"Change your attitude, and your perception of the problem will change."

Nothing will wake you up better, make you work harder, and get you more excited than the idea that you'll fall in love today. I unintentionally woke up an hour early (at around 5:30am) and rolled around in my bed until I finally decided to get ready- half and hour before our alarm would go off. After breakfast, we grabbed our lunches and headed off. We reached Escuela Especial a little later than intended, so the kids were already there. Immediately after stepping out of the van, kids were coming up to us saying, "Hola, hola!" and giving us hugs. We set off to our classrooms (except for Max and Sammie who were going on home-visits in the morning). I looked into my assigned classroom, and five curious faces looked back. Zulema, and eleven year old sweet heart, immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me into a hug. Both Zulema and Maria Jose (another student in my class) didn't talk, but either made noises or gestured. Zulema would communicate with me by gesturing to or patting something that she wanted me to do something or other with. Wilber (a nine year old child with Downs) was reluctant at first, but soon warmed up to me. Christopher remained in his wheelchair, but was always engaged in our lesson. And finally Julio, who would communicate by drawing in my notebook.

The teachers started off the day by bringing all the kids in our class to their school garden (the school grows the food that they use in lunches) and had them exercise their hands by pulling grass. When we returned to the classroom only minutes later, I was a little surprised that the teachers didn't immediately dive into a lesson with the kids. The teachers were talking in Spanish to each other, so I waited about five minutes to see if they were planning some kind of activity. But after a while, I figured that I would have to present them with an idea. I asked the translator with me, Yojanna, to please tell the teachers that I had a lesson plan ready with me, and that I was more than willing to show them how to use it. The teachers excitedly agreed, so I got out my lesson plan. This plan includes a picture book, filled with pictures of animals you would generally see on a farm and the sounds they make, and cards that have pictures of the animals, and cards that have pictures of the sounds. I had intended for me to get out my book, ready to an attentive crowd of students, instruct them to match each animal card with its counterpart sound, and I expected them to do so in a calm, maybe a little disorderly manner. What I did not expect, however, was for five children to battle for the book, send cards flying across the room, begin yelling the sounds that they animals made (the favorite was most definitely "Muu"), and try to yank me in all directions- not even bothering to listen to the story. So I had to adapt. I managed to get the kids together in about a minute or two, and returned to the lesson. But considering that I had to do something differently, I began improvising. Instead of reading each word straight out of the book. I simply pointed to the picture of the animal, and waited for the class to repeat. This method worked much better, and the kids actually stayed in their seats. After the kids repeated all the animals a few times (except for Zulema and Maria Jose, who only managed similar sounds) I would move onto the animals, saying things like, "La vaca dice, 'Muu'" and the kids would repeat. Then I got out the cards and would show them separate pictures of the animals. The teachers willingly partook in this activity, and we managed to keep the kids interested. Lisa Marie and Sarah came in to check up on the class, and Sarah brought her iPad with her, where she happened to have the single song "Stereo Love". Once the music got going, Zulema, Julio, and Jesus (and blind boy who had joined us) got up and started dancing, and Wilber became the star dancer. He spun around on the floor, kicked his feet, and put on an amazing dance party. This party lasted a while, but once we stopped replaying the song, we got back to the lesson until lunch (the kids have lunch at 10:30) During lunch, I talked (or signed) with some of the deaf girls at the school. It reminded me that I could use a refresher or two. We talked, signed, and watched the kids petal on weird little bikes madly across the school until the bell rung and we went back to class.

The second part of our school day was a little less organized. Clay was balled up on the table, then thrown over the wall and into the office next door. The kids began to draw and not listen, and they would run over to a cabinet in the room and pull down toys to play with. This wasn't necessarily a problem, for the kids did indeed need to blow off some steam. Neither of the teachers were too engaged in the entire classroom process, until Wilber grabbed a folder from the cabinet and brought it to everyone. The folder was filled with pictures that we would show the kids, and then have them tell us what it was (with an exception to Zulema and Maria Jose). After literally about fifteen minutes of repeating the word, "agua" to Zulema, and only hearing her say, "aha" back, I decided I had to change my approach again. I went through each word with Zulema, and found the ones that she had an easier time saying than the others. I made a pile of those cards and found the one that she could say the best, "boca" (though she kept saying 'bohaaa') I continued to work with her, going through each letter sound slowly until finally, she shouted, "Boca!" This breakthrough moment, was the perfect thing to end my day. The bell rang again and the kids all rushed out to jump into the van. Whether I knew them or not, kids would wave to me and I would wave back. One boy began signing to me, and although I hadn't and inkling of what he was saying, I smiled and tried to sign back. The kids left, and shortly after, we split into three groups and left (Max, Nathaniel, and I went grocery shopping with Lisa Marie).

Today was a crazy rush. I had woken up, a perfect picture set in my head of what the day would be like, and then I got to the school and everything was totally different. I had to improvise and change the way I had planned on doing everything to get anything done. Not only did I have to talk in Spanish, but I began thinking in Spanish too. I made amazing connections with the kids in only four hours, but that's not what really shocked me. What struck me the most, was the teachers. I'm not sure what I was really expecting, but it surprised me when it took a nine year old boy to take the initiative and grab a lesson from the shelf. I've heard about the lack of supplies, but now I've seen it first hand. Seeing what I've seen, makes me wish I had ten more lesson plans in my bag, because these kids are so much more capable then what they are perceived to be. I asked the teacher what her usual lessons were, and all she showed me was one of the kid's notebooks, were there were a few traced letters and some glued in pictures. I'm going to a different classroom tomorrow, but whichever it is, I'm going to give it my all.

"Change your attitude, and your perception of the problem will change." -Unknown