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A Sign at BIS Houston

By Alexis Westlake, British International School of Houston, School Buzz Reporter | May 15, 2022

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Teaching the alphabet during a British Sign Language club meeting. From left to right: Cameron C., Audrey I., Nicole D., Mawiya J., Abiye J., Alexis W.

Sign language is a complex form of communication that is made up of hand gestures, body language and facial expressions used to communicate with those of the deaf community. Since BIS Houston does not provide a sign language class or club, I took it upon myself to create one.

It has always been my dream to learn sign language, whether that be American or British, and finally, after years of wishing, I managed to find an online course that takes you through the basics of British sign language. It includes learning how to introduce yourself, descriptions, daily activities and much more. The course is intended to take up to three months. However, I am now going into my seventh.

Now, you may wonder why British and not American sign language. I chose to learn British Sign Language as my school is predominantly international students, and I was not only considering where I want to be living in my future, but also those that I will be teaching in my club. Yes, my club. As part of my CAS project, I have decided to set up a British Sign Language club, in which we meet every Thursday lunch time and I teach a small group of students in Year 12 – and a couple of teachers – the basics of sign language.

So far, I have been running this club for about five weeks, and I have hit a lot of road bumps along the way. The main one was that, although I love my club being small and predominately made up of my friends, this has also made it very difficult for them to concentrate and I tend to not get through very many signs in the short time we have. However, it has been extremely fun and has given me the great experience of teaching.

My goal that I hope will come out of this is that I will be able to extend my club into other years next year and grow it so that I will get more time to teach and be able to teach more signs. This means teaching those that I don’t know, but I trust that a growth of confidence will come from it, and I cannot wait. But before I can get there, I must finish my course. Wish me luck!