Alexandria's Deaf Studies Journey

Tips and inspiration for college/university I've picked up along the way.

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

Lazy study tip! If you haven’t been reading your chapters and want to catch up before an exam, read the key terms and chapter summary!

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

So I’ve been using the Forest app for my summer classes and I enjoy it a lot! I want to get something for October studying, but I can’t decide. I’m thinking of these:

Scarecrow ($600)

Pumpkin ($300)

Maple ($2000)

Ghost mushroom ($1200)

Witch mushroom ($1200)

Which one should I get?

[wanderingnelipot]

"TikToker Teaches Black American Sign Language"

[wildmage7]

Hey, so I’ve been meaning to learn ASL for a while, but I don’t know where to start.

Anyone know where the best place to start learning ASL for free is if I don’t know anyone in the deaf community who could teach me and can’t take a class on it til next year?

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

I know my followers see me say this a lot but Bill Vicars is a hard of hearing professor who has an online ASL website called LifePrint and he has ASL 1 and 2 for free on there. It’s amazing!

[star-anise]

The most valuable thing I learned doing a Masters degree with depression, anxiety and ADHD was to change my “things I’m bad at” list to “things I can’t do on my own.” Stop thinking of them as things I could do if I tried hard enough, and accept that I can’t accomplish them by effort and willpower alone; they’re genuine neurocognitive deficits, and if I need to do the thing, then just like a blind person reading or a mobility impaired person going up a storey in a building, I need to find a different method.

I’m “bad at” working on long-term projects without an imminent deadline or someone breathing down my neck? Okay, let’s change that: I can’t work on long-term projects without an imminent deadline and someone breathing down my neck. So let’s create an imminent deadline and recruit neck-breathers. Find a sympathetic prof who will agree that 3 weeks before the due date they expect me to show them my preliminary notes and bibliography. Get a friend I trust to block off an hour to sit with me and keep asking, “Are you working on your project?” Write a blog post about my progress. Arrange to trade papers and proofread them with another student.

Accept your limitations and learn to leverage them, instead of buying the neurotypical fairytale that they’ll go away if you just try hard enough.

[bead-bead-deactivated20190901]

I needed this so much.

[dungeonsdonuts-deactivated20200]

Very encouraging, especially helpful.

[epistemologicalnightmares-deact]

Imagine finding that you have this plus dyslexia during your master’s. Kudos man for being this introspective!

[interdisciplinary-disaster]

This and also one other thing. 

I keep seeing posts going around that are like, “what’s the biggest thing you accomplished this year?”

My initial reaction is, “I accomplished absolutely nothing this year.” 

My initial reaction is, “I’m so much less productive than I was last year and I wish I could go back but I can’t do that anymore and it sucks.” 

But that’s a horrible way to look at it. I’m much less productive this year, true, but that’s just because I’ve learned to be kind and supportive to myself about my ADHD, which really is the biggest thing I’ve accomplished this year. 

If I stop and think about it, it’s huge. I started taking my ADHD diagnosis seriously in about February of last year and it took me hitting basically rock bottom in order for it to happen. There was a lot going on. But at the time, I thought I’d never have two consecutive related thoughts ever again. I really thought I was going to have to drop out of the PhD, that I wouldn’t even be able to go back to doing software development because my brain was broken, and that I wouldn’t even be able to learn anything new so I’d just never have a regular job again. And this was before the pandemic hit. 

I might not be as productive as I was last year but I have learned to live with myself, to be kind to myself, to help myself, and how to ask others to help me when I need it. I’m still figuring it all out, but I’m making progress. If I’m less productive it’s because I’m not mentally berating myself for being disorganized, missing deadlines, and forgetting my priorities. I’m not staying up until 7 am to finish things while feeling a burning sense of shame that I couldn’t do it during normal hours. I’m learning that the way it is inside my head is not the way it is inside other people’s heads, and I’m learning to communicate that. And folks, it’s good!

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

Hello everyone! I hope your winter breaks were refreshing or your winter semesters went well.

I’m only taking 8 units this semester but I’m feeling good about them. One is about refining your English skills when interpreting, which I’m really curious about. I thumbed through the textbook and it’s lots of listening and recalling the audio tracks included along with critical thinking about what’s being said.

Which class are you guys looking forward to or even dreading?

[thesweetnotebook]

when I was in high school a comment I got very often was that I should get used to long classes and long exams because that’s what university is like but now with online classes more ppl realized that we can not concentrate on a screen for so long and the thing is maybe it’s not only a screen thing maybe 4 hour long classes are not healthy and maybe we do not learn as good with classes like that I am tired of education being a challenge and something you have to overcome education should be something nice something to enjoy and teaching should be as smooth as possible and not a way to make people stressed and sick just to let the best one survive

[working-meaning]

retweet

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

And fuck a “nobody gets an A in my class/many of you won’t pass” ass professor. DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB AND MAYBE MORE PEOPLE WOULD PASS!!

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

Mini update! Ok I was a complete dumbass at the beginning of the month because my boyfriend’s mom was sick and I decided to spend time over at his place anyway. At first she was diagnosed with a sinus infection, then pneumonia, then she decided to go to the emergency room and got tested. Sure enough, she actually had COVID. So I’ve been in quarantine over the past 12 days switching between full blown motivation and complete burn out. No in between. I tested negative though so that’s about the only upside to this.

[grilledcheese-samwich-deactivat]

finals

[justdoitdaily-fitblr]

im actually speechless

[sonianeverlime-deactivated20150]

I actually did this for math finals

[marvilcomicsrock-blog]

For my English essay we were allowed a sheet of notes so I literally spent a week developing THE perfect essay and then summarising each paragraph into one line of shorthand in tiny writing 100%, A*

[rhdcarts]

in US Government last year our teacher said we could have one notecard to use as a cheat sheet and gave us a whole packet (meaning like 10 pages) of things that would be on our test. he said, and i quote, “there is no way to fit everything youre going to need on there so you better study”  i fit every last piece of info on that card and didnt study at all i got an a

moral of the story: dont tell me what i can and cannot do

[locomania22]

before my midterm in Modern Physics, my teacher told us a story about how one kid kept switching glasses during an exam. he walked over and the kid had red glasses and blue glasses and kept switching between them because he wrote his notecard in red and blue ink. he made a 3d note card.

[xiphoidprocess]

y’all do realize, that with the intense effort it takes to plan and create these sheets, that you’re studying, right? you’re totally studying. love, a TA.

[college-survivalguide]

The best way to study even if you can’t bring a cheat sheet is to make a cheat sheet and write everything you would write on one if you could have one. It’s an awesome method!

[hogwartsaheadcanon]

‘but what you’re doing here is studying. its still studying, that exact thing you didnt want to do before…?’

‘yeah but see this is powered by hubris and spite, so like… it’s better’

[septicake]

^^^^^^^^^^

[studyburst]

I’ve been MIA this last week because I’ve been studying for an exam, but this productivity method has been so helpful in prep-ing for my exam. With an exam a week or two away, studying isn’t exactly an “urgent” task but it’s important that I actually do it. Using the eat the frog method helped me get practice exams out of the way first thing so I could focus easily on other tasks. It also stopped me from procrastinating and putting off study tasks.

Images are courtesy of the amazing flaticon and all their creators.

[transempowerment]

‼️ OUTSIDE OPPORTUNITY ‼️

Check out this hangout for Deaf LGBTQIA+ youth by the Deaf Queer Resource Center! For Deaf LGBTQIA+ youth of all ages up to 24yo! (Youth under 13yo must have parental consent)

It will be held in ASL by Cal (16yo) and Pablo (22yo) on Zoom on November 7, 2020, at 11am PT, 12pm MT, 1pm CT, and 2pm ET.

Interested? Email Drago @ Deaf Queer Resource Center ([email protected]) if you are a Deaf LGBTQIA+ youth (or have a Deaf LGBTQIA+ child) and would like to attend; include your name, age, and phone number in your email! RSVP by Friday, November 6, at 5pm PT.

[ID: Screenshot of DeafQueer’s Instagram post of a bright pink graphic. Two crossed legs hang down from the top left corner in rainbow striped socks and untied sneakers. All-caps blue text to the right reads “Deaf LGBTQ+ Youth Hangout. For all ages up to age 24.” Below, the same blue text reads “November 7, 2020. Co-Hosts: Cal & Pablo.” In the bottom right corner is a cartoon person’s chest pulling open a button-up shirt to reveal a rainbow shirt underneath.]

[xxbvbgirlxx]

STOP TRYING TO STUDY BASED ON TIME

Instead, study based on content. An hour could go by and you have spent the last 30 minutes on social media while your textbook was sitting open on the table. If you study until you’re finished going over section one, you’re done studying when you’ve finished section one. BE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR STUDYING GOALS!!

[studyburst]

My past week of exam studying has just been highlighters and salad. I’m looking to meet more studygrams, so please send me your username on IG or follow me and I’ll follow back!

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

Sitting here seeing some Deaf people bashing Deaf U while others are praising it and me wanting to say my take but knowing I shouldn’t since I’m a hearing person not deep enough in the community

[jamesjoeboyleeeee-deactivated20]

Are you hearing and post sign language videos for hearing gain? do you ignore the deaf community? Then this video is for you! 🤟🏼😘❤️❤️❤️❤️

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

My inner ears are apparently different shapes and my left ear doesn’t want to hold an earbud in it which bugs the living hell out of me >:( I can usually focus with one earbud in so long as there isn’t too much noise/activity around me but the pleasing flow of music is disrupted sadly

[alexstudiesdeafpeople]

Fellow ASL students!

Did y’all notice vibrations more as you learned more about the language and culture?

When I was 15 I definitely notice vibrations in new and different ways and I’m just curious if anyone else noticed.