People walk down the 100 hall daily, whether it is on the way to lunch, another class, or home. However, people rarely stop to think about what happens behind the classroom doors. The 100 hall hosts the Exceptional Children (EC) department. The EC department hold roughly 40 kids in total, with four classrooms. While most East students’ daily schedules are set in stone, the EC department’s class days are varied with community service field trips, lessons about life skills, groundskeeping, fun parties and other events.
An average day in the 100 hall starts with a 30 minute breakfast. Breakfast is followed by a morning meeting where the class will begin by talking about what’s going on in the student’s lives, catching up like a family. They proceed to look at the conditions for the next day and prepare for how to dress. Later, they write daily journals, discussing the date, agenda for the day, and the weather. What follows after that varies depending on the day of the week.
On many occasions the EC department will go on community service field trips, going to locations including Hope Haven, Samaritans Feet, Matthew Help Center and more. Their jops span from serving ad preparing food for recovering addicts to counting puzzle pieces to ensure the donated games are not missing anything.
The EC department has four primary focuses each year. This year they include Finance, Leisure, Community Living and Health/Fitness. The basics of these fou focuses are taught in class, but a large portion is learned through community service on field trips and on campus.
Many students do not think about who cleans the football stadium after the football game, the cafeteria after E-lunch, and the campus, which stays relatively clean despite the daily litterig. While the custodial staff take large part in this, so do the EC students. They do all of these tasks regularly for the betterment of the community and their school and in order to learn valuable life skills and lessons about cleaning up the environment.
The class size in the 100 halls is roughly 10 students per classroom, with each classroom have two teacher. These 10 students stay together throughout the entire day every day. This constant community builds a connection between the students and their teachers. The EC department also extends until the kids are 22, if they choose to continue. These four or more years of bonding help them build close relationships, essentially growing up and maturing with the same group of people.
They love to celebrate together, so birthdays and holidays are big events in the EC classrooms. For birthdays, the student gets to pick thier cake flavor and they will either bake it, incorporating the learning of like skills, or they will go buy one and celebrate together in the class. During holidays, tupically once a month, the class will go on a trip to Food Lion and buy decorations and food for the monthly party/holiday celebration. Some examples are thier Thanksgiving feast during November, thier Christmas party during December, and a small prom in the spring.
The students in these programs are nothing less than exceptional. Calvin, a young man enveloped by Japanese culture and anime, is one of the kindest people you will meet. Akram, who speaks five different languages, gives the best hugs. Monica will always put a smile on your face and give you a good laugh. Guadalupe is a king, role-leading young woman, potentially going to work for Novant Hospital.
They are true, king, loving people that dserve more acknowledgement and notice from the East Mecklenburg community.
