you aware of any signwriting classes or schools 
> using signwriting in wisconsin??  I would love to go see one presented 
> or in session. Thanks!

Dear List Members, and Dan!
Funny you should ask about Wisconsin...The teachers and I were talking 
about residential schools for the Deaf, and one of the teachers 
mentioned the deaf school in Wisconsin...but we are not there yet...it 
would be a good school to approach, however... If we can find one 
teacher in a school in Wisconsin, who teaches deaf children, and who is 
interested in trying SignWriting, we can work out a one-time donation 
of SignWriting materials for their students...they can experiment, and 
then watch it spread....;-)

So contact schools in Wisconsin, Dan, and suggest that teachers contact 
me...Get the word out - Most teachers have no idea SignWriting exists, 
nor do they understand that it can possibly lead to improved reading 
skills and better self-esteem...

Val ;-)

--------------------------

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Valerie Sutton [mailto:sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 2:04 PM
> To: SW-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject: SignWriting Report March 11, 2003
>
> SignWriting List
>
> March 11, 2003
>
>
> Dear SignWriting List Members!
>
> For the past week I have had four visitors from Albuquerque, New 
> Mexico, staying with me. Teachers Lorraine Crespin, Kate Lee, Dr. 
> Cathy Witty and Dr. Cecilia Flood presented SignWriting as a team 
> effort on March 8th, 2003, to around 25 teachers of Deaf and 
> Hard-of-Hearing students, at the CAL-ED Conference (California 
> Educators Conference) here in San Diego.
>
>
> The presentation went beautifully! The Albuquerque team brought a 
> PowerPoint demonstration that incorporated video clips showing young 
> Deaf students typing, writing by hand, and joyfully exclaiming "I can 
> write!"... It was wonderfully put together...
>
>
> Thank you, Lorraine, Kate, Cathy and Cecilia...for your steadfast 
> attention to your Deaf student's needs...What is most impressive is 
> that your Deaf students have taken "ownership" or responsibility for 
> their own literacy development...the Deaf children are clearly taking 
> charge...reading, writing, typing and producing SignWriting and 
> English booklets...illustrating them, binding them...all themselves. 
> According to their teachers, SignWriting is playing an important role 
> in the development of their self-esteem...
>
>
> The four SignWriting teachers from Albuquerque are now back home, 
> teaching their flock. They left their own unique legacy on the San 
> Diego area, with a newspaper interview in the San Diego Union Tribune, 
> and a radio interview that has been heard by several of our friends. I 
> am told it was a long radio interview, and that my friends were amazed 
> - so I will call the radio station and ask for a tape of the entire 
> radio interview and will then transcribe that interview into written 
> form for the general public. I thought it was going to be a television 
> interview in ASL - we were a bit surprised when the radio people came 
> instead! But now the radio reporter is interested. She says she will 
> talk to the TV people about doing a visual TV program - I hope that 
> happens!
>
>
> A fifth teacher from Los Angeles, Richard Bernard, at the Granada 
> school, presented at the end of the presentation. Richard is having 
> success using SignWriting on cards. He places the English word on one 
> side, and the Deaf student is asked to write the sign in SignWriting 
> on the other side...Richard told me that he believes that SignWriting 
> contributed to improved test scores for several of his students...
>
>
> Meanwhile, in my daily life now, I am fulfilling orders, trying to 
> complete the Shopping Cart design on the web, printing literature, and 
> by the end of the week, I will be starting video editing in my 
> Macintosh...One of our board members, James Short, is a professional 
> web designer and video editor. He is also an expert on captioning, and 
> has developed software for multi-lingual captioning of videos that are 
> on CDs or DVDs...so James will help me edit the video we took of the 
> presentation, and try to create a CD showing the progress in 
> Albuquerque...so this will be fun!
>
>
> I am also eager to begin to add more signs to SignBank, and to answer 
> some of your important questions on the SignWriting List. I am happy 
> to see that you all are posting messages on the SignWriting List to 
> each other...The more you share different ways of writing, the better 
> it is!
>
>
> So that is my up-to-date report - I look forward to writing again as 
> soon as I can -
>
>
> Have a wonderful day, everyone!
>
>
> Val ;-)
>
>
>
> Valerie Sutton
>
> Sutton at SignWriting.org
>
>
> 1. SignWritingSite
>
> http://www.SignWriting.org
>
> Read & Write Sign Languages
>
>
> 2. SignBankSite
>
> http://www.SignBank.org
>
> Sign Language Dictionaries
>
>
> 3. DanceWritingSite
>
> http://www.DanceWriting.org
>
> Read & Write Dance
>
>
> 4. MovementWritingSite
>
> http://www.MovementWriting.org
>
> Read & Write Movement & Gesture
>
>
> 5. The SoulSite
>
> http://www.SoulSite.com
>
> Proceeds Donated to Deaf Literacy
>
>
> Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting
>
> Center For Sutton Movement Writing
>
> an educational nonprofit organization
>
> Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
>
> tel: 858-456-0098....fax: 858-456-0020
>
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