Workshops and SPED week

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.

getting in groups for inclusion activity

discussion about how it felt to be excluded

some of the participants

Nawal (Program Manager/Translation lifesaver) and Bryan (Country Director) stopped by to support us!

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!

Ghaida adaptive bowling (she kicked it) and her cheerleaders

pin the tail on the lion!

art project 

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!

Discussing the Mistaken Goals chart

presenting the Rainbow behavior chart

rainbow chart (me, maggie, dr. zayne)

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.

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). 

making baskets

My teachers getting a tour of the center

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.

dabka! 

prepping the coffee filter butterflies (color with markers, spray with water, dry, scrunch in the middle, tie with pipecleaner. ta-da!)

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!