Soccer, Drama, and Grades

     Where can you find kids playing sports without caring who wins or even what the score is?  Where can you find parents cheering for all the kids on both teams?  Where can you find coaches with the patience of  saints?  At Challenge Sports, that's where!  Zack started soccer today with his group of teammates who all have special needs.  Most have Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, or Downs Syndrome.  The coaches are parent volunteers.  High school kids, earning Community Service credit, come out to give one-on-one support to those who need it.  It's a great way for our kids to experience team sports.  Without it, they would never know how it feels to make a goal, coordinate with a teammate, and practice good sportsmanship.  At these games, you rarely see a fight amongst the players, they don't give up on themselves, and they encourage each other no matter what team they're playing on.  It's a great opportunity for learning sports skills and social skills.

     Monday was the first day of this fall's Ensemble class at Sacramento Theater Company.  Zack is the only autistic in this class.  He was involved with this company last year and it went very well.  The instructor has experience with kids on the autism spectrum and does a really good job helping Zack reach his acting potential.  The other children in the class don't really know what's up with Zack, but they treat him kindly, giving him fist-bumps and high-fives for good acting.  They seem to know he needs a little extra support.  The class teaches improvisation skills and how to deliver monologues.  They also learn a short skit with at least one other actor in the scene.  Last year, Zack started out over-dramatic with big sweeping arm movements and exaggerated facial expressions.  By the end of the year, he had toned it down a bit.  It will be interesting to see how he progresses this year.  It is something he really loves. 

     I meet with Zack's certified teacher this week to go over his work.  I need to turn in grades for each subject.  Math and Science are easy to grade since we do the traditional textbook/workbook/exam method.  Drama and Art are more difficult, since I don't test him on his work.  And, English  includes so many categories it makes me dizzy:  grammar, spelling, writing, reading, vocabulary. There are very few tests that I give for these subjects, so it just comes down to scoring his daily practice.  He's doing great work, and I see that he is progressing and learning.  I wish I didn't have to give a grade at all, but that's part of our educational system.  I get that it measures how much a student has mastered a topic, but I wonder what it really proves about a student's true success.