I've been here for 3 days and each day I fall more in love with these kids. There hasn't been a day where they haven't seized to amaze me. Today I worked in a 3rd grade classroom with 5 kids; Conchita, Darwin, Marlin, Kati, and Estrenyer. The day started with me just taing notes in the back of the class which was really hard and at some points boring. I got a translator and asked them to ask the teacher if she needed help and instantly she said yes and I satrted working with the kids. I felt dumb for not asking sooner or not just engaging myself right away but now I know. We brought a couple of supplies with us today and I was given some books, letter flashcards, and some other little color matching toys. I spread them out on the floor and just helped all the kids with whatever they were doing. I found an I Spy Toy Story book and began to try and show Marlin how to and the teachers helped show her how. She was extremely confused with the concept so I gave her the coloring game and she understood that much better. I took the book over to Darwin and pointed to the animal to look for and said "donde" once and 10 seconds later he was pointing to it. 30 minutes later he had gone through the book 3 times and found every item sometimes even before I did. The joy and pride that he brought me was indescribable he had a smile from ear to ear each time he found something and you could just tell how much he wanted to learn and continue on. He is not the only kid I have worked with where all they need is 10 minutes of one on one and they are instantly learning and smiling and not just learning but enjoying it. I appreciate the teachers so much and have such a high amount of respect for them all I wish is that there were more people to help with these kids. They deserve that one on one time and I wish I could provide it to them everyday.
Later in the morning after lunch we were all assigned one kid each to work with one on one. Since I had never worked in Yahoska's classroom I was assigned to work with a little boy in there. His name is Julio and he is 9 years old and is diagnosed with a learning disablity. I brought Aleyda one of the translators in to help me talk to the teacher about what was going on. We found out that he couldn't talk, write or read all he could do was paint. I went to get the paints out so that I could start working with him on the colors or something to do with painting. I sat him down with me and he pointed to the paper and mumbled something I couldn't make out. After asking him again and again I finally figured out what he was trying to say, gato. I drew a cat on the paper and his entire face lit up. He had me draw 4 more cats to color and he colored in every one. I helped him the rest of the day and figured out that he could speak, only a couple words but by the end of the day I got him to repeat mano, perro, gato, nino and nina after me and match them to the picture. I was so proud of him and giving him kisses and hugs and as a reward I took him outside to play for the last 30 minutes of the day. The kids brighten my day with their smiles and hugs and their happiness despite everything they have been through. The kids at Escuela Especial are my true heroes and the people I aspire to be like.
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