Veteran high school teacher Victor J. Andrews teamed up with a new teacher to unite students on the Tinley Park campus through a woodworking project to support autism acceptance.
According to the organizers, this gave students the opportunity to teach and learn from each other.
Students with special needs learned how to use band saws, glue sticks, grinders, laser engravers and other power tools this semester with the help of their peers in Jeff Cassidy's woodworking class.
Cassidy, who has been principal for 10 years, is Andrew's freshman. He shares carpentry work with math teacher Sean Nussbaum, a 14-year veteran Andrew whose classes include math and building electives.
Nussbaum was intrigued when she saw one of Cassidy's students carve out a large piece of the puzzle that reminded her of the famous autism awareness symbol.
Nussbaum has a 13-year-old son with autism and she asked Cassidy if April is Autism Awareness Month and Autism Acceptance Month because her class is putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
It wasn't the reason, but it got the two teachers talking and led to the idea of having Cassidy's carpentry class students work with students from the school's Ultima program.
Ultima courses offer students with autism, Down syndrome or other learning needs the opportunity to practice life skills and develop social and emotional skills.
“Before starting our project, I spoke with curators and teachers who work with Ultima students. We cover fine motor skills, safety issues and more. we discussed. Before selecting groups of students who could work in a carpentry and/or art class,” Cassidy said in an email, “the goal was to attract as many students as possible while maintaining expectations of safety and opportunity.”
When students work with power tools, "there's always a safety issue," says Nussbaum.
“We spent more time talking to them about do's and don'ts,” he said, “and we always had extra eyes in the store.
“We have been very adamant about the benefits and risks. There was no shortage of children willing to help.
