One of the aspects of my pafassion that I enjoy the most is making the lesson come alive and opening the world to my students. For all students, “hands on” learning and real-world application is vital, and when working with my students who are significantly impacted by their disabilities, this carries with it added meaning and purpose. 

The sky is the limit, especially when you work with phenomenal people who live and breath that sentiment. I am very fortunate to work in a school building filled with those type of people.  For our Preakness lesson, I joined forces with our very talented school media specialist, Ms. Stephanie Sauter, and an HCPS community partner, Ms. Cathy Schmidt. Ms. Cathy Schmidt owns and operates Chesapeake Therapeutic Riding (CTR). “The mission of CTR is to deliver healing and learning to individuals and groups whose minds, bodies and spirits will benefit from the transformative connection between people and horses.” (http://ctrchanginglives.org/about-us-2/mission-vision). On a personal note, I have a special connection to CTR as I had the honor and privilege to serve as a volunteer with CTR from 2006- 2011.

When Steph and I began our development for the Preakness this year, we brainstormed ways to make the experience of horses come alive for our students. Last year, we had our first ever horse race using adapted bikes dressed up as horses around our very own race track (the playground). We decided to do this again, but add an additional element of inviting our friends from the STRIVE program at Darlington Elementary. Because something this good, you just can’t keep to yourself. The races were filled with fun and laughter. With the help of our local broadcaster, Randy Geyer, all spectators could clearly know who was in the lead.

When planning for this event, we discussed bringing a real horse to school and imagined how much the students would gain from the experience, but the thought of bringing a real horse to school seemed out of the question. Thankfully, in our wonderful world of technology, I decided to contact Cathy Schmidt of CTR to see if she might do a live stream so our students could check out the barn and virtually greet the horses using a video chat format. Cathy had another idea, offering to volunteer her time and resources to bring a horse to John Archer. CTR has worked with HCPS in a variety of ways: Future Link students have worked as a job experience at the CTR farm. Additionally, CTR has offered workshops to teachers on their farm through team building exercises. Finally, CTR offers educational field trip opportunities, but I had never considered the fact that CTR might be able to come to us! Through careful planning and working with central leadership to ensure all of the proper permissions were articulated and verified, Buttons, a miniature pony, joined our students in celebrating the Preakness event! The entire school, plus Darlington’s STRIVE program was invited to interact, brush and be with the horse. While I can try to convey the beauty of the interactions between the students and the horses, I believe the pictures attached will better articulate the power of learning through authentic experiences.

Thank you CTR, Cathy Schmidt, and Gayle Zorbach for the donation of your time and talents!

Thank you Stephanie Sauter for the ideas and energy you bring to learning!

Thank you to the teachers, paraprofessionals, and all staff at JAS who were involved in helping the day and horse visit run smoothly and efficiently!

 

 

This is probably my favorite picture of the event. 

























 

 

Here are some of the wonderful people from Assitive Tech enjoying Buttons!   




 

 

The staff and students from Darlington Elementary School