What Is TeachASL?	How To Subscribe:
TeachASL Rules of the Road:	How To SIGNOFF (Leave/Unsubscribe):
The Best of TeachASL  (terrific topics we've discussed :-)	How To Send Messages:
Quizlets & Surveys (fun stuff we've asked ourselves)	How To Set To Digest:
	Recommended Setting:
	Other Useful Commands:
TeachASL FAQ page:  (coming soon!)	Searching the Archives:  (coming soon)

What Is TeachASL:

TeachASL is an listserv (email version of a party-line) which was designed to provide on-going communication for Teachers of ASL.

TeachASL was a natural outgrowth of both the TERPS-L & IEPFAC-L lists.  TeachASL is owned and maintained by Paul Cowley & Alysse Rasmussen (Alysse@cde.com).  Paul manages the administrative end at the university (for when the computer really glitches things up).  Alysse plays "chief cook & bottlewasher/problem solver" for most everything else.  If things are giving you trouble, or if you've got questions, try asking her first.  If she can't figure it out, she'll give Paul a call and he'll settle everyone's hash :-)

TeachASL Rules of the Road:

At the moment, we only have two rules.

...   which means, essentially, cut everybody a lot of slack (remember, you were a newbie once), ignore what doesn't interest you, don't flame, etc.

The second is:  PARTICIPATE.

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

How To Subscribe:

To join, send an e-mail message to:

The body of the e-mail message should say:

Heres' a sample with "real" words :-)

TO:  LISTSERV@Admin.Humberc.on.ca
SUBJECT:  I'm Joining TeachASL
MESSAGE:  SUB TeachASL Alysse Rasmussen

PICTURE AVAILABLE ...
If you'd like to see exactly what an email should look like (AOLers this is for you!), click here:

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

How to Send Messages:

The basics:

Send an e-mail message to:

The subject line of the e-mail message should be relevant/summarize what you're writing about.  For example:  Subject:  Voicing Policy ... not Subject:   RE: TeachASL Digest # 123.

PICTURE AVAILABLE ...
If you'd like to see exactly what an email should look like (AOLers this is for you!), click here:
 
 

The long-winded explanation of how & why listservs work (or don't work):

This is where mailing lists get a bit confusing.

A good analogy might be if you were to think of LISTSERV as the administrative side of a college or university and the TeachASL as the Foreign Language department under the direction of the University itself.

Believe it or not, LISTSERVs/TeachASL & universities/foreign language departments work pretty much the same.

Suppose you want to contact the university and register for a class.  You send a letter, fill out the forms --just so!-- and it goes to the mailroom (where there's a mailroom clerk who could care less about you.  Sound familiar? :-)

If you've addressed the letter perfectly:

    LISTSERV@Admin.Humberc.on.ca

and made your request perfectly clear

    SUB TeachASL MyFirstName MyLastName

the clerk has no excuse not to do as you've asked.  If, however, you've typed so much as one letter wrong, that mail clerk will use it as an excuse to pretend ignorance.  The most you can hope for is a nasty, incomprehensible note that says you did something wrong.  One thing I can guarantee you, mailroom clerk or LISTSERV, neither will explain themselves to you.

Once you've gotten past the mail clerk the first time, things get a little easier.  The only time you'll have to deal with the mailroom again is when you want to leave (SIGNOFF) or change your "classes" (DIGEST, HEADINGS, etc) or get to messing around in the stacks (INDEX archives).

So, now that you're in:
You've survived the administrative gobbledygook ... and you're all set up to take classes, exchange information with your peers and professors, so no more problems.  Right?

Wrong!

The department (TeachASL) has a secretary, too.  While she's not as bad as the mailroom clerk, if you put her nose out of joint, she can get in a snit.  And, like the mailroom clerk who couldn't care less, the departmental secretary is a stickler for details.

High up muckety-mucks from the school can send notes back and forth using the BITNET address.  Members of the staff ... those with tenure, mind you ... can send notes back and forth using BITNET.   She, as the secretary, is also entitled to use the muckety-muck address: TeachASL@Humber.BITNET.

But Lo! betide the student who's so bold as to usurp secretarial priviledges.  If she catches you using the word "BITNET" in your correspondence, she'll bounce you back on your ear so fast your head will spin.

You're just a freshman (or maybe even a grad student) -- but no way is that secretary going to let you get "above" yourself and "put on airs".  What's more, you can't just turn the paper over (hit the "reply" key) and scribble a note for your friends and leave it with her to pass on for you either.  If you want to talk to anyone, you'll have to go through proper channels -- and use a clean envelope!  The "proper" channels are:

TeachASL@Admin.Humberc.on.ca

If you just hit the "reply" key (and don't double check to make sure that the address is the "proper" address), the secretary will throw your post back in your face and tell you that you're using an illegal address.

So, bottom line:

There's a 99.9% probablility that your mail will come from:

TeachASL@Humber.BITNET

BUT! ---

if you want to reply back, you're going to have to readdress the mail to:

TeachASL@ADMIN.humberC.ON.CA

(The computer, by the way, doesn't care if you use upper or lower case.  I've used upper case in the second example to show you the changes you'll need to make to send messages back when you hit the "reply" key.)

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

Recommended Settings

When you orginally subscribe to TeachASL, your settings will probably be:

Paul recommends that everyone set their headers to IETF.  That way, when you hit the "reply key", your mailer will always return the poster's address rather than the Listserv Address. NOTE:  This will also mean that sending a message to the entire list requires an act of will. Thus messages intended for individuals will not show up on the list.  This is a particularly nice feature which helps us keep from accidentally flooding each other's mailboxes with a flurry of personal and non-relevant messages.

I have a higher tolerance level when it come to junk mail :-)  ... so whatever, it's fine with us.

If you would like to follow Paul's recommended settings (and keep yourself from accidently sending a private message to 240 some odd people :-), send an e-mail to:

saying:

Doing this will change your settings to:
Ack= No, Mail= Yes, Files= Yes, Repro= No,
Header= IETF, Conceal= No

You can always check you settings by sending an e-mail to:

All This Alphabet Soup:

What does all this "alphabet soup" mean?

Ack=Yes means that each time you send a message to TeachASL you will get a little email note back saying "Your post to TeachASL was  received".  Ack=No means that each time you send a message to TeachASL you will NOT get a little email note back.  Recommendation:  "yes" is for the nervous type :-) who doesn't mind a lot of junk email.  Most people will vote "no".  It's less wear & tear on you!

Mail=Yes means that you will get copies of everything that is sent to TeachASL.  If you need to leave for a bit and don't want your mailbox stuffed when you come back, you can change the settings to Mail=No.  The only trick is once you're back, you have to remember that you did it and that now, if you want mail to start again, you've got to undo it. :-)  You can also set the mail to "digest" (come in a clump), see "How To Set to Digest".

I've forgotten what Files=Yes means (so it must be real important -- not!)

Ditto for Repro=No.  If I remember, if it becomes important, or if enough people ask me, I'll look it up :-)
 

Other Useful Commands:

COMMAND                                           What it does
SUBscribe TeachASL <full_name>                Subscribe to the list or change your name if already subscribed
SIGNOFF                                                     Unsubscribe
SET TeachASL <pick 1 of the following>       Alters your subscription options:
             ACK                                                 Lets you know the listserv got your post
             NOACK                                           Doesn't clutter up your mailbox with "we got, we'll send it" messages

             Mail                                                   What' you'll  want to have 99% of the time (you get mail :-)
             NOMail                                             Doesn't send you anything -- VACATION mode :-)

             DIGests                                             Sends your emails in a clump
             NODIGests                                       Sends you each post as it arrives at the listserv

             REPro                                               You get copies of your own posts (lets you know they arrived :-)
             NOREPro                                         You get zip, nada ... have to wait for someone to reply
                                                                               before you know they saw what you sent.
 

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

How To Set To Digest:

Sometimes getting 25 individual posts from TeachASL everytime you call in can be overwhelming.  I know!

Send an e-mail to:

You don't need to put anything in the subject line (but you can if you want).  However, the body of the message must read:

That's all it takes.

PICTURE AVAILABLE ...
If you'd like to see exactly what an email should look like (AOLers this is for you!), click here:

There is, of course, a trick ... if you want to go back to the "un-digested" mode :-)

If you change your mind and decide that you'd rather get individual mailings, you've got to send another command to the LISTSERV@Admin.Humberc.on.ca saying:  SET TeachASL MAIL.

PICTURE AVAILABLE ...
If you'd like to see exactly what an email should look like (AOLers this is for you!), click here:

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

How To SIGNOFF (Leave/Subscribe):

We're really sorry to see you go, but if you must:

The body of the e-mail message should say:

You don't have to put anything in the subject line, but since some software (especially AOL) requires SOMETHING, use a "." or write something that makes sense to you, LISTSERV, I assure you, will ignore anything (and everything) it doesn't understand.

PICTURE AVAILABLE ...
If you'd like to see exactly what an email should look like (AOLers this is for you!), click here:

To get to the top of the TeachASL page, click here.

Quizlets & Surveys

Parameters Quizlet:

1st 6 weeks Quizlet:

Prefered Text Quizlet:

The Y2K Quizlet:

More Neat Stuff to Come ... 'specially if you volunteer to make it happen :-)

Periodically we have terrific discussion on voicing, teaching styles, texts, etc.  Again, if we have a volunteer compiler, we'll post the results.

So, in other words, volunteer!    :-)

To volunteer, sent a message offering to do so to Alysse@cde.com.

This  Foreign Language Teachers Web Ring site  is owned by Alysse Lemery Rasmussen.  [ Next | Prev | Random: We Pick For You | List All | Skip 1 | Choose From Next 5 | Choose From Prev 5]  Want to join the ring? Get the info.

This Deaf Web Ring site is owned by Alysse Lemery Rasmussen.  [ Next Page | Skip It | Next 5 | Prev 5 | Prev] Want to join the ring? Get the info.

Created 1997
opyright, 1997 Alysse Lemery Rasmussen
Last modified 11/26/99