MEADOW HEIGHTS: TEACHERS PASS SIGN LANGUAGE ON TO KIDS

PATTON -- Teachers in Meadow Heights School District are staying after school to get extra help in language.

Sign language, that is.

Approximately 15 teachers are participating in an after-school signing class taught by teacher-interpreter Kathy McMillan, who signs for a deaf student in the district.

"We decided to do this because the teachers wanted to be able to communicate with her," said McMillan. "By learning sign language, it helps incorporate her into the classroom and the school more."

The teachers attend a one-hour class each Wednesday taught by McMillan. They learn to sign vocabulary words for the first half of class, then use the new and old words to form sentences. They also play games like bingo, using sign language to help reinforce letters and numbers.

"It's not easy at all," said Donna Bristow, a second-grade teacher participating in the class. "You have to practice if you want to keep up."

McMillan said the teachers are in the third week of an eight-week program designed to teach them basics of sign language. They seem to be catching on, although children in her first-grade class seem to learn the language more quickly, she said.

"Children tend to learn signing more quickly than adults," she said. "We're just trying to cram as much in as possible for the teachers."

Staci Beussink, a fifth-grade teacher learning to sign, said she enjoys the experience and is teaching her students what she learns for reinforcement.

"I think I like sign language because it's not like a foreign language," she said. "You're using your own English language and just learning hand signals that correspond. I figure if I work with my (students) using the signs to teach spelling or vocabulary words, I'm going to reinforce what I'm learning."

McMillan said benefits will be enormous because teachers are teaching their students sign language. "Our student is very quiet and shy, she said, and by learning sign language everyone will help in her personal, social and academic development.

"It's good to have others sign to her," McMillan said. "I saw some of the other kids playing with her -- it was good play -- yesterday at lunch. They were taking her food and signing back and forth with her. She was able to be a part of the play."