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History students earn June's Class Act Award - June 2009Tascosa High SchoolSam Houston Middle School students in a high-level American history class this year decided to involve a special-needs class in their learning and found there wasn't much difference in the classes. "Sometimes people just shy away from them," eighth-grader Whittany Kilpatrick said, "but they are just normal kids like us." The Pre-AP class has received the June Class Act Award for outstanding achievement in education. The class was awarded a $200 check from the Globe-News' Celebrate Education initiative. After a study on the "repurposing" of products in American history, students then decided to reuse old sofa springs to make Christmas trees. The "spring" trees were used as decorations at a Christmas party and then given to the students' parents as gifts. Donna Morehead, who teaches the eighth-grade history class, said she paired two of her students with one in a nearby special-needs class to help in the learning, sanding, painting, and decorating of the trees. "Her students really worked right alongside my students, laughing and talking with them," said Tammy Bell, teacher of the Adaptive Curriculum class. "This was something that some of my students couldn't have done on their own." Bell said her students found outside role models through the project. "A lot of students shy away from kids with disabilities and this class didn't," Bell said. "They still high-five each other in the halls, it makes me think there are good kids out there." Kilpatrick said working with Bell's class was a way for her to meet new people. "I made new friends; I made a new best friend," she said. Morehead said her class decided to give the money they received for the award to Bell's class to use for learning-activity games, puzzles and books. "They need more help than we do sometimes and we wanted to give that to them," Kilpatrick said. |
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 Copyright 2008 Amarillo Globe-News :: Amarillo.com
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