One paraprofessional in the Functional Academic Classroom department at McNeil High School managed to unite the entire campus for a great cause this past school year.
Laura Grass said her idea began as an autism awareness project that involved putting decorated puzzle pieces up in the J-wing during April for Autism Acceptance Month.
“A lot of our students have autism and I have worked with kids with autism and everything, so it was a really big passion of mine to spread that awareness and not just to students, but staff too,” she said.
Luckily, Grass, a former Mav herself, felt supported in her mission.
“When I told my lead teachers what I was planning on doing, they were like… whatever you need, we will get to you,” Grass said. “So I printed out a hard copy of a puzzle piece and made a ton of copies for each of the classrooms. Then students and staff could decorate them. Once I got their engagement, I was able to get librarians and general education kids, and everybody all together, and they just made a big beautiful thing out of it.”
According to Grass, they finished the school year with 813 decorated puzzle pieces in total.
“Students were very happy to see their puzzle pieces up on the wall. They would be like ‘Where’s my puzzle piece?’ if it wasn’t up on the wall. They would track me down every day until I got it up.”
Grass said there were some guidelines that students had to adhere to, but that she didn’t limit them creatively.
“I’m really proud of them,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how they would respond to it and everything. I questioned how they would express themselves. It was really interesting to see the results!”
Grass said the project was such a success her department will try to get people involved again in the future.
“I’ll probably start it in mid-March next year, and then we can get it to stay up for the rest of the school year,” she said.
We can’t wait to see next year’s display!
