My response to a homework assignment to reflect on texts (of any kind – books, articles, poems, videos, TV, movies, photos, paintings) that inspire and inform our teaching and professional practice. The two I picked were Dead Poets Society for teaching and Grey’s Anatomy for professional practice.
I made this video to fulfill an assignment in Teaching Ethics and Professional Practice at Western Oregon University’s MA in Interpreting Studies program with a concentration in Teaching Interpreting. The assignment was to share the process I went through to find materials to share in classes, in mentoring, or in my own work as an interpreter. Some of these resources were new to me; some of the resources I share in the video are recaps of what I have shared on this blog in the past few weeks. I am sorry I don’t have the time to transcribe and closed-caption the video for those who do not know ASL, but if you read my recent blog posts in addition to what is below, you already know what I was describing in the video. Here are the resources I describe:
Videos
United States Courts Federal Judiciary. (2010, September 23.) Nuremberg interpreter recalls historic trials [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvY_1bMAZWY
Activities
Watching or participating in professional online discussion forum such as the #IntJC or #EPT Twitter chats (Interpreter Journal Club and Endless Possibilities Talks, respectively). I have participated in both in the past two weeks, and it has been beneficial both to me and them for spoken and signed language interpreters and translators to discuss their work with each other. For more info, see Interpreter joins the #IntJC Twitter form and Notes on “A Conversation with Translators.”
Websites
Greene, D. (n.d.) TerpTrans: An ASL-English interpreter/trainer on interpreting, transliterating, and translation. http://terptrans.com
Shameless plug for my own blog. Many potential and practicing interpreters have found the pages and posts in this blog to be useful, and I am working hard at making it ever more professional and global. Feel free to review it! I’m open to feedback.
Articles
Klemenc-Ketis, Z. & Kersnik, J. (2011, August 23). Using movies to teach professionalism to medical students. BMC Medical Education 11(16). Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/11/60
Fulfillment of an assignment in Western Oregon University’s course “Teaching Ethics & Professional Practice” in the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies program with an emphasis in Teaching Interpreting. Our task was to find resources to help us in assessing our own ethics and teaching ethics to others. My contribution to my cohort’s resource list was three resources about ethical wills:
Genesis 49: 1–33 and Deuteronomy 32: 46–47
These Biblical passages are early examples of “ethical wills.” In Genesis, the dying Jaakov (Jacob) lays out for his sons what he sees will “befall” them based on what he thinks about their ethics; also, he expresses his prayers of blessing to his chosen son and the wish that he be buried with his ancestors. In Deuteronomy, the dying Moshe (Moses) instructed the people Israel to observe the commandments and teach them to prolong their lives and the lives of their children in the Promised Land (of Jordan).
Here are translated texts of ethical wills given by two dying Jewish men in medieval times. These ethical wills show the ethics they wished their children to embrace in their lives.
Ethical wills don’t have to wait until death. They can also be given by people at important junctures in their lives. This ethical will, or legacy letter, was written by Barack Obama to his daughters as he prepared to take the place of President of the United States. (A good time to write a will if ever there was one.) I like this web page because it has five other legacy letters from other people as well.
On Thursday, I Skyped from my home office to a classroom at Western Oregon University to begin a teaching practicum. As a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies program with a concentration in teaching interpreting, I will be observing and participating in a Linguistics of ASL course in the Bachelor of Arts in Interpreting program. It is as important for me to audit this course as it is for me to observe and help teach it, because we did not have an ASL linguistics course in my ITP in the early nineties. We did learn about ASL linguistics from the green books (Baker & Cokely, 1980), and my Deaf Culture teacher, Freda Norman, shared with me articles on ASL linguistics studies from Salk Institute; still, this is my first actual ASL linguistics class. I am excited to work with professor Elisa Maroney, student teacher Halene “Hal” Anderson, and the students in this class.
Have you ever done a teaching practicum or had someone doing a teaching practicum in one of your classes? If so, what is one thing you would tell a person starting one?
Books used in this course
Baker-Shenk, C. & Cokely, D. (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher’s resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: T.J. Publishers.
Humphrey, J. & Alcorn, B. (2007). So you want to be an interpreter? An introduction to sign language interpreting, fourth edition. Renton, WA: H&H Publishing Co, Inc.
Lucas, C. & Valli, C., Mulrooney, K.J. & Villanueva, M. (2011). Linguistics of American Sign Language: An introduction. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.