Mrs. Lahn

Mrs. Lahn is a new teacher here at the High School, but she has been teaching in the Middle School for a few years now. She teaches American Sign Language, which is also new to Lindenhurst as it was added as an option to take for a foreign language only four years ago. Currently, she teaches ASL 2 and ASL 2H here at the High School, and ASL 1 at the Middle School. Here are some questions and answers to provide some background information on Mrs. Lahn and the course that she teaches:

1. How old were you when you started learning ASL and why did you start? I started learning ASL when I was almost 2 years old. My brother who is a year younger than me was born deaf, my parents found out when he was about 6 months old. From then on we started to take family ASL classes. ASL is my second language.
2. How have your experiences with the Deaf community been? I have had many experiences in the Deaf community. Since I am a SODA I tend to have very positive experiences. I am welcomed into the community very easily and since I am a fluency signer there are no communication barriers.
3. What led you to the decision of becoming an ASL teacher? When I took ASL in college as my foreign language I wanted to be an ASL interpreter at first. However, I completed my BS and MS degrees in different levels of education. I was a Special Education Teacher for 12 years before I started teaching ASL. I started out as an Adjunct Professor and as more positions for ASL teachers became available in districts I made the jump over to a fulltime ASL teacher.
4.  What is your favorite unit to teach? I have two units that I love to teach; 1. Careers and Occupations 2. Introduction to ASL.
5.  How is teaching at the High School different from teaching at the Middle School? Teaching at the HS level is different from the MS because we move at a faster pace. Also, since most of my students have the basic foundation of ASL we are able to have more complex conversations in ASL.
6. Overall, what is your favorite part about teaching ASL? My favorite part of teaching ASL is watching students’ expressions when they start to comprehend the language and use it on their own.