Haley- UCP- Day Four

Today was my favorite day so far!  We were at Hand in Hand, but I got to do exactly what I love, which is working with young children and children with special needs.  I want to be a teacher when I graduate, specifically a preschool or kindergarten teacher, and I may want to teach special education.  The day started off by signing in and choosing which age group we each wanted to work with.  I chose to work in the “Ladybug” classroom, which consists of four and five year olds.  The minute I walked in, I knew it was the right place for me.  The kids ran to me like flocks.  They were so excited to have a visitor.  There were three students who really clung to me.  Their names are Madison, Reese, Xenia, and Miracle.  However, two of them really stood out to me.  Madison had cerebral palsy and could not walk without her canes or walker.  Right away she asked me to play with her and that made me feel so good.  She was so happy, go lucky and acted like nothing was wrong with her.  She tried her best to do everything the other students were doing, but sometimes she struggled.  I really look up to her though because she always kept her head up.  She is my idol because if I could not walk on my own and I had to watch other kids running around and playing on the playground I would get frustrated and possibly be depressed.  Before recess, all the students had to run two laps before they could go play and of course they all lapped her and she just had to keep pushing through.  I wish I got her information so I could stay in contact with her.  She is such an inspiration.    Miracle has down syndrome.  She does not really have good communication skills.  She is the bully of the classroom.  She goes around pushing people down and she loves to pinch everyone.  All the students are scared of her and run away when they see her coming.  What I found really interesting is that the other students do not treat her poorly.  They do not look at as “different.”  Miracle’s classmates were constantly telling Miracle to use her “nice hands.”  If Miracle hurt any of them, they calmly walked to the teacher and told her what happened.  They did not make a huge scene, which I thought was very mature and impressive.  I had a wonderful time today and I would love to work there one day! Hand in Hand is a great facility and I think the faculty are great.