When teacher Jen Mott takes to the stage at the front of her classroom at San Benito High School, it’s a sign. Not that students are misbehaving, but that it’s time to practice language.
Mott, 34, is the school’s lone teacher of American Sign Language, which has gained popularity with students in recent years, doubling from the three classes that Mott taught five years ago to six classes and a special ASL club.
“Even with 40 kids in every class, there’s still a waiting list,” Mott said. “And it breaks my heart.”
Mott thinks the language’s popularity is on an uptick thanks to the presence of a deaf character in the television show “Switched at Birth” and because of positive reviews from students on campus.
“When students take it, they recommend it to their friends,” said Mott, who has watched boyfriends, girlfriends and siblings of students in her advanced classes start her beginning courses so they can converse together.
For many students, learning the hand signals means learning a language that lets them communicate secret messages that parents, peers and other friends won’t understand.
“What’s nice is they all get to practice together,” she said. “They love the language, but not just in this class.”
Mott is not deaf, but she grew up signing because it was the language of her brother’s best friend and their neighbor Ray Welsh. Just like her students, Mott enjoyed having a language that others-especially her mother-couldn’t follow.
“It was like this language that we had that she didn’t understand,” Mott said. “She’d know we were up to no good, though.”
Her students selected sign language over Spanish and French to fulfill their foreign language requirements for a variety of reasons. Sophomore Nate Cardenas took the class so he could speak with his deaf cousin.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said. “You can have your own conversation with him.”
Others are attracted to the class because they heard it is one of the easier languages to learn, though Mott says it is difficult in a different way since it is visual and students must stand on a stage in front of the class to demonstrate signs.
“It’s very unique,” said Brittney Navarro, a freshman in one of Mott’s classes. “I guess I took this class because I wanted to learn something different.”
As the class split into small groups, Navarro practiced vocabulary by writing a word on a white board and holding it up for peers to sign. Frankie LePore, another student in Navarro’s small group, agreed the magic of sign language is that is so different from other languages.
“Like she said, it is a unique language. You don’t see it around,” he said. “Spanish, you can see here in Hollister.”
For Mott, who became active in the deaf community in Santa Cruz while she went to college at University of California, Santa Cruz, this teaching job was so perfect she never imagined it.
“Really, this job kind of fell out of the sky,” she said. “It’s a dream job I didn’t even know existed.”
When the job was first posted, Mott was actually overseas in Hungary. An interpreter in the district reached out to her and encouraged her to apply.
Mott did the interviews over Skype from a neighbor’s house since the one where she as staying did not have Internet access. At the time, Mott had a credential that allowed her to only teach English, so she set about taking a three-part test so she could teach a second subject-and the rest is history.
“I love teaching in general,” Mott said. “It’s a good life if you love where you go everyday.”
