Allen ISD Where Eagles Soar Magazine Spring 2018 | Page 20

Made with Love
L
ife Skills students combine skills to create special gifts. An
estimated 151 million valentine cards are purchased in the
U.S. each year, but there’s a certain type of card that is made
with more love than the rest. The Eagle Creations program at Allen
High School encourages students with disabilities to showcase their
skills to create a truly special card.
Eagle Creations is a part of Allen’s Life Skills program, which
serves students ages 18 to 21. The purpose of the program is to
allow the students to utilize their vocational skills and potentially
prepare them for a job after high school. With Eagle Creations,
each student is given a task that best suits his or her ability, and the
project is completed in an assembly-line fashion. For example, one
student will fold the cards in half, another will make paper cutouts
of hearts, and another will glue the hearts onto the card. It’s a team
effort the entire way through.
“We want our students to be able to follow a task list, and see
the task completed from start to finish,” said Cyndi Parent, AHS
Special Programs Department Chair. “These students are working
as a team, and we want them to be proud of their finished product.”
The students work on different projects as the school year
progresses, including spirit buttons for the football season, gift tags
during the holidays, and Valentine’s Day cards in February.
After each project is finished, the students deliver their products
to the Eagle Edge retail store and sell them to the community.
Some students
will also take the product into the cafeteria and sell
For Facebook
There’s plenty of pride and accomplishment to go around
when the cards are completed.
directly to their classmates.
“Our students have such pride in their work, and they love
showing off their creations,” said Melissa Wilson, Life Skills
paraprofessional. “You wouldn’t believe the smiles they have
when they collect the money for the work they did.”
The Life Skills teachers will modify equipment to make it
more accessible for the students, such as using colored tape to
create highly-visible guidelines on the paper-cutting machine.
The teachers work closely with the students to determine each
person’s skill set, and then they tailor the task to the student.
There’s a sense of joy, from both the educators and students, when
a project is completed.
“These students work so hard to create these cards, and we love
to see their sense of accomplishment when they finish a project,”
Wilson said. “Our students build more and more confidence
each day, and we hope they will take these skills into a job in the
future.”
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107 Suncreek Drive Suite 100 Allen, Texas 75013 • 214-547-1010 • www.suncreekfamilydentistry.com
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Making Smiles Beautiful in
Allen since 2001