Giant Steps staff from the Day School, Canopy Adult Day Program, Christine’s Dream Equine Therapy Program and Rec Center returned to the building on 8/17/2020 to resume preparations for the 2020-2021 School and Program Year.
While the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact planning for the 2020-2021 school and program year ,our staff continue to rise to the occasion and think of creative ways to meet the needs of our students and participants. Dr. Sylvia Smith shared “The past six months have been challenging, but I am so pleased with how our staff has embraced the challenge of educating our students and young adults in new and innovative ways. It is exciting to talk with different staff members throughout the day and hear the enthusiasm and positive attitude about being back in school, whether they are teaching in person or remotely. I am proud to say that our staff is committed to the Giant Steps mission to provide superior educational and therapeutic services for our students and young adults in everything they do and say.
Every year Giant Steps staff participate in our annual Inservice Week; this week is full of meetings to go over new updates from our Health and Maintenance offices, team building as we welcome new and returning staff members back, as well as making preparations to rearrange and refresh classroom and program spaces for students and participants.
This past week (8/24/2020 – 8/27/2020) our Canopy Adult Day program welcomed back some of the participants in a socially distanced, modified program model. Some changes include temperature checks upon arrival, adding increased space between riders on Caravan, updating the layout of the program spaces to accommodate social distancing between participants and staff, and a limit on the number of participants attending daily.
“Participants have been happy to return and have already been enjoying riding lessons out at the stables, button making, doing nature art projects, and playing a festive game of chutes and ladders!” – Lillian Peterson, Program Director; Canopy Adult Day Program & Christine’s Dream Equine Therapy Program
At the Day School Students resumed virtual instruction this past week with teachers and therapists through Zoom and Google Hangouts, staff and students have spent the week reconnecting after a three week break between Extended School Year (ESY) and the start of the new school year. Some students are meeting new teachers and staff members after changing grade levels or programs while other students are enjoying new faces joining their returning team members. Keep an eye out for future blog posts that will revisit our Core Values as an organization and the continuation of our Remote Learning Series! We are so excited to share how different departments across the Day School are continuing to creatively tackle the remote learning environment and include