Thursday: "It's All About Me"

A while back I found a curriculum created by Angela Mahone M. Ed. called I Can Work! that covers 5 areas when preparing students with disabilities to work: Career readiness, clerical, retail, food service, and grocery. Originally I was a little hesitant to attempt this curriculum because I wasn't sure how I felt about limiting our training to 4 areas of work. As I read into the curriculum more I began to change my mind though. A few things that changed my mind was the fact that as I thought about it, those four types of jobs were typical entry level jobs that any one, whether you were a person who was considered to be "average" or developmentally delayed, would start in. I can think as I write of a few high school students that I taught who started in one of these 4 areas. Back to the subject though I really saw I value in how much thought was put into considering the details which this particular audience could benefit from, as well as the hands on activities which made studying each job more authentic. 

This week was the first week that I began the curriculum in the classroom, yesterday our subject was preparing for work and today's section covering the trainees' likes and dislikes was titled "It's All About Me." This lesson was something I had tried previously using a checklist I copied from a career readiness curriculum created for adult learners who were immigrants from other countries and were adjusting to the U.S.'s employment world. This checklist I used today better clicked with the students than the previous one I used because it provided pictures and examples to help the students form ideas AND best of all it took the time to ask the trainees about not only their interests but factors which made them feel comfortable and uncomfortable. The trainees really responded to some of the questions which asked them where they felt comfortable, what were some activities they would not like to do for work, and what were some materials were not interested in working with. The last question the questionnaire asked addressed senses and asked the clients to name any sensory inputs which they would not be comfortable working around including: textures, touching, loud noises, crowds, and bright lights.

I learned a lot about my class today from this one lesson and the trainees enjoyed sharing about themselves as a class. What I liked about this lesson which I had never established before was the trainees' comfort levels, what they felt comfortable working with and where they felt comfortable. I think knowing this information will help me to guide them towards jobs which they can feel comfortable in and stay in for long periods of time.