Ateliers de l'handicap

This week I got to work with CP (1st grade) again. For math, the teacher focused the lessons on a review of  patterns and basic addition. For language arts, I was able to assist the class with reviewing the "T" sound, Halloween vocabulary the students learned last week, as well as other simple sight words. The teacher taught the class a new song "My Favourite Pumpkin," which the children loved and began to hum throughout class. The cooperating teacher has been easy to work with: in the morning she allows me to observe her teach the activities with one class, and then in the afternoon she allows me to lead the activities with the other class.

The highlight of this week was the ateliers de l'handicap (disability workshops) this morning at the elementary school. In small groups, students were able to rotate to different rooms/areas to learn about what it is like to live with a disability:

• The first rotation was to learn about assistance dogs. Even though we were not allowed to pet the dogs, we got to see an assistance dog that opened a cabinet.
• During the second rotation, students learned about living with visual impairments. There was a blind lady who impeccably read a Braille book to the students and who showed them her device that will read aloud the color(s) of clothes. Another visually impaired lady demonstrated how to use her magnifying device, magnifying glass, and her special sort of sunglasses.
• Students learned about hearing impairments during the third rotation. A deaf lady and an interpreter taught us how to sign banana, mushroom, cherries, grapes, lemon, fish, and the expressions "I really like" and "I don't like." I was impressed that the lady knew how to sign "yellow," obviously an English word.
• During the fourth rotation, students got to experience what it was like to use a wheelchair. The program set up a course with a carpet, a ramp, rocks, and a wood platform that the students had to go through using a wheelchair. The teacher and I also got to go through the course on wheelchairs as well with the students cheering us on. I will admit going down the ramp and through the rocks was very difficult.
• The fifth and final rotation was to see a puppet show about autism. The story was about a girl's experience in class when an autistic boy joins her preschool class. The show presented multiple ways that the teacher and other children could accommodate the autistic student in class.

Overall, I thought the disability workshops went very well. They were very interactive, age appropriate for the young students, and they really encouraged the children to think about what it is like to live with a disability.

Here is a picture of a sign along the wheelchair course in the school courtyard:

Let Toussaint vacation begin!