Leadership & Sign Language

My Lead (Leadership) class does not have a set curriculum. We have a lot of wiggle room to do things that will prepare the students for the future and peak their interest. During the first semester, we have learning typing (I'm surprised how many students don't know how to truly type!), Genius Hour, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, video announcements, and now sign language!

Studying American Sign Language was requested by about 80% of the students, so we are learning it as a class. I have found video lessons online (ten lessons total), and we are going through those lessons and using Life Print to learn ASL! The students have truly taken to it and are doing a wonderful job.

Our county provides Rosetta Stone accounts for each student and employee, so students have access to learn many other languages. Unfortunately, there is no Rosetta Stone program for ASL. We are taking advantage of our class time to learn ASL. I do not know ASL, but I am learning with my students. I am enjoying it more than the students! I definitely have a goal of becoming multilingual. The world can be a better place through good communication!

For the holidays, the students learning "Jingle Bell Rock" in ASL. We created a video to share with the county and even went caroling at the elementary school! Check out the video below!

Video Announcements

While my newspaper staff publishes a monthly e-newsletter, my Lead students produce biweekly video announcements. These video announcements are put together using iMovie and shared on our school website homepage and school Facebook page. The students write the script, collect the photos, and record. I use a rubric to grade their recordings and scripts (I hope to put this in my TPT store soon!).

Check out their last video for the first semester:

We look forward to more video announcements next semester!