“The challenges of the last year seemed overwhelming at first but through our strong Sunshine/BOCES partnership, we overcame our obstacles, achieved our intended goals, and taught as the year “Zoomed” by,” says Sunshine teacher, Megan O’Sullivan.
Sunshine’s teachers have “leaned-in” throughout the pandemic by adopting new structures and platforms to deliver essential education services without any impact to educational quality or curriculum, and they’ve ensured that the children continue to receive their IEP (Individuated Education Plan) services. Although our priority has been to continue with in-person learning whenever possible, Sunshine’s teachers have been impressively flexible, using a multi-prong approach to their teaching when live instruction was not possible. We have leaned-in to web-based platforms such as GOOGLE classrooms, SchoologyÔ, and ZOOM™ and adopted new language- “remote/virtual” learning, “cohorted” classrooms, and “hybrid” calendars.
In addition, our teachers recognize the importance of emotional health at this time and have introduced Social Emotional Learning into the children’s daily routine. We take a whole child approach that focuses not only on their academic objectives but the happiness and well-being of every student.
“I am thrilled to be part of such a unique partnership between Sunshine and PNW Boces. We work as a team to create positive fun learning experiences for all the students. Each day brings such joy as we watch the students blossom as they develop and learn new skills,” says Kathleen Hanlon, teacher at Sunshine.
On this Teachers Day, we offer much appreciation and great thanks to our Therapeutic Activities (TA) team, who has creatively partnered with Sunshine teachers to develop supplemental programs as an adjunct to the classroom curriculum. Says Kym August, CTRS. “There are always silver linings, no matter what the situation. These children, despite their challenges and disabilities, just love to be engaged, stimulated and have fun.”