Within a hallway on campus lives our H-1 class, also known as our special needs program. You have probably seen them going for walks around campus, or if you have a class in the H wing you may have heard them. Since it was national special education day on December 2nd the special ed teacher, Mellisa Castle, shared what the class is about, how it is teaching the class, and more. There are currently 11 students in this class. 

Ms. Castle stated the goals for the class as, “Developing and improving in various life and academic skills.” This includes anything from social skills and daily living all the way to standing up for yourself.

In terms of a daily schedule, she states it is different for each student but a rough outline of their day looks a little something like, ag General eEducation class, typically an elective like PE or art, for period one. For period two they do the same thing, an elective. Then for lunch they will eat outside on campus, then for period three and four they work in their home room, H-1, they work as a class and discuss days of the week, weather, and a current event that they focus on for the week.

“For example, last week we learned about the New York City marathon and they made sandwiches, since runners like to carbo-load,” said Ms. Castle.

A student was interviewed about school to get a student’s perspective. When asked about school, he said his favorite part of school is all of his friends in his and other classes like Ms. Castle’s class. The student loves the lunches that school makes and his favorite lunch is the pizza on fridays. It is so awesome to see all students at San Marcos enjoying school no matter what challenges they may face.

If you see any of these students throughout your day say hello! They may take longer to respond and even if they do not say much, just know it makes their day to see and talk to the other students of San Marcos, and as a parting note Ms. Castle Would like to say, “At the end of the day, remember that our students who have special needs are the same as any other human; they might just have more obstacles for expressing themselves and their emotions.”