Making a Difference One Studnet at a Time

I would like to introduce Savannah, with parent permission. Savannah is the only High School student I have on my caseload as I usually work with 3 and 4 year olds up to 6th grade. But last year I was pulled in on Savannah’s IEP because she would not do anything for the other Adapted Physical Educaton teacher. Actually she would not do anything for anyone. Savannah was completely shut down. Savannah only has a physical disability a type of muscular dystrophy that affects her arms, hands, legs and feet. When I met her last year she was sitting in a loner manual wheelchair that she could not push herself and had to have friends push her around the school. When she arrived in our district Savannah had just lost her ability to walk. Her disability is progressive and for the first time she was stuck in a wheelchair and mortified by it. With hard work and lots of fighting medical, the school district's Physical Therapist was able to get Savannah a power assisted wheelchair. I have never seen one like this but the power is in the wheels and when she pushes the chair it moves for her with very little effort. This was the new beginning for Savannah. We got her into a MD camp last summer up at Lake Tahoe and she love it and made great new friends and never once felt out of place with these kids just like her. This winter I was able to take her skiing at Heavenly 2X. She uses a Bi-Ski and even was ok when we duck taped her hands to the outriggers/ski poles. As a 9th grader she has to take a speech class but is afraid to death to get up in front of the class and speak. She hates it when pople stare at her because she looks different. I came up with the idea of using a power point presentation of her skiing and camp experiences the team agreed this would be a great idea. Last week when I came to help her with the power point she told me she wanted to change her speech topic and do it on her disability. I almost fell over. Was this the same girl I had met only a year ago? I got her started on power point and when I cam back this week she had 95% of the presentation completed. She is a wiz with computers. On Thursday she gave her presentation in front of the class and got an A. It’s so hard to be different especially when you are in middle and high school. Savannah has made so many strides in accepting her disability and embracing her true abilities. I plan on going to go to bat for her to get a computer of her own, a lap top that she will be able to use in high school next year. I’m not sure how we are going to get one but we may take her presentation on the road. I love this picture of her she titled it her presentation, “The New ME”