Slate Run teacher secures grant-funded adaptive materials after student’s wish to ride a bike

A Slate Run teacher described how a student’s request led staff to secure grant-funded adaptive materials and social supports.

The teacher said Easton joined Slate Run this year as a kindergartner and is served under blind/low-vision services. “So Easton actually joined us this year as a kindergartner at Slate Run. He is a student service under blind low vision, but despite that, Easton is definitely spunky, talkative, overcomes any challenge that we put in front of him, and is honestly ahead of the curve,” the teacher said.

The teacher said staff wanted to build an inclusive environment and connect Easton with peers. “1 day he told us it was his dream to ride a bike. And so as a committee, we got together and said, what can we do to make that happen?” the teacher said, describing the background to a classroom-level effort she called the Great Classroom Grant.

A student identified in the remarks as Easton spoke about the bike: “That's my first bike, the first 1 I ever have had in my entire life. It's like having fun. It's doing so much better than just running. Then I can go even faster because I like to go fast.” He later added, “About for my bike, I would do, like, 5 miles an hour.”

The teacher said the grants paid for adapted instructional materials. “Well, with Easton, obviously, we're gonna need a lot of adapted materials. And so with this Education Foundation grant this year, we were able to purchase him different manipulatives for math,” the teacher said. She described math as a strength for Easton and said staff seek both academic acceleration and social-skills supports: “Anything we need, people go above and beyond, whether it's finding the perfect acceleration group for him to push him a little bit further academically or a social skills group.”

No formal motions, votes or district policy changes were recorded in the provided excerpt.