Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Recycling a new opportunity



When Maria Bertila started working in special education she was given the job, not because she wanted to work with students with special needs.

But because her husband was principal’s son and he wanted her to keep her job.

Maria Bertila's students holding different activities they have done with their teacher.


And the only way was by making her the special ed teacher.

At least, until there would be a chance to change her back to a regular classroom.



Not a very promising start, but a normal start for most of our teachers here.

It was either that, or because he can’t do anything else, let’s try with special education and if that doesn’t work, it’s out with him.

Besides that promising start she was pregnant and she had over 20 students, ranging from voluntary mutism to intellectual disability and a variety of learning disabilities, to tackle.

The other teachers saw the special education classroom as the collective trash bin.

A place to send the students they didn’t want to have in their classroom.

The noisy one, the hyperactive ones, the ones that disturbed the classroom or just couldn’t keep up with the rest of the students.



There was confusion about if the students should be with her the whole day or just for the subjects they were having trouble with.

And then her instinct kicked in.



She started to fight for her students, find ways to actually teach them.

Ways that they would understand.

She took students that wouldn’t talk with anyone, who wouldn’t look you in the eye.



Students that were aggressive, in precarious situations at their homes and surrounded by substance abuse.

Students that everyone else had deemed a hopeless case.

Ecuador's flag


And found ways to teach them their letters and numbers, to get them read and write.

But most of all, she found ways to make them understand that they were people.

That they mattered.

25 comments:

  1. As long as they get an education and can understand what they are being taught.. she did a fabulous job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Totally awesome artwork. Something we all should do more of. Thanks for the story!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your So GOOD Joanne Love It!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great story. I'm so glad she didn't give up on those kids.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is a great story. What I got from it was she fought for what she believed in which were the misunderstood children. Which makes her an awesome teacher. It reminds me of me in school there was only one teacher who could teach me math (Mr. Manchester) I had taken algebra and geometry the same year in high school with two different teachers. Needless to say Manchester was the one that taught me everything and he was my geometry teacher. Algebra teacher (Mrs. Swenor) I could not learn from. Other teacher a few years later end up being my husbands sister-in-law.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, she fought for them and it's amazing to see how the kids have changed, Rebecca. Teachers change lives and I'm glad you had one of them in your life too :)

      Delete
  6. What an awesome way to make new things, and teach the responsibility of recycling at the same time. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What an amazing story. Great ideas too.

    Michelle F.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is so inspiring. Fighting for students is rare nowadays especially when they are already hopeless.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very inspiring story. What a wonderful way for them to learn about recycling. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful artwork from the kids

    ReplyDelete
  11. How touching! As a mother of a child with special needs i pray that there will more teachers like her in Ecuador.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Leira. And may God bless you and your son with wonderful and loving teachers also.

      Delete
  12. Wonderful! I'm so glad that there's such wonderful teachers out there! (now if we would just pay them more here in the US....)

    ReplyDelete
  13. A great post Joanna!

    I love the photos of the fantastic artwork, great to see creativity all over the world!

    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  14. such awesome ways to use what you have, I love the simplicity and their humbleness. What great teaching tools!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow... I am so impressed that you use everything you can to recycle and educate kids :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is wonderful that she would fight for these kids. I love this story. I have a niece that has special needs. It doesn't mean she is less worthy of a great education but just needs a little more help and assistance to get the education she truly deserves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, Becka. People with special needs just need a chance to show what they can do and a bit more help and time to achieve it.

      Delete
  17. you have the great teaching tips. And some special person is not a barrier for what they want to do

    ReplyDelete
  18. very inspiring, these kids should be given importance no matter what the status in life he/she has.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is really awesome. I'm sure the kids are also appreciating so much of this.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Those are definitely awesome - not only you are recycling but it aids and benefits other people as well.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love this! I am big on recycling art projects for my kids. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I give you two thumbs up Joanna for your earth-friendly efforts and most of all I want to commend you for doing such a great job teaching & doing such activities with children.

    ReplyDelete