Gina: Week 6 Blog 2

Today, I was back in the vocational area. The first thing I did upon arriving at the consortium was go straight to the clerical room. I was pretty early and I figured that I could use the time to set up so that I wouldn’t have to rush or stress. I met Carolyn there and we made sure that everyone had good jobs to do. When we were done, we went downstairs to set up for prime products, then went back up to clerical to work with the group of kids who came up. I worked with one of my mom's students who was given a live job. His job was to stick sticky foam pieces to the back of laminated cards. The cards were neon green and said, “Remember to close your windows” with a picture of a window on them. When he was done, we brought them around the school and stuck them on every single door in every single classroom. The goal of the card was to catch the teacher’s eye before leaving so that windows were not left open. After we finished delivering the cards, the student went back to class and I went back to prime products to work with a group of kids. Then I had lunch and came back to work on prime products in a different class with 2 students and Carolyn. After this, I did whatever jobs were left for us to complete. I made some copies, cut pictures out, and made sure that the student’s projects were coming out nicely. That was my day!

Gina: Week 6 Blog 1

On Monday, I was put in a classroom of low-functioning autistic kids. The classroom was on the third floor and next to my mom’s classroom. They are in the “red wing” on the third floor. There are three wings and three floors at the school, which were explained to me in depth yesterday. There is a red wing, a purple wing, and a green wing. The first floor is made up of handicapped kids of all different ages and a pre-school class that is half special needs and half “model students.” The purple wing on the second floor is for really behavioral kids, and the purple wing on the third floor is rented out by a pre-school. The red wing on the second floor is higher-functioning autistic kids and the library, and the red wing on the third floor is older autistic kids. The green wing is on the second floor is younger kids with autism and the green wing on the third floor is the occupational therapy wing.

Along with finding that out, I had a really good day. The teacher in the class I was put in was super nice and a overall a great teacher. The kids in his classroom were from ages 18-22. They are all very low-functioning so we mostly played games and did some recycling work. One of the students in the class was a boy who is around our age and I was with him for most of the day. He would stop what he was doing and give me high-fives or blow bubbles and we would all try to pop them before they hit the ground. We had a lot of fun and I had a great experience in a different kind of classroom!

Week 5 Blog 3

Friday was a really busy day at the consortium. When I got there, I was planning on just working in the vocational area but due to the fact that my mom’s staff called out sick, I was put in her classroom as a substitute. The first part of my day was getting the kids off the bus and doing morning meeting. Luckily, the other sub is a “floating para” which means she is around the school everyday to help out in whichever class she is needed in so she knew what to do. It was a little hard though because my mom who is the teacher had a student meeting for the first couple hours of the day. After this, the kids made pancakes. While they did this, I went downstairs to the vocational area so I could help set up for the art show. When the kids were done, I went back upstairs to help them do their work. They worked in the supply room counting utensils and putting a band around them and then did writing and math worksheets. When they were finished, we went bowling and got pizza. Every Friday, the class takes a trip, which the students call “Pizza bowling.” It kind of helps them behave during the week because they have something to look forward to. When I got back from this at around 1, I went down to the first floor to make sure that everything was set up. At 3 o’clock, everything was done and I went home!

Gina: Week 5 Blog 2

Today, I worked in the vocational area again. On Friday the school is having an art show so today I did a lot of running around to get everything together. The vocational area is running the art show this year. I went to every classroom and asked the teachers if they would need a table, a wall, or a floor to display their class project and also what the title of the project would be. There are about 30 classrooms and 10 of them had no clue what the titles of their projects would be. The theme of the art show this year is “Seasons” so there are about 8 classrooms assigned to each season. My mom’s classroom had the theme of spring so they planted flowers in a box and are displaying it on the table titled “The window of Spring.” It’s really cute because the flowers look like they are in a window box which goes along with the catchy title. By the end of the day there were only three teachers who didn’t have titles but told me that they would get back to me by tomorrow. I don’t think that anybody reads these other than advisors but if you are reading this and need last minute COMMUNITY SERVICE, you can help out at the art show from 4:30-7 at the Consortium!! Other than that though, my day consisted of setting up for clerical and prime products only to have many kids not even show up. It didn't really matter though because the same kids will come tomorrow and now their jobs are already set up! It was a pretty easy day but I have to say, I’m really loving my SCORE project!!

Week 5 Blog 1

Today, I was put in the classroom that I was originally going to be in for my SCORE project but due to overstaffing, I was put in the vocational area. The room I was in today was a classroom of 5 boys who were all autistic and behavioral and from ages 6-10. When I first got to the classroom, I was assigned to stay with one of the boys and watch him do his work because he is the least behavioral and it was only my first day in the classroom. After watching him work for a little bit, it was time for gym. The whole class went to the gym and we played with the parachute which was so much fun. I remember playing with the parachute when I was in elementary school and it was my favorite thing ever. After gym, we went back to the classroom and the kids had morning meeting. After that, was snack and then we went out to the playground. I helped push the kids on swings and watched with the teachers to make sure that everyone was being careful and behaving. When we went back inside, the kids did more schoolwork. I stayed with the same boy and watched him read and do math. I was so amazed at how smart he was though because I had no clue that he could count by fives and read so well. Then the kids had lunch and after we played a game. After the game, the kids filled out their home notes and then went to the playground until the busses came to pick them up.