Blog Posting #1

        Hi, everyone! The new occupation that I have chosen is learning ASL, and also to learn more about the deaf and hard of hearing community as a whole. The individuals within the deaf community view themselves as a unique cultural and linguistic minority, and I think it will be extremely beneficial to learn as much as I can about these individuals. As I prepare to integrate this new occupation into my life, I have talked to a cousin of mine who is a special education teacher and proficient in ASL. She has also connected me to a coworker of hers, who majored in ASL in college and has become an interpretor. With these resources, I plan to have their help in tracking my progress and seeing what more I can do to be successful. As well as contacting those resources, I have also looked into deaf community activities and events throughout Pocatello. ISU has an amazing ASL club that I hope to attend some events, and there are also deaf events posted online that I plan to attend. Along with that, I have also ordered the book "Deaf Community in America: History in the Making" that I will read weekly. I plan to supplement learning sign language with these additional resources to ensure that I am gaining as much background and information as possible. 

    The continuum of meaning described in Hasselkus states that self-definitions of meaning anchors one end of the continuum and social definitions of meaning anchors the other end. I feel that as I begin my occupation of sign language and learning about the deaf community, I am relying on the social definitions to provide meaning. Because I am so new to ASL, I don't know many signs and don't know a lot about the community. I plan to learn from others and their experiences, and get a better grasp on ASL and its aspects as a whole. After relying on others who are proficient in ASL and the deaf community, I hope to be able to create more independent and self-definitions of the occupation, and to create more meaning for myself. 

    Within the modes of calculative thinking and meditative thinking, I unfortunately believe that my new occupation and the steps I am taking to implement it fall mainly within the calculative mode. In the sense of calculative thinking, I have created plans to help me successfully implement my new occupation. I have also completed research to find information on ASL and the deaf community, and have ordered a book as a useful tool to use. Meditative thinking, however, takes a much higher level of insight and individually composed meaning. I hope to improve on my overall knowledge of ASL and the deaf community, and in doing that become more successful in thinking meditatively about my new occupation. 

I'm really looking forward to this journey of learning ASL, and am really excited to hear about all of your new occupations and plans to implement them into your life!