I awoke today with butterflies of excitement in my belly; we are finally going to do some therapy in Belize! Yay!
After another great breakfast we were picked up by the Stella Maris school bus and off we went! Upon arriving at the school, we were assigned to our classrooms and we excitedly made our way to our new home away from home for the next few days. Initially, I was assigned to an upper level classroom of about 8 students (5 boys and 3 girls). When we walked in (my partner and I), we were greeted with all the children standing and saying, “Good morning, Welcome to our class!” Too cute! The teacher then resumed her lesson on the nativity of Jesus. As she read the story, she assigned the children to the different roles and had them reenact the Nativity. Two things I loved about this: religion was incorporated into the lesson and the teacher used multiple modalities to reinforce learning of the topic. Next, she worked on adjectives and again, she did everything right. She was pretty great! And the children were very attentive and well behaved. I had heard that the teachers and children were phenomenal and after this first experience in the classroom, I have to say I agree.
After about an hour in that classroom, I left to the resource room to get some supplies and ran in to our tour guide who was looking for Mrs. Garcia. I proceeded to help locate her and in the process came across a room that we had neglected to provide support to. It was hidden away from the main classroom areas and we would have never seen it had I not come about it by happenstance. When I entered the classroom, Mrs. Garcia (the Stella Maris teacher, not the TAMIU professor) was very happy to see me and asked if I would be supporting her classroom. Her students were severely Autistic and would have definitely benefited from our presence. I assured her I would return and I set off to find Dr. Al or Mrs. Garcia let them know of the situation. Once I found Dr. Al and informed him of the classroom population, he readily agreed for me to work with that room and assigned a partner to help out.
When Christina and I arrived in the classroom and introduced ourselves to the teachers, we jumped right in. We pulled out to two of the children (suggested by the teacher) and worked on object identification. I think their unfamiliarity with us impeded therapy a little because after working with the group and some interaction on the playground, they were more receptive to our instruction.
After lunch, the children were provided with a functional language lesson using object identification of a plate, glass, and silverware. The teacher was receptive to our feedback of beginning the children with one step instructions and praising their accomplishments, no matter how small. In fact, both teachers were receptive to all of our feedback and immediately began to implement our suggestions.
When working with the children the rest of the day, we utilized modeling, oral/sign combinations, gesturing, and hand over hand instruction, which was a new concept to the teachers. We conversed with the teachers while the children were on break we learned more about the children, their background, and the level of parental involvement. This was great insight and will allow us to better serve these children in the days to come. The teachers appeared disappointed to learn we would only be with them for a week. I feel that same disappointment in my heart.
After only a day with these great teachers and kids, I feel like I could do this work on a more permanent basis. I have thoroughly enjoying the cultural aspects of this trip and learning about this beautiful county but after spending time in the classroom, I feel like the children could really benefit from us being at Stella Maris longer. I know Speech Therapy does not exist in this country but if it did, I might consider relocating. I have really grown to love Belize and I can see why Dr. Al and Mrs. Garcia are so passionate about this country. It just so unBelizeable!!
No comments:
Post a Comment