School To Work

I have been in charge of training a new employee for the past month. This has been a very rewarding experience. I have learned how to better complete tasks I do every day as well as have an extra set of hands to help pull tooling and an extra set of eyes to make sure there are no mistakes made. Training someone reinforces one’s knowledge on a subject. They say that the best way to learn is to teach. I have found this to be true. My protégé is picking things up very quickly and is already fully capable of completing tasks that need to be done when I am no there.

These pasts couple weeks have been relaxed for the OT students. As the year is whinding down, at the Middle School the students have been writing thank-you cards for the High school students that helped out at the Special Olympics. Down at the Elementary School the students are having free-days because the year is almost over. On Friday at the Elementary School, the OT/PT departments are having there annual OT/PT Carnival for all of their students all day. I am planning on attending the second half of the day. I am eager to see all the students I have worked with this year for one last time. I have really enjoyed this school-to-work program (Occupational Therapy) this year and I have learned a lot from Mrs. S and Mrs. H. They are both really great teachers and they really do make a huge impact on all of their students. I am really going to miss them both next year and I hope we all can stay in touch and hopefully see them again at the Special Olympics :]

The year has come to an end and it has been a great experience. All but a few students finished building the elevator, which was very impressive. I enjoyed working with Mr. Mack and all of the students. I have learned from going down to the middle school and having Mr. Mack as a mentor, that I would like to pursue becoming an engineer. School to work helped me realize that is what I want to do.

To finish up the year, the students were assigned a ROBOpro final. This is the last project, as well as the most difficult. The students must build, wire, and program their own freight elevator. Mr. Mack had me do the project a week before, it took me one day to build it and 4 days to figure out how to wire and program it. The students started it a couple days ago and are doing very well, they are on track to be finished by the end of the year. I am impressed with the work that has beed done so far.

For almost two weeks now the students have been working with the ROBOpro program. They started with simple assignments such as turning on and off lights, and starting and stopping engines. But lately the assignments have been getting increasingly more difficult. Now they are doing projects including reed switches, which cause change of direction when it comes in contact with a magnet, and many more different tools. They are really doing well picking up this program.

The Special Olympics were something everyone should have the chance to experience. It was so much fun for me as well as the athletes and coaches. So many of the students brought home gold, silver, and bronze medals as well as ribbons. It was great to see how happy they were because the spotlight was on them. It was their time to shine and they truly did. The boy i helped out did so great. I knew how physically hard it would be for him to do the 50m but he pushed through. Everyone in the stands cheered for him and he finished the race. It was great to see how supportive everyone was even if they didn’t know the athlete. In the end all the hard work payed off. The few problems involving the list of helpers weren’t such a big deal once we saw how happy the athletes were just to have someone there for them. I’m so glad I got to go my senior year. I just wish i would’ve known about it the years before as well. It’s an amazing experience and i would like to go again sometime.

Now that we are getting closer to the end of the school year, it means that Mr. C’s class has been reviewing for the final. This is the time when it becomes even more important that the kids are paying attention in class, in case they don’t remember any of the material from the previous nine months….which is definitely possible. Review sheets on everything from the Early Americans to the Cold War are the norm from the end of May on. It has surprised me how one of the classes has not really been affected by the usual excitement that ensues towards the end of the year. Though every class handles is a little different, Mr. C’s second period class (so far) has been able to maintain their composure and focus. My only hope is that his third period class will not TOTALLY lose focus on their work and realize that they need to pay attention in class so they can do well on their final.

Last Friday during the day, I was privileged enough to join my school to work students at the Special Olympics. During the day I was assigned to a student to be responsible for and she participated in two events. She participated in the Softball throw and the 50 meter dash. She recieved a 5th place ribbon in the Softball throw. All the students put a lot of time and effort into practicing for their events at the Olympics. The day overall went very smoothly and I had a really great time being with most all my school to work students and I learned some new things about each and everyone of them. This was my first time every going to the Special Olympics and I hope to get the same opportunity to go next year :]

This past two weeks have been busy in occupational therapy. The students in the Middle School have still been practicing for their events they are going to perform at the special olympics. I have been honored to be assigned to walk around and help one of my students at the 2008 Special Olympics. I can’t wait to see what it is all about because I have never been before. I know the students are really excited to go and I hope they all come home winners! OT down at the Elementary School has been rather slow compaired to the Middle School, but it is a nice change in speed. The students had to do the lesson I prepared for them and I had to leave early so I am excited to see how it had turned out. I am really getting excited to participate in the Special Olympics this year!! :]

The past few weeks Phys Ed classes in the middle school have been working on their fitness. The v sit has been done as well as the shuttle run, crunches, partial curl ups and the mile will be done sometime this week. To get in shape for the mile we have been going outside and running two or three laps around the front. We also had a day of tennis, which was greatly enjoyed and Ms. F hopes to keep working on it. Things are going well and its sad that its all ending….