I got up early on my first morning in New York. Even though I hardly slept the night before, but I was eager to get up as I was excited to meet up with my brother and SIL who I have not met in over 2 years!
He will be meeting me after my visit to another special school.
As soon as we were done with breakfast, we headed on to Professor Juan Bosch Public School located on Ellwood St., Manhattan, which adopts the AS Nest program for high-functioning autistic children who are mainstreamed in small classes. They also have classes that mix a variety of children with special needs with general education students.
You can read more about it here.
Again, no photos were allowed, except for these.
Between this school and the two previous schools we visited in Washington D.C., I find the program that this school adopts to be the most interesting because this school does not separate the special need children with the mainstream children.
They pride themselves in being a school of inclusion where children with special needs are included early into the mainstream education as soon and as early as possible so that they may lead as normal a life as possible as other children.
We were brought to visit some of the classrooms while the teachings were going on and despite trying very hard to try to distinguish between the children with normal needs and those with special needs, we could not tell the difference.
The only tell tale signs were when we were shown the tables of the special children as their tables had pictorial signs fixed on them as pictures are used as their learning tools.
Compared to the Ivymount School that has a ratio of teacher student of almost 1:1, this school has 2 teachers in a classroom of 4 – 6 children, some even up to 12 children.
When we were done at the school, we had the rest of the day free for us to do some sightseeing and do some shopping, as our next agenda was only on the next day.
When I came out of the school, I thought I saw a glimpse of someone familiar. But of course! My brother and SIL were already waiting for me when I got out! LOL!
My brother had driven all the way from New Jersey, guided by the schedule that I had emailed to him prior to coming, so that he knows where I will be during the whole trip that I was in the US. He knew what time I would be done at the school, knowing how punctual Americans are!
After a quick introduction to all the members of the delegation, Dato’ Harjeet teased me by jokingly said that I am excused from the group today to spend time with my brother and SIL. *grin*
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| From left: Fauwaz, Dato' Harjeet, Azezee, Dato' Noraini, Eli (SIL), me and Dr. Hasnah |
We stayed on awhile to see the group off and then proceeded to take more photographs in front of the school before we headed on to our first agenda for the day – a visit to a craft store which I could only ever dream that I would someday see it in person! LOL!
Want to know which craft shop we went to? Wait for the next posting! *wink*
Day 5 to be continued! – 6th February 2013 - more excitement to share!
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