The Gift of Communications

The first chapter of our communications textbook refers to communication as a gift. My learning target was for students to live out communications as a gift. So yesterday, the Communications I class experienced, through role playing, what it is like to lose the ability to communicate. One student lost the gift of speech and had to communicate that she wanted to watch a ball game on television. Another could only use her eyes to communicate. to ask that her left leg be moved. The class found it difficult and frustrating to try to figure out what these people needed. They also found it frustrating to try to communicate.

They were then assigned a pre-flect to prepare us for our block schedule class the following day. We were going to travel to Sheldon to visit The Village. My deep hope for the students was that they realized the gift of communication and also saw the blessings of technology that enables folks to communicate today. So in their pre-flect, they had to come up with a game plan for our visit. I asked them to pick a Knight's Armor that they could live out and also notice how impacting  and perhaps life changing it is to  know the story of the residents. 

The visit was great. One section of students worked with souls who were non-verbal. Another group went to an art room. The room I stayed in was a reading/ conversation room. The men in there were very willing to share their stories. And we were shown the many ways workers at the Village used to assist in communication. After that we went to the break room with the residents. On our way back to school, we reflected a bit on the bus. The students enjoyed talking to the residents. One student noted that for one man to say three words it took him about two minutes. He said, "It looked like it hurt him to say a word." One girl noticed that the art work helped the residents communicate. She said, "The art work was awesome." 

On Friday, we will write a reflection, talk about our visit more, write thank-you's to the residents and workers, and discuss the blessing of communication. The learning target was to see the gift. We did that and even more.