The months of April and May have sprinted past me. I didn't even notice! I suppose it is time for you to let you know what I have been up
to on this side of the world. As always, this will be long, but hopefully the
pictures break it up!
April was full of workshops! The first workshop was a two
part Disability Awareness workshop in a nearby village. The PCV at that village
and I worked together to create a program to introduce her young women (Youth
Development Volunteer) to Special Education, inclusion, and accessibility. We
were able to develop a successful interactive program, including both lectures
and activities. One of my teachers gave information about Special Needs, her
Special Education program in college, the work with our students, and ways to
assist people with disabilities. She was a lifesaver! I asked her last minute
to talk about our students for a bit and she ended up providing the bulk of
educational component of the workshop! She and I taught the girls (ages 13-16)
some Arabic Sign Language, and then we transitioned to awareness games.
This component is fairly controversial, using games like
blind mazes, charades, etc to teach some sort of awareness, but I chose to
include it because it provided an interactive way to engage younger students
and get everyone moving after the lecture portion. The students and teachers
both participated and loved each part. After each game we sat discussed how it
felt to be blind, nonverbal, etc. The young women were able to beautifully
articulate the difficulties facing many of my students.
We also included time to walk around the center and discuss
accessibility. The girls were upset to realize that people with physical
impairments wouldn't even be able to enter the center because they have stairs
with no ramp. The bathrooms were the other part of the center that they were appalled
to see the lack of accessibility. I distinctly remember one girl looking at me
with clear alarm and saying “They cant even go to the bathroom?!!?” I was
thrilled that going around the center and redesigning it was such an
eye-opening experience.
Inclusion was also discussed during our workshop. We played
a game in which they had to get in groups based on the color of paper on their
back (without talking). It is a typical icebreaker game, but in this, we had a
couple girls alone and then discussed how they felt when everyone was pushing
them away from the group and didn't want to include them. One of the girls
actually said “I felt autistic”. I wanted to say, “well, my job here is done”,
but we talked about what that meant and ways to include children with special
needs.
The final activity of the day was designing an activity-day,
run by the girls, for the students at my center. The girls came up with
different stations and a group art project.
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| getting in groups for inclusion activity |
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| discussion about how it felt to be excluded |
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| some of the participants |
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| Nawal (Program Manager/Translation lifesaver) and Bryan (Country Director) stopped by to support us! |
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| Some of the girls and staff from Kasumi's youth center |
A couple weeks later, my students
arrived and we had a fun-filled day of pin-the-tail on the lion, musical
chairs, art, bowling, and finger-painting! The most rewarding part of this day,
besides watching the girls figure out how to modify the activities for each
group, was the relationships that were being formed throughout the day. The
students and the girls from the youth center really bonded! Hopefully we will
be able to recreate this during the next semester. Our goal is for our centers
to be friends without us being involved, so when our time in Jordan is over,
their friendship can continue to grow!
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| Ghaida adaptive bowling (she kicked it) and her cheerleaders |
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| pin the tail on the lion! |
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| art project |
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| fingerpaint posters (each student and girl made a flower on each poster). we made two posters, one for my center and one for their center. They are like friendship posters! |
The second workshop was with a fellow SPED volunteer. We put
together a behavior management workshop to present to our teachers. She was on
her A-game, she always is, and got a local professor to come and help
facilitate our workshop. We were also able to get out powerpoint slides
translated by local students at a university (another amazing program started
by a PCV), so it was all in Arabic! We had the teachers popcorn read the slides
and handouts. The powerpoint focused on positive discipline techniques,
specifically ways to improve positive behavior and minimize negative behavior.
We spent most of the time on how to creative behavior charts and appropriate
ways to reinforce behaviors. After a discussion-filled presentation, we had the
teachers get together and perform skits. They had a disruptive student
(hitting, not paying attention, leaving the room, etc) and practiced effective
discipline tools. We ended the workshop with arts & crafts time. We made
rainbow behavior charts for each room so the teachers could have them up and
ready to use the next week!
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| Discussing the Mistaken Goals chart |
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| presenting the Rainbow behavior chart |
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| rainbow chart (me, maggie, dr. zayne) |
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| crafting joy! making rainbow charts |
The workshop allowed our teachers (from both centers) an
opportunity to come together, share complaints, discuss goals, and develop new ideas
for behavior management for the classroom. It acted, in part, as a support
group for the teachers. Again, as with the other workshop, the hope is they
will continue to do activities with each other, strengthening the relationship
between SPED centers.
Maggie, the other volunteer, and I felt fantastic about the
workshop, and the professor asked if we would be willing to recreate the
workshop in a couple of her classes. Stay tuned for those developments!
I don’t want to bore you with all the things happening, but
there is one more adventure I would like to include in this post… you know…since
you are here and reading anyway.
Special Education Week in Jordan just happened to be in May.
Centers across Jordan were encouraged to take part by visiting other centers,
going on public outings, inviting visitors, etc. I am incredibly proud of my
center for having an outing or activity each day of the week. My teacher and I
found out the dates for SPED week the Wednesday before, and panicked. Luckily I
had contacts at a few of the SPED centers (one I which I randomly met on a bus
on the way to Amman. She was the director of a center near us and very familiar
with Peace Corps. She had three volunteers at her site. What luck!) and we were
able to create a schedule for my students.
The first day was Easter, so I was not able to attend the
field trip, but apparently it went well. The most impressive thing, at least
what got talked about most, was the impressive floor to ceiling murals) That
was actually the final push needed for me to start our murals, but more on that
later.
The second day we went to a SPED center in the Ajlun area,
Maggie’s center. Our students got to be friends, our teachers were able to
reconnect from the workshop day, and we made crowns covered in “bling” from
Maggie.
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| Maggie, some of our students, me and so many crowns! |
Day three was a visit to another center. The director of the
center used to be the physical therapist at our center, so the teachers were
excited to see him and what he has been doing at his center. It was beautiful
center. It was about three times the size of our center, complete with a physical
therapy room, gardening program, and practical skills workshops for the
students (basket-weaving, printing, etc).
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| making baskets |
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| My teachers getting a tour of the center |
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| dance party with new friends |
Visiting this center was a wake-up
call for my teachers, and on the second part of the day we spent most of the
time watching the students play and discussing ways to improve our center. The
main discussion was about his involvement and dedication in the center. While
there is no doubt that our director loves our students and she absolutely wants
what is best for the students, she is not always the most available person, due
to her husband’s status. She spends much of her time in Amman, which leaves
little time for her to see what our center is lacking. For instance, often my
teachers have to go buy paper, pencils, colored pencils, anything they want for
the class instead of having it provided through other means. They have
fantastic ideas, but do not have the funds to create innovative teaching, so
often they stick with pencil/paper work since it is cheaper than buying
materials for other activities.
Hopefully we can get my director to visit other centers (she
did not take part in the field trips or visits) so she can see what would be
possible with more support, not just financially, but I have learned a little
bit of positive praise goes a long way with students and teachers alike. I felt
like I was starting a mini-revolution, and I was pumped.
After the center, we went to an area with what looked like
abandoned county fair rides. There was an old bumper car track, a swing,
several small mechanical car rides, paddle boats, and slides. We got permission
to use some of rides (mainly just the small cars) and played until it was time
to go home.
Day four was a trip to the physical therapist. The students
were least excited about this field trip, especially since most of them just
waited on the bus until it was time to go. This day was only a photo-op, which
I obviously was unhappy about, but one day out of 5 isn't so bad.
The final day of SPED week was a day of activities and a
party at our center. We all gathered in our foyer, made coffee-filter
butterflies, danced, ate cake, and chatted. Eventually the students were given
gifts (gender specific of course) and the day was complete.
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| dabka! |
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| prepping the coffee filter butterflies (color with markers, spray with water, dry, scrunch in the middle, tie with pipecleaner. ta-da!) |
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| the boys got cars, the girls got dolls |
The most important part of SPED week is that while there was
a fair amount of conflict, mostly from 30-something year old bus driver, who
felt under-appreciated for the part he played in the week, no adults got in
fist-fights, no one died, the week ended with everyone still talking to each
other, no relationships were irrevocably ruined, and the students had a blast.
That is a success in my book!
