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SignWriting List Archive 1
October 1997 - May 1998

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November 19, 1997
MESSAGE TO THE SIGNWRITING EMAIL LIST

SUBJECT: Las Vegas Seminar Report 1

From: James Womack, Krakadoom@aol.com
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 20:53:19 -0500 (EST)
To: DAC@signwriting.org
Subject: Re: Seminar Report :-)

On November 8th, we had the privilege of having the creator of SignWriting as
a guestspeaker and to conduct a seminar on SignWriting at the Community
College of Southern Nevada (CCSN) located in North las Vegas.

The audience was mostly Deaf Studies students numbering approximately 27
people. There was a few people respresenting various fields of deafness such
as interpreters middle school. We missed out on about 20 additional
interested parties from both in and out of state who wished to come but
received information too late to plan a Vegas trip.

Valerie did an excellent job in providing a thorough background on
SignWriting and ended the session with hands on experience. We had the
pleasure of Stephen Benoit and Lawrence Roney who toiled at setting up
computers, cameras, VCRs, TV, projectors and other media to facilitate
presentations. My students were wonderful in lending a hand in taping the
event and acting as cashiers to attendants.

We had a number of people who had to leave as the day wore on due to
committments elsewhere such as work and family, but they made me promise to
make the tape available to them so they'd miss anything. We are copying those
tapes now. Those attending left amazed at SignWriting's potential impact on
Deaf education and ASL instruction as well as teaching written ASL/English
translation skills to Deaf children and college students. The attendees want
more. Additionally, people who could not come continue to call and ask about
the seminar and the prospect of a future seminar. We definitely will have a
follow up later on. Valerie's impact is felt at the local school level as
well. As word got out what happened at the seminar, school personnel are
asking for more information. They will get it at the next seminar which we
want to devote exclusively to teaching the skill of SignWriting.

I've submitted a request for ordering materials from DAC partly because
students are eager to review and learn more about this communication tool.
Some stduents have expressed an interest in ordering their own material. In
essence, I believe that this seminar and Valerie's presentation has provoked
a heightened interest in exploring SignWriting as a viable instruction
instrument. I am personally so impressed I hope to be sent to California to
learn SignWriting thoroughly enough to teach it as a course at CCSN.

I think one of the most exciting things is that students who did not go to
the seminar are still talking to those that did about what happened. There is
simply a degree of excitement in the air since the seminar. The question is,
will it translate into large scale action? This remains to be seen and I hope
to push it along in that direction.

James Womack - N2C
ASL Instructor

Department of International Languages
Community College of Southern Nevada
3200 East Cheyenne Avenue
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89030-4296

702-651-4301 TTY
702-643-6427 Fax

Womack@CCSN.Nevada.Edu
or
Krakadoom@Aol.Com
or
jrwomack1@juno.com

 

 
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