Students enrolled across the island’s Special Education Centres were fully engaged this past week (March 9th – 14th, 2014) in activities to showcase their talents, as well as involved in multiple interactive settings.
Special Assembly of primary Special Education Centres
A highlight that gave the special needs students the opportunity to shine was that of a joint Special Assembly at the Adrian T. Hazell Primary School on Wednesday, 12th March 2014. All centres presented an item that ranged from a slide show to group singing and dancing. Mr. Ivan Connor, the guest speaker, addressed the audience under the theme, “ Our Challenges Do Not Limit Our Abilities”. In his sharing he utilized different balls to capture the point that even though each of the balls is round, each is used for a specific sport. Hence, even though teachers are working with children, their approach should be different and suited to each child. Children have varying abilities and therefore, teachers must ensure that the challenges are minimized when working with the children.
This morning gathering ended with students from all the centres socializing at ATHPS Special Education Centre.
Story Time for Special Education Centres
On Tuesday, 11th March 2014, pupils from the various primary schools’ Special Education Centres gathered at the Teachers’ Resource Centre for Story Time. Tr. Tracelyn Hamilton ,Principal of the Vivien Vanterpool Primary School entertained pupils with two well-known stories, ‘The Boy who cried who cried Wolf’ and ‘Goldilocks and the three Bears.’
Pupils cuddled with pillows, teddy bears and blankets as Tr. Tracelyn captured their attention with the use of the flannel board and pictures. Pupils were mesmerized with her body language and intonation of the various characters in the stories. The pupils actively participated and mimicked the various characters. Opportunities were also provided for pupils to retell stories and relate their favourite characters or part of the story.
The session which was organized in celebration of Special Education Week 2014 concluded with singing of well-known choruses.
Teachers engaged in an empowerment workshop
Special Education Week also offered an empowering session for teachers entitled, “Establishment of a Professional Learning Community”. This session was hosted by Blossom Center and was facilitated by Mrs. Njeri Carty of Branches for Learning. The objective of the session was to share with teachers the idea of establishing a Professional Learning Community where teachers, both the general classroom teacher and the special education teacher, can work hand in hand to improve standards and classroom practices.
Autism and Diet Informative Session provided the opportunity for persons to learn of the dietary needs suited to this population of students or anyone else with Autism. Presenters were Mrs. Violet Martin, Lead Teacher at D.O.V. E Centre at Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School, and Mrs. Vernice Battick, Dietitian.
Special Education Fun Day climaxed the week’s activities
A splendor of colour was evident to anyone who passed Agricultural Grounds on Friday, 14th March 2014, as teachers, parents, and students from all Special Education Centres across the island, inclusive of Blossom Center, enjoyed a day interacting joyfully with each other as they ended their week’s activities. Activities were organized by the primary physical education teachers who worked tirelessly to ensure that students had a great time demonstrating their talents through skipping, bottle tagging, hola hooping, running and tug of war. The bouncing castle on site provided additional entertainment particularly for students with specific physical challenges.
– Contributed
