Sign and Dine Club gives students opportunity to learn a new language, build camaraderie
Members of the Sign and Dine club meet before school.
Bearden has recently welcomed the Sign and Dine club as an exciting new addition to Bearden’s wide array of available extracurriculars.
Sign and Dine meets at 8 a.m. on the second, third, and fourth Friday of every month in Room 326.
Each meeting typically begins with members eating breakfast, which is provided by a different member each week. Previous options have included donuts and cereal.
Every student, regardless of experience, is welcome to join the club.
Students then learn how to sign something specific in American Sign Language, following with practice of this new skill. This is repeated once more throughout the meeting.
The club intends to eventually host silent dinners, silent bowling events, or silent Uno.
Sign and Dine was created to give Bearden’s students who are deaf and hard of hearing a safe space that provides a group of peers to communicate with in their native language. It gives students who are hard of hearing the opportunity to be introduced to sign language as well, since not all students who are hard of hearing are fluent in ASL.
Sign and Dine sponsor Ms. Donya Walker said many students who are deaf or hard of hearing “feel isolated in a larger school community, so this is a way to get them involved.”
As a whole, the club introduces a new language to students, as well as enforcing practice on a weekly basis. It is a way for Bearden’s campus to become more inclusive to all students.
“It would be amazing at some point in the future to integrate sign into every aspect of the day,” Ms. Walker said. “Interpreting BBN, the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ even eventually offering shows that have an interpreted performance, truly making it a part of the BHS culture.”
The next meeting will be on October 8 in Room 326. All students are welcome.