A student walks into their fourth period class, their language other than English class. The bell rings and their teacher begins class, but no words are spoken. This is American Sign Language (ASL).
Vandegrift offers ASL as a language other than English class. Taught by deaf teacher Marie- Jeanne Goodrich, one of very few deaf teachers in Leander ISD. She works hard to teach her students and bridge the gap between hearing and deaf.
“My favorite part of teaching ASL is seeing the student’s progress and having conversations with me,” Goodrich said. “When they get it and get back up after struggling or failing for a while.”
Goodrich was born hard of hearing, but when she was 10, she lost all of her hearing and started to lose her vision. She was then almost diagnosed with Usher Syndrome, a disorder that affects both your hearing and vision.
“I really like Ms. Goodrich, because she’s a really fun person, really nice to talk to in general,” ASL I freshman Audrey Taylor said. “She cares about, not just you learning ASL but also just your life in general.”
To help with the language barrier between Goodrich and her students, Goodrich is very skilled at lip reading and also has a cochlear implant. She will sometimes ask students to repeat things multiple times and occasionally have them write something down.
“I feel like it’s quite easy to learn, because once you learn to sign, she’s able to communicate with us well, and we can also just see if she posts on Google Classroom,” ASL III junior Robyn Alabastro said.
Most schools that offer ASL as an option to learn have hearing teachers instead of deaf teachers. Although Goodrich has mixed feelings about this, she feels that schools favor hearing teachers because they’re more accessible.
“A lot of people know Spanish, and it’s very useful when it comes to work and stuff but not very many people know ASL,” ASL III junior Parker Kingsley said. “So, it’s more unique.”
Vandegrift offers ASL classes 1-4, with no students currently in ASL 4. Vandegrift also has students in the ASL Honor Society, with the Vandegrift branch run by Robyn Alabastro
“Not a lot of people know ASL, so I want to be a part of the people who learn ASL,” ASL III junior Gabriella Hernadez said.
To help with learning ASL, Goodrich will often correlate lessons or assignments with things that are happening in real life. Goodrich will make projects with holiday themes, or basic vocabulary in class related to school events like football games.
“It’s a lot different, getting used to not being able to use your voice. It’s such a big change,” Alabastro said. “For other people, it’s a lot easier, because they don’t use their voice as much.”
Goodrich handles being a deaf teacher very well, but sometimes struggles with not having the same access of her peers and students that try to take advantage of her.
“I love the language,” Goodrich said. “I desire to bridge the gap between the deaf/hard-of-hearing community and the hearing community.”
