Day Eleven (Valerie Garza)

The anticipation of working with the children at the Stella Maris School was what woke me up this morning as opposed to my alarm clock. I started the day off early, got ready and made my way downstairs to join some of my peers for breakfast. We soon gathered around the hotel lobby where a group of graduate students were working on last minute preparations for their first day in their classroom. We all sat around and talked about what to expect from our first day at Stella Maris while Dr. Al gave us a few words of wisdom as we soon made our way to the bus. Upon our arrival to the school, we rushed upstairs to the library to gather up and quickly made our way to our designated classrooms. However, one cannot help but to look at the beautiful art murals outside of the school. The art must bring a sense of warmth, comfort and excitement to the children.

As my partners and I walked towards the classroom, the teacher let us know that the children had gathered in the classroom next door for their Christian Assembly time where the children were singing along to This Little Light of Mine and If Your Happy and You Know It. We quickly gathered around the children and encouraged them to sing by singing along with them, clapping and dancing. With us were college students from New York who were helping at the Stella Maris School as well. Two of the students were music education majors and go around classrooms playing a guitar and singing to the children. The children absolutely love them; they are animated and encourage the children to express themselves by interacting with them through music. I thought it was beautiful to see them enjoying their Christian time as much as they were. The smiles on their face while they sang and clapped was wonderful; it was definitely a site worth traveling to a different country for.

As we walked back to the classroom, I formally introduced myself to the teachers and the student from State University of New York at Fredonia who will also be joining our class for the rest of the week. Our teacher's names were Ms. Malil and Ms. Tania as well as a social work undergraduate student from Ferdonia (Jenn) who is also absolutely wonderful with the children. My group and I were assigned to an Autism classroom of all boys; however, we were actually missing a number of students today. Out of the 9 students who are enrolled in the class, only 4 came to class today. Since there were four of us in the classroom, we were able to work one on one with each student. We were there to facilitate and accommodate the teacher as she let us know it was time for math time and they were focusing on numbers from 1 to 10. The teachers were flabbergasted as they immediately noticed a change in the children's abilities. My partner, Alejandra, managed to get a little boy to sit down and actually work when he typically does not do focus fairly easily as he did this morning. Ms. Malil explained how the little boy is extremely active. On the other hand, there was a little boy whom I worked with who I was told the teachers had difficulty getting him to talk. The teachers were also shocked and extremely excited when they heard him talking when given visual cues such as lip shaping and tongue and teeth placement. It was very exciting to see how we made such a difference in only a couple of minutes of being there. The class also has a child who is nonverbal, however, he was not feeling very well today which made it even more difficult to get him to produce. Hopefully we will get him to minimally begin to produce during our time there possibly by starting to answer yes or no questions. The next thing on the student's schedules was break time so they immediately ran outside to the monkey bars as soon as they heard the bell ring. We also followed and walked around talking to the children and meeting new students. As soon as break time was over and they heard the bell they quickly ran back to their designated classrooms without the teachers having to instruct them to return. When we returned and settled back down, Ms. Malil directed us to the kitchen because food preparation was on the student's schedule for today where they learned how to make toast bread. It was such an adventure from walking the children to the kitchen, sitting them down, and having them practice patience because there was only one toaster which meant that each child would have to wait their turn to make their own toast. I waited with a student until it was his turn and made sure to count the slices of bread on his plate. I used hand over hand assistance when having him count the number of slices. We also talked about the different dishes needed to make toast in order to keep him stimulated while waiting for his turn. When it was finally his turn, we also practiced the different steps needed to actually make the toast and prepare it with butter. Once finished eating the toast, the students helped to clean up as we soon made our way back to the classroom.

Ms. Malil told us that we could read a book with them considering we had a couple of minutes to spare before lunch time. Since we all focused on one individual child while being there because there were only 4 children in the entire class, she thought it would be a good idea to read a book with each individual child. I read a book about colors with the student I was with; we looked at the pictures and associated the color with the pictures. He seemed a bit over stimulated so I gave him a break throughout by providing him with a marker and construction paper where I dotted out the names of the colors that we were covering so he could trace the word as we continued to target the colors. As soon as it was lunch time and the children heard the bell, they quickly ran out to their lunch room and we made our way upstairs to the library to await our lunch. Once debriefing and lunch was over, we made our way back to the classroom where it was rest time, but we continued to stimulate the children throughout to keep them entertained. The rest of the day was a bit unorganized as a child form our class was sent home because he was feeling sick so we were left with a class room of three; however, one of kids had to go to a meeting so I was left there with one of my partners and two kids along with Ms. Malil, Ms. Tania, and Jenn. For the rest of the afternoon, we worked on reviewing and reciting the alphabet as well as singing nursery rhymes. Their last task of the day was to clean up; while one child washed dishes, the other wiped down the tables and the teachers swept the floors. This was the end of the day for us as well so we followed by thanking the teachers for allowing our presence and welcoming us with open arms. I talked to the teacher about the activities for tomorrow and suggested to create a group activity for functional reading which is in their schedule for tomorrow. She mentioned she usually recites the ABC's and this week they would focus on the letter J. We will also be planning for a social story for tomorrow which will relate to daily living skills such as washing hands or brushing teeth.

I noticed that the school here is extremely different than what we are used to from the United States. The overall structure of the classroom is extremely different. The teachers had a small picture schedule and a daily chart to help guide the children throughout the day; however, it seems there is a lack of compliance with the schedule which will affect the children's focus throughout the day, especially in an Autism classroom. However, the classroom was nicely organized and appropriately decorated to stimulate learning which is greatly encouraged as far as the ABC's, months of the year and colors. As we said our goodbyes, we called it a day at the Stella Maris School. Tomorrow, a new adventure awaits. Although we had a small group today, we might have a larger group tomorrow and I am excited to see what they have in store for us for tomorrow as today was such an amazing first day of interacting with such a wonderful group of children.