Steps Program in Davis County
The Steps program at the Vista Center in Farmington is set up to help post-high school students with disabilities live a better life, but the teachers are also rewarded for their service.
Steps is set up to help its students prepare to enter the work force and learn how to do everyday activities that most of us take for granted.
Tasks such as doing laundry, ordering food in a restaurant, cooking and riding the bus are some of the activities that Steps teachers help their students learn.
This is a very rewarding system for the students, but the teachers are among those being rewarded the most.
“I get the opportunity to work with truly unique and outstanding individuals.” said Scott Francis, a teacher involved in the Steps program. “These students have taught me things about myself I could have never discovered anywhere else.” Things about life that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. The students make life so simple. They show the teachers not to make life too complicated.
Seeing the students’ progression and seeing them finally click after teaching them for so long is the most rewarding part of the program for Stephanie Baham, another teacher. Baham decided to get involved with this type of work when she was 10 years old and has really seen the rewards of her decision.
The decision that Steps teachers have made to help others is a noble one. The teachers are helping disabled young adults learn how to do things that will help them throughout their lives. It is a decision that makes the teachers happy as well.
Cameron Halversen describes his experience with the program as “phenomenal.”
Steps students have been experiencing success in the program for many years and in turn are doing some of their own teaching. They are helping the teachers learn as well. It is a situation that is positive in both ways.
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From:
Dr. Sanford Aranoff
535A Ardmore Rd
Monroe Twp, NJ 08831-7616
609-409-1270
I am an adjunct Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rider University, active as a substitute teacher and mentor in high schools, and a retired professor of physics from Rutgers University. I have taken extensive notes from my experiences and given them to my protégés. Recently I collected them into a book. I suggest that your library purchase the book for the benefit of students, parents, and teachers.
I just wrote a book, “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better”. This is available on amazon.com, ISBN 978-1-4196-7435-8. May I suggest that you order a copy for the library? The readers will be very pleased!
The reviews are superb. Students, teachers, and professors who have looked at the book give it the highest rating.
Typical comments that I hear are things like this: “Hi, Dr. Aranoff!” said a girl, “I got a 100 on the test! I am so happy! Thank you so much!”
I also wrote a paper in Gifted Education Press Quarterly:
http://www.GiftedEdPress.com/GEPQWINTER2008.pdf
Here are some comments:
“We really enjoyed the latest GEPQ and especially liked the article by Sanford Aranoff. He took a very practical approach on an eyeball to eyeball level. A lot of this really needed saying. He showed a keen awareness of the trends towards anti-scientific education that are out there. We made a hard copy of this article and will send it on to the heads of the science and math departments at Loyola Academy with the intention of their distributing it to department chairs in the Jesuit Secondary Education Association.”
-Eugene and Diana Avergon
These men and women that have dedicated their lives to the association with people who have disabilities are some of the most special people I know. The program is “phenomenal” because of the people who make it happen!