The Resource Teachers and CEA's at OKM are finding creative ways to support their students with diverse abilities. Working together with their families, they have brainstormed a variety of ways to support all of their learners. The CEA’s are connecting meaningfully with students to build upon their strengths and use this time to help facilitate the development of important life skills and continued school connections.
In the video below, Nabeela Sultan, a CEA at OKM, is running an online cooking class with a student via Zoom, as an extension of his Life Skills class, which teaches him to be more independent in the kitchen. Jayden loves actively engaging in his learning and staying connected to his school community, and what mom doesn't love having a break from cooking, especially during a pandemic!
Since the start of our continuity of learning opportunities, Jayden has engaged in cooking lessons, sewing lessons, gardening and more! His family is supportive of the variety of activities Jayden is engaged in and appreciates the applications to his home life. Jayden refers to his schedule daily and with the collaboration between home and school, his family is able to support his learning. Jayden’s schedule was built collaborative around his family's needs during this time.
Each week, Jayden’s family receives the recipe’s in advance. He engages with Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays for cooking activities and Wednesdays for sewing. Monday and Friday are reserved for social connections, where Jayden and a small group of his friends get together for a facilitated chat with his friends and a CEA. Jayden also participates in Swim Academy. The OKM team has creatively launched weekly dryland sessions via Zoom to keep their students active during this time.
During this time, Jayden has been able to continue to work on his individual goals in a creative and responsive way, through meaningful Zoom participation. His family is appreciative of the life skills he has learned and his increased motivation to be an active member of family life. Jayden looks forward to the meetings and gets unique opportunities to practice social skills of turn taking, sharing and waiting. The family reports the respite has been helpful during this time and they have enjoyed hearing about what other families are doing through Jayden’s social connections to inspire new activities and ideas for their home life.
Education staff around our district are working hard to support some of our most vulnerable learners in a variety of ways. Here are just some of the amazing things happening:
Cooking lessons
Sewing lessons
Gardening lessons
Fitness sessions
Deliveries of ‘low tech’ materials for learning (chalk, board games etc.)
Facilitated online group social skills discussion
Collaborative academic individual support needs
CEA supported academic office hours