When she talks about her students, Permian High School Life Skills teacher Ashley Sikora glows, so to help them learn and progress, she obtained a $2,497.98 Sensory Friendly Environment grant from the Education Foundation.
Her students are profoundly autistic and the goal is to get them as independent as possible so they can move on to the district’s Transition Learning Center or out into the workforce.
The items have already started coming in and her kids are loving it. They are going to dye rice different colors and hide things in it for the students to dig out. They will have materials so kids can learn to sort colors. There will also be a sand and water table.
“None of the kids have great finger control. They don’t use pencils, so we got things to help them work on that gripping. So we got different shaped ones, different colors. There’s squeegees so they can soak up water and stuff, too,” Sikora said.
One of the things they are working on this year is for students to recognize their names.
“They can recognize their picture, their face, but not their name. So for safety purposes and for them to be able to tell someone what their name is we got some alphabet dinosaurs for them to practice upper case and lowercase and then to eventually work on their whole name recognition,” Sikora said.
She added that the students love music, so they got piano panels.
“I think we’re going to try to work on getting an electric drum … because they have drum pads, too,” Sikora said.
She got bubble tubes for the tables to help the students focus and sit in their chairs. They have a larger one in one corner of the room.
Students will also have weighted blankets to wrap themselves in and lap blankets they can use while they’re working.
“Sometimes they ask for that … That heavy weight helps to calm them down” if they’re feeling anxiety or stress, Sikora said.
After a lockdown a few weeks ago, one student was very stressed out, so he put a weighted blanket over himself — like a really tight hug — and it brought him back to center, she added.
Sikora has six boys and two girls in her class between the ages of 14 and 19.
“They’re cognitive level, I’d say, is more along the lines of a 2- to 3-year-old,” she said.
Because there are more boys than girls, there are more boy items than girl items among the sensory toys.
“We have calendar time stuff for them to work on, days of the week and months of the year. We have I’d say three or four that can do it more independently,” Sikora said.
“We have a big one so we can do it more hands on with those kiddos and then we have the ones where they can sit at their desk and use it as well. That’s a lot of it. We’ve got a few other little things for them to work; their shapes and colors. … They’re using their hands. It’s a lot of hands-on touching and feeling. We’ve got swings. They’re working on getting us a trampoline so the kids can get that energy out. They’re a great group of kids, but they’re very active,” she added.
Last year, Sikora said she came to her room halfway through the year. It was going OK, but they knew the kids needed more activity, more hands-on experiences and more color.
“The walls were actually white last year, so we came in and painted them like a soft gray and added a little bit of color. The way the kids come in the room now is just completely different from last year. … We added the light shades and changed the color of the room,” Sikora said.
“We get more out of them. We’ve made so much progress these last three weeks than we have the entire last year of school. It’s amazing how a color of a classroom can change things,” she added.
The students love touching things.
“It’s just so inspiring to see them explore and touch things,” Sikora said.
That’s why she decided more hands-on items were needed.
“They need things they can play with and get excited about and then seeing them light up when they see all the new stuff,” Sikora said.
Sikora and her paraprofessionals brainstormed and jumped on Amazon and Google trying to figure out what would help the students.
“We came up with the list we did and it’s been so exciting seeing the kids play and explore the new stuff that we got. You can see I’m glowing. I (just get so) excited about it. I love doing this with these kids, so it’s just great,” Sikora said.
She acknowledged that she has to have a lot of patience for her job.
“There are some days it is much easier than others. But it’s realizing that most of the time, their actions are them trying to communicate,” Sikora said.
She added that they almost never act out.
“We had one from last year that we couldn’t figure out why he was getting so angry. And then it clicked. It was usually when he was eating. We think he was biting his cheek and he was acting out because he was hurting. You don’t quite realize it instantly. It takes some time to try and figure it out, but it just takes patience,” Sikora said.
“I can go home and I can rest, but while I’m here I push my body and these kids to their limits because that’s what they need,” she added.
This is Sikora’s ninth year of teaching and her fifth year at Permian. She started as a paraprofessional with ECISD, then went to Midland ISD and Greenwood for a year and then returned to ECISD.
“I was teaching life skills science with the rest of the unit, the main part of the unit. These kiddos are more self-contained right now. They do go to PE, and music and choir with the unit. They’re getting out of the room more this year than they have in the past. We’re working on pushing a little bit more each week to try to get them as much with the other group as possible. We have to kind of think of everybody’s academic progress, not just my kids, so we don’t want to put too much on the other kiddos and cause too much of a distraction. … We’re trying to get them as independent as possible,” Sikora said.
Her paraprofessionals are Rebecca Parson and Senaida Trevino.
“They are my rocks. I could not survive without them. They are amazing people,” Sikora said of her paraprofessionals.
Sikora also expressed gratitude for their Special Education Department Chair Molly Hernandez and the feeling is mutual. Hernandez said Sikora is an amazing teacher.
“This grant will allow her to provide sensory stimulation for our most vulnerable students. Studies show that the correct sensory input helps students learn to self-regulate in a more positive way. Sikora has recognized those needs and has made it one of her missions to provide those opportunities for the students she serves. I love her passion and drive,” Hernandez said.
PHS Principal Delesa Styles said Sikora and her team go above and beyond to serve the unique needs of their students.
“She is energetic, kind, and eager to creatively pursue strategies to provide instructional materials for our students in order for them to have optimal learning experiences. We are very proud of her for receiving the grant,” Styles said.
Sikora said she would encourage everyone to apply for Education Foundation grants.
“It’s worth it. It takes time to write that grant and we’ve got so much going on as teachers (that) sitting down to do one more thing … it’s just one more thing. But the benefit for the kids,” is tremendous, Sikora said.
