That is how it looks to be now.
I envisioned a group of Deaf and hearing signers all coming together as one. Been trying to advocate the benefits of using ISL [ Indian Sign Language in Pune].
Unfortunately its taking time.
But what has beautifully picked up is a small group of Deaf individuals and me working towards Leadership Education Empowerment for the Deaf.
We call ourselves LEED Pune. So from Signers club we moved on to LEED Pune.
I guess this is how it was meant to be. First we empower the Deaf and then eventually we will be in a better position to spread awareness and advocate the use of ISL. So the signer's club is a part of LEED Pune. its just not ready to be in action yet.
Wish us at LEED Pune good luck.
Atsy.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Dictation - A New Concept for the Deaf
Hi,
Sounds surprising? Yes its true and I realized this last Sunday to be precise on 20th feb2011. Aqil and I have been noticing that the Deaf cant seem to remember spellings. Our students told us too that it was difficult and they would invariably misspell even a simple word.
I spoke to them of the concept of Dictation, that I was exposed to as a kid in school. This actually got me the idea of trying to have a dictation for our English class. It was decided - this sunday all the vocabulary that we had learnt we will have to memorize and have a Dictation Test.
Everyone was ready today and we started off - for the first time the Deaf of our group who have studied in various schools in Pune gave a dictation test.
Sadly what should have been a routine at school to help memorize spelling was never done for the Deaf, and the irony is the Deaf are always blamed for not being able to memorize spelling. Not their fault is what I say.
Anyways, we managed to do just thirty words. However everyone is all geared up to do at least fifty words next Sunday :-) . I love their dedication and enthusiasm.
What we all realized that in their twenties these Deaf, stiil have a long way to go in picking up and moving on with a written language. I hope that the fire to learn never diminishes in these young minds.
Post lunch we faced a challenge. We have access to only one classroom and today we have a few new joinees. We could not stop our session and we did not want the new guys and girls to miss out on what we had done previously. Aqil and Prince volunteered to give individual attention to the new students and teach them what we did previously.
What do you think the old kids do? Nah- we didnt while away time. I picked out a few individuals who were confident of what they had learnt all this while and we set up small teams.
Task - each team picks up a few words and acts as the trainer to teach the rest.
Outcome - Train the Trainers - we may have some good skilled Deaf individuals who have good leadership qualities, some who have a lot of patience and some who had the art of getting fun into a study session. Healthy competition and a good interactive session where each group tried to outdo the other.
End Result - we are building up
We strated off with a handful of Deaf friends at LEED Pune and at that time we didnt even have a name to ourselves. Today we have an Identity, we are growing in number and most importantly we are learning to share what we learn.
It is true we learn more when we teach others . I see this happen every sunday.
All for now. LEED Pune will be back with some more news soon.
And you guys can catch us in action on facebook. Search for LEED Pune.
Cheers
Atsy
Sounds surprising? Yes its true and I realized this last Sunday to be precise on 20th feb2011. Aqil and I have been noticing that the Deaf cant seem to remember spellings. Our students told us too that it was difficult and they would invariably misspell even a simple word.
I spoke to them of the concept of Dictation, that I was exposed to as a kid in school. This actually got me the idea of trying to have a dictation for our English class. It was decided - this sunday all the vocabulary that we had learnt we will have to memorize and have a Dictation Test.
Everyone was ready today and we started off - for the first time the Deaf of our group who have studied in various schools in Pune gave a dictation test.
Sadly what should have been a routine at school to help memorize spelling was never done for the Deaf, and the irony is the Deaf are always blamed for not being able to memorize spelling. Not their fault is what I say.
Anyways, we managed to do just thirty words. However everyone is all geared up to do at least fifty words next Sunday :-) . I love their dedication and enthusiasm.
What we all realized that in their twenties these Deaf, stiil have a long way to go in picking up and moving on with a written language. I hope that the fire to learn never diminishes in these young minds.
Post lunch we faced a challenge. We have access to only one classroom and today we have a few new joinees. We could not stop our session and we did not want the new guys and girls to miss out on what we had done previously. Aqil and Prince volunteered to give individual attention to the new students and teach them what we did previously.
What do you think the old kids do? Nah- we didnt while away time. I picked out a few individuals who were confident of what they had learnt all this while and we set up small teams.
Task - each team picks up a few words and acts as the trainer to teach the rest.
Outcome - Train the Trainers - we may have some good skilled Deaf individuals who have good leadership qualities, some who have a lot of patience and some who had the art of getting fun into a study session. Healthy competition and a good interactive session where each group tried to outdo the other.
End Result - we are building up
- word bank
- improving leadership qualities
- getting rid of stage fear
- learning to respect the speaker
We strated off with a handful of Deaf friends at LEED Pune and at that time we didnt even have a name to ourselves. Today we have an Identity, we are growing in number and most importantly we are learning to share what we learn.
It is true we learn more when we teach others . I see this happen every sunday.
All for now. LEED Pune will be back with some more news soon.
And you guys can catch us in action on facebook. Search for LEED Pune.
Cheers
Atsy
LEED Pune
LEED Pune - & what do you think LEED stands for?? Its simple - Leadership Education, Empowerment of Deaf in Pune. Its a group of one hearing person [ "Me"] and a group of Deaf individuals mostly in their twenties. We have been on the move to bring about a change in our lives.
The Deaf community at large is an isolated group, not due to their Deafness, but due to a language difference, a communication barrier. This has lead to lower self esteem, lower confidence and a very limited level of information. One can imagine how life is when we are partly educated, or partly informed.. Well our Deaf individuals face a number of difficulties that have been due to the above.
LEED Pune - though not yet registered , is a group of dedicated individuals who are working towards eradicating the communication / language barrier. We have been conducting English literacy classes since Nov 2010 till date. Initially we didnt have a place to conduct classes so we did small sessions from home, eventually we found a small hall in Viman Nagar Pune and we conducted classes there for around 3 months.
We have moved ahead and the number of Deaf individuals who have joined us has increased. We have now temporarily been given a proper classroom at a college. With better infrastructure and a classroom set up its easier to teach and learn.
Its not only teaching and learning that we do at LEED Pune. We have various discussions and a few fun filled activities too..
Everyone at LEED Pune is always waiting for a Sunday as its the day we all come together and have some good fun!
Cheers and keep looking for more news on LEED Pune.
Atsy..
The Deaf community at large is an isolated group, not due to their Deafness, but due to a language difference, a communication barrier. This has lead to lower self esteem, lower confidence and a very limited level of information. One can imagine how life is when we are partly educated, or partly informed.. Well our Deaf individuals face a number of difficulties that have been due to the above.
LEED Pune - though not yet registered , is a group of dedicated individuals who are working towards eradicating the communication / language barrier. We have been conducting English literacy classes since Nov 2010 till date. Initially we didnt have a place to conduct classes so we did small sessions from home, eventually we found a small hall in Viman Nagar Pune and we conducted classes there for around 3 months.
We have moved ahead and the number of Deaf individuals who have joined us has increased. We have now temporarily been given a proper classroom at a college. With better infrastructure and a classroom set up its easier to teach and learn.
Its not only teaching and learning that we do at LEED Pune. We have various discussions and a few fun filled activities too..
Everyone at LEED Pune is always waiting for a Sunday as its the day we all come together and have some good fun!
Cheers and keep looking for more news on LEED Pune.
Atsy..
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