Western-Star.com

Teacher: Toni Welles.

School: Warren County Career Center.

Class: 12th grade Beginner American Sign Language. The one-semester class was offered to students during the spring of 2005.

Projects: Guest speaker Kathy Farley, training coordinator for Community Services for the Deaf in Dayton, recently talked with students. Additionally, the class performed a play in ASL for the Learning Lab Preschoolers.

What does your class do to make education exciting? “Learning a second language and being able to communicate with your hands is always exciting and challenging.”

Unique classroom: “ASL is recognized as a foreign language by many universities and high schools. American Sign Language is the fourth most commonly-used language in the United States.”

Classroom environment: On “Silent Friday,” every student must communicate entirely in sign language.

Students: Craig Allen, Lebanon, Graphic Arts; Jessica Brown, Springboro, Cosmetology; Melissa Crump, Springboro, Cosmetology; Anita Doughty, Kings, Welding; Tabatha Dunn, Franklin, Early Childhood Education; Keith Fudge, Springboro, Criminal Justice; Robert Isbell, Franklin, Electricity; Amanda Lamb, Waynesville, Early Childhood Education; Angela McDaniel, Little Miami, Criminal Justice; Tara Neumann, Little Miami, Graphic Arts; Anna Patton, Lebanon, Culinary; Erica Shull, Franklin, Digital Design; Chris Southerland, Waynesville, Carpentry; Leigha Wells, Waynesville, Early Childhood Education; Hollie Woods, Franklin, Electricity.

Comments: This class is particularly helpful for students who are going into Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Education, Cosmetology and other service-oriented career fields.

Jessica Brown and Melissa Crump, both seniors in Cosmetology from Springboro, said they took sign language together in the fourth grade.

“If we meet someone who is deaf, we can communicate with them now,” Brown said. “This will help us if we are in a situation where a deaf person doesn’t have an interpreter with them. It was difficult to memorize all the signs, so it was a very challenging course.”

“As cosmetologists, this will help us communicate if we have a deaf client,” Crump added.

Student Erica Shull said the class will help with her career goals.

“This course will help me out in the world,” Erica Shull said. “I am going to be doing children’s ministry, so I will be able to communicate with someone who is deaf just as well as anyone else.”

“I am going to college to be an architect,” said Chris Southerland. “When I am in business, I will know how to communicate with people who are deaf.”

— Compiled by Lisa N. Knodel.