The ultimate role model

I have met the ultimate role model of teachers. I never analyzed what would make the best teacher, other than the common answers (i.e. the one who cares about students, etc). In my 2nd year of college, I approached the criminal justice department to transfer into their program from the arts program. I met my advisor, Professor Gravitz. She apparently was only professor on the criminal justice board that was advocate for the deaf community. She held other job which was advocating for the deaf, lawyer, rabbi, and I don't know what else.

Professor Gravitz also taught several criminal justice courses at RIT as well. I took three courses with her, which were Concept in Criminal Law, Computer Crime, and Cyberlaw. The Concept in Criminal Law class was first one and I was just blew away by her teaching method. Why was that? The professor, herself had been hearing but already a huge advocate for the deaf community so she knew sign language. Rumors is that she had been an interpreter at one point too.

In the classes she teaches, she signs for herself. The deaf students still have to request interpreters to voice for us. Some students still request C-Print as alternative method if they don't know sign language or don't understand her specific signing ways. C-Print is captioning on laptop - student(s) has a laptop propped up in front of them while someone is sitting on the side of classroom typing everything the professor says. It is almost like TV captioning.

Professor Gravitz is the ultimate role model of what every teacher should be like at RIT. There is a large deaf community so I feel it is necessary for every professor to know some sign language. I was the most comfortable in Gravitz's courses. I never had been the type to speak up in classes to participate in discussions or ask/answer questions, however that wasn't the issue in her classes.

She was aware of the deaf's needs and she fit so perfectly in the ultimate teacher for the deaf community. For example, she signed for herself making us more comfortable to be in mainstreamed classes, and I didn't feel like I was "the deaf student". The C-Print people who types captioning cannot go the full class time (1 hr 50 min) so there usually is a second person that shows up for the 2nd hour to complete C-printing. Gravitz often pauses the class at that time to allow them switch places without the C-print students missing a word. In other classes, most often the students will miss at least 5 minutes of what teachers said while the C-print people switched positions. This gave me the impression of Professor Gravitz having that knowledge of the needs with deaf community, it shows that she truly cared for us. I don't feel that impression from the other teachers. Other professors may do care but their way of showing it may not be similar or they don't have the full knowledge or understanding. I am honored to have that experience of being in her classes as well having her as my professor. Professor Gravitz comes highly recommended!