Blog 3 on Trip

I believe that one of the best feelings in the world is to teach someone something. It doesn’t matter what you teach them or who it is, but to know that they have learned something and they appreciate it is amazing. I have learned this so far on our trip, and I think that most of my fellow students would agree.

            On Wednesday, I taught in the classroom for students with multiple disabilities. My brother, David, had been in the classroom the day before and told me that I might have trouble with the class and that the students could frustrate me. I found out that that was true and false at the same time. The students would answer and they would understand, but it was hard to get their attention sometimes. I was the only one teaching the class, but I had the help of one of our translators, Mario. At first, I had almost no idea what to do, but once I asked them a few questions and learned their skill level, I figured out what to do. I was really happy to see them look at me, listen to me, and write it down in their note books, because as a small younger brother, I haven’t had very many people learn from me and respect me that way. My lessons were mostly about shapes, colors, and math, although I think they liked math the best. I helped them with simple addition and very basic subtraction by drawing dots and then erasing or adding a few. I’m proud to say that I think most of the students improved their math skills at least a little bit.

            Today, Thursday, I taught in the class for younger kids with autism. The thing about learning with autism is that while people who don’t have a disability can learn really well in

 at least one way (visual, verbal, kinesthetic) and okay in the other ways, people with autism learn okay in one way and not so well in the other ways. So today, when I was working with certain students, I had to find the one way that they learned well. For example, if I was teaching a shape, I would show the shape and say its name over and over again or I would draw the shape and write the name under it. For kinesthetic learners, I would give them the shape to hold and feel and say the name. At first, it made me very frustrated, but once I started smiling and having fun with it, it was much better. The teacher, Nora, was very nice and helped me a lot. It was a very good day and I’m sad that it is our last full day of teaching.

            I’ve met some amazing people on this trip and I’m very grateful. I can’t believe this week has gone by so fast; I wish it could be longer so I could spend more time in this incredible place.