No talking. That is the rule written on the whiteboard for all to see.

When students momentarily forget, she gives them the look—the one that says, “You have been warned.”

Meet Pat Masterson, 61, a professor of American Sign Language at City College. Though a small woman, only 5 feet 3 inches, her commanding presence would make the biggest lineman jealous.

Masterson’s straightforward attitude is tough enough to earn the respect of her students. But it is her quick smile and wry sense of humor that really grabs their attention.

“She’s cool,” says former student Yolanda Cortez. “And she is funny.”

Masterson has spent the last 14 years of her 35-year career teaching sign language at City College. Her interest in A.S.L. began in the early 1970s when Masterson volunteered to assist a class for children with special needs in which several of the students had learned to sign.

“I love kids,” says Masterson. “I thought it was a great way for them to communicate.”

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It was during her time as a student that Masterson met two people who would change her life: Ernie Whisenant and Lois Diamond. Both were City College professors and Masterson credits them with inspiring her to pursue her own career in academia.

“They taught me how to teach,” says Masterson.

Former student Andrea Svoboda says that Masterson’s teaching style made a real difference in the way she learned.

“She knows what she’s doing,” says Svoboda. “She makes it stick.”

Though her methods bring signing into the world of the practical, Masterson knows that not all her students will become experts in A.S.L. But she also hopes to have taught something more.

“I want them to remember the experience of learning to accept others,” says Masterson. “It’s okay to be different.”