I work at Bellcate School in Essex Junction Vermont, an approved special education school that exists to serve students on IEP (Individualized Education Plan for students with disabilities) and 504 Plan (developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment), for a wide variety of disability categories.
Bellcate utilizes a three-stage therapeutic model to support exploration, understanding, and positive action. My role is to teach religion to students with a wide array of cognitive and social abilities, with an emphasis placed on empathy.
For lower functioning students, I teach a basic, geographically driven, world religions curriculum that focuses on the great big world, filled with a multitude of cultures and belief systems. The goal is to drive feelings of empathy for the “other.”
For higher functioning students, I teach a more existential curriculum that focuses on one faith-based emotion at a time (faith, love, suffering, etc.), highlighting the words and rituals of religious individuals. With these students, the emphasis is placed on how religion encourages feelings, in order to promote emotional empathy.
My responsibilities also include driving students to and from school and after school care. As a result, I am able to see the student as a whole person and bring that knowledge into the classroom.